We are thrilled to announce a fifth series of this modern British Comedy masterpiece. Ghosts continues to go from strength to strength and the BBC couldn’t be more grateful for the amount of laughter and love that the creators, and Monumental, pour into this unique show. — Jon Petrie, Director of Comedy, BBC Ghosts: The Button House Archives is described as "a hilarious, colourful and entertaining compendium of surviving artefacts and documents relating to the ghosts of Button House's past lives." Yes. I find it actually hard to talk about Alison because in some ways I just feel really similar to her. I don't live with any ghosts or anything like that, but I have a lot in common with her. It feels quite natural. I worked with someone recently, and when their kids met me, they were like, “Oh, she is Alison” - which is a real compliment.

Yes. It was time. We all had a mutual agreement and understanding that if we carried on much longer, it would have just started to drift and we would have begun to lose the tightness in the stories. It is at those moments that you go, “We should have ended when we were on top”. So, it's the right decision. The Ghosts team posted on social media: “The final series of Ghosts starts on Friday... but there might be one last present under the Christmas tree this year #BBCGhosts” At first, the ghosts are not happy with the living couple's plans and conspire to get rid of the newcomers. After various failed attempts to scare them, one of the ghosts pushes Alison from an upstairs window, resulting in her being clinically dead for three minutes. When she awakens from an induced coma two weeks later, Alison discovers that her husband has arranged a huge mortgage, and that her near-death experience has given her the ability to see and hear the ghosts. [10]It's a collection of cuttings, notes, entries, art, letters and documents from and about each of the Ghosts during their living years. There are also some present day documents transcribed from limbo by Alison. Absolutely. I was in bits! I was the worst, definitely. I'm sure of it. Charlotte was pretty bad. Lolly cried. Mat cried. I had to be taken to the makeup bus because I had ruined all Lady Button’s prosthetics! The makeup artists were like, “No, she does not look like that. Sort her out, for God's sake!” I just couldn't stop crying. It was crazy. With money running low, Mike and Alison allow the filming of a regency period drama in the house, Life of Byron. The ghosts react in different ways to the action in their home. Romantic poet Thomas is driven to despair by his hatred of Lord Byron and Alison's crush on the lead actor. Julian pesters Alison to place a bet on a horse race for him. Pat teaches Mary about the art of filmmaking and discovers she has a natural talent. Robin the caveman is distracted by the studio lights, and struggles for dominance over the gaffer. Lady Fanny, unlike Kitty, is unhappy about the sex scene enacted in the bedroom. Meanwhile, Mike and Alison fail to inform the production of weight limitations imposed on the structure by the surveyors. Eventually, part of the floor collapses and the film crew promptly leaves. BBC Comedy confirms there will be one more Ghosts Christmas special". BBC Media Centre. BBC. 4 October 2023.

Ghosts is a British sitcom first broadcast on BBC One in April 2019. It follows a group of ghosts from different historical periods haunting a country house while sharing it with its new living occupants. It is written and performed by the collective group Them There, who had previously worked together on productions including Horrible Histories and Yonderland. [1] It also airs on Paramount+ in the US and CBC Gem in Canada. In November 2023, due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike causing a delay in production of the show's American remake, CBS began to rebroadcast the British series in the United States as Ghosts UK. [2]

In the upcoming fifth series Alison (Charlotte Ritchie) and Mike (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) begin exploring other means of making ends meet and contemplate a new chapter that could have a huge effect on the Ghosts’ (after) lives. Mike tries to convince Alison that her seeing and hearing the ghosts are after-effects of her coma. The ghosts embark on a war of attrition to try to force the couple out. With the ghosts becoming more intense, Alison visits a doctor who proves that she really can both see and hear them, being a ghost himself. Convinced they should sell the house, Mike finds out he cannot get out of the loan they took out to renovate the house without losing all of their savings. Alison attempts to reason with the ghosts, and they tell her that they want her and Mike to move out, but she refuses and tells them that she will do something for each one so that they can all co-exist peacefully. Mike comes to accept the ghosts' existences when he witnesses Julian press a keyboard key on his laptop, which appears to him as a key moving on its own, and follows the basement Plague ghosts' instructions via Alison to repair the broken heating system. That’s right. Right from the off, we wanted it to be funny, but we also knew that we had an emotional palette to play with by exploring their deaths. Everyone had a story about their death and how they felt about it. We knew that was going to be a big part of it and it really worked for us. It was the gift that kept on giving! I was actually and I didn't think I would be. But it was really emotional, realising that it would be our last lunch on the set of Ghosts, or it would be our last breakfast or coffee. Just because it's so busy on set, you don't really stop to think about those things until someone says it. And also, it has been our workplace for five years. For the last three series, we've always done it in January. It’s really nice as an actor, of course, to have that stability, to know that you're starting the year with a big show with people that you still like and it's going to be a lot of fun. Richard Durden as Charles Worthing - Mike and Alison’s solicitor, who gives Allison the news that she had inherited Button House from her distant relative Heather Button.

