7 Secrets From The Set...Ghosts

Stars Charlotte Ritchie, Mathew Baynton and Laurence Rickard take TV Times behind the scenes as they film series two in spooky Surrey

- Caren Clark

GHOSTS

MON / BBC1 / 8.30PM (TIMES VARY) / EP 3 of 6 / COMEDY

1 The house has a famous owner

The show is filmed at West Horsley Place in Surrey, a 15th-century manor house that was left to former University Challenge host Bamber Gascoigne by his greataunt in 2014.

Around six weeks before filming begins, the art department ages upparts of the building and even adds cobwebs to turn it into dilapidated, haunted Button House. For the current series, they re-created various historical eras in the house for flashback sequences to the resident ghosts’ pasts.

‘We needed somewhere that has stood from Tudor times and this place seemed tailormade,’ says actor Mathew Baynton, 39, who plays 19thcentury ghost Thomas and also created and writesthe series with his Horrible Histories co-stars. ‘Transforming it into different periods is gratifying. It’s exciting seeing the house in its former glory.’

2 Green screens & crash mats!

The scenes featuring Button House’s owners Alison and Mike – played by Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe – with the ghosts are choreographed meticulously as only Alison is able to see them. Meanwhile, CGI is used to create some of the spectral movements.

‘The ghosts stand in front of a green screen for the scenes where they pass through walls,’ explains Charlotte, 31. ‘But if Julian [the trouser-less ghost of a 1990s MP, played by Simon Farnaby] uses his powers to move something like a mug, that’s on invisible thread and crash mats!’