4 out of 5

Created by: Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond

The Horrible Histories’ crew’s previous show, Yonderland, still fit the all-ages bill, but it had enough of a dark-humored bent to make the thought of an adult-geared series from the same creators an interesting proposition… one that’s now been very entertainingly fulfilled with the six episode first season of Ghosts.

Alison and Mike (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe, respectively), finding their apartment shopping woes limited by their meager finances, celebrate the sudden seeming good fortune of having inherited a mansion – Button Hall – from a passed relative.  As it goes with these comedic setups, dreams of easy livin’ are immediately dismissed when they discover how ramshackle the place is, but the duo rededicate themselves to fixing it up in hopes of selling, or hotel-ing.  We viewers, meanwhile, are privy to the other inhabitants of the home: ghosts of various eras, acted with the usual deft comedic timing of our Horrible Histories regulars.  The first episode fiddles around with the juxtaposition of the modern couple and the fussy ghosts, scheming to get them out of their home, but the show offers us one further quirk: Alison suffers a head injury, and can suddenly see and hear the specters.  She tells Mike, removing the obnoxiousness of having to keep it quiet, but the following episodes offer up several hilarious variations on the theme: entertaining neighbors, trying to have the house inspected for sale, using the house as a location for a movie shoot, all while Alison tries to ignore the ghosts chattering away and while Mike tries his best to make the house seem like it’s not falling apart.

The HH actors, as usual, are not scared of looking foolish, and commit to their roles: as stuck up matrons, naive servants, uptight military leaders, pervert politicians, sappy poets… a caveman…  Everyone is pretty much a joy on their own, but the combination is fantastic, as the ghosts, having been together so long, form a little misfit family, and the show works on making the relationship between them, and Alison – and by extension Mike – grow as well, so we’re not just stuck with odd couple tropes.  While Alison’s and Mike’s actions aren’t always logical – you can tell when things are just being baited for jokes – there’s a fun feeling of calamity always occurring that makes the show rather addictive.

I was bummed when Yonderland wasn’t returning for a fourth year, but Ghosts brings us the grown-up haunted house variant of that, and its first season fulfills any expectations I could have had.