1000 Tiny Birds

Ghosts - It's Behind You S1

There are some shows that don’t necessarily put “laugh out loud” funny at the top of the list. These shows - or at least, the shows that are good regardless - tend to instead feel comforting, cosy, familiar. That’s not a bad thing, nor does it mean they aren’t also often very funny too. But Ghosts, to me, has always felt like this. In It’s Behind You, its latest Christmas special, it dials that up again. A and B plots abound: the ghosts put on a panto, and Allison wants to cheer up Pat with home videos she’s come across from his last Christmases. Both work, the former the bulk of the laughs, the latter the bulk of the pathos. It’s telling that the show ends on the latter rather than the former for the takeaway. But why shouldn’t it? It works - I did tear up a bit, and the comic relief of the panto cuts through nicely and lingers whilst that happens. This is a good thing! I have often argued that, unintuitively I grant you, comedy doesn’t need to be funny. I stand by that. It’s often the most direct way to make someone feel something, and if you choose that to not just be hilarity, I think that’s valid. The Ghosts team do this wonderfully.