Ghosts season 5 and the Christmas special bring the BBC comedy to an end, but the creators have revealed some hilarious storylines cut from the show that are being revived in a new companion book, which is on sale for Black Friday.
The writers of the show, many of whom also make up the beloved cast, collaborated on the official companion book, Ghosts: The Button House Archives, which was released on October 26, 2023.
Laurence Rickard, who plays caveman Robin and headless Humphrey, teased what we can expect while speaking exclusively to Digital Spy.
First up, there's crafty politician Julian, with Laurence explaining: "There's an email that Julian has sent, thanks to his unique, one-fingered gift… to his wife… after he died."
Julian also had a speech planned for winning and losing, similar to a certain former Prime Minister.
Laurence added: "I think it was Boris Johnson who famously had a sort of 'if we win' and 'if we lose' article that he wrote about Brexit, and, at the 11th hour, tossed a coin as to which one would get published.
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"We'd always had Julian as sort of having his by-election victory speeches. He's kind of a got a pleasant 'thanking everybody' one for if he does well, and then a kind of bitter incriminating one if he loses."
Ben Willbond, who plays The Captain and also co-writes the show and book, said: "There's some nice Captain content that I sort of worked up as little stories. But they just weren't right for the show at that particular time.
"One of them is based on a true story that a friend of mine told me about... the war. [It's] about a German fighter that got shot down. I'd always wanted to include a storyline in the show about a German fighter that went down."
Speaking about conceptualising the book, Laurence said: "There were some things that we'd always wanted to include in the show, but never found the story that they fitted in.
"And also there was… stuff that we'd used as a reference while we were writing episodes. The team then thought, 'Wouldn't that be nice to share with the fans?'"
Elsewhere in the book, you can expect everything from details of Julian's post-mortem to Robin's take on the entirety of human history, as dictated to Alison.
The fifth outing is sadly the last of the show, as the hit BBC comedy departs our mortal coil after the Christmas special in December 2023.
The fifth series premiered on BBC One on October 6, before dropping all of the episodes onto iPlayer for fans to binge, or savour, and catch weekly on Fridays at 8.30pm.
The cast has explained the decision to end the show, as well as discussing the idea of a movie follow-up and how fans will react to the series 5 finale.
Ghosts series 1-5 are available on BBC iPlayer. Ghosts: The Button House Archives is out now.
Laurence Mozafari (he/him) is a multi-award winning journalist, editor, and presenter. A former Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy, Laurence previously held roles as the site's Editor, Deputy Editor, and Associate Editor focusing on news, social, and video. Laurence hosted the BBC Sounds podcast Obsessed with Peaky Blinders in 2019. He also hosts his own podcast production, Time of My Life, where he interviews fascinating elders about their life lessons, including Only Fools and Horses' Sir David Jason, Star Trek’s George Takei and Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh.
Laurence was named Editorial Director – Youth Audience at Reach in early 2025. Prior to joining Digital Spy, he was previously at Bauer Media working as Digital Editor of Heat magazine's website Heatworld.com, and has also worked at and written for Sky, NME, Q magazine, Grazia, Closer, FHM and dedicated careers website GoThinkBig. He secured a first-class BA journalism degree at Staffordshire University, along with several NCTJ qualifications, and now has 14 years' experience in digital publishing covering TV, movies, music, gaming, tech, showbiz, and travel.
Laurence has been a broadcasting contributor on television and radio, including KISS, Heat Radio, BBC Radio London, Radio 5 Live, and BBC Breakfast.
He is also a visiting lecturer at various universities teaching journalism, including City, University of London, Nottingham Trent, Staffordshire University and London Metropolitan. Laurence has won numerous awards in his journalism career, including the BSME Talent Award’s Best Deputy Editor, the PPA's 30 Under 30, and the New Editor and Editor of the Year at the AOP and BSMEs. He led Digital Spy to win PPA's Digital Content Team of the Year twice, along with the British Media Awards’ Brand of the Year in 2021.
Laurence joined the committee for the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and was named vice-chair in 2025. He has since hosted panels with CEOs of Immediate Media and the Media Trust at the PPA Festival, as well as presenting his own radio show on Green Man Radio at Green Man Festival in 2022. Laurence is also a Brits voting academy member.
Laurence has been lucky enough to interview numerous celebrities, actors, and musicians throughout his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger loved his hair, Jimmy Carr loved his coat and Antonio Banderas gave a shout-out to his mum. Laurence has covered set visits for The Witcher on Netflix and Marvel’s Inhumans, he got Daisy Ridley to do a Chewbacca impression and loves Marvel, PlayStation, Glastonbury and craft beer. Linkedin
