So Haunt Me was a BBC sitcom, consisting of 19 episodes in 3 series, originally airing 1992-1994.
First Peter Rokeby (George Costigan) loses his job. So, he becomes a freelance writer. This necessitates a move to a smaller house — which does not go over well with the kids, Tammy and David (Laura Howard and Jeremy Green), though his wife Sally (Tessa Peake-Jones) is annoyingly perky about it all. Only the house turns out to be haunted by the departed spirit of Yetta Feldman (Miriam Karlin), a Jewish Mother. Oi Gevalt!
Sally can both see and hear the ghost and seems to be channeling her, to the perturbation of her husband who keeps pointing out to her and David that they're NOT Jewish! Peter himself can hear Yetta, the ghost, but cannot see her, and never knowing where she is or whether she's present does nothing to help his mental balance. Only Tammy remains completely unaware of the new presence.
Yetta is hanging around because she wants to see her daughter one last time. Christian exorcism (of course) fails to work, so the family sets out to find Carole (with an E) (Julia Deakin). Of course, when they finally do, they have to convince her that her mother is haunting them — honest!
This work contains examples of:
- British Brevity: only nineteen episodes were made.
- Haunted House: In this case a small suburban villa that's about as spooky as — a small suburban villa.
- Jewish Mother: Being dead doesn't slow Yetta down.
- Standardized Sitcom Housing: the action takes place in the classic British semi-detached, just like every other BBC sitcom ever about middle-class London families...
- Yiddish as a Second Language: It was deeply startling to discover British Jewish Mothers sound exactly like the NYC kind.
- You Can See Me?: Yetta is considerably taken aback when Peter's mother turns around and demands to know who she is."I'm a ghost. Boo."
