Trivia / Ghosts (UK)

• Acting for Two: Unusually for this troupe, they all take on one main role throughout the series. They do still get the chance to double up as a second character as all the ghosts actors also play one of the plague victims in the basement. Laurence Rickard also takes on a third character as Humphrey's head.
  • In season 3, they each play someone in Kitty's backstory, in the style of But You Were There, and You, and You. When Kitty remembers the actual truth, they're played by different actors.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Not a member of the cast, but the place. Button House is in real-life West Horsley Place, which just like Button House was inherited by a very surprised and very distant relative of the previous owner after she died childless at the age of 99, and needed a lot of work to render it habitable again. The grounds of the real house are also regularly used for events, concerts, art workshops and filming, and the house was able to host its first wedding reception in 2021.
  • In “Free Pass” it was revealed that Henry VIII once dined at Button House. In real life Henry VIII once dined at West Horsley Place in 1536.
  • More an 'ancestor shared background': Lady Fanny's backstory in "He Came!" was inspired by Martha Howe Douglas' grandmother, who was a brilliant mathematician but never had the opportunity to attend university.
  • In “En Francis” Kitty makes an indirect reference to the game show Pointless by calling “Less Points”. Ben Willbond (The Captain) has appeared on the game show twice. Once with Jim Howick (Pat) and the other with Larry Rickard (Robin/Humphrey’s head).
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Before it was shown to be the case in "Not Again", some fans believed that Robin's power over electricity was due to him being killed by a lightning strike.
  • The popular theory that Eleanor poisoned Kitty to gain all of their father's inheritance was referenced in "Pineapple Day". Subverted as Kitty actually died from a poisonous spider bite.
• California Doubling: A minor example. West Horsley Place, Surrey stands in for the fictional Button House which is revealed in “The Grey Lady”, to be in Hertfordshire.
• Cast Full of Writers: Every episode is written by at least one of the six creators/stars.
  Mathew Baynton: There's material in every episode written by other people's hands.
  Laurence Rickard: Which is great, 'cause it means that if something gets a really big laugh, you can claim it as your own! No one will ever really know.
  Jim Howick: I know exactly the jokes I've written... 'cause there's three.
• Cast the Expert: Mathew Baynton portrays an actor who is cast to play Pete Martino, the "Arrow Guy" from the US version of the show.
• Creator In-Joke: The subplot in series three's "The Bone Plot" about how the Captain never laughs is clearly a dig at the Captain's portrayer, Ben Willbond, who features heavily in each year's blooper reel. Heck, there's even a blooper of one of the scenes where Pat is supposed to be trying unsuccessfully to make the Captain laugh...
  Pat: I haven't told you my jumbo jet joke...
  Ben Willbond: dissolves into silent laughter
  • Bonus points in that Ben has said Jim Howick (Pat's portrayer) is a frequent culprit of deliberately making him laugh on set, so having Pat supposed to try and fail to crack up the Captain must have been particularly torturous.
  • Thomas disclosing the fact that he’s Scottish was based on a comment by Lolly or someone else on the fact that Matt sounded Scottish during the takes of him shouting “Answer the question, damn your eyes!” in the show's very first episode.
  • Robin being fluent in French was based on Larry Rickard delivering a line in his caveman voice during a writers’ meeting and the others remarked on how much he sounded like a stereotypically gruff Frenchman.
• Fake Nationality: "En Francais" has four examples:
  • Ukrainian Eva Shevchenko-Holovko plays the young Sophie Bone, who is French.
  • German Anna Behne plays French Sabine, while her translator Garion is played by British Charlie Hamblett.
  • British Mia Soteriou plays Sophie's nurse who is French like her.
• Only a Model: Played with: The model of Button House used in the opening title sequence is an actual model of West Horsley Place, the location of the shooting and kept at West Horsley.
• Production Posse: This is the fourth project of the main sextet. They have also previously worked with Katy Wix and Lolly Adefope.
• Reality Subtext: The continuing story arc about Alison and Mike doing up Button House mirrors the actual ongoing restoration of West Horsley Place - which is in large part funded by the fees the BBC pay to hire it for filming.
• Recycled Script: Two of series’ 5 episodes borrows some elements from the US remake:
  • “Pineapple Day” shares the same concept as “Whodunnit” since it’s a murder mystery that aims to solve the death of the black ghost. The ghost’s sister becomes as suspect as she was seen with/know to handle a poisonous substance. However this is not the case as the ghost died due to a poisonous insect/drinking the poisoned substance that was given to her by the killer so he can get rid of the person, which he got from the ghost’s sister to be disposed, who was in the way of his lover. It also borrows elements from “The Christmas Spirit, Part 2” as a relative of a ghost turns out to be caring all along as seen in a flashback showing their death despite the fact that they are shown in the ghost’s memories/dream to be mean.
  • “Carpe Diem” shares a plot line with “Flower’s Article” as it deals with a ghost feeling ashamed and not worthy of themselves after it is revealed that they stolen something with good intentions but it turned out to be fruitless. After the disclosure, their fellow ghosts affirms them that they are still a good person and they shouldn’t feel ashamed of their past.
• Throw It In!: The “five potatoes high” line in Mary’s lecture on basket making was improvised by Katy Wix.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting:
  • Lucy and Alison. Ironically, Lucy is only pretending to be Alison's sister. But, well, the actors aren't really related either!
  • Eva Shevchenko-Holovko looks convincingly similar with her older counterpart, Chloé Delanney (who both play Sophie) as they share similar face shape and eye colour.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The scene where Robin says goodbye to his mice family before he possibly moves on in “Carpe Diem” was supposed to take place in the field. Unfortunately it snowed in the week it was supposed to be filmed. Fortunately there was a Tudor era staircase that already had a mouse hole. Therefore the scene was filmed there instead.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to this interview, the show was going to feature a lot more ghosts than the handful featured in the actual show, with each episode featuring a new room and a new ghost. This was ditched after the creators realized that it would have removed the key conflict of the show - if there were endless ghosts, the ghosts would have just avoided those that they didn't like, thereby removing the conflict of having ghosts having to be with those who they don't like.
  • Originally the creators had planned that Kitty's death would be due to her sister poisoning her, and it was heavily implied in promotional materials when the show first aired. But since they held off on doing the story of what happened to Kitty for so long and so many viewers had worked it out and were expecting it, they started to feel that it would be disappointing and too obvious if Eleanor did actually murder Kitty, Instead, they started to think it would be more interesting if she had a moment of redemption while Kitty lay dying, having been poisoned for an entirely different reason.

---