Farewell BUTTON HOUSE

As hit sitcom Ghosts prepares to bow out, CHARLOTTE RITCHIE tells TV Times why the show will always hold special memories

- CAREN CLARK

GHOSTS

FRIDAY, 8.30PM, BBC1 COMEDY (BOX SET, IPLAYER)

A spooktacular swansong for the residents of Button House awaits in the fifth and final series of BBC1’s spirited comedy Ghosts. But for Charlotte Ritchie, who plays the country manor’s ever-patient owner Alison Cooper, seeing the doors creak shut for good has been poignant.

‘I feel really emotional,’ says the popular actor, 34, as TV Times catches up with her for an exclusive chat. ‘If only I hated making Ghosts, it’d be so much easier!’

Penned once more by Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond, who also play some of the show’s bickering spectres, the six-part run will see Alison and her husband, Mike (played by Kiell Smith-Bynoe), challenged like never before.

Following the fire at their B&B in the gatehouse, the couple are now trying to take stock but a new curveball is set to change all the residents’ lives – and afterlives – forever.

Here, Charlotte, who is always a joy to interview, tells us what lies ahead…

It sounds like you are as sorry as we are to see Ghosts end, Charlotte…

It feels rubbish! It’s the right choice but it’s painful. When the conversation came up [with the writers], I was like, ‘No, I don’t think so. We should do six series at least, or even 10!’ But they were having none of it – they knew this was the end.