So Haunt Me
So Haunt Me is a British television sitcom about a family that moves into a home occupied by the ghost of its previous resident, a middle-aged Jewish mother. The show was produced by Cinema Verity for the BBC and originally aired from 1992 to 1994. Peter Rokeby loses his job as advertising copywriter, and resolves to become a freelance writer. Owing to this change in circumstances, he and his wife Sally move with their children into a more modest home in Meadow Road, Willesden. The family soon finds that the ghost of a previous owner, Yetta Feldman, still occupies the residence, and has been scaring occupants away for years. Yetta is a stereotypical interfering, middle-aged Jewish mother who died suddenly after choking on a chicken bone. While Sally can both see and speak to their ghost, Peter — much to his frustration — initially cannot. The family agrees to help Yetta find her grown-up daughter Carole. So Haunt Me aired on BBC1 as 18 half-hour episodes in three series and one special from 1992 to 1994. The show was created by Paul Mendelson. The Rokeby children David and Tammy were played by Jeremy Green and Laura Howard respectively. Neighbour Mr Bloom was played by David Graham.
Tammy returns home from a trip to France to a miserable Mother and Brother and a Dad whose business career is at an all time low. He gets a job offer from an old friend Piers at an ad agency that makes commercials for food products but can't decide whether to take it. Meanwhile Yetta has to make a speech to the elders in Limbo to convince them she should remain at the Rokeby's and not go up to heaven. But will it take a near fatal fall to solve both Pete and Yetta's problems?
After meeting his new boss Tarquin, Pete's first job is to come up with an advertising campaign for a new Japanese chocolate bar which has Whale as one of it's ingredients, Pete has to make a tough decision to either do the campaign or respect his daughters animal rights beliefs and risk loosing his job in the process. Meanwhile Sally's putting off doing a questionnaire for her Marriage Guidance course but she doesn't have to go far to find a few distractions.
Sally starts to use information she's learned on her Marriage Guidance course to dictate how she treats her family and in the name of 'acceptance' and 'tolerance', starts to let her family get away with murder. Tammy goes out with a bikey yob called Terry and Pete becomes a bikey himself. Even Carole is scared of asking Jack whether he wants another baby and Sally just grins and lets the world collapse around her. Meanwhile Yetta, who's wiser views are being pushed aside again, seems to be keeping her grip on reality... and the back of Pete's bike... well almost.
Pete is shocked to discover that his recently widowed mother has accepted a proposal of marriage from a man that, during his childhood, he was taught to dislike and he makes his disgust clear in no uncertain terms. Meanwhile Yetta is also making her opinion of Dolly Finkel's engagement to Herbert Bloom very clear too. Can Sally make them both see sense before Yetta looses a friend and Pete looses his mother?
Carole unwittingly ends up being part of Pete's latest ad campaign when a lie gets out of hand. Male and female police detectives set up a stake out at the Rokeby's home but can Yetta uncover buried feelings between them and call in a favor at the same time? Meanwhile Tammy's forbidden from taking her new boyfriend up to her room to study but wonders why everyone else can get away with all sorts of carnal acts and no one bats an eye lid.
Mr Bloom and Dolly Finkel are getting married and Yetta isn't invited, so she pulls out the stops to make herself 'real' for the day promising to behave herself... people can be so gullable. While trying to work up the courage to ask for a pay rise at work, Pete ends up being pressured to uproot himself and his family to take up a job in Russia. Tammy's in an emotional state when her family don't take suggestions she might want to marry Lawrence seriously. Things are made worse when she overhears Dolly saying that Tammy would be an unsuitable life partner for Lawrence as she isn't Jewish.
Pete has a big client who promises huge amounts of money for an advertising campaign for Microwaves. Seeing it as a huge income for his growing family and his ticket out of their haunted house, Pete works extra hard to come up with the goods. He lets his client wishes completely take over his family life and thus rejects the very family he's trying to make a life for. Will Yetta's meddling help Pete come to his senses in time?
Yetta meets her match in the form of Pete's Mum Violet, when she, and her husband Stan come to visit. Violet bluntly and somewhat rudely gives Yetta her marching orders. Yetta refuses to be beaten, especially at the implication that her house needs cleaning, something which Violet is doing a lot of. Will Yetta give in, or has she discovered the real reason for Violet's abruptness and relate to her problem. Meanwhile Tammy's desperately trying to get away from the mad house for the weekend and is busy telephoning everyone she knows on the off-chance they're having a party.
