Hubert Davenport

Hubert Davenport is a ghost of unmistakably military bearing, still buttoned into the manners and rank-consciousness of his living days. He turns up at Rentaghost ready to organise, advise and generally take charge, treating the business's chaos as something to be brought under proper order, whether anyone asked him to or not.

Michael Darbyshire plays him absolutely straight, which is the joke: a stiff, clipped colonel-type dropped into a scruffy sitcom about spectral temps. The comedy comes from his total sincerity amid nonsense, and the contrast between his fussy authority and the show's gentle silliness gives Rentaghost a lovely, dry counterweight.