Laurence Rickard: His Ghosts Roles, Career & What He’s Doing Now

What characters does Laurence Rickard play?

Laurence Rickard is the English actor, writer and comedian behind several Ghosts credits at once. On screen, he does what the show’s ensemble does best: disappear into a character so completely that the actor behind it becomes invisible, which is why viewers keep asking who he plays.

The short version is that he plays two ghosts — and one of them does not speak.

Who plays caveman in Ghosts?

• Rickard plays Robin, a wise but unpredictable caveman, and he also performs the head of Sir Humphrey Bone — the double act and his writing credits are confirmed on his official site.
• Robin is the prehistoric ghost of Button House, and he is the character fans usually mean by “the caveman.”
• The same creative troupe, Them There, built Ghosts from the sketch-comedy energy of Horrible Histories.

The implication: Rickard is a rare main-cast double act inside a single show — a speaking caveman and a silent severed head.

What is Laurence Rickard doing now?

Since Ghosts ended, Rickard hasn’t left the franchise’s orbit. The clearest signal is a credit-list detail that most news stories skip: the Ghosts specials still carry his name.

Who will be in the new cast of Ghosts in 2026?

• Comedy.co.uk’s credit listing logs Rickard as Robin in multiple Ghosts entries, including The Possession of Button House and a special dated 2026.
• No BBC or CBS announcement has confirmed a full 2026 cast list.
• Most of the 2026 casting chatter is fan speculation built from that listing.

What this means: the 2026 Ghosts question is currently a one-name story — and that name is Rickard’s, courtesy of a database entry rather than a press release.

Who is LGBTQ in Ghosts?

In the UK original, the answer is one of the show’s most discussed reveals: the Captain, a military ghost, is gay.

• Den of Geek’s comparison highlights the Captain’s unspoken love for a fellow soldier in flashback sequences as one of the series’ emotional high points.
• The US adaptation includes its own LGBTQ characters and storylines.
• The Captain’s quiet reveal is unique to the UK version; the US show never copied it.

The pattern: representation lands hardest when it is written into a character’s history, not added as a label.

Is Ghosts UK or US better?

Both versions share the same premise — a young couple inherits a haunted house — but they are different shows in practice. Den of Geek’s comparison notes that the US remake replaced Rickard’s caveman with a Viking named Thorfinn.

After that swap, the two series go their own ways: different ghosts, different history jokes, different comic tone.

Why is Hetty missing from Ghosts?

• Hetty is an original character created for the US version, so she has no direct UK counterpart.
• That is why “missing from Ghosts” usually means someone watched the UK original and wondered where she went.
• She exists only in the CBS remake’s ensemble of spirits.

That absence is the whole answer: Hetty was never a UK character.

What killed Hetty on Ghosts?

• The US series treats Hetty’s death as a slow-burn backstory reveal, not a one-line fact.
• The show parcels out clues across episodes before confirming the cause.
• “What killed Hetty” is therefore a running fan question, not a settled trivia answer.

The trade-off: the UK version gets Rickard’s double act and a deeper historical canvas; the US version gets fresh ghosts and American history to play with.

Why was Ghosts UK cancelled?

Ghosts UK wasn’t pulled off air mid-run. It finished after five series on BBC One, and the creative team chose to close the story rather than stretch it.

Why was Mary removed from Ghosts?

• Wikipedia’s series overview records Mary’s exit as an on-screen departure in the final series: the character is “sucked off” — the show’s term for moving on to the afterlife.
• The departure is written into the story, not a behind-the-scenes replacement.
• Fans still debate whether Mary’s send-off was the series’ saddest scene.

The takeaway: Mary’s final-series exit is the clearest sign that Ghosts UK was built to resolve characters, not to dangle a sixth season.

Will we ever find out how Sass died in Ghosts?

Sasappis — Sass to the other ghosts — is a Ghosts US favorite and one of the show’s least explained spirits. He is part of the US adaptation’s ensemble, not the UK original, which is why his backstory is a completely separate mystery.

• Sass’s death backstory has not been revealed on screen.
• The show’s creators have not confirmed when or whether a reveal will happen.
• Fan theories keep circling earlier episodes, but no official answer exists.

What this means: Sass’s death is currently a deliberate open drawer. Until an episode opens it, every theory is just a guess.

Ghosts UK vs US compared

Four rows, one pattern: the same haunted-house premise, and a different ghost family on each side of the Atlantic.

The trade-off: the UK version’s humour leans on British history and Rickard’s deadpan; the US version re-fits the premise for American ghosts. Neither wins outright — they just haunt different houses.