MovieChat Forums > Rentaghost (1976) Discussion > Irritating but compelling

Irritating but compelling


I must have watched nearly every episode of this when it was on, but looking back on it, all I remember about it is how much everything irritated me. Mr Meaker irritated me, Hazel the McWitch really irritated me, and Mr Claypole absolutely drove me to distraction.

I think I was too young to realise why Mr Mumford and Mr Davenport (both of whom I did like and didn't irritate me) weren't in it any more, and I think I must have laboured through the Claypole years in the vain hope that they were going to return someday.

...they were ghosts, after all...

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

I think Rentaghost for me was a lot like Scooby Doo - I absolutely loathed it, yet I reckon I must have seen every episodes of the rotten show. If it was on the BBC at the correct time, I'd point my eyes at it.

Mr Claypole was very annoying - though his presence was made more surreal by the fact that I lived but a few miles from a village called Claypole, in Lincolnshire. The theme tune is fab, though, and it's sad to see that Rentaghost is pretty much the sum total of Michael Staniforth's life's work.

reply

Yes, the theme tune was probably the best thing about it in later series. But I soldiered on bravely with it anyway, heaven knows why.

I had no problems with Scooby Doo until Scrappy turned up, at which point it did become unwatchable. I could still watch the older ones now.

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

I'm too young to remember Rentaghost when they actually rented out ghosts, so the title was pretty meaningless to me - I don't think they ever rented out a single ghost in the later series, they just pratted about.

reply

Yes, and it's another on the list of things about it that really annoyed me - the fact that after the first couple of series the title (and indeed whole premise of the show) had been thrown out of the window completely and they were more or less making it up as they went along. In a particularly irritating fashion. For heaven's sake, I was only about 6 or 7 and I still felt patronised.

There must have really been very little else to do in my town when I was younger, how I put up with this, beyond completely misplaced loyalty, is beyond me.

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

I used to slavishly watch whatever was on BBC1 after school too, whether I liked it or not. But then I did grow up in Carlton Scroop in Lincolnshire, a village so rural there wasn't even a shop, and all my mates lived miles away.

reply

I wasn't a slavish television watcher normally, I was quite happy to (in the famous words of RTD's Why Don't You) switch off the television set and go and do something less boring instead. So it's odd that I persisted with Rentaghost.

I'm still resentful to this day.

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

Just wondering why you all looked it up on IMDB if you loathed it so much!?

reply

Just wondering why you all looked it up on IMDB if you loathed it so much!?


Well, I genuinely liked the first series, but as it went on and bore increasingly less relevance to its original concept it just got more annoying. It was still a memorable series, even if not in a very positive fashion, by the end...

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

Yeah, the first couple of series were pretty entertaining, in the best traditions of farcical English comedy. After Davenport and Mumford departed (pun intended) it went rapidly downhill. Nadia Popov, Hazel the McWitch, Dobbin the pantomime horse were just pointless really. When Christopher Biggins started making appearances, you knew the show was really in trouble.

reply

[deleted]

When Christopher Biggins started making appearances, you knew the show was really in trouble.


Ah, Christopher Biggins! Truly the Angel of Death! I think even my resistance may have crumbled then. Only Bonnie Langford could frighten me more...

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

When Christopher Biggins started making appearances, you knew the show was really in trouble.




Ah, Christopher Biggins! Truly the Angel of Death! I think even my resistance may have crumbled then. Only Bonnie Langford could frighten me more...



I hate to say this but Christopher Biggins did make appearences in the first two series (still as Adam Painting). He was one of the firms clients. So you cant say it fell apart when he came along.

reply

I hate to say this but Christopher Biggins did make appearences in the first two series (still as Adam Painting). He was one of the firms clients. So you cant say it fell apart when he came along.


Somehow I find the use of the words 'Christopher Biggins' and 'client' in the same sentence somewhat unsettling.

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

Ah, c'mon! Biggins was a very creditable young Nero in I, Claudius.

The first two series had the atmosphere of a lads' club, when the women turned up it got a bit silly and didn't have anyone to ground it, what with Mumford and Davenport leaving. Claypole became the main star, who I liked, but he was more of a comic foil.

reply

Ah, c'mon! Biggins was a very creditable young Nero in I, Claudius.


That's a very fair point, yes.

Just a painted face on a trip down suicide row

reply

[deleted]