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"The Bone Plot" is the first episode of Series 3 of Ghosts and its 14th episode overall. It premiered on 9 August 2021.
Plot[]
A TV crew visit Button House to make a documentary about its most notorious former resident, Sir Humphrey Bone, and his supposed part in a Catholic plot against Queen Elizabeth I - prompting Humphrey to tell his fellow ghosts the real story of what happened to him.
Barclay Beg-Chetwynde attempts to muscle in on the documentary but is showing signs of a potential heart attack, worrying Julian who fears Barclay will die in Button House and the ghosts will be stuck with him.
Meanwhile Mike has some ideas for promoting the house, and Pat wonders whether Fanny and The Captain ever laugh.
Historical notes[]
- While the Bone Plot never truly existed, nor did Sir Humphrey Bone himself, it can be assumed that his story is based on the Babington plot of 1586. This was a plot to kill the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I and instate her catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scotts, on the English throne in her place.
Trivia[]
- While fans had long assumed that Alison's parents were dead (since she inherited Button House directly), this episode is the first to actually confirm it when Alison explains that her father died when she was young, and her mother "more recently". This becomes an important plot point in subsequent episodes.
- The episode also addresses another issue which had led to much fan speculation ever since the show began: the fact that despite being beheaded, Humphrey's body is still in full dress, which would not have happened at an Elizabethan execution. The question of whether Humphrey lost his head some other way, or the writers were simply using artistic licence, is finally answered with his accidental decapitation.
- This is also the first episode in which Humphrey's surname is used, it having never been revealed in the first two series.
- The COVID-19 pandemic is never specifically referenced throughout the whole of season 3, though the fact that they are not taking wedding bookings despite a successful launch at the end of season two (together with other hints, such as the fact that Mike takes a proper job but works from home in subsequent episodes) suggests that the pandemic is taking place in the show's world, it just isn't being mentioned.
- The guards who enter the house looking for Humphrey are played by Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen, who are otherwise known as comedy double act "The Pin".
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