{"id":27707,"date":"2022-12-23T15:55:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T14:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1761217"},"modified":"2022-12-23T21:08:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T20:08:43","slug":"ghosts-co-creators-on-katy-wix-exit-she-felt-the-time-was-right","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/ghosts-co-creators-on-katy-wix-exit-she-felt-the-time-was-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts co-creators on Katy Wix exit: \u201cShe felt the time was right\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By David Craig\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The residents of Button House are preparing to celebrate their first Christmas in years without Mary (Katy Wix), the witch trial victim who was transported to the next stage of the afterlife<\/a> in season 4.<\/p>\n

Though the moment came rather abruptly to viewers, happening with no warning at the start of episode 4 \u2013 titled Gone Gone \u2013 it was the product of a long period of consideration from the writing team.<\/p>\n

Laurence Rickard (Robin) and Ben Willbond (the Captain), two members of the comedy troupe behind Ghosts<\/a> and other hit shows, spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> about how the scene came about.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaty had made that decision and we spent a lot of time figuring out how to do it, and how to do it sensitively and carefully, and we negotiated with Katy about how we would end that appearance on the show,\u201d said Willbond. \u201cIt was nerve-wracking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rickard continued: \u201cWe totally understood Katy\u2019s reasoning and she is so reasonable about it. Obviously, with anything like that, there\u2019s a logical side of you that\u2019s going, \u2018It makes sense to do this and to do this now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s part of you that goes, \u2018Oh, but I get to hang out with these people and it\u2019s so much fun.’\u201d<\/p>

Once Wix\u2019s departure from the show was confirmed, the team \u2013 led by Willbond as head writer of the episode \u2013 set about crafting exactly how Mary\u2019s exit would play out.<\/p>\n

In the end, a sudden loss was chosen in order to reflect what can \u2013 tragically \u2013 happen in real life all too often.<\/p>\n

Rickard explained: \u201cWe were trying, early on, to think about the gravitas of it and how you would build to that moment. And doing that in reverse \u2013 going \u2018there\u2019s no build, you never know, it just happens and then you deal with the fallout\u2019 \u2013 I think was exactly the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s been really lovely, the number of people who have come up and spoken to us \u2013 particularly Ben, who wrote the episode \u2013 talking about how it has genuinely helped them deal with grief.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cIt\u2019s a surprise package. It wasn\u2019t being done in a drama, it wasn\u2019t being done in a preachy way. It was a sitcom episode, but I found it really touching.\u201d<\/p>\n