Monumental will produce comedy with support of BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBCS

Ghosts is to be adapted into a feature film three years after the final episode aired on BBC1.

Monumental Television will produce Ghosts: The Possession of Button House after getting the greenlight from BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBC Studios. Filming is set to get underway next month at West Horsley Place in Surrey.

Ghosts: The Possession of Button House will star the writers and exec producers Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond as a group of ghosts from across the centuries who haunt the same house.

They have jointly written the family adventure film which will also star returning cast Lolly Adefope, Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe.

The writers said: “We thought we had said goodbye to Button House at the end of the final series. We never planned to come back. But when we had the idea for this story, we all got so excited that we couldn’t resist returning to our haunted home for one more adventure.

“We can’t wait to be together and to welcome some brilliant new faces, to tell this soul-stirring tale of life and death.”

Ghosts ran for five series on BBC1, with the final episode watched by 7.2m viewers making it the most-watched comedy of 2023.

The director of the film is Simon Hynd, the producers are Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, Alison Carpenter and Andy Brunskill. Jill Forbes is exec producer for Monumental, with Eva Yates for BBC Film, Marie-Claire Benson and Emma Berkofsky for distributor Lionsgate and Richard Acton for BBCS.

Carpenter said: “We couldn’t be more excited to be working with this exceptionally talented team once again, and with Simon at the helm. Die-hard fans and newcomers are in for a real treat”.

Head of the Motion Picture Group at Lionsgate UK Marie-Claire Benson said: “We’re proud to champion outstanding British filmmaking and excited to work with the remarkable Ghosts team to bring Button House to UK cinemas.”

The US adaptation is currently on its fifth series, produced by Lionsgate Television in partnership with CBS Studios and BBC Studios LA, with a sixth series commissioned.

The format has been licensed in six territories internationally.