I’m VERY late to the party writing about this, but in January 2020 I filmed a couple of episodes of Ghosts for the BBC. I went to audition in December 2019, and had a terrible time! I honestly thought it was a disaster, as nothing seemed to go right, I felt out of sorts, was forgetting the lines (which is very unusual for me) and generally felt rubbish about the meeting. I felt it went so badly, I even called my agent afterwards to discuss it. Just goes to show sometimes we really don’t know what other people are seeing and hearing. I have to say that the people I met were lovely and welcoming, it’s just my experience of what happened for me. The reason I'm including this, is to prove that it’s not always plain sailing, and that meetings don’t always go as planned.

The series is created by: Matthew Baynton Simon Farnaby Martha Howe-Douglas Jim Howick Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond. The series stars all the above, alongside Charlotte Ritchie Kiell Smith-Bynoe Lolly Adefope and Katy Wix.

The premise of the series is Alison (Charlotte’s character) and Mike (Kiell’s character) inherit a tumbling old mansion. Something happens (no spoiler) which means only Alison can see and hear the Ghosts, and the couple have to think up ways to earn money to do the house up. The trouble is, the Ghosts don’t necessarily want them there.

So, Alison and Mike decide to use the house as a wedding venue, and invite a wedding planner, Martin (me) to come and take a look. Martin decides he likes the venue, but it is going to need some work for the place to be “Wedding Ready”.

Martin jumped off the page when I read him, and we had a lot of fun with him. He’s quite decisive, camp, knows his trade, and the centre of his own universe. He thinks he’s very fashionable and stylish, in his own unique way. I had to drive the scenes, so took the lead and Charlotte and Kiell were great to work with. Sadly (for me) my scenes didn’t involve any Ghosts, so all my scenes were in the mortal realm.

When it came to styling Martin, I worked with the Costume Supervisor to create a look that would ‘pop’ on screen. We had several conversations, and tried a few outfits on, which included lots of laughter as we tried stuff on. This was pre pandemic, so there were no masks involved.

Martin was a hard taskmaster, but also had to be fun and likeable for Alison and Mike to want to improve things. So I worked on various characterisations and vocal tonality of the character.

The cast and crew were brilliant to work with, all very welcoming, and the episode had been written by Ben Willbond and Simon Farnaby, so they were on hand to check things were going to plan. The director Tom Kingsley was wonderful to work with, had been directing the series from the beginning, so knew what he wanted and allowed me some wriggle room too.

Martin’s walk and posture was quite upright, which was helped and aided by the silver Cuban heels I was wearing, which sadly never made it onto screen. They were a great addition, and really helped me ‘find’ Martin. As they never made it onto screen, here’s a pic so you get the idea:

Charlotte was especially friendly to meet and work with, and it’s great seeing her go from success to success. You can see her in Call the Midwife and more recently Feel Good and Dead Pixels.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, I really encourage you to watch it, it’s brilliant! It’s funny, witty and moving. The writing team have just been nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Written Comedy. The first series was the most watched series of the year, and by the time series two was broadcast, it smashed the ratings. The series is the perfect antidote to what’s going on in the world at the moment. You can watch both series on BBC iPlayer here.