Series / Ghosts (1995)

A 1995 BBC horror anthology series, based around (as the title suggests) ghosts and other supernatural events. It consisted of six episodes:

• I'll Be Watching You: A gangster gains the power to astrally project, and uses it to spy on his wife from jail.
• Blood and Water: In 1942, a soldier falls in love with a young woman after he is rescued by her brother.
• The Massage: A businessman experiences strange events after hiring a massage therapist to help him manage stress.
• The Shadowy Third: A trainee nurse hears an unsettling story from an elderly patient's past.
• Three Miles Up: Two brothers with a dark secret meet a mysterious woman as they head out on a boat trip.
• The Chemistry Lesson: A teacher uses a love spell to help him win over his married co-worker.

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Tropes used included:

• Abusive Parents:
  • The backstory of the brothers in Three Miles Up involves them having a very abusive mother.
  • In The Massage, Judith is verbally and emotionally abusive to her around eight-year-old daughter.
• Accidental Adultery: Maureen discovers at the end of The Shadowy Third that Dr Evans is engaged to another woman, making Maureen (inadvertently) his mistress. She didn't know about this and expected he was going to marry her.
• Adaptation Expansion: Three Miles Up and The Shadowy Third are both based on relatively short stories, with many more plot elements being added for the sake of the TV adaptation. This is especially evident in the latter, which is turned into a more complex story taking place over two different time periods.
• Aerith and Bob: In The Massage, Craig has a son named Charlie while Judith's daughter is called Artemisia.
• Astral Projection: The main plot point of I'll Be Watching You is that jailed gangster Jack Rudkin gains the ability to astrally project after a near-death experience.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Three Miles Up: Sara is actually the ghost of Billy and John's mother, and kills them in revenge for their allowing her to die.
  • The Massage: Judith kills Craig and revives him in her husband Keith's body so she can have Keith back. Craig knows what's happened, but even if he tried to tell anyone, they wouldn't believe him.
• Bald of Evil: In I'll Be Watching You, Jack's head is shaved so he can have life-saving surgery. He maintains this look for the rest of the episode as he uses his newfound powers of astral projection to stalk and kill others.
• Battleaxe Nurse: Nurse Peterson in The Shadowy Third frequently insults Mrs Maradick and complains about having to take care of her.
• Blank Book: In The Massage, when Craig decides to stop making appointments with Judith, she calls him saying she's in need of business and can find a spot in her diary if he wants one. She's actually looking through a blank book the whole time.
• British Brevity: The show consists of a single season of six episodes.
• Buried Alive: The ultimate fate of Jack in I'll Be Watching You. When he is astrally projecting, his body appears lifeless; and he can't return, since a paramedic's attempt to restart Jack's heart with a defibrillator prevents him re-entering his body. By the time he's able to get back, he has already been declared dead, and buried.
• Burn the Witch!: Referenced in The Chemistry Lesson where Heloise offers to perform a love spell for Philip by enchanting Maddie's bracelet and burying it underneath a stone circle. When the spell goes wrong, her grandmother suggests that burying the bracelet charged it with malevolent magic, since the circle was a site where witches were burned. Maddie ultimately burns to death as a result of the spell.
• Cain and Abel: Jack (Cain) and Les (Abel) in I'll Be Watching You.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • I'll Be Watching You has no one believe Suzie that Jack has found a way to be physically present with her, is spying on her and planning to kill her.
  • In The Shadowy Third, Margaret didn't believe Mrs Maradick's ultimately true story that her husband killed Dottie, covered it up, and was now planning to keep his wife quiet by having her institutionalised.
  • In The Massage, Wendy doesn't believe Craig when he starts seeing Judith everywhere he goes.
• Chekhov's Skill: In The Chemistry Lesson, Maddie's husband Trevor is skilled at metalwork and made her a beautiful charm bracelet. When Trevor thinks she gave Philip the bracelet, he melts it down in a rage; inadvertently killing Maddie since the bracelet was enchanted.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Maddie turns into this in The Chemistry Lesson due to the effects of a love spell.
