The Ghosts Christmas special

[shallowness]

Aww, particularly directed at (St.) Alison. Admittedly, it’s more heart-warming than funny as the Radio Times had it, though I chuckled fairly regularly, but what’s wrong with that? The director seemed obsessed with filming outdoors during the goldenish hour, and the dissolves were a bit much, but I rather liked the pairings up – the Captain being fatherly towards Kitty, whose childlike belief in You Know Who even defeated Julian (the Ghost who pressed send), but we also had Thomas and Pat, and Mary advising Robin on ‘legal’ matters, which Alison easily squashed, while how Thomas ended up hurting Alison and spiting himself did sting, when she does so much for all of them.

Mike being afraid of the dog (and I think dog poo on the drive would have made me flip) was funny, but in the main, her generosity even extended to Nick, and it turned out that she was right. (The lesson of ‘Be nice!’ was rather laboured.) I liked them being able to open up Button House to feed the homeless, and Nick turning out to be Navy stopping the Captain’s approval in its tracks was great.

Perhaps the one thing that didn’t quite work so well for me was Lady Fanny’s backstory. Jennifer Saunders was ace as her mother, who became her model, and I did feel sorry for Fanny, being forced to marry someone who you knew would treat her badly AND THEN KILL HER instead of being able to help in a better way, except, this episode apart, I don’t think they’ve actually set this backstory up at all. Maybe they did…really subtly. I know my memory isn’t faultless, but has she been that good at maths? I was mainly taken by the fact that Fanny was short for Stephanie.

But as ever, it was beautifully crafted, with Julian’s lies, the knowing content of Pat’s quiz and how pleased Kitty and Humphrey were with dancing ornaments.