''High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman'' is a British television comedy show broadcast on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

and featuring character comedian

Marc Wootton Marc James Wootton (born 8 February 1975) is an English actor, comedian and writer, best known for his role as Mr Poppy in the ''Nativity!'' film series. Wootton has also appeared in ''High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman'', ''La La Land'', ''Nig ...

who plays an effete and slightly vicious medium/psychic. It is narrated by

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actor ...

, with animated sequences by

Rex Crowle ''Tearaway'' is a platform adventure video game developed by developer Media Molecule for the PlayStation Vita. It was announced at Gamescom on 15 August 2012 and released on 20 November 2013 in Australia, on 22 November in Europe, North Americ ...

produced by

onedotzero onedotzero is a contemporary digital arts organisation based in London that aims to promote new work in moving image and motion arts. The organisation conducts public events, artist and content development, publishing projects, education, produc ...

. The character of Shirley Ghostman is sometimes considered to be a parody of the act of controversial

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

Derek Acorah Derek Francis Johnson (27 January 1950 – 4 January 2020), known professionally as Derek Acorah, was a British spiritual medium. He was best known for his television work on ''Most Haunted'', broadcast on Living TV (2002–2010). His career as ...

and contains actual satirical references to the television show 6ixth Sense with Colin Fry in Shirley's opening speech to the audience. The show was very successful on BBC Three and was set to move to BBC Two in the summer of 2005.

Programme's demise

The BBC shelved the series after Wootton (as Ghostman) appeared on ''

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme features Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews (usually three per show) ...

'' on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. During the show, which also featured

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...

and

David Schwimmer David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom '' Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Prime ...

as guests, he made a number of jokes referencing '

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, cancer patients and

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

'. The resulting controversy resulted in the BBC being forced to apologise to viewers, after receiving 350 complaints. The series is still shown in the United States by

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...

. The DVD was released 3 July 2006. The character of Shirley Ghostman returned to

in Wootton's new series ''

La La Land ''La La Land'' is a 2016 American romantic musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a struggling jazz pianist and an aspiring actress, respectively, who meet and fall in love ...

'' in April 2010.

References

External links

* * *
Official Homepage of Shirley Ghostman (archived)
2005 British television series debuts 2005 British television series endings BBC television comedy British supernatural television shows English-language television shows {{BBC-tv-prog-stub