235 Rentaghost

First  watched  : 6  January  1976

This  is  another  surprise  ; I'd  have  put  this  one  at  least  a  year  later.

This  slightly  macabre  childrens'  comedy  show  was  the  brainchild  of  writer  Robert  Block , previously  known  for  Pardon  My  Genie  and  this  was  fairly  similar  in  tone. A  recently  deceased  loser  Fred  Mumford  ( Anthony  Jackson )  sets  up  an  agency  for  renting  out  ghosts  for  various  purposes  with  his  still-living  landlord  Mr  Meaker  ( Edward  Brayshaw ) . His  two  supply  phantoms are  a  Victorian  gentleman , Davenport  ( Michael  Darbyshire )  and  a   camp  medieval  jester  Claypole  ( Michael  Staniforth ) . Later  in  the  series  some  more  colourful  spooks  were  added  to  the  cast  but  I  think  I  only  stayed  with  it  while  the  original  trio  were  in  place. Darbyshire  died  in  1979  and  Jackson  declined  to  continue  without  him  so  Claypole  became  the  central  character  in  future  series.

It  hasn't  left  a  great  impression  on  me  to  be  honest   but  it  ran  for  eight  years  so  it  must  have  been  doing  something  right. Jackson  continued  in  acting, latterly  in  a  company  specialising  in  the  works  of  Samuel  Beckett,  until  his  death  in  2006. After the  series  ended  in  1984  Staniforth  went  into  Starlight  Express  for  a  time  but  died  of  AIDS  three  years  later.