Why “Ghosts” Just Won’t Die: Inside the Fifth Remake of TV’s Most Haunted Sitcom

Another international remake of Ghosts is on its way. The British ensemble sitcom follows a couple (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe) inheriting a house that they try and turn into a hotel, only to discover that it is haunted. Although it ended after five seasons, the show has been remade in the US (led by Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar) and that version has been renewed for the upcoming Ghosts season 5 and season 6. A German remake also debuted in March, with Australian and Greek remakes in the works.

Per Deadline, a French remake titled Ghosts: Fantômes en Héritage is set to come to the small screen. The show, which will be a direct adaptation of the UK series, is being produced by the French arm of BBC Studios and will air on Disney+ in France as well as the French network TF1. The show, which is being written and directed by Arthur Sanigou, will premiere with a six-episode season that closely hews to the UK series, but could expand into new territory in season 2, should it be renewed. Read comments from Sanigou and co-writer Joris Goulenok below:

Arthur Sanigou: Yeah, we’d love to [do more.] We are writing the Season 2… The English show was not very famous in France, it was very new for us, and we watched all the UK series. After the first two minutes, I was like: Okay, I love it, the energy, the comedy, the setup with some shots where you see the ghosts and some where you don’t. We are very close to the UK version [in Season 1], there [is] some magical stuff that’s working in the UK series.

Joris Goulenok: We wanted to have something that if a few seasons happen after [Season 1], to be able to go further in our own path. The same as with the U.S. version of The Office, which sticks to the Ricky Gervais version at first… We didn’t want to break what was going well, you know, the structures. They are very good, the English writers.

There will also be some slight cultural differences in the ghostly characters that surround the main couple, Alison and Nabil, including the fact that one of them is the ghost of a former Nazi sympathizer who is shunned. The show, which stars Camille Chamoux, Hafid F. Benamar, Fred Testot, Tiphaine Daviot, Bruno Sanches, Paul Scarfoglio, Monsieur Poulpe and Paul Deby, will debut on Disney+ in France and Belgium on April 9, with an international release set to be coordinated by Studio TF1 at a later date.

What This Means For Ghosts

It Could Become As Iconic As The Office

Although quite a few UK series have received US remakes, including House of Cards, Skins, Shameless, and Being Human, this influx of other international reboots is relatively unusual. In fact, it sees Ghosts potentially rivaling The Office as one of the most influential and frequently remade sitcoms to come out of the UK. While the US version of The Office ran the longest, lasting for nine seasons, the original show was also remade in Germany, Brazil, France, Canada, Chile, and nine more territories.