British TV sitcoms, from Steptoe and Son to Only Fools and Horses, hilariously embraced the spooky with ghostly and surreal episodes, writes EDDIE BRAZIL
Steptoe and Son Episode: “The Wooden Overcoats”
A classic of British comedy TV, Steptoe and Son ran from the early 1960s to the 1970s. It stared Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett as father and son rag and bone men, Albert and Harrold Steptoe.
Each episode concentrated on their struggle to make a living and the angst they felt by having to live together. Harold’s great expectations are continually thwarted by his grasping, needy dad.
The show rarely featured ghosts or the paranormal. However, their one venture into spookiness was a brief, but excellent episode called The Wooden Overcoats.
One day, Harrold returns from his round with a consignment of coffins. His father is aghast. How could his son bring such things in to the house? They will only bring bad luck and misfortune. He tells Harold to get rid of them.
His son refuses. But his father is adamant, he won’t sleep in a house full of coffins and spends the night in the stable with the carthorse. Harold dismisses his dads superstitious nonsense and laughs off any ghostly connections.
However, he soon realises that he is alone, and his initial bravado is soon replaced with anxiety and nerves. He turns off the front room light and the coffins look like graveyard tombs.
As he goes up to bed he constantly looks over his shoulder. During the night a thunderstorm rages and Harold is to frightened to go to sleep. He hears noises inside and outside the house.
To cap it all there is a power cut and he has to find his way to the toilet by the light of a candle. It is a classic scene with the terrified Harrold negotiating the shadowy flickering landing and stairs and scaring himself at every turn.
Eventually his nerves get the better of him and he can stand it no more. He joins his Dad in the stables and the coffins are disposed of the next day.
The Avengers Episode: “Fog”
The Avengers started TV life in 1961 as a straight ahead espionage drama with Ian Hendry in the lead role and Patrick Macnee as his side kick. Hendry departed after the first series leaving Macnee’s John Steed character centre stage ably helped by a collection of glamorous female assistants.
Although not stated, the duo are assumed to be British agents working for the government. As the series progressed it reflected the bizarre, tongue-in-cheek sub culture of the 1960s, as each episode saw Steed and his colleagues face up to a collection of eccentric and surreal odd bods who are intent in taking over Britain and the World.
The series did on occasion drift in to haunted places and ghosts, yet the ambience of most episodes were imbued with a dreamlike, creepy oddness. Perhaps the best example of this is the episode called Fog.
A group of international scientists arrive in London to discuss world peace, yet are soon being bumped off by a mysterious assailant in a wonderful recreation of fog shrouded Whitechapel in 1888.
Complete with lamp lit cobbled alleyways and street corner knife sharpener and lucky heather seller, the Avengers are faced with a Jack the Ripper clone roaming the foggy alleys, murdering the scientists and escaping in an unseen horse drawn hansom cab. Who is the killer? Clues lead Steed to the gas-lit Ghoul Club, a Ripper appreciation society which is full of typically eccentric British weirdos.
It really is a tongue in cheek, almost surreal like take on the Whitechapel murderer, but it is the set design and the fabulous, but ridiculous dress of the gas lit ghouls which sticks in the mind.
Dad’s Army Episode: “Things That Go Bump in the Night”
Dad’s Army was, and still is, a much loved sitcom, which featured the acting talents of Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn who were, in the main, straight actors.
The title of the show refers to the home guard, military units formed during the Second World War and made up of men to elderly or medically unfit for regular service. The home guard, despite their limitations, were effective semi professional soldiers and nothing like the members of Dad’s Army who, every episode, were a disaster waiting to happen.
The shows only spooky episode was the appropriately titled, “Things That Go Bump in the Night”.
The platoon are returning to base one stormy night in Corporal Jones’ butchers van, when they break down outside a gloomy and seemingly abandoned manor house. They are forced to spend the night in the house. The building is old and looks haunted.
As they enter, the sound of baying hounds can be heard in the distance and everyone is on tenterhooks.
Thereafter follows a series of comedy chills and laughs as some of the platoon are mistaken for ghosts and eerie footsteps are heard ascending the stairs.
The episode climaxes in a hilarious chase across the countryside as the platoon are pursued by the pack of baying hounds.
Rising Damp Episode: “Things That Go Bump in the Night”
Another British sitcom which has stood the test of comedy time mainly due to its excellent cast and scripts.
Rising Damp was about nosey, interfering landlord, Rigsby, and his seedy boarding house, in which students or other transient tenants passed through renting out cold damp, gloomy rooms (hence the title).
Each episode saw Rigsby putting his unwanted nose into his tenants’ business and always giving the wrong advice. He is forever wandering unannounced into their rooms and keeping tabs on them whenever he can.
