Rentaghost was vandalised and ruined. The first series was a grown-up, provocative, paranormally questioning, intelligent experience. The BBC promptly started to weed out the use of serious paranormal vocabulary and make it more slapstick. The last series was a pathetically dumbed down silly insult to the intellgience of a 2-year-old.

It only remained the true Rentaghost up to series 3. No standard kid’s show tiresomeness a witch. It consisted only of ghosts, and keeping up the gags about learning how to walk through the wall. But they should have continued to call Mr Claypole a poltergeist, rather than a sprite.

What was the later version, from series 5, even about anyway? No longer about ghostly themes at all! Nor a business doing anything that made plot sense. Just an erratic jumble of magical creatures with teleport powers, some ghosts and some not, having pointless chaotic fights.