'Look Around You' Returns To BBC iPlayer Including The Unforgettable Episode On Ghosts

'Look Around You', a comedy series which gets top marks from us here at Higgypop HQ, has finally been added to iPlayer, including the episode on ghosts. This means you can now learn about ghouls, phantoms, demons, spirits and spictrims without the need for a Gloriette 80 materialiser.

The series, devised and written by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, originally aired from 2002 to 2005, but now all 14 episodes have been added to the free streaming platform. The show's first series, consisting of eight short episodes, parodies educational and science programmes from the 1970s and 1980s, with one episode in particular focusing on ghosts that first aired on BBC Two on the night of Halloween in 2002.

You'll need to ensure you have your copy book at hand, as you will be asked to take down notes from the screen at various points throughout the programme. In the nine-minute long episode, you'll learn that the majority of ghosts are quite harmless, not all ghosts are of living things, and what ectoplasm tastes like.

The very dry BAFTA-nominated first series is brilliantly narrated by Nigel Lambert, who at one point in the episode tells us, "most of us are interested in the spirit world. And if we're not reading about it in popular magazines, we're paying a visit to our local medium. They usually have something interesting to say."

One of the series' co-creators, Robert Popper broke the news that the complete series would be coming to iPlayer in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

So, if you're ready to learn about the headless spirit of King Henry VIII to the poltergeist activity of the ghost of Sir Ian Whitaker, former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, then turn out the lights, place a candle on a map of Cornwall, and head over to iPlayer where you'll learn a lot about the nature, characteristics and behaviour of ghosts.

Although the rest of the series doesn't relate to the paranormal, it's well worth a watch too, especially for fans of irreverent comedy. The rest of series one covers off topics including maths, water, germs, sulphur, music, iron and the brain.

If you want more spooky comedy from the BBC, be sure to check out all four series of 'Ghosts' while you're there, and for a more series take on paranormal investigation, take a look at 'Paranormal: The Girl, The Ghost & The Gravestone' in which Radio 1 DJ and journalist Sian Eleri digs into a famous Welsh ghost story.