Ghosts Christmas Special 2021

[markburgle]

Chuffed to stumble upon news of this, on tonight! There I was anxiously looking for signs of the 4th series, and managed to totally miss it's existence (or maybe it was only just announced, I dunno):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012vfx

There's Jennifer Saunders in it, if you like that kind of thing (and also if you don't)

[Johnny Yesno]

Cool! I missed it too. Thanks for the headsup.

[markburgle]

Well it feels churlish to moan because this is one of those shows where I'm just glad to have new episodes and get to go and hang out there a bit more, but this wasn't a patch on the 1st Christmas spesh. Kind of shapeless, didn't seem to go anywhere. They tried to do a "revealing-unexpected-depths" kind of thing with Fanny's backstory, but went too far with it to the extent it felt more like they'd done a 180 on her character.

I felt similarly about the Detectorists Christmas special, glad it existed but it's still a least-favourite episode.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

I felt similarly about the Detectorists Christmas special, glad it existed but it's still a least-favourite episode.

I love the Detectorists Christmas special!

Agreed with you on this Ghosts ep though markburgle. It was very light on laughs. That might've been ok if the story was a real lump-in-your-throat one (which they're usually great at - Pat's family laying flowers in the first series gets me every time), but the story felt rushed and then didn't really go anywhere.

[The Mollusk]

Willing to forgive any weak plot points just to celebrate the joke "Lucky Fanny, to be touched up by those hands."

[mjwilson]

Not enough Fanny.

[rectorofstiffkey]

It wasn't the strongest episode, was it?  It didn't have many laughs (lots of small smiles though) or a particularly involving story.  Much preferred the other Christmas episode.

Don't want to be too churlish though, love Ghosts and any episode is welcome. 

I really thought at one point that they might

Spoiler alert

spoil the ending with some corny suggestion that Nicholas actually was Father Christmas, with traces of fairy-dust or seeing him vanish on Christmas Eve. Should have known better, they're classier than that.

[close]

[Norton Canes]

Yeah warmly written and beautifully played as ever but in all honesty, the story was a bit weak and it was short of big laughs.

[ishantbekeepingit]

The flashback story shouldn't have been left at the introduction to the husband - at the very least we should have had a reminder that it was him what done her in, given that it was a storyline from all the way back in S1?

[mjwilson]

The flashback story shouldn't have been left at the introduction to the husband - at the very least we should have had a reminder that it was him what done her in, given that it was a storyline from all the way back in S1?

Oh I had completely forgotten. I wondered why it had ended like that.

[markburgle]

The flashback story shouldn't have been left at the introduction to the husband - at the very least we should have had a reminder that it was him what done her in, given that it was a storyline from all the way back in S1?

I could have done with a scene indicating how she morphed from intelligent, curious and determined into a judgemental, timorous old fusspot

ETA - actually maybe it's no more than we're asked to believe in the degeneration of Scrooge, and I love a Christmas Carol

[rectorofstiffkey]

I could have done with a scene indicating how she morphed from intelligent, curious and determined into a judgemental, timorous old fusspot

ETA - actually maybe it's no more than we're asked to believe in the degeneration of Scrooge, and I love a Christmas Carol

Normally in one of those flashbacks you'd expect an 'aha..' moment where there's some clarification or illumination about something about the character, and there wasn't one really was there?  Don't think it was any news that her marriage wasn't exactly a love match.

Really looking forward to series 4 though!

[Johnny Yesno]

The flashback story shouldn't have been left at the introduction to the husband - at the very least we should have had a reminder that it was him what done her in, given that it was a storyline from all the way back in S1?

Ah, I did recall the business about her falling from the window but I'd forgotten that important point.

I could have done with a scene indicating how she morphed from intelligent, curious and determined into a judgemental, timorous old fusspot

ETA - actually maybe it's no more than we're asked to believe in the degeneration of Scrooge, and I love a Christmas Carol

I was fine with that, though, and assumed it was to do with years of being socially straitjacketed. Perhaps it was underwritten a bit, I dunno.

They had to fit in all that stuff about the alive people and as has been opined here before, the show just isn't as funny when the alive people are the centre of the story. I'd still give it a 7/10 for being festive while not slipping into mawkishness, which is a real hazard given the seasonal writing constraints.