Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Lolly Adefope, Matthew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Ben Willbond, Yani Xander, Nathan Bryon, Geoffrey McGivern, Emma Sidi, Richard Durden, Peter Sandys-Clarke, Rufus Wright, Anna Crilly.
Endings must always be acknowledged for the emotions they unearth from within your soul.
We can sit back and cradle our heads in our hands and lament a passing, or we can smile at the thought of having had the fortune to be included in the moment, to share the time with what proves to be an inspirational piece of art and be part of something that caught our attention enough to have us wallow in its performance.
The final series of arguably one of the great homegrown comedies of the last two decades sees the creative minds behind Ghosts completely put the viewer through many an entangled wringer and emotional stance, whilst delivering some of the most tremendous humour to linger in the imagination long after the curtain closes.
The emotional wringer is captured in the heart of Robin as his loneliness across time is highlighted as almost every ghost he has met has found a way to go to the next beyond, it is in the reveal of how The Captain came to be defacto leader of the ghosts that reside within Button House, it is in the understanding of how Kitty was a victim of circumstance and not as always believed to be a case of sororicide, and how the confrontation of Julian’s act of sabotage in the initial opening series is finally resolved.
Yet as with as any story, there is still a final act to be unveiled, and whilst it perhaps won’t lay anything new to the foundations of the series, the Christmas special of 2023 will be one to enjoy and understand that all good things must pass.
The writing teams that have been working as amongst the finest in television for a long time may have cut their television script teeth long before Ghosts, but in terms of working under pressure, of maintaining an absolute high across five impressive series, this is, for now, the pinnacle of the new wave of British comedy.
A wealth of joy and sadness in one gigantic offering, Ghosts will be one that surely future script writers will be inspired by as they search for comedy gold.
Ian D. Hall