Jim Howick is so cosy. He is your dad’s friend that has inherited the title of uncle, despite no blood relation. Perhaps I feel this way because Jim has been on TV since my childhood, and acted in many of the shows that I grew up with. Who can forget him in Horrible Histories, as various singing plague-ridden, wig-wearing characters from eras long past? Or in Peep Show, as David Mitchell’s awkward love rival Gerard? Then, of course, there’s Jim’s memorable turn as Mr Hendricks, the science teacher so incompetent at dirty talk that he begins listing kitchen utensils, in Netflix’s smash hit Sex Education.
These days he is Pat Butcher in Ghosts, the bumbling yet kind scoutmaster from beyond the grave who shares his name with the Eastenders’s character (Jim’s idea, he found it funny). The British series, created with some of his Horrible Histories cast mates, has been one of the BBC’s most successful sitcoms in recent years. When it came to an end in 2023 many fans were devastated, but now Pat and his dearly departed friends are back in the feature film Ghosts: The Possession of Button House.
‘It was basically like making the series,’ Jim says of the film, which was shot at West Horsley Place in Surrey. ‘Actually, when it came to the actual takes we probably had less time than we did making the series, which came as a bit of a shock… I think we all expected to be indulged a little bit more,’ he admits. The house itself plays a huge role in the Ghosts universe, as the spirits who live there are confined to the building and its grounds. ‘The house was really important to us, and it was also important to film on location,’ Jim says. ‘But we did have to be careful because there was a weight quota, so we were a bit concerned about falling through the floor. There were elements where we realised: “Oh God, this is an actual, genuine, creaky, really old house.”’
Will he be embarking on more projects with long-term co-creators Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond? They’ve been acting and writing together for so long now, it would seem criminal to see them go their separate ways.
‘There’s nothing concrete in place at the moment, but you know… never say never. We’re still very close and I suppose it all depends on what happens in the next three weeks,’ he says, of the film's reception. ‘It’s tricky now because we’re all getting a bit older,’ says Jim, who is 47. ‘The next thing we do will probably have to be set in a nursing home or something.’ At the screening of the film my fellow journalists and I were laughing raucously, giving me plenty of reason to suspect that the cast of Ghosts, although adept at playing the dead, have plenty of life left in their careers yet.
Your aesthetic hero
I always look to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who I think carried himself and his choices so well. He was so believable, and I think I could relate to him, certainly from an aesthetic point of view, because I am of a similar build and probably play similar characters. You know, neither of us were going to be the juvenile or romantic lead, even when we were young, so I always think about him and his choices, performance wise. I was really upset when he passed, because I felt he had so much to offer.
Last podcast you listened to
Desert Island Discs is my favourite of all time, so I’ll say that.
A possession you’d never sell
I’ve still got my childhood teddy bear. He’s called Hunter and I think I could part with any other possession, but I feel like I just couldn’t bear to give him away. I don’t sleep with him, I should say. He’s in the spare room. I’ve got two dogs, so I've sort of got real life teddies. But he would be the thing I would rescue in a fire. And my dogs, of course.
An exhibition that has really impressed you
I was really impressed with the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A Museum. That was a real experience. He was just such a phenomenal artist who covered such a wide spectrum of genre and performance. I found that really inspiring.
I tell you what, Reece Shearsmith, who is a friend of mine — I can't believe that he’s a friend of mine because he was a hero of mine growing up — has a horror exhibition of his own in his home. He has a newel post which is actually a hinge, when you lift it up it has a red button underneath. When you press it, a wardrobe moves and inside is a room full of oddities and horror memorabilia and magic props and things. He has a book out now, Things I Took from the Dark: The Museum of Me. His collection was genuinely impressive to me because he is someone who really indulged in his first love. I really admire a grown up still doing that. I think we throw stuff out too quickly in life.
The thing you’d take with you to a desert island
A bed.
The thing that gets you up in the morning
My dogs.
The items you collect
Football programmes.
The last thing of note you bought for yourself
It was a piece of art by an artist called Will Rochfort, He does these amazing nostalgic prints. He did an incredible painting. You know the film Jaws? There’s a scene in it where, in the Amity poster, there is a lady on a lido, someone has graffitied it so she’s screaming: “Help, shark!” and a shark’s fin is coming towards her. He made a print of that happening — the boy is sneaking up to the poster with a ladder and a flashlight to deface it. It was a scene that you never saw in the film. I just thought it was amazing, and so I bought a copy of that print.
A post shared by Will Rochfort (@willrochfortart)
A photo posted by
A book you found inspiring
It’s called A Time of Gifts and it’s by Patrick Leigh Fermor. Basically, he grew up and became a soldier in the Second World War. It is the first book in a trilogy and the writer Jonny Sweet put me on to this and gave it to me as a wrap gift. It’s basically a travelogue, which I love. He, armed with five pound notes and a small rucksack full of clothes, boards a boat on the Thames and goes to Rotterdam, and then walks to Constinople, through Europe in 1936. He walks all the way through Holland and Belgium and through the beginnings of Nazi Germany, which is quite terrifying for him. He sleeps in hay bales, or makes friends with sort of counts and sleeps in palaces, basically lays his head wherever he can and gets into adventures.
Your favourite painting
Oh my goodness me, that is really tough. Let me think. It’s a Caravaggio, I think. Saint Jerome Writing, which is in Malta Cathedral. I just think the lighting is insane. It looks like a film, so tangible and real. It’s just magical. My other favourite painting is Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It’s this multi-level town scene and it’s so busy with story and life and just levels. It reminds me of a Hogarth, or something like that. It’s populated and almost feels like it’s moving and there’s just so much detail. I could get lost in that. I really could.
The music that you work to
I think you have to cater for whatever the tone of the piece you're writing is. I tend to listen to soundtracks when I am writing. So, The Social Network soundtrack is a really great one. I also listen to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. This is when I’m writing my own stuff. When I’m writing Ghosts, we don’t really listen to anything because we have each other.
Every episode I write, I write with Mat, and I think I wouldn’t want to write comedy on my own. I think you have to have a supreme confidence to be able to do that. At least if you are writing with someone else there is an audience of sorts. We do tend to deviate, Mat and I. We sort of tend to find ideas when we stop writing. We spend a great deal of time watching people eat really hot chillies on YouTube. We find that very funny.
Who would play you in a film of your life
Well, I would have said Philip Seymour Hoffman… erm… Zach Galifianakis.
A hotel you could go back and back to
Probably the Phāea Blue in Crete.
The most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten
A lunch in Huế in Vietnam next to a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, it was just incredible.
Best present you’ve ever received
A Sega Mega Drive when I was 11 years old.
‘Ghosts: The Possession of Button House’ is in cinemas now.