The shows ghostly episode was titled “Things That Go Bump In The Night”.
In his attempt to scare one of his student tenants, Alan, Rigsby tells the young impressionable teen that the house is haunted by a lady in grey. She is said to wander the stairs and landing. Alan scoffs off any stories of ghosts and together with fellow student, Philip decide to play a trick on Rigsby by pretending to be the grey lady.
They succeed and frighten the landlord into believing that the house is, in fact, really haunted. Rigsby discovers their jape and decides to scare them by dressing as the ghost.
Meanwhile, the local vicar has got wind of the ghost and wants to come and exorcise her. Unbeknownst to Rigsby as he dresses as the grey lady and goes whoooo-whooing about the house, the students and the vicar are ready to banish the spectre.
The landlord busts in to the room where they are and is revealed as a phoney. As usual, Rigsby is made to look foolish by his own actions. And what of the grey lady? Who knows
Only Fools and Horses Episode: “Friday the 14th”
Arguably the most popular British situation comedy of all time, Only Fools and Horses started in 1983 and even though it is no longer produced, still commands giant viewing figures for reruns.
It tells the story of wheeler dealer and loveable rogue, Del Boy Trotter, his loyal but long suffering brother, Rodney and their Grandad, as they try to make a dodgy living selling junk from a suitcase down the street markets of south east London.
Very rarely did they stray in to ghosts and paranormal, yet their classic spooky episode was more of a homage to the slasher movies of the 1980s.
Friday the 14th sees the trio embark on a holiday to remote Cornwall.
They arrive in their three wheeled van at night during a fierce thunderstorm and are stopped by Police roadblocks.
The officers inform the Trotters that a mad axe murderer has escaped from a local insane asylum.
Don’t give anyone a lift and report any thing strange. Rodney and Grandad are alarmed and want to return home, but Del boy assures them everything will be alright.
They arrive at the cottage and find there is no electricity. Immediately they are all on tenterhooks and start seeing shadows in the trees and faces at the window. Rodney and Grandad are convinced they will be murdered in their beds. There is a knock at the door. Who is it?
It is the chief of security from the asylum, or is it. They let him in and he appears to be legit.
Meanwhile, Del Boy, on a trip to the loo, accidentality knocks out an old man lurking about the cottage.
Is he the murderer?
Rodney and Grandad take the unconscious old man to the police leaving Del alone with the head of security.
But who is the real escaped inmate? The drama concludes as it usually did with Del boy turning a bad situation to his profit.
Ripping Yarns Episode: “The Curse of the Claw”
When the Monty Python comedy team finished their TV series and moved on to movies, a few of the group continued to write for the small screen. Most notably, John Cleese and the classic Fawlty Towers.
However, fellow Python stalwarts, Michael Palin and Terry Jones created the less well-known but equally hilarious, Ripping Yarns. The series was an affectionate parody of the stories which appeared in Boys’ Own annual books, which were published just after the first world war and up to the 1950s ..
The shows one excursion in to the spooky gothic is a hilarious crazy gem, The Curse of the Claw.
It is told in a series of flashbacks and opens during a fierce nighttime storm in Maidenhead in 1936 at the home of a prematurely aged man named Kevin.
The wind rattles the doors and wolves howl as Kevin sits by the fire. He is alone save for his butler. There is a knock at the door and it is opened to reveal Captain Merson, a British explorer, who, with a group of scantily clad natives, is trying to find his way to Burma but has become lost.
Kevin soon realises that fate has brought the Captain and the natives to him so he can return a fabled cursed claw to its rightful land.
The action flashes back to Kevin as a young boy and the austere life he lives with his unforgiving Victorian parents. They killed his brother for walking on the flower beds and had his sister imprisoned for putting to much butter on her scone. The one light in Kevin’s life is his crazy Uncle Jack whose ambition is to contract every known disease to man.
Jack tells Kevin about the fabled claw and how it must be taken back to Burma. The young boy says he will do it but his parents forbid him. Both parents are eventually spirited away by the curse.
After a series of adventures Kevin returns to England having failed to return the claw. Uncle Jack dies and leaves the young man his strange old house.
The action returns to 1936 and the prematurely aged Kevin. The old man implores Captain Merson to take the claw and lift the curse which is upon him.
The show ends in typical Python fashion.
There is a knock at the door and Kevin goes to answer it, but as he does he turns in to a younger Kevin.
As he makes his way to the front door he gets younger and younger until he is once more a boy and he opens the door to his parents seemingly returned from the grave. They command the young man to follow them.
The credits role and the house, Fall of Usher style, collapses.
What did you think of this article about British sitcoms and their spooky episodes? Share your favourite ghostly comedy moments in the comments!