Yes. Five is a great round number, and you never want to push something past its limits. Ghosts is so well loved, and you want to give it a proper send off. You have to make sure it finishes on the right note, rather than peters out to the point where people want it to end. Alison tells off the ghosts for their recent behaviour, so they try to work out how to apologise to her. After encouraging Alison to take a break from the ghosts and managing the bed and breakfast, Mike attempts to organise a tightly scheduled day off for her. Although the ghosts attempt to sing Alison a Band Aid-inspired apology song, she vents her frustration about how they demand a lot of her without ever thanking her; the ghosts then post a fake five-star review in recognition of what she does for them. The fifth and final series of Ghosts starts Friday 6 October at 8.30pm on BBC One and will be available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer. Absolutely. On the last day, the emotion took me by surprise. I thought, “Hang on, we’ve just got to the end.” I just suddenly found my shoulders going. I felt like if I let myself, I could have really sobbed and sobbed, but I took a deep breath and carried on. If we didn't care that much, there's no way in hell we could have written something an audience cares about. Mike is nervous about encountering Alison's ex-boyfriend, Kevin, at her school reunion because she has claimed she left Kevin for Mike. Thomas reveals to Alison that he died in a duel over a woman named Isabelle. Robin, Mary, and Kitty all recall the events differently. Humphrey helps Thomas realise that his cousin, Francis Button (the namesake of the house), engineered the duel and deceived Thomas into losing so Francis could court and marry Isabelle. Thomas did not die unloved, as he believed, yet this only makes him feel worse about the situation (especially as he cannot get rid of a forged letter that put Francis's plan into effect, as forms a part of his being). Mike discovers on Facebook that Kevin is an ex- convict and boxer. Alison explains to Mike that she lied and Kevin actually broke up with her. His fears assuaged, they leave for the reunion.They have seen there is a vein of pathos in there as well. It's easy to be one-dimensional. When you're the bossy chops of the group, it's easy to just be that. But I think the softening of her relationship with Alison has helped that journey as well. When we've been writing, we have discovered new relationships, and I think there's been quite a nice relationship developing between her and the Captain. When you split the characters from each other, you get to discover a bit more about each one. That’s important with Lady Button because it's easy to just go, “Oh God, I wish she'd shut up.” But actually, she's got quite a lot to say, and deep down she has a heart and empathy. It’s been a really nice thing to discover those moments. Even though they’re dead, they behave like normal people trapped together in a flat share or a prison. I don’t think there are many prison sitcoms, there’s Porridge and that’s about it!

Stacey, Pat (23 April 2019). "Ghosts review: 'It's joyously, infectiously silly, yet at the same time whip-smart' ". Irish Independent.

NEVER MISS A BEAT

It was hugely difficult. It took me a long time to recover. I was all over the place for a couple of months. Ghosts had been seven years in the making. We started to get together to pitch it, and suddenly we were on a roll, and then you blink and it’s over. I remember saying during the first season, “If we get five series, I'll be 50 by then.” And I had my 50th birthday on set during the last series. I just had that moment where I thought, “Oh my God, it’s actually happened!” Initially believing the ghosts to be an after-effect of her accident, Alison eventually accepts the truth and confronts them. Because the Coopers cannot leave for financial reasons, and the ghosts are bound to the mansion's land until they can ascend into the afterlife, both sides eventually agree that they have to coexist as best they can. Meanwhile, the house requires a lot of work, and Alison and Mike devise several schemes to assist their perilous finances. [4] Cast [ edit ] Characters [ edit ] Character I suppose he’s with me all the time, but yes, I will. He is so naughty and says such despicable things, which is quite good fun to play.