Ghosts; A House Through Time; Not Going Out; Back To Life

“With wonderful costumes and just the right balance of hammy and withering, this is jolly good fun. In all: an original and imaginative concept, slickly executed.”
Sarah Carson, The i

“The odd ribald gag and mild scare aside, this quaintly innocent creation could have worked as teatime family viewing. My 10-year-old son enjoyed it just as much as his parents. The Monty Python-meets-Blackadder script delivered laughs, the cast’s precision timing had been honed by a decade together, and their mismatched characters teemed with potential.”
Michael Hogan, The Telegraph

“In making us giggle at the supernatural, Ghosts is very British – a mashup of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), not to mention the manifold sillinesses of Hammer horrors. But it is American in the sense of having a gag-to-airtime ratio much higher than British sitcoms normally manage these days.”
Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian

“Not every gag hits the mark, but they come quickly and you know that if one doesn’t work another will be along soon that does. The comedy is gentle and nicely observed and, for a show about death, curiously life-affirming.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Not every gag’s a great one. Some are corny. One or two are laboured. But the sheer cumulative effect is overwhelming, a landslide of puns and slapstick that comes so fast you can’t possibly catch it all in a single viewing. And should a joke fail to make you laugh, don’t worry — the team will return to it with variations, repeatedly whacking you over the funny bone till you succumb.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“A House Through Time is that rare creature: a documentary that educates rather than patronises by addressing adults as though they have a mental age of six. David Olusoga presented a grimly fascinating sliver of history through the prism of 5 Ravensworth Terrace in Newcastle that showed the precariousness of Victorian life.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Tonight’s episode was like a well of misery. Perhaps some houses are luckier than others; perhaps tragedies simply make for irresistible stories. Either way, however, a little less glumness would help this programme to be more enjoyable.”
Gerard O’Donovan, The Telegraph

“Because every bit of humour meshes like the cogs in a Swiss watch, this sitcom can lack the element of shock. We sense each joke coming. But surprises don’t matter, when the comedy is so well constructed. A minor masterclass.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Entertainingly perplexing, even if, save for a gag about Blockbuster and Woolworths, it didn’t make me laugh.”
Sarah Carson, The i