Ghosts fans make 'dream' pilgrimage to sitcom set

A group of Ghosts superfans from Sweden have visited the stately home where the BBC sitcom was filmed, describing it as "a dream come true".

The five friends made the trip to West Horsley Place - the Surrey manor house where the programme is set - ahead of an upcoming film adaptation, before attending the movie's premiere in London.

Amanda Helmfrid, dressed as character Alison Cooper, said it was "kind of surreal" to visit the property, known as Button House in the programme.

"You only see something on screen and then to actually be in the place: amazing, but I can't believe it's real," she told the BBC.

Beatrice Gomér, dressed as Sir Humphrey Bone, said it was "a dream come true to see a place where the series you love so much gets recorded".

Irma Kask, as Mary, told the BBC the group had wanted to make the trip "for years" so the visit was "a long time coming".

According to the West Horsley Place Trust, which maintains the Grade I listed property, the estate was a royal residence seized by Henry VIII in 1532 but has changed hands many times since.

Canadian Troops were stationed at the property during World War Two. It is now used as an arts venue as well as a filming location.

The estate will host drive-in cinema screenings of the upcoming film ahead of its wider release.

Ilona Harris from the trust said Ghosts had been "such a huge part of the West Horsley Place story" and it was "amazing that the movie's come back here as well".

The property "really is the extra character, I think, to the series", she said, as production teams "lean into the style of the house".

She told the BBC that Ghosts fans had visited "pretty much since the the series really took off" from as far afield as New Zealand.

Helmfrid said the programme was "pretty niche" in Sweden but "some people did recognise us when we went to conventions".

Lovisa Andersson, dressed as character Julian Fawcett MP, told the BBC that the show's appeal was in its "feel-good" factor, and it was "brilliantly funny".

Kim Arvidsson, as Pat, said the characters were "so lovely and fun, and they feel like family".

Ghosts: The Possession of Button House - a follow-up to the TV comedy, which concluded after five series - opens in UK cinemas on 23 October.

Jim Howick, one of the writers and the actor who portrays Pat, said there was an "afterlife for everything" ahead of the characters' return.

West Horsley Place now "feels like home" after so long filming there, according to the actor.

"When you're filming it's almost like you feel like a ghost yourself," said Howick, who is from West Sussex.

"You're sort of incarcerated in the house, you can't go anywhere.

"You're sort of captive and so you end up sat in the green room playing parlour games and trying to amuse yourselves, almost like the ghosts themselves."

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