• Creepy Child: Dottie in The Shadowy Third
• Dead All Along:
  • Turns out to be the case with Peter in Blood and Water.
  • In The Shadowy Third, Margaret initially refuses to believe Mrs Maradick that Dottie was killed, since by all appearances Dottie is there in the flesh - at one point actually appearing with Mrs Maradick. It's only later that Margaret disovers Dottie really is dead and is haunting the house.
• Death by Woman Scorned:
  • In The Massage, Judith's husband left her for someone else, and it's suggested that she used witchcraft to kill them both in a car crash.
  • In The Shadowy Third, Maradick is killed by his wife's ghost just when he is about to marry another woman. Although it's not totally clear if she was motivated by this, or by him selling her beloved childhood home.
  • In The Chemistry Lesson, Trevor rejects Heloise, who ultimately kills his wife Maddie using witchcraft.
• Death of a Child: The death of Mrs Maradick's young daughter Dottie is an important plot point in The Shadowy Third.
• Dies Wide Open: Happens to the elderly Margaret Randolph in The Shadowy Third.
• Domestic Abuse:
  • Jack was very abusive towards Suzie in I'll Be Watching You.
  • In The Shadowy Third, Dr Maradick drugged and gaslit his wife and allowed her to be taken to an asylum so he could get his hands on money that she'd inherited only because her daughter (probably killed by him) died first.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Inverted in The Massage. Judith's dog growls at everyone but her and her husband - including Craig, who's perfectly innocent. The one time the dog doesn't growl at Craig, it's when he has been transferred into Keith's body.
• Evil Redhead: In The Massage Judith, who has red hair, psychically torments and eventually kills Craig.
• Fiery Redhead: Maddie in The Chemistry Lesson is an outspoken, temperamental woman with red hair. In a more literal sense, she burns to death at the end of the episode.
• Foreshadowing:
  • While not exactly subtle, Peter's appearance at the beginning of Blood and Water is a clue to his being Dead All Along. Right before dying a second time, there's an extended shot of him washing his face under running water, a clue to the fact he drowned before Alex found him.
  • The Chemistry Lesson has many clues to Maddie burning to death at the end; including scenes of candles being lit, Heloise and her coven jumping over a bonfire, Heloise burning Maddie's clothes, Philip's concern about "getting burned" (emotionally), the mention of witches being burned, and Maddie accidentally setting fire to her sweater whilst lighting a Christmas pudding.
  • In Three Miles Up, Sara hastily hides her necklace under her shirt before Billy and John can see it. They later recognise it as their mother's, alerting the viewer as to who she really is.
  • Throughout The Massage, Craig hears and sees visions of a car crash, only to find they're not real. Judith's husband Keith died in a car crash - probably after being cursed by her. She then uses a ritual to have Craig re-live the crash, effectively killing him and transferring his spirit into Keith's body.
  • At the beginning of The Shadowy Third, Maureen tells a co-worker that she has overheard Dr Evans talking about wedding plans, and thinks he's about to propose. At the end, she finds out he's secretly engaged to someone else - as Margaret Randolph had tried to warn her.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: The Massage ends with Craig forever trapped in the body of Judith's husband.
• French Cuisine Is Haughty: In "The Massage", Craig's wife takes his sudden interest in French cooking this way. It's actually a sign that he's under the influence of the artistic, pretentious Judith - who is trying to use him to revive her husband.
• Generational Magic Decline: The Chemistry Lesson suggests this. Heloise is a much less capable witch than her grandmother, who indicates that the art naturally dies out over time.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: In The Chemistry Lesson, Heloise is a Goth-looking girl who practices witchcraft.
• Granola Girl: In The Massage, Judith uses this image to sell her services as a massage therapist. Her interest in herbs and spirituality is because she's a powerful witch.
• Grave-Marking Scene:
  • The final shot of I'll Be Watching You is of Jack's tombstone at a cemetery where he has been buried next to Suzie and Les; with no one aware he was actually buried alive.
  • At the end of The Chemistry Lesson, Philip finds a regretful Heloise by Maddie's grave.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The Massage contrasts Craig's wife Wendy, who is blonde, gentle, and a loving mother, with Judith.
