Are they here?

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#34 : Ghosts

The best all-round British sitcom in years, Ghosts’ third series mined slightly more heartfelt territory than before. Not only were the phantoms fleshed out more fully, but Charlotte Ritchie’s Alison found herself yearning for a family that couldn’t quite manifest itself. As beautiful as it was funny.

I've heard this is good and I'm also aware that there's been a successful US version as well, which is a bit of a rarity across the years.  A swift bit of research turns up The Office as a successful example and the quite frankly astonishing information that they tried to translate The Young Ones - it's somewhat less astonishing that it was not a successful translation.

I had to make a decision as to whether to start at season 1 or 3 - I went for season 3 because I feel like I'm running out of time this year, although I'm two thirds of the way through the list in two thirds of the year (provided you ignore the two that I've still got on the go, but we won't talk about them!)

The premise is that a young couple have inherited a house which is haunted by a selection of ghosts from across the centuries, but only she can see them.  Ghosts are actually a very good set-up for a sitcom because you can have all sorts of different characters involved without the need for any particular convoluted reason.  I wouldn't say it's hilarious, but it did raise the odd good laugh, it's got a good heart and interesting characters and it's family-friendly, which counts for a lot if you're looking for that sort of thing (which we often are when me and the kids are trying to find things we can watch with Mrs Reed). 

The humans are played by Charlotte Ritchie (Fresh Meat, Dead Pixels & Feel Good) and Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Stath Lets Flats) - Kiell does his best, but Charlotte has about a million percent more acting to do with all the ghosts that only she can see.  I'm slightly over-egging things here, but actually Charlotte really does a great job - she conveys a lot of emotion across the season.  

The ghosts are all well acted, but mostly somewhat one note, portrayed by a mixture of Horrible Histories dudes and Taskmaster candidates who have all done the hard yards over the years.  I mean, some of them are nearly as old as me!!  Mad, huh?  If I had to call out one, I'd go for Katy Wix as Mary, the witch trial victim "who was burned at the stake and is constantly smouldering as a result".  Somewhat amusingly.

Overall - I liked it.  It was only a like, rather than a love - but its heart is very much in the right place and it's amusing enough.  So much so that I'm tempted to catch up on the rest of it - what more could it ask for?  I'd also say that if you're looking for something to watch as a family, then this pretty much ticks the boxes so is definitely worth a consideration.

#33 - Send my apologies to the sisterhood
#35 - You'll like this if you have kids