Grave expectations

The series created by Dennis Spooner was reincarnated by the BBC in 2000 with Bob Mortimer as Randall and Vic Reeves as Hopkirk. It ran for two seasons with Charles Dance, Hugh Laurie, Paul Whitehouse and Derek Jacobi joining in the spooky fun.

The Fast Show’s Charlie Higson was involved in the series as director, writer and producer and also stood in when close-ups of Randall’s hands were needed as Bob Mortimer had badly bitten fingernails declaring “Bob’s hands are not that attractive. Mine, however, are quite gorgeous”.

Writer Oscar Wilde’s ghost story The Canterville Ghost was also brought to life by the BBC in 1997 with Ian Richardson

Ian Richardson as the Canterville Ghost

Bob Mortimer, Vic Reeves and Emilia Fox in the reboot of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and, right, Kenneth

Cope as

Marty in the original

A ghostly Kay Hammond as Elvira eavesdrops on Rex Harrison’s conversation with Constance Cummings in Blithe Spirit as the ghost in residence, Simon De Canterville, who haunts the American family who move into his ancestral home.

Meanwhile, on the big screen, Noel Coward’s stage hit Blithe Spirit became a movie hit in 1945 with Rex Harrison as Charles Condomine who is haunted by the ghost of his ex-wife Elvira (Kay Hammond) when he dares to re-marry.

“Elvira is the kind of gal who can turn an evening into a night you’ll never forget!” proclaimed the publicity for the movie and Noel Coward himself was the film’s uncredited narrator.

He had turned down offers from Hollywood for the movie rights saying earlier American versions of his plays had been “vulgarised, distorted and ruined” but British director David Lean had previously worked on In Which We Were Serve and This Happy Breed, which were both written by Coward.

Blithe Spirit ran on the London stage for 1,997 performances and was already a major hit. When it came to the film version, Coward’s words of advice to David Lean were simply “Just photograph it, dear boy”.

Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in The Ghost and Mrs Muir

Two years later it was Rex Harrison wearing dead man’s shoes in romantic comedy The Ghost and Mrs Muir. He played the ghost of old sea dog Captain Daniel Gregg who haunted Gull Cottage in the 1947 movie.

The sea captain drove away any tenants who dared to try to move in, but met his match when widow Lucy Muir (Gene Tierney) and her daughter Anna, played by a young Natalie Wood, made themselves at home.

“Blasted women. Always make trouble when you allow one aboard,” pointed out the ghostly seafarer.

British acting star Michael Hordern was the ghost of Jacob Marley in the 1951 film Scrooge – with Alastair Sim in the title role – and they both returned to voice the same characters in the 1971 TV movie of A Christmas Carol.

Hordern’s ghostly scenes in the 1951 movie were added later using an optical printer and he never actually appeared on the same set with Alastair Sim.

Marley warns his old moneygrabbing business partner “I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link and yard by yard. I gartered it on of my own free will and, by my own free will, I wore it.”

Scrooge didn’t stand the ghost of a chance.