Ghosts' Christmas special has sadly brought the BBC comedy to an end, but details have emerged about how much the beloved show changed from its initial pilot.
From hundreds of ghosts to different cast members, and Lady Button's ginormous hair, a few secrets from the short, mysterious, and unaired BBC pilot have been shared exclusively with Digital Spy.
Laurence Rickard, who plays both headless Humphrey and caveman Robin, exclusively told us some details about the "half-length episode" while promoting the show's companion book, Ghosts: The Button House Archives.
He said: "We were all going to be multi-character, and the house was going to be haunted by a hundred ghosts, and you'd explore their different ghosts [each] week. And then we realised that having made that, you're never really emotionally hooked onto any one character, and it was a terrible idea."
Laurence said it's unlikely we'll ever get to see the pilot, as he explained: "For completely innocent reasons, we changed some of the casting as well. It seems like a slightly unfair thing to do.
"You want people to preserve their memory of it in a particular way. I think the first-ever press shot that we put out when the show was announced was a still of the ghosts from the pilot, and that still knocks around on the internet.
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"When people find it, they're really freaked out. They're like, 'Oh my God, it's like finding someone else playing your mum and dad.' You go, 'That's not my real dad.'
Laurence added: "Lady Button has got massive hair, and Pat's got a mullet. Everything's just slightly off.
"The costume and makeup were more exaggerated. We ended up going down a more naturalistic route. Robin, in the pilot, is like 90% hair. I think it's inevitable – if you do a pilot of anything, and you get a chance to look at your work, you learn so much.
"Which is why so often when you look at the first two episodes of any series, and you compare it to season two, you spot these huge differences in the look and the tone of the characterisation. So we were quite lucky that we got to try some things off-air."
This is also part of the reason that Laurence himself plays two characters in the show, as they both require a lot of make-up.
"So I said I'd do it… but it can't be a character in every episode. I'll play that headless character, and he'll always have his head on, apart from the odd gag, and then once in a while we'll do… this sort of caveman cameo character.
"And then we looked at the pilot, and we went, 'Yeah, the caveman works really, really well. We should have more of it. And the headless character is funniest when his head and his body can't find each other.'
"So the best-laid plans and all that – cut to five years later; five years of very early makeup calls."
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 five finale.
Ghosts series 1-5 are available on BBC iPlayer, and the Christmas special will air tonight at 7.45pm on BBC One. 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
