Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Mathew Baynton, Martha Howe-Douglas, Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond, Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lolly Adefope, Katy Wix, Yani Xander, Raj Ghatak, Ed Kear, Steve Oram, Cornelius Booth, Geoffrey McGivern, Anya McKenna-Bruce, Nathan Bryon, Isabella Laughland, Yaamin Chowdhury, Bridget Christie, Mario Demetriou, Holli Dempsey, Neil Edmond, Megan Grech, Shiraz Haq, Amber Jackson-Bond, Bronwyn James, Simon Kane, Aquib Khan.
Comedy is not only subjective, but also divisive as well. What one person finds funny, another will either claim it is too brash, puerile, demeaning, perhaps steeped in sexist, racist language that makes it unworthy, unappealing to those who see the joke as a weapon of war against those who cannot smile at anything and who accept the dull and bland as top class amusement. It is to those who can see the joke in tragedy that understand the depth of how wit and humour can transcend the misery and misfortune that frames our lives.
Rightly or wrongly comedy can divide in even the most clowning amusement, and whilst we might regard some comedy series as beneath us, that they don’t subject themselves to our supposed sense of morality or fashionable tastes, it is to programmes such as Ghosts in which the family can gather and in which the nature of the themes explored are welcome and positive reinforcements of life, and death, in equal measure.
The large ensemble comedy is one that can hit or miss with an audience, too many characters to care for, but Ghosts, especially in its second series, bypasses that with an insight that was born out of developing and honing their skills together in other projects beforehand.
As the series has progressed the enormity of the tale of a group of ghosts from across the ages and being forced to exist in the house which saw their earthly bodies pass away within, has become one of the go to British comedies of the period. Insightful characterisation, plots that are built subtly upon, a driving passion to get across the sense of history that is all around us in a country that has seen much but reveals little to its subjects, all playing their part in creating an ensemble piece that is as much about trust as it is about capturing the joke.
It would be unfair therefore to single any particular actor out, however it has to be noted in the episode of The Thomas Thorne Affair, the actors and the script is one of the tightest and spot on of any comedy series in the last 20 years, the despair etched onto Matthew Baynton’s face as his character, the lovelorn Georgian poet Thomas, is presented with the truth of his death is highlighted tremendously by the cast around him, all offering their own take, their own spin, on his predicament in the afterlife. Such an episode ranks highly, it sits in the mind of the viewer and offers pathos in abundance.
A marvellously delivered series, wit and wisdom, tragedy, and belief in one particularly satisfying helping. Ghosts is a spirited vision of good comedy.
Ian D. Hall