Mandy Mcelhinney gets spooky in Ghosts Australia

Can you have too much of a good thing? That will be one of the questions on the minds of fans of the Ghosts franchise as the Australian version hits screens this week.

Yes, the spooky UK sitcom which has inspired spin-offs in France, Germany and the US is finally getting an Aussie-made version. Ghosts Australia has an entirely local cast and was shot in WA. And while the ghosts and the “breathers” are all new, the premise of the show will be familiar to fans of the franchise.

If you are new to Ghosts, they each go something like this: A young couple are glumly trying to get into the housing market, touring pokey, tiny apartments when a bolt of random luck strikes — a phone call advising them an elderly, distant relative has passed away and they have inherited the family pile; a gigantic, if dilapidated, mansion just outside the city. Just one problem: It’s haunted.

Of course, the young couple don’t know it’s haunted, but after an unfortunate accident early in their stay, the woman briefly dies before making a full recovery in hospital. When she returns to the house she makes a terrifying discovery: her brief sojourn to the “other side” has left her with the ability to see, and hear, ghosts. Several of which are in her house, hanging out like so many annoying housemates. Except they can’t do the dishes. Or leave.

“I just think it’s such a great concept. And the wonderful thing about it is that it’s elastic enough to be able to transpose it into another culture,” says Mandy McElhinney, who has a starring role as one of the ghosts.

“And they’ve done a great job of making sure it’s very Australian with very Australian sensibilities, Australian sense of humour and characters that are from iconic Australian eras.”

McElhinney plays Eileen, a 19th-century Irish woman who became shipwrecked off “Van Diemen’s Land” in the 1840s after fleeing the Great Hunger. She had 13 children and ran the mansion she now haunts as a boarding house. She has some of the best lines in the show, all delivered in a spot-on Donegal accent which the Perth-raised actor says she picked up from her Irish father.

“I’ve listened to him with a Donegal accent my whole life,” McElhinney says. “There’s also a few turns of phrases that my dad uses. But remember my dad came (to Australia) in the 1960s, Eileen came out in the 1800s, so a lot happened in Ireland between then.”

Eileen is joined by several other ghosts who are drawn from uniquely Australian points of history but still have nods to their inspirations in the other series. There is no tragic scout master but there is colonial naval commander Gideon, who walks around with a spear stuck in him. There is no trouser-less 80s party boy or politician, but there is a pantsless Chinese miner, Joon. There is no ditzy Georgian noblewoman but instead we have 1980s celebrity aerobics instructor Lindy, who is desperate for a new friend. They are joined by tragic young early 20th-century bride Miranda, 1990s bikie Satan, and a rag-tag collection of convicts in the basement.

McElhinney was not, she admits, even aware of the franchise before being asked to audition for the series. She quickly binged the UK version, which has a darkly funny dry humour. She then watched all the US version which although it follows the same premise, has a lighter sitcom feel to it. Where on the spectrum does the Australian version land?

“There’s a lot of dry, wry humour, which I think Australians really connect to. And the characters are all really very Australian,” McElhinney says. “It’s an Australian sense of humour with that English concept, but it feels very fresh.”

McElhinney says it didn’t escape the cast they were taking on a series with an already rusted-on fanbase.

“Our insecure minds would occasionally go, ‘Oh, I hope we don’t ruin something that’s really good’,” she says. “The recipe is there and we know that the recipe works. It’s been shown over and over again because it’s such a successful show. Occasionally we would feel insecure if we were mucking around with the ingredients too much. But it’s such a strong concept and we just had such great people working on it that it’s impossible to destroy such a great idea.

“People might ask, ‘Oh, why do another one if the other ones are so good?’ And I think because it needs to come from our own history. It’s a show about history really, and how we are, the way we are, and what are the influences that have formed us along the way.”

Having fun with history is certainly a big part of Ghosts, which can occasionally sit uneasily in a lighthearted comedy. In the German version of the show there are no ghosts from the World War II era. In the Australian version there are no Aboriginal ghosts. But the main “breather”, Kate, who can see the ghosts, is a First Nations woman, played by Tamala Shelton which allows the show to bring in aspects of Indigenous culture and history.

The Australian Ghosts was filmed entirely in WA. The exteriors were shot at Woodbridge House in Mandoon. The interiors were filmed on a stage set at ABC studios in East Perth. McElhinney says she was thrilled to be able to work in WA.

“It just felt like a real homecoming,” she says. “To come home and to be working with Perth crew and talent. It’s a really great place to make film. There are some really talented people there.”

She says the combination of filming in WA and playing a character who hailed from her father’s home town made the project feel really personal to her.

“It was very, very nurturing. To play a character who in many ways connected me to my dad and to then be in Perth with my family — it felt like a real full-circle kind of moment for me.”

Ghosts Australia premieres on Sunday, November 2 At 8.30pm on 10 and Paramount+