Television series

Ghosts

Name: Ghosts
Genre: Comedy, Supernatural
Released: 2019
Cast: Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Charlotte Ritchie, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas

Ghosts is a beautifully silly British sitcom built on one very British premise: the dead are still hanging around, complaining. A young couple inherit a crumbling stately home already occupied by a bickering cast of ghosts spanning centuries - a plague victim, a Regency fop, a Tory MP with no trousers. It's gentle, whip-smart, joke-a-minute comedy for anyone who likes their sitcoms cosy but properly clever.

TVMaze rating

7.5

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What We Do in the Shadows2019

Same mockumentary trick of putting ancient, ridiculous immortals through mundane domestic squabbles, and the same generosity of spirit toward even its most monstrous characters. It's one of the funniest ensembles on television.

But The vampires are properly nasty and gory in ways Ghosts never risks, and the humour is broader, weirder, less quintessentially English.

The Good Place2016

Afterlife bureaucracy played for big laughs and real feeling, with an ensemble that grows on you exactly the way Button Hall's ghosts do. Cleverly plotted and unexpectedly moving.

But It's serialised with big twists rather than a cosy sitcom you can dip into episode by episode, so it demands more commitment.

Derry Girls2018

The same gift for making a small, squabbling ensemble of period-specific characters feel instantly, deeply lovable, and the same rapid-fire, character-based density of jokes per minute.

But No ghosts, no fantasy at all - it's a grounded coming-of-age comedy set during the Troubles, a completely different world.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir1947

Both hinge on a living person moving into a house that's already occupied by its dead, and negotiating a truce rather than fleeing. Mrs Muir did the haunted-house-share seven decades before Ghosts turned it into a full ensemble comedy.

A gorgeous black-and-white classic about a widow who moves into a seaside cottage haunted by a gruff dead sea captain, and slowly falls for him instead of fleeing. Witty, romantic, and unexpectedly modern.

But It's a swoony one-on-one romance rather than an ensemble farce, and the pace is pure 1940s Hollywood - stately, not zippy.

Truth Seekers2020no page yet

British ghost-hunting comedy from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, with the same fondness for gentle, homegrown silliness, plus a streak of actual horror that Ghosts wisely avoids.

But It leans harder into horror and pathos than farce, and was cancelled after one season, so the story doesn't fully resolve.

Detectorists2014

Mackenzie Crook's slow, tender comedy about metal-detecting obsessives shares Ghosts' deep affection for English eccentricity and its refusal to ever be cruel to its characters.

But It's slower, quieter, and largely joke-light - closer to a poem about friendship than a sitcom.

Community2009

A big, format-hopping ensemble comedy that, like Ghosts, is really about a group of wildly incompatible people slowly becoming a found family, whether they like it or not.

But American, campus-set, and prone to elaborate genre-parody episodes that are a world away from Ghosts' cottage-y realism.

Upstart Crow2016no page yet

From the same appetite for mining British history for daft comedy, this time with Shakespeare himself as the fool, written with the same rapid, pun-heavy wit.

But Broader and more panto than Ghosts, with none of its warmth toward flawed, awkward modern characters.

Miranda2009no page yet

Old-fashioned, hugely likeable British sitcom built on farce, fourth-wall mugging and a genuinely soft heart underneath all the pratfalls - Ghosts' tonal cousin, minus the supernatural machinery.

But Single-camera studio setup and broader slapstick will feel much more traditional and less inventive by comparison.

The Office2005

The mockumentary DNA that underpins so much of British sitcom comedy, including Ghosts' character-piece structure and awkward silences, starts right here - painfully funny, achingly human.

But Bleaker and more cringe-based, with none of the fantastical whimsy that makes Ghosts such a comfort watch.

A Ghost Story2017

Same premise stripped of every joke: a spirit stuck in one house, watching time and strangers move through it. A Ghost Story shows you the melancholy that Ghosts is always one beat away from, and never quite lets you forget is there.

A near-silent, formally daring indie about a man who dies and stays in his house, watching decades pass under a bedsheet with two eyeholes cut in it. Strange, patient, and devastating.

But There is almost no dialogue, no jokes, and long static shots - it asks for patience Ghosts never demands.

Most Haunted2002no page yet

Ghosts is a joke built on a very real national habit of believing old houses are full of the dead. Most Haunted is that same habit with the jokes removed and the sincerity cranked up - it's the show Ghosts is gently parodying.

The real, unscripted British obsession with haunted houses, played entirely straight: night-vision cameras, historians, mediums, and people screaming in cellars. Deeply silly and completely earnest at once.

But It's reality television with no writing, no character work, and a lot of repetitive shouting in the dark - pure trash-TV comfort food.