Pete is seen having a meal with a good looking young lady, who's really an old friend in the advertising business called Vic. Sally, already paranoid about her age, turns to Carole and Yetta for advice... which of course was a big mistake. Reading into the situation Pete's snappy attitude to Tammy (who wont tidy her room), a few raunchy pages in his autobiography and the purchase of a bicycle, Yetta and Carole soon have Sally thoroughly convinced that Pete is going through a mid-life crisis and is liable to leave her for Vic at any second. Will sanity prevail and will Carole and Yetta finally sort out their differences?
Pete's making a TV advert and the advert producers want to film it in the Rokeby's front room. Yetta, dubbing herself Yetta Garbo, is thrilled at the chance of stardom. Pete of course doesn't want her anywhere near the cameras but her influence is unstoppable. David is cast as the lead character of the commercial and manages to blackmail his sister into being his chaperon, but Tammy's a bit more preoccupied with one of the production assistants to really care. Meanwhile Yetta's twice removed cousin Dolly turns up. Past hatred between the two is revealed which spells bad news for Pete when Dolly herself also gets cast in the advert.
Pete thinks he can get rid of Yetta by rigging a seance and convincing her that her late husband Sam is calling her to his side in heaven. The seance goes ahead and it appears Yetta has fallen for it. Strangely enough extra information also filters through which Pete didn't know about. Has the seance become real, or has Yetta been tipped off? Pete's also being overprotective of his daughter and forbids her to see Charlie 'the clapper-board guy' more than once a week suggesting she should help around the house to fill her spare time. Tammy reacts like any normal oppressed teenager would... she starts cleaning and dusting while dressed like a 1940s housewife and later, a maid.
Pete's sent Yetta 'to Coventry' again, so Yetta fights back by doing what she's supposed to do, scare people. Jack has the idea that if Pete goes public with the story, it could make them enough money to leave Meadow Road, so Pete talks to a repor... sorry, Journalist called Elly, who like most repor... sorry, Journalists cannot be trusted. Realising that the public eye will ruin his family life more than a sulking ghost, Pete tries to make peace with Yetta, but can Elly be stopped? Meanwhile a very good observation from a scientist finally makes Pete and Sally realise how badly they've subconciously neglected Tammy and an apology from Yetta does not go unheard.
The Rokebys move in to their new, old home. It smells, the phone's on the blink and all the neighbours are watching as if somethings going to happen and it doesn't take long for them to find out why...
After meeting the new neighbour Mr Bloom, Pete realises Yetta exists and as a result can hear her. However he decides for the welfare of their kids, Yetta's got to go. He declares that he and Sally ignore her and she fades. Later when Sally's Mum visits, it quickly comes to light that Yetta isn't beaten yet!
Pete has a deadline to meet, unfortunately with Yetta hanging around he's finding it difficult to concentrate on a shoe related slogan for for his new clients. Things are made worse when David brings some school mates home to show off his Aunty Yetta and the clients turn up early. Meanwhile Tammy is becoming increasingly upset by the bizarre behaviour of her family and things are made much worse when Yetta tries to help.
Pete and Sally argue over Sally starting her own business, Pete insists that everything will be alright if they just get rid of Yetta. Yetta promises that she'll go if Sally or Pete find her Carole (with an e). The quest begins, but initial attempts fail so Pete brings in a Rabbi instead. Meanwhile Tammy has a date with Warren, sorry Darren in less than 2 hours and she's not ready yet!
Pete and Sally's freind Jim from New York visits. Yetta's behaving herself as instructed, but then she doesn't need to do much as Sally has strangely started behaving just like her, insisting everyone eat, interogating Jim and saying 'Oy Vay' a lot. Is it a bad case of Stolkholm Syndrome or is Sally hiding something? And does Jim have the 'key', to finding Carole (with an e)? Meanwhile Tammy's love life is just like, you know, over, and Yetta's the only one that seems to care, if only she could hear her.
Pete finally tracks down Carole (with an e), working with and married to the hooligan she ran off with - Jack Dawlish. After posing as TV documentary makers, Pete and Sally convince Carole to come back to 7 Meadow Road to meet her dearly departed in the hope that Yetta will disappear for good. Of course, things don't go entirely to plan. Meanwhile Tammy gets grounded for having too many detentions and starts David off asking everyone some interesting questions.
It's Christmas in a Jewish house, but Yetta doesn't care as her newly born grandson is being brought for her to see. Jack tries very hard to win the approval of his late in-law but all Yetta sees in him is a hooligan. However, can a strange cloaked figure change Yetta's mind? Meanwhile Tammy's miserable again as the phone's been disconnected, so she's hoping Jason will visit. In the end however, with all the bizarre goings on, she's rather glad he didn't.
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| Language | English |
| Release | 1992-02-23 |
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