Daisy May and Charlie Cooper NightWatch: Their Funny Ghost Show Is Warm Fun | TV and radio

A The full moon is on the horizon, a compounding dose is in order, and – unapologetically – we are off to HMP Gloucester in a Skoda Octavia with Daisy May and Charlie Cooper on NightWatch (Sunday 26 October, 9.30pm, BBC Two). Why HMP Gloucester? Because, according to our hosts – the BAFTA-winning siblings behind the peerless mockumentary This Country – the former Victorian prison is “supposedly haunted as hell”. A fitting setup, then, for the first episode of the series which finds lifelong paranormal enthusiasts Daisy May (39) and Charlie (36) packing their slippers into the aforementioned family hatchback and setting off for a night of bickering and farting “in some of the creepiest places in this country”.

The opening montage provides further clarification. “Some people want to climb Mount Everest,” Charlie explains as the theremin shudders at footage of the actors reeling like concussed Wombles in a series of nighttime locations. “We just want to see a ghost.” “Yes,” Daisy May agrees, looking over her brother’s shoulder at us. “We just want to see a ghost.” As we do. Sadly, years of low-resolution ITV2 series in which famous ghost hunters shout “I thought it was just the wind” in the deserted branches of Wetherspoons have prepared us for disappointment. Will NightWatch break tradition and provide viewers with definitive proof of the supernatural? It seems unlikely! Anyway, we should put that question to rest, for now, at the gates of HMP Gloucester, here is former prison warden Clive, whose sudden appearance in a deserted corridor is met with sounds of terror. “Clive?! Oh, my God,” Daisy May growls from the depths of her camouflage-print ankle-length puffer coat. “We thought you were a ghost.”

And so the mood is established (extreme bewilderment punctuated by sudden bouts of deafening panic), Clive – who is not a ghost but just Clive, as previously mentioned – proceeds to show us around his former workplace. It tells us that HMP Gloucester was built in 1792 and closed in 2013. It was the site of several typhoid outbreaks and 123 prisoners were hanged within its now peeling walls.

“Grim,” mumbles Charlie, a gentle, slightly awkward soul, who delivers a series of wistful phrases—“Sustenance,” “If Walls Could Talk,” and so on—in the manner of a young uncle at a family wake.

As Cliff deepens into the night, the siblings prepare to say goodbye in a small cell in the Ward. What will happen next? Everything and nothing. They order takeaway. They go to the toilet. Charlie calls Daisy May’s collection of crystals “glorious pebbles.” She tells him to stop farting. They tiptoe around as Shaggy (Charlie) and Scrappy-Doo (Daisy May); She was making sporadic beeps of alarm at the possible appearance of a long-dead inmate; He patiently suggests that she “take it down a notch” (she imagines this is something he’s been asking her to do, unsuccessfully, for decades).

They discuss the time Charlie and their father chased a thief down the street while wearing nothing but their pants. “It was when my mom bought our underwear,” Charlie recalls. “F&F,” Daisy nodded sadly. “Do you know when the rubber is completely gone?” Charlie continues. “They were just…aprons. Flapping around.” They are crying with laughter and Clive’s warnings of the ghostly “knocking and whistling” do not come true.

It was 11.58pm, when Daisy May announced that she “might as well put on some fake tan”, as her price finally dropped: This show isn’t about ghosts at all! Just as Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is more about the intimacy and ease of middle-aged friendship than the presence of carp, NightWatch uses its “wooo, ghosts” hook as an excuse to spend time with the Coopers.

There’s an air of cobblestone connectedness to the Skoda range – here’s a tire found around the back of the Most Haunted; There’s an aerial photo cut from a celebrity’s closest travel story – and there are points where you wish more care had been taken to hide the connections. But really, that’s all, grumble. What we have, in fact, is the gold of shadows. A wonderful, cozy road trip with two effortlessly funny clowns. Barb Barb!