| Main |
"Who Do You Think You Are?" is the first episode of Series 1 of Ghosts. It premiered on 15 April 2019.
Plot[]
The episode opens with a dilapidated manor called Button House. The current resident, an old woman (Lady Heather Button) is lying on her bed, dying while the ghosts surround her. It is not long until the woman's spirit leaves her body and she briefly meets the ghostly residents. As she is dying, two of the ghosts -Julian Fawcett and Robin the caveman- bet whether she will stay or get sucked off (moved on). Julian bets £10 that lady heather stays however, as she moved on, Julian technically owes Robin £10. One of the ghosts, Lady Stephanie "Fanny" Button sadly tells her ghostly companions that the woman was the last Button of her family, and another ghost, romantic poet Thomas Thorne wonders aloud who will inherit Button House now.
Elsewhere, a married couple, Alison and Michael "Mike" Cooper are searching for their first home together. They are only looking for flats as they cannot yet afford a house. However, Alison receives a phone call from a solicitor informing her that she's inherited Button House.
Meeting with the solicitor, Alison learns that she is a distant relative of the late Lady Heather Button. Since Lady Heather had no close relatives of her own, Alison was the only one left. The solicitor suggests to the couple to sell the house to a hotel chain as there is a lot of expensive building work needed, but the couple insists on keeping the house and turning it into a hotel themselves.
At Button House, the Captain confronts Fanny for her nightly screaming, due to the fact that she had been cursed to spend eternity re-enacting her death at three o'clock in the morning. Their conversation is soon interrupted when Robin, the ghost of a caveman spots Alison and Mike arriving at Button House. Thomas falls in love with Alison at first sight while the Captain seemingly takes a fancy to Mike.
The ghosts are alarmed when the couple reveals their ambitions to turn Button House into a hotel, and they decide to haunt them in hopes that they would leave. Robin attempts to use his abilities to make the lights flicker, the ghost of a witch trial victim, Mary tries to scare Alison with her burning smell, and the ghost of an MP, Julian Fawcett attempts to knock objects over with his physical interaction ability. However, all of their efforts end in failure.
Later that day, the couple head down to the basement where they unsuccessfully attempt to fix the boiler. It is revealed that the basement is inhabited by the ghosts of plague victims from the Medieval period. Going back upstairs, while inspecting the radiators in one of the first-floor rooms, Alison spots the nest of a pigeon who has been intruding their house.
Julian passes by and he spots Alison leaning rather dangerously out of the window, prompting him to push her and causing her to fall. Mike rushes outside to help Alison and as her consciousness fades, she vaguely sees the ghosts from the first-floor window before passing out. The ambulance arrives and she is escorted to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the ghosts confront Julian to reprimand him for pushing Alison out of the window. This prompts Fanny to open up about her death day by revealing to the ghosts that it was her husband, George, who killed her. He pushed her out of the window to her death after she caught him engaged in a threesome with the groundskeeper and the butler. However, this does not end the re-enactment of her death, prompting the ghosts to set the clock back so she would re-enact her death at three o'clock in the afternoon rather than waking everyone up.
Two weeks later, Alison awakens from an induced coma and is later discharged from the hospital. They return to Button House where Mike reveals to Alison that the survey came back and because of the extensive damage, renovating work is going to be very expensive. He also reveals that he took out a loan from the bank and has hired a team of builders to assist them with the renovations. The builders arrive to assess the house and Alison spots Julian. Thinking he is one of the construction workers, Alison tells him that he should be wearing a hard hat.
This shocks Julian who hurries to inform his ghostly companions that Alison saw and spoke to him. Elsewhere, Alison begins to have second thoughts on the hotel project and begins wondering if they should have just sold the house from the very beginning. Mike insists that he wants to make her dreams come true, but Alison becomes distracted when she spots the ghosts appearing before her.
Mike assumes that Alison's shocked face is because she is anxious if they made the wrong decision about the house. He attempts to calm her down by saying he understands her fear. The episode ends with Alison screaming in fright when she sees the headless body of Humphrey's ghost.
Historical notes[]
Trivia[]
- A family tree is shown in the episode showing how Alison was able to inherit the house.
- Pop culture includes: Lady Gaga, Sexy Back (song), Overprotected (song), Kids in America (song)
- The series has various running gags, including Fanny unconsciously reenacting her death.
- This is one of the few appearances of Jemima in the series.
- Goof: Alison would not be wearing her nose piercing in the hospital.
- The explanation of how to create a wicker basket with the inclusion of 'Five potatoes high' was ad-libbed by Katy Wix.
- The ghosts have a food club and Julian gives speeches to them.
- Robin originally owned the land and Fanny owned the house.
- Alison could see faces in the window before she passes out.
- Fanny is the first to explain how she died.
- U.S. Airing Differences:
- The scene where Mike and Alison accidentally go to their neighbour's house is removed.
- The theme song is shortened.
- When Alison and Mike tour the house they visit less rooms in the montage.
- The solution for how the ghosts stopped Fanny from repeating her death is not shown.
Gallery[]
Stills[]