• If I Can't Have You…:
  • In I'll Be Watching You, Jack kills Suzie after she cheats on him; he will never be released from jail, and doesn't want anyone else to have her.
  • The Chemistry Lesson ends with the implication that Maddie's spirit is still around and will try to harm any woman who gets too close to Philip.
  • Judith in The Massage seemingly killed her husband because he tried to leave her for someone else.
• Incest Subtext: Strongly suggested with the siblings in Blood and Water.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In The Chemistry Lesson, after the influence of a love spell causes Maddie to leave Trevor for Philip, Trevor is reasonable about it and says he accepts she is happy with someone else. He only gets angry when he discovers Philip has the bracelet that Trevor himself made for Maddie (since the bracelet was enchanted with the spell.)
• Jacob Marley Warning: In The Shadowy Third, Margaret attempts to warn Maureen that Dr Evans will break her heart - just as Dr Maradick did with Margaret many years before. When Maureen refuses to listen, Margaret even returns from the dead to try to warn her - just moments after Maureen finds out Evans is engaged to another woman.
• Jizzed in My Pants: Craig has such a reaction in The Massage after a massage with Judith. She reassures him that it's normal, but he's convinced that she is trying to enchant him to fall for her. He's actually receiving the memories of her husband Keith, whom Judith is using Craig to revive.
• Just Whistle: In Three Miles Up, Billy and John have a whistle that their mother told them to blow if they ever needed her help. It works, but not in the way Billy expected.
• Kavorka Man: Dr Maradick in The Shadowy Third is average-looking at best, with an unpleasant personality. But at least three women have fallen in love with him: Margaret, the housekeeper Mrs Anderson, and a wealthy heiress he's secretly planning to marry.
• Left Hanging: In The Shadowy Third, it's never made clear whether Dr Maradick really killed Dottie. All evidence suggests he did, but Mrs Maradick is quite unhinged. Mrs Anderson insists Dottie died from pneumonia; but since she's obsessed with Maradick, she's not the most reliable source either.
• London Gangster: Jack is one of these in I'll Be Watching You.
• Love at First Sight: In Blood and Water, Angela and Peter fall in love pretty much the moment they first set eyes on each other. Unfortunately, they're unaware that Peter had already died before that point.
• Loving a Shadow: A repeated theme of The Chemistry Lesson. When Maddie falls for Philip because of the love spell, he soon finds himself feeling guilty, and realizes he was more attracted to the idea of getting to turn her down for once. Even her own husband doesn't seem to really know her. After Maddie is killed as a result of the spell, Heloise quickly discovers Trevor isn't who she expected, and has no interest in getting together with her just because his wife is dead.
• Manchild: Billy in Three Miles Up is at least in his late twenties but is very childlike and emotionally stunted as a result of childhood emotional abuse.
• Man on Fire: At the conclusion of The Chemistry Lesson, Maddie catches fire and burns to death because her husband melted down her bracelet, which was enchanted as a form of sympathetic magic. When Philip later tries to get close to another woman, she catches fire as well and severely burns her arm.
• May–December Romance: In The Shadowy Third Maureen (early 20s) is having an affair with Dr Evans (around mid-50s.)
• Mirror Reveal: The Massage ends with Craig looking in the mirror and seeing that he's been revived in the body of Judith's late husband.
• Miserable Massage: The Massage has Craig experience violent and terrifying hallucinations while receiving massages from Judith.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: In The Chemistry Lesson, Heloise may have deliberately done this to Maddie, although she insists she didn't.
• Not Himself:
  • Craig undergoes a dramatic personality change in The Massage as a result of being enchanted by Judith. She's effectively transforming him into her late husband, who was very different from Craig.
  • The Chemistry Lesson sees Maddie go from a confident, aloof woman to a clingy, needy, over-emotional wreck after being cursed to obsessively fall in love with Philip.
• Offing the Offspring:
  • Three Miles Up has John and Billy's mother return from the dead and kill them in revenge for them letting her drown.
