CHARLOTTE RITCHIE

On Harold In Danny Dyer tries to Pinter, the Eastender his the work of understand mentor, playwright great about reminisces and their time together. Tuesday, 9pm,

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I play Alison, who has inherited Button House, a magnificent if rundown property full of ghosts only she can see. She keeps them in order, in quite an authoritative way, which I didn’t think was me. But then I met someone I hadn’t seen for 20 years and she said, ‘I could imagine you telling somebody off.’ I thought, ‘Wow, maybe I am like Alison!’

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We film Ghosts at the medieval manor house West Horsley Place in Surrey [inset]. I find it warm and welcoming rather than ghostly, but that’s maybe because there are lights, cameras and people around when I’m working during the day. Perhaps if I went back in the dead of night I’d see something spooky!

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I’m lucky that Alison’s look is contemporary so make-up doesn’t take too long, but Laurence Rickard got the short straw as Robin the caveman [pictured with Alison]. It took four hours, every day, to apply the prosthetics, make up and costume for prehistoric Robin. 4 5

We finished filming just a few days before lockdown in March. We knew it was coming. The director was saying things like, ‘Can you be really good on your first take as you may not get to film a second!’ We were about to film a medieval plague scene, with supporting artists afflicted by a pandemic. They had to be stood down because of... a pandemic.

Monday, 8.30pm, BBC1

Kiell Smith-bynoe, who plays Alison’s husband Mike, has the hardest job on set. Mike can’t see the ghosts so when Kiell is filming with those actors, he has to pretend he can’t see eight charismatic and loud characters in front of him – none of whom are wallflowers – which isn’t easy.