When it comes to giving truly terrible gifts, Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie reckons she trumps just about anybody.
‘It’s traditional to give presents when you finish filming a TV series, and when we’d completed Channel 4’s Fresh Meat I gave 50 people from the show a Toffee Crisp each from a vending machine,’ reveals Charlotte, who plays Alison in BBC1’s hit haunted house sitcom.
‘They had personal messages attached to them but it was still the most awful present.’
She realised after the fact that she should have given something a bit more thoughtful, like flowers or chocolates.
Charlotte Ritchie opens up about the Ghosts Christmas special, which is due to air on Christmas Day at 7.25pm
‘We get paid a lot to do this, so you can’t fob them off with Toffee Crisps,’ she laughs. ‘It’s famously difficult to blush when you’re working as an actor, but I don’t have a problem now. I just remember the day I gave 50 people a Toffee Crisp as a wrap present and I instantly go red.’
In contrast, Alison thinks long and hard about giving gifts – and she’s especially on the ball in tomorrow’s Christmas special, which sees Alison and husband Mike leave Button House to visit Mike’s parents.
‘Alison feels guilty about leaving the ghosts behind,’ says Charlotte, whose character can see and hear the spooks at the tumbledown mansion while her husband can’t.
‘She’s especially worried about Kitty, the Georgian noblewoman, who has this childlike innocence and is so excited about Christmas Day and the prospect of spending time with Alison. So she makes sure Kitty and the other ghosts will have a day that’s very special.’
The presents Alison leaves behind include old home videos featuring Pat the scoutmaster with his family at Christmas, sourced from one of his friends.
The footage viewers will see on screen – which leaves Pat and his fellow spooks close to tears – was shot using a genuine 1980s video camera before being digitalised.
‘Although the film will still have that wonderful, grainy, 1980s feel to it when viewers see it on screen,’ says producer Pat Tookey-Dickson.
As well as Pat’s home videos, Alison gives something saucy to disgraced MP Julian Fawcett and carefully curated presents to the other ghosts Lady Fanny Button, the Captain, Kitty, Robin, Thomas and Humphrey.
The kindness isn’t all one way either. The ghosts lay on a surprise for Alison and Mike on their return to Button House.
Filming of the Christmas special took place during the dark days of January and February, so producers promoted a sense of seasonal wellbeing by laying on mince pies and Christmas cake and encouraging the wearing of festive outfits.
‘It may seem strange filming a Christmas special so soon after the real Christmas, but it wards off the blues when it’s still cold,’ says Charlotte. ‘And, as actors, at a time when you’ve probably just received a tax bill!’
Going to work also provided Charlotte with an escape from the hotel she stays in when filming Ghosts. Close to grade-I listed manor house West Horsley Place in Surrey, where the show is shot, the hotel is said to be haunted by almost as many ghosts as Button House, which makes former Call The Midwife star Charlotte feel decidedly uncomfortable.
‘The hotel is lovely but there’s said to be a nun who walks the corridors, an admiral who makes appearances in mirrors and a presence that sits at the end of beds. It terrifies me, I’m not nearly as relaxed about ghosts as Alison. I hardly slept at all the first week.’
She hasn’t seen any spirits yet, and she’s hoping it stays that way. ‘I’m relaxed with the idea that when life is done, it’s done,’ she says. ‘What if I ended up lingering around a hotel in Guildford from now to eternity? I think eternal peace would be much nicer.’
Ghosts Christmas Special, Christmas Day, 7.25pm, BBC1
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