TV’s Ghosts is a phenomenon. This is the writers’ golden rule for bringing history to life

From cavemen and Georgian poets to disgraced 1990s politicians, the comedy series Ghosts brings centuries of history together in one haunted house. As the characters from the hit sitcom make their big-screen debut, co-creator Laurence Rickard tells Elinor Evans how the writers balance historical accuracy with irreverence – and why the show has struck such an emotional chord with audiences

Four men in different costumes lean forward and look toward something off screen. From left, one wears a fur costume, one a historical waistcoat, one a dark suit and tie, and one a scout uniform with glasses and a moustache.

Published: October 23, 2026 at 5:05 PM

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A headless Tudor nobleman, an Edwardian aristocrat and a trouserless politician from the 1990s might seem unlikely housemates. Add a caveman, a Second World War army captain and a few other restless spirits, and you have the makings of one of Britain’s best-loved television comedies.

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Across five series, the BBC sitcom Ghosts won audiences over with its unlikely household mix of living and dead, who are unable to escape one another. Now, with Ghosts: The Possession of Button House bringing the characters back for a big-screen adventure, co-creator, writer and actor Laurence Rickard spoke to the HistoryExtra podcast about what he thinks lies behind the show’s winning formula.

“Most classic sitcoms to a degree – whether literally or figuratively – are like a family,” says Rickard, who plays caveman Robin and headless Tudor nobleman Sir Humphrey Bone. “And what you want is people who feel like they fulfil different roles – but you want as much clashing as you can get.”

In Ghosts, those clashes are amplified by centuries of changing social attitudes, making for fertile territory.

“The most unalike people you can think of are literally people from different time periods,” says Rickard. “They’re an unlikely family and I think there is a lot of love between them, but there’s certainly a lot of grit in the oyster.”

The golden rule

Rickard’s collaboration with the show’s five other writer-performers stretches back to their work on Horrible Histories, the irreverent sketch show that began adapting Terry Deary’s books in 2009 and introduced a generation of young viewers to the stranger, sillier side of the past.

As the troupe turned their attention to Ghosts, this long-standing creative partnership helped the writers establish their distinctive balance between historical authenticity and humour.

“I think the good thing about having the six of us is that we kind of police each other,” Rickard explains.

“There are certain things we’ll pitch in the room where it’ll get a laugh and then – once the laugh’s subsided – we’ll go, ‘Obviously we can’t do that.’”

Lolly Adefope, in an elaborate dark Georgian-style dress and feathered headdress, peers around a wooden doorway. She is shown from the waist up, looking to the right.

Lolly Adefope reprises her role as Georgian noblewoman Kitty Higham in the new feature film. The original BBC comedy ran for five series between 2019 and 2023 | Credit: Lionsgate/BBC

Talking about Julian’s locker-room innuendo or Lady Button’s feelings on women’s liberation, Rickard says the writers are particularly careful about how far to push the characters’ more outdated attitudes.

“If it gets to the point where all six of us feel like something’s okay, then it probably is, and if the majority feel like maybe it’s crossing a line, then we’ll pull back and do something else.”

But how strictly do the writers adhere to the historical record? Rickard recalls that the guiding principle on Horrible Histories was simple: “We can’t lie.”

“Even though we’re trying to make history funny, you never really want to say something that didn’t happen,” he adds.

With Ghosts, the team have allowed themselves a little more creative freedom, while drawing a lot of inspiration from the real history of West Horsley Place in Surrey, where the show is filmed.

“[We] wanted all of the context to feel like it was real and genuine,” says Rickard. But that doesn’t mean being so beholden to historical accuracy that it gets in the way of a good joke.

“If we found something that was funny and meant that what happened in the historical context was then only 90 per cent correct, we were like, ‘That’s okay.’”

His golden rule? “Reverence and research, but never too much of either.”

When historical ‘facts’ change

But times move on, and even the most diligent historical research can be overtaken by new discoveries. Rickard points out that, in the years since Horrible Histories first aired, historians’ understanding of some subjects has shifted considerably.

“[I]n a short space of time – 15 years or so since we started doing that show – there were things which we stated as being, in inverted commas, ‘facts’, which we now know aren’t the case,” he says.

“Maybe new facts will come along in 10 years’ time, and it’ll turn out we were right the first time.”

It’s an idea that Ghosts has played with in its own way, particularly in a second-series episode that examines the death of Georgian poet Thomas Thorne and reveals how different eyewitness perspectives can produce very different accounts of the same event.

Rickard draws a comparison with Samuel Pepys’ famous account of the 1666 Great Fire of London.

“In some ways, that’s the definitive version. But that’s one person’s viewpoint.”

Jim Howick, wearing a scout uniform, sits leaning forward with an arrow protruding from his shoulder. Another person is partly visible in the left foreground.

Jim Howick also returns as Patrick ‘Pat’ Butcher, the ill-fated scoutmaster accidentally shot with an arrow by one of the boys in his care. Howick is one of six co-writers on the film, alongside Laurence Rickard | Credit: Lionsgate/BBC

For Rickard, some subjects once considered too recent or sensitive for irreverent treatment can become more open to satire as they recede from living memory.

“There’ll be a lot of things in Blackadder, for example, that they wouldn’t have done if it was being made 20 years after the period it was dealing with,” he says. “But you get far more licence as you start to get that gulf of time.”

Yet for all its mischievousness, Ghosts has achieved something that Rickard says he and his fellow writers never anticipated.

The show has helped viewers feel closer not only to people from the past but also to loved ones they have lost, he says. And Rickard believes part of the show’s appeal lies in making historical figures feel recognisably human.

“History, to a degree, feels remote… Even just thinking back to the Victorians, when society was so, so different, it can feel slightly alien.”

By giving its characters familiar emotions, frustrations and relationships, Ghosts makes those distant lives feel more accessible, says Rickard.

“An awful lot of people have come up to us at various events and said they have found it incredibly comforting when they have lost people,” Rickard says, explaining how, for some fans, the idea of an afterlife filled with friendship and familiar human foibles offers an alternative way to think about death. “There might still be fun and adventure, and warmth and companionship.”

“We hadn’t really thought of that… and it’s lovely and very rewarding, but that was certainly something that was not by design.”

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Laurence Rickard was speaking to Elinor Evans on the HistoryExtra podcast about Ghosts: The Possession of Button House, released in UK cinemas on 23 October. Listen to the full conversation.

Authors

Elinor EvansHead of digital (web and video)

Elinor Evans is head of digital (web and video)

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