Television TV

The Ghosts of Motley Hall

Circa 1977-78. Motley Hall is the ancestrol home of the Uproar family and is haunted by Sir George Uproar, Sir Fanny Uproar, Bodkin the Jester, Sir Richard and the White Lady (played wonderfully by Sheligh Steefeal). In The Ghosts of Motley Hall the ghosts get together and try to stop the sale of Motley Hall.

The Ghosts of Motley Hall was the creation of Richard Carpenter, the man behind Catweazel. I seem to remember it was shown on Sundays at 5pm. I have watched it again recently and I feel sure J.K. Rowling would have watched this show as a girl, and maybe have been inspired by it!


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Do You Remember The Ghosts of Motley Hall?

Do You Remember The Ghosts of Motley Hall?

  • LouiseOC
    on
    bery funny series, i oarticularly liked Sheila Staefel as the White lady, she was great.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    It was brilliant- Arthur English played Bodkin the Elizabethan jester (who died of pneumonia after being thrown in the duckpond one too many times for the amusement of his employer), Nicholas le Provost was 18th Century gambler Fanny (killed in a duel), Sean Flanagan played barefooted stable boy Matt, and Freddie Jones was former British Indian Army General Sir George Uproar (fell downstairs when drunk and broke his neck). The White Lady can't remember which time-frame she comes from, nor even who she was when alive. Peter Sallis played the letting agent Gudgin, whose family had worked as servants for the Uproars in the past. None of the spooks are able to leave the confines of the hall except Matt, and even he can't leave the grounds. Their various adventures include an encounter with television when the building is used as a storage dump for a haul of stolen electrical goods, having to evict a rival bunch of ghosts who move in as squatters, and surviving an attempt by ghostbusters to get rid of them. One poignant episode features a discovery of The White Lady's portrait in the cellars, and she gets excited in the expectation of finally discovering her identity. The ghosts dust of the title plaque at the bottom of the frame, only to see that it reads 'Portrait of an Unknown Lady'....!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I used to love this as a child. I recently bought the DVD and I was so relieved to find it really was as good as I remembered it.