The Canterville Ghost

The Canterville Ghost is an American-British television series co-produced by BBC Studios and BYUtv, released in 2021. The series is based on Oscar Wilde's short story "The Canterville Ghost".

The ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville is not too pleased that the American billionaire Hiram Otis buys an ancient English estate and moves there with his family. Hiram has no idea that Simon has been roaming the grounds of the mansion for five centuries, nor does he suspect the hostility of the local aristocracy.

This modern retelling of a classic fairy tale is dedicated to three families: to the English aristocrats, the Cantervilles, the Gypsies, the Lovells, and the Americans, the Otis.

The ghost is able to cause fire and set things on fire.

The restless spirit of Lord Canterville has been living in the castle for more than 500 years. According to local legend, during the day he should mourn his murdered wife, and at night he should frighten the inhabitants of the castle. He cannot go far from his bones, because he draws strength from them for his existence.

The ghost is material: it is reflected in mirrors and cannot pass through walls, but only seeps through cracks, turning into yellow smoke. This smoke can be placed in a flask and examined with a spectral analyzer. Analysis shows that a ghost contains two times fewer atoms than a human, and they are also lighter.

The ghost has superpowers: it animates a gargoyle statue, controls the weather, moves and sets fire to objects, and makes various frightening sounds.

The ghost has a familiar – a rat that ate his cursed flesh and now has a mind and is forced to live forever. Basically, this rat runs around the castle and tells the ghost what she managed to see.

The ghost disguises himself as a vampire to scare the residents of the house. At the same time, he uses an image familiar to the mass audience from the performance of the role of Count Dracula by the famous Hollywood actor Bela Lugosi.

Of course, the ghost is not a vampire and is not noticed in the use of blood (as well as anything else).

The ghost moves objects and makes various sounds, hoping to scare people in this way.

To seep through the cracks and move around the castle, the ghost turns into bright yellow smoke. This smoke is material and it can be collected in a test tube (in which it continues to move). Smoke analysis shows that the ghost consists of the same atoms as an ordinary person, but half as many and lighter.

The ghost, accompanied by a living person, passes into a parallel world for the trial of Sir Canterville. The portal looks like a wall of fire, which, however, does not harm either a ghost or a person.

The parallel world looks like a typical courtroom, with a ghostly judge, prosecutor and jury. To testify, the judge can summon the ghost of any of the previously deceased people. From the courtroom there are exits to the Garden of Eden, a place of eternal torment (obviously hell) and limbo, in which there are spirits awaiting judgment.

Spirits living (and apparently working) in this parallel world behave like ordinary people, even taking tea breaks.

The rat that ate Sir Canterville's cursed flesh becomes his familiar, gains intelligence, and even begins to speak pure English. She lives for hundreds of years and during this time serves the ghost and is his only friend.