1 9 7 6 (UK)
7 x 25 minute episodes
Debuting on Monday 27 September 1976, this Tyne Tees Television series starred Kevin Moreton as a mischievous 14-year-old ghost called Nobody who played pranks on the family who moved into the house on the site of his death.
The young ragamuffin spook had been an inmate of an old workhouse somewhere in Northern England until he died when the plague swept through the town back in 1864. Later, the old workhouse was destroyed by fire and a large Victorian house called ‘Cornerstones’ was erected on the site – now complete with built-in ghost.
Not surprisingly, Nobody didn’t take kindly to having real live humans (especially grown-ups) around the place.
Nor did he particularly care for the presence of other supernatural characters from the past invading his privacy, as they did from time to time in the seven-episode series.
Cue objects floating through the air with no visible means of support and doors and windows flying open when there’s no one there. And when an exorcist was called in, the sparks really began to fly.
Nobody also had a great trick of transporting himself from one part of the house to another in the bat of an eyelid. By giving two tugs on his scarf he would vanish and reappear somewhere else.
Needless to say, humans didn’t stay at Cornerstones for very long. Nobody made sure of that.
Until one day the Sinclair family moved in.
Busy executive Peter Sinclair (William Gaunt of The Champions) moved in with his wife Jane (Wendy Gifford), their two children Tom (Stuart Wilde) and Gilly (Mandy Woodward), and the family dog, Wally (who happened to be William Gaunt’s real-life pet dog).
Peter was tired of the pressures of big city life and the rat race and wanted to earn a civilised living indulging in his real passion of restoring old furniture. Cornerstones was the perfect location as it had facilities for a shop and a work cellar down below.
Fortunately (for Mr Sinclair) Nobody was fascinated by his children, not to mention some of the antiques that were brought into the shop and had special significance for him.
Nobody struck up a friendship with Tom and Gilly after he raised the alarm to them one night when a soldering iron was left burning in the cellar.
The three got into all sorts of adventures, including preventing Mr Sinclair being sold a fake portrait, forestalling a couple of dotty burglars and encountering one or two less likeable supernatural visitors (such as the unsavoury Silver Ned) who dropped in for a variety of devious reasons.
A number of well-known faces turned up in guest roles, including Brian Blessed.
Nobody’s House was written by Derrick Sherwin and Martin Hall.
Nobody
Kevin Moreton
Tom Sinclair
Stuart Wilde
Gilly Sinclair
Mandy Woodward
Peter Sinclair
William Gaunt
Jane Sinclair
Wendy Gifford
Wally
Walter Gaunt