1 9 7 6 – 1 9 7 8 (UK)
19 x 30 minute episodes
Motley Hall, the ancestral home of the Uproar family, is a wonderful, old Elizabethan building somewhere in the north of England. To the casual observer, it has been unoccupied and neglected for 20 years, but it is actually home to five ghosts, each from a different era in the house’s 400-year history.
The five ghosts – Bodkin (Arthur English), Matt (Sean Flanagan), Sir Francis “Fanny” Uproar (Nicholas Le Prevost), General Sir George Uproar (Freddie Jones) and The White Lady (Sheila Steafel) – are compelled to get along with each other as best as they can, which becomes increasingly more difficult as they try to keep the twentieth century from their doorstep.
Bodkin is the first ghost to have roamed Motley Hall. He was an Elizabethan fool employed by Sir Richard Uproar – the original owner – to keep him amused. He was not the funniest of fools, though, and still continued to tell bad jokes.
The eccentric “White Lady” is the enigma of Motley Hall. Nobody knows when she first appeared at the hall, and quite who she is is anybody’s guess.
This popular series was created by award-winning writer Richard Carpenter (author of Catweazle) and produced by Quentin Lawrence.
Bodkin
Arthur English
General Sir George Uproar
Freddie Jones
Sir Francis ‘Fanny’ Uproar
Nicholas Le Prevost
Matt
Sean Flanagan
The White Lady
Sheila Steafel
Mr Gudgin
Peter Sallis
Darlene Dewey
Annie Ross
Episodes
The Last Uproar | Old Gory | Box Of Tricks | Bad Lord William And The British Banana Company | Perfidia Blackheart Rides Again | Double Trouble | The Pogmore Experiment |The Christmas Spirit | Sir Peveril’s Hoard | Where Are You White Feather? | Godfrey Of Basingstoke | Ghost Of A Chance | Phantomine | Family Tree |Ghostwriter | Skeleton In The Cupboard (part one) | Skeleton In The Cupboard (part two) | Party Piece | Narcissus Bullock’s Bell