Marley’s Ghosts to return for second run on Gold

UKTV has commissioned a second series of Marley’s Ghosts for its comedy channel Gold, continuing its investment in UKTV Original content.

“Marley’s Ghosts connected brilliantly with the Gold audience and we are delighted to welcome it back for a full series. We are all in high spirits to see the superb cast return to our screens later this year.” – Steve North, General Manager for Gold

Marley’s Ghosts was the second highest rated show on Gold in 2015, with the premiere episode achieving an average audience of 432k, up 337% on slot. Following this success, UKTV has commissioned a further six episodes, including a Christmas special, of the popular show. John Hannah (A Touch of Cloth, Atlantis, Spartacus), Sarah Alexander (Jonathan Creek, Me & Mrs. Jones, Undercover), Jo Joyner (EastEnders, Ordinary Lives) and Nicholas Burns (The World’s End, Benidorm) return to lead the cast of this scripted comedy, which averaged 351k across the series.

In the first series we discovered Marley’s (Sarah Alexander) rare ability that she can talk to the dead, which sadly includes her husband Adam (John Hannah), her lover Michael (Nicholas Burns) and the local Vicar (Jo Joyner). So began a bizarre ménage-a-quatre, with Adam, Michael and the Vicar all moving in, albeit in ghostly form, to Marley’s home.

The second six part series sees magistrate Marley trying to live her life while sharing her house with three ghosts. Marley is put through the minefield of moody teenagers, jealous neighbours, and new romances, while her resident ghosts continue to inflict havoc along the way.

“The pilot run of Marley’s Ghosts received an overwhelmingly positive response from our viewers. Launching scripted comedies can be a challenge so we are incredibly proud of this series and its performance and couldn’t wait to give Danny Peacock the go ahead to take us back into that world. We are happy to announce that the fantastic cast of Sarah Alexander, John Hannah, Nicholas Burns and Jo Joyner are returning to the series and will be bringing Marley, Adam, Michael and the Vicar back to life (so to speak) for us.” – UKTV’s Senior Commissioning Editor, Simon Lupton

The pilot run of Marley’s Ghosts was hugely successful with a series average of 351k, which was 243% up on the slot and a high ABC1 profile of 54%. Launching on Gold later this year, Marley’s Ghosts follows the recent announcement of three-part UKTV Original series The Rebel starring Simon Callow, Bill Paterson and Anita Dobson. This is part of UKTV’s ongoing strategy to commission short runs of a diverse range of comedies as a way of introducing them to the Gold audience.

* BARB/TechEdge Adults, (16+) Gold 2015. Consolidated 000’s.