Background
The company, located in
South Ealing, is run by Fred Mumford, a recently deceased loser who feels he can find work for ghosts whose lives were as unsuccessful as his. His first (and only) recruits are Timothy Claypole, a mischievous jester with a comical lack of knowledge about modern technology; and Hubert Davenport, a delicate
Victorian-era gentleman who is morally shocked by the modern world. The ghosts work from an office, which they rent from Harold Meaker, who discovers the truth about them in the third episode.
Over the course of several series, other characters were added: Hazel the McWitch, a Scottish witch; Nadia Popov, a Dutch ghost who suffers from hay fever and
teleports away when she sneezes; and the pantomime horse Dobbin, who first appears in a one-off Christmas special called
Rentasanta and is brought to life by Claypole, who is unable to cancel the spell afterwards — thus allowing Dobbin to remain in the show for the rest of the run.
Another key figure is a ghost from the Wild West called Catastrophe Kate (cf.
Calamity Jane), played by
Jana Shelden, who is collected from outside a magic carpet shop in the Spirit World by Fred Mumford. The two ghosts are transported back to Earth on a flying broomstick, Catastrophe Kate having turned down the alternative of a flying vacuum cleaner. It is Catastrophe Kate who later introduces Hazel the McWitch to the regulars.
Adam Painting, a local entrepreneur played by
Christopher Biggins, frequently appears in episodes and tries, with limited success, to involve the ghosts in his latest business enterprise.
When actor
Michael Darbyshire (who played the role of Davenport) died in 1979,
Anthony Jackson (Mumford) declined to appear in the next series, leaving Michael Staniforth's Claypole the sole original ghost; Davenport and Mumford's absences were explained at the start of the series by the pair having gone on an extended tour of stately home hauntings. After Mumford's departure, the business was taken over by Harold Meaker and his wife Ethel, who suffered from the various problems the ghosts brought to their lives.
The long-suffering neighbours of Rentaghost are the Perkins, who appear from Series 4 onwards, and think the Meakers are mad.
Remakes
In September 2008, it was reported that the show could be returning to television after the rights to the programme were obtained by the UK production company
RDF.
[2] However, no new show was forthcoming.
Deadline reported in December 2010 that "
Warner Bros had acquired the rights to
RentaGhost and was going to develop it into a
Beetlejuice-style afterlife feature comedy vehicle for
Russell Brand as Fred Mumford."
[3] However, in October 2011, it was reported that
Ben Stiller had now been signed for the project.
Night at the Museum writers
Tom Lennon and
Robert Ben Garant have been hired to write the script, which will reunite the two writers with Stiller.
[4].
In 2017 Fox decided not to take up the rights to Rentaghost, but it is now being looked at by film companies in the UK.
Running jokes
In series 6, the Perkins are given a magical amulet that grants all their wishes. They do not realise this, however, and persist in expressing odd wishes, which the amulet then proceeds to grant.
Mrs Perkins: (
referring to Mr Meaker) I wish he was here now. For two pins, I'd tell him what I think of him!
The amulet is seen glowing. The Meakers knock on the Perkins' door.
Mr Meaker: (
in a strange monotone) Here are two pins.
Mr Meaker produces two enormous prop pins and hands them to Mrs Perkins, who accepts them in the same sleepwalking way.
Mrs Perkins: Thank you. Who do you think you are?
Mr Meaker: Harold
Mr and Mrs Meaker: and
Mrs Meaker: Ethel
Mr and Mrs Meaker: Meaker.
The pair bid each other farewell and the Meakers leave. The Perkins return to normal and are confused and somewhat distressed by what has just happened.
One of the more frequent running jokes in the last series was the cellar of the Meakers' house. The house's power was provided by a pantomime dragon called Bernie St. John ("St. John" in this instance is correctly pronounced "Sinjun", making the dragon's name an obvious play on words), who was brought to life by Claypole and served as a furnace. If anyone entered the cellar, all characters present would shout together, "Don't go into the cellar!", and a few moments later whoever went in would return charred and covered in soot.
Episodes
Main article:
List of Rentaghost episodes
Releases
Only the first series of
Rentaghost was released on VHS and DVD, with rights issues holding up further release. However, the first two series have been made available digitally via the
BBC Store
Some master copies of
Rentaghost episodes and other children's shows were
wiped by the BBC in 1993 on the assumption that they were no use and that examples of some other episodes were sufficient. The wiped tapes were then sold overseas to countries that still used obsolete (in the UK at least) tape formats. However,
BBC Enterprises had requested copies of the first three series a couple of years earlier and indeed they were showing at the time on
UK Gold – these were later recovered by the
BBC Archives.
Regular cast
