From playing Alan Partridge’s nemesis to taking compliments from Tom Cruise, the comic has packed a lot into her career. But she’s not getting ahead of herself
Lolly Adefope isn’t really sold on paranormal activity. We are in her living room in south London, discussing the second series of the chaotic BBC comedy Ghosts, in which she plays endearingly naive (and extremely dead) Georgian noblewoman Kitty, one of a band of spirits terrorising a young couple who have unexpectedly inherited a country pile. But as for real spirits? “I’ve never seen one,” she says. “I’ve talked about this with the rest of the cast – I think if a really sceptical person saw something, I would believe them 100%. But I think programmes like Most Haunted are fake.” Even the sudden, spooky disappearance of a wheelie bin from outside Adefope’s window isn’t enough to sway her. “Maybe it was a neighbour?”
Masterminded by the team behind CBBC’s Horrible Histories, Ghosts is unlikely to convince you of the existence of the spirit realm either, but its cast of spectres – including florid Romantic poet Thomas and Julian, a disgraced Tory MP who perished with his trousers round his ankles – will at least make you chuckle. For all its silliness, the show has its challenges for Adefope, not least the “four or five layers” she has to wear on set. “There’s a lot of underskirts and petticoats and a corset, so I’m very weighed down,” she explains. “At least there’s heating now – they didn’t have any during the first series, so it did feel like being in a haunted house.”
