Ghosts is returning to the BBC this winter (Picture: BBC)
With my poison pen dipped in blood red ink – I was getting into ghostly character – I was relishing the opportunity to pour scorn on the American version of Ghosts.
As if Halloween, Prom Night and Donald Trump wasn’t bad enough, how much more torture do we have to endure from the good ol’ US of A?
Except… it’s rather good. That may be due in no small part to the dead hand of the Horrible Histories crew, the GB Ghost originators, being on board as part of the creative team.
But still, it could all have gone so horribly wrong, the original’s subtlety drained in favour of dumbed down fright gags.
Yet while this US take is more of an out-and-out comedy than our original, which has, in its later seasons, dipped its toes into increasingly darker waters, that’s actually no bad thing.
Initially there’s much fun to be had recalling the set-up which reveals how Alison, here turned into Sam (perkily played by Rose McIver), gets to see the ghosts who haunt the mansion she and husband (a droll Utkarsh Ambudkar) have inherited.
The original’s subtlety has been drained in favour of dumbed down fright gags (Picture: BBC)
Ghosts US features a slightly overstuffed cast (Picture: BBC)
However, it’s still all good highly-spirited fun (Picture: BBC)
It’s a faithful opening, so are we in for a direct carbon copy?
Well no, because that would have been a big mistake. Instead the characters have been cannily tweaked to incorporate key figures from American history, a move that gives the gags a fresh energy. In truth it’s a slightly overstuffed cast, with a ‘60s hippy chick surplus to requirements, but where the characters are an artful twist on the original, the formula works.
So instead of a trouserless MP we get a pants-less Wall Street whizzkid, instead of a caveman we get a Viking and so on. And the casting is pretty much spot-on, with Brandon Scott Jones a standout hoot as Captain Isaac Higgintoot, a camped up twist on the original uptight Major.
As the series plays out the stories stray ever further from the original and the characters of our new Ghost chums take on an afterlife of their own. It’s highly spirited fun.
Ghosts US is available to watch on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.
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It could all have gone so horribly wrong.
