A Drunken Monk, Hotel Doorman and Victorian Nanny: Meet the Characters Cut from BBC Ghosts

Now thanks to a new feature behind the scenes book We know it was published by Bloomsbury. Here are the characters that almost made it into the film, along with cast and creator interviews and original notes on the budding sitcom idea. ghosts.

Hotel Porter and Victoria Nanny

Mathew Baynton’s notes, taken after spending two days developing the “haunted hotel idea” with co-creators Jim Howick, Ben Willbond, Laurence Rickard, Simon Farnaby and Martha Howe-Douglas, outline a grandiose version of the show. The house had recently been converted into a hotel. In this first version, the ghosts attempt to haunt the living residents, but instead of causing an accident that allows a living person to see and hear them, they accidentally commit an actual murder by frightening a hotel doorman so that he falls down an elevator shaft.

That doorman/bellboy would later join the ghosts and fall in love with the ghost of a Victorian nanny (“looking after all the dead children,” Baynton’s notes explain), who would be “so neat and scandalous with almost anything anyone said.” .

The Drunken Monk and the Pious Nun

a photo Ghosts Coming to Life It shows Ben Willbond in traditional monk’s robes playing chess with an ancient version of the caveman Robin. Said monk would have lived in the house’s wine cellar, where he was “constantly drenched in beer,” intoxicating himself to death with the monastery’s fortified wine. Another note suggests that the monk will attempt to fulfill his vow of silence but will be constantly tested on this.

Along with the drunken monk, there was also the idea of ​​a devout nun who eventually became Lady Button, Martha Howe-Douglas writes: “Looking at the notes of this meeting, it appears that the first iteration of Lady Button was a nun who chose Lady Button to live her life religiously.” He had spent his time in celibacy and had not reached the pearl gates, and now he was noisy and stubborn.

A Druid, Nazi bombers, Unhappily Married, A Chimney Sweep…

Other scrapped characters mentioned include a bearded druid, a chimney sweep, a pair of bickering Nazi airmen (who presumably evolved into bit-acting Luftwaffe pilots Helmut and Wolfgang, as featured in series one), a Joan of Arc character in chainmail, a six-year-old named William a child, a spooky Woman in Black who doesn’t speak but floats on the ceiling, “a pair of Roundheads playing football with their heads cut off in the dirt,” dysfunctional cooking staff in the kitchen, and “a pair of Roundheads.” A peasant husband and wife who hate each other to the point where the husband kills his wife. , but they later accidentally died and spent eternity by his side.