My trip to Button House

Saying goodbye to the best British comedy of the last decade.

Ext: West Horsley Place, day. (Photo: Julia Raeside)

In February this year, I was extremely lucky to visit Button House and spend the day with the cast of BBC One’s Ghosts as they filmed the fifth and final series of the hit comedy.

You can read my piece in The Times all about that bitter-sweet day here. I knew it was the end, even though they wouldn’t officially announce it for months, but they were in excellent spirits and just recovering from a day spent line-dancing. Look out for that episode.

There was only a limited space in the article to include all the brilliant and incisive things the cast said so I might do an extra piece or two over the coming weeks.

But I thought you might also like to see some photos I took on set - a sort of unofficial nose around Button House before the crew packed up and left for the final time.

We know now, of course, that the show makes its final goodbye on Christmas Day which is going to rank as one of the most bitter-sweet things since…I mean I’m not sure I can think of anything more bitter-sweet than the end of my favourite sitcom on my favourite day of the year.

Ghosts has been a special show to me from day one. My husband (a comedy writer called Joel Morris) co-wrote an episode of Yonderland back in the day when the Ghosts gang were making the show for Sky and, just after my brother died in 2016, the cast had us down to the studios in South London to show us around with our children.

My then six-year-old got to explore the puppet workshop and watch them filming some scenes in full elders regalia in the middle of a fake forest. It was a lovely lift to us in the bleakest of times. I remember really laughing that day, the clouds parting for a few hours.

That group of people have something special about them when they get together and the television they make has a quality I can’t quite put my finger on. There’s a goodness; an ability to squeeze equal amounts of laughter and poignancy out of the every day. An understanding that life is what you make it and a willingness to meet everything halfway. I don’t know for sure, but I get the impression they’ve all done a lot of therapy. The wisdom buried in their writing is so incredibly human and generous. God, I’m going to miss this show.

So, back to a chilly day in early February. First off, we’re peering through the door to the drawing room, where Robin is telling the other ghosts he has spotted a pattern to when the departed ghosts have been taken off to the afterlife. (Yes, or ‘sucked off’ if you’re Mary.)

Director Simon Hynd is standing on the right. The scaffolding next to him really is holding up the first floor ceiling.

Here’s the front of West Horsley Place, not far from Guildford, with the big arc lights set up outside, pointing into the drawing room windows so it looks like daylight inside.

The fountain is, of course, a big old fake. As are the gate posts holding the Button House sign.

A sad one next: Thomas’ death tree whence he did slump, be-bulleted in the guts before expiring.

Fanny, just casually leaning against a wall near the kitchen.

I covet the massive kitchen table.

The most famous cellar door since Trap Door.

The library was pretty spooky once it got dark.

See?

This was taken quite quickly on my way out because the main room on the ground floor was covered in stuff that wasn’t being used in that days filming. It was all happening upstairs. Included in the clutter but not shown here, was a modest Christmas tree: my first clue that we’d be getting a Christmas Day episode again this year.

Note also the festive looking garland around the fireplace.

All of that green paint peels off when filming ends and I think it’s white underneath, so it’ll look quite different if you ever go to West Horsley Place to do the filming tour. Which I recommend you do. Beautiful place.

And here’s the suit of armour, of course. Couldn’t leave without visiting him. I also saw the huge bear from last series which the production has donated to the house. You can have fun spotting props from the series if you visit. They’ve left quite a few things, including the famous dolls house from the titles.

And finally, my favourite. Jim let me twang his arrow.

Good night, ghosts.