  • Dr Maradick in The Shadowy Third is strongly suggested to have murdered his stepdaughter.
• Parental Favoritism: Billy was his mother's favourite child in Three Miles Up, a source of conflict between him and John even as adults.
• Posthumous Character:
  • Subverted in Three Miles Up. Billy and John's mother appears to be this, until we find out who "Sara" really is.
  • Played with in The Massage with the reveal that Judith's absent husband Keith has been dead the whole time.
• Psycho Psychologist: Judith in The Massage is a variant; she's not a psychologist, but an "alternative therapist" hired to help Craig with his mental health.
• Related in the Adaptation: The two main characters of Three Miles Up are brothers in this adaptation, whereas in the original story they were just friends.
• Remarried to the Mistress:
  • It's mentioned in The Massage that Craig's marriage to Wendy began as an affair, and then they left their respective spouses to marry each other.
  • Dr Maradick in The Shadowy Third was already lining up his next wife while still married to the current one, although he only ever married her for money, and by that stage she'd been an invalid (from grief over the death of her daughter) for more than a year.
  • Subverted in The Chemistry Lesson. Heloise thinks she can invoke this trope, but Trevor has no interest in her; so she gratefully takes the opportunity to use witchcraft to divert his wife's affections onto Philip. After beginning an affair, Maddie expects to leave Trevor and marry Philip; but Philip ultimately realizes he was never interested in a serious relationship with her.
• Saying Too Much: In Three Miles Up, Billy and John each give Sara different accounts of how their mother died: John says she drowned in a flash flood while Billy claims she fell into a pond. If not for Sara being the ghost of their mother, them giving this much information (as opposed to simply saying she drowned) would be more than enough to tell her they were involved in their mother's death.
• Scars Are Forever: Philip is left with half his face and body scarred in The Chemistry Lesson because Maddie tried to cling onto him while she was burning to death.
• Self-Made Orphan: In Three Miles Up, it's ultimately revealed that Billy and John's mother died because she was trapped in a flooded basement; they were so scared of her that they chose to let her drown. While their behaviour is understandable, her ghost certainly views it as murder.
• Someone to Remember Him By: In Blood and Water, Peter was actually dead before the story began; but as a result of his affair with Angela, she is pregnant at the end of the episode.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Les and Suzie in I'll Be Watching You, since they've both been terrorized by Jack for years.
• Sympathetic Magic: The Chemistry Lesson has Heloise enchant Maddie's bracelet to make her fall in love with Philip. When this works too well, Philip attempts to break the spell by giving the bracelet back. Instead, Maddie's jealous husband takes it and melts it down; causing her to burn alive.
• Teacher/Student Romance:
  • Subverted in The Chemistry Lesson. Heloise tried to start one with Trevor, but he was more interested in his co-worker Maddie.
  • It's mentioned in The Massage that Judith's husband left her for one of his teenage students.
• The Unfavorite: Margaret in The Shadowy Third. Her parents blatantly favoured their son, who was killed in WWI; and still don't have the slightest bit of affection for Margaret even though she's their only surviving child.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In Blood And Water, when Peter dies again, he sprays up a huge amount of vomit and water.
• Vorpal Pillow: Jack's method of killing Suzie in I'll Be Watching You.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue:
  • Blood and Water: Angela is pregnant after her affair with Peter. Since Alex couldn't believably tell her Peter was Dead All Along, she's seemingly still waiting for him to come back.
  • The Chemistry Lesson: Philip has moved to a new school after Maddie's death. Just as he is considering beginning a new relationship with a co-worker, he discovers Maddie's spirit is still around and determined to prevent any other woman from ever getting close to him.
• Wicked Cultured: Played with in The Massage. Craig developing more sophisticated interests, such as theatre and French cooking, is a sign of Judith's malign influence over him.
• Widow Witch:
  • In The Chemistry Lesson, Heloise was raised by her widowed grandmother, who is a witch and has taught her the art of magic.
  • The Massage reveals that Judith, who'd claimed to be happily married, is actually a widow and is using witchcraft in an effort to revive her husband.