Ghost Stories for Christmas (Expanded 6-Disc Collection Box Set) [DVD]

Product Information

A decade after their release on DVD, the BFI have remastered the first four of the BBC’s much-loved Christmas supernatural tales on Blu-ray as GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS, VOLUME ONE, complete with all of the previous special features and new commentaries. An overjoyed Slarek revisits some of the finest TV hauntings, for the first time in high definition. The Signalman (1976, 39 min), Stigma (1977, 32 min); The Ice House (1978, 34 min). Filmed introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 11 min + 9 min). For Christmas 2008 an original three-part ghost story by Mark Gatiss, Crooked House, was produced instead, though Gatiss has cited the original adaptations as a key influence. [50]

The remaining five Ghost Story for Christmas films plus A View From A Hill (2005) and Number 13 (2006) were remastered from the original film negatives by the BFI and are to be released on Blu-ray disc as Ghost Stories for Christmas: Volume 2 in November 2023. [63] See also [ edit ] Clark directed another story by M. R. James, Casting The Runes for the series ITV Playhouse, produced by Yorkshire Television and first broadcast on ITV on 24 April 1979. Adapted by Clive Exton, it reimagined the events of James's story taking place in a contemporary television studio. [22] Are there any other stories in particular that you have used as inspiration in the adaptation process?Sarah Dempster, writing in The Guardian in 2005, noted that "Perhaps the most surprising aspect ... is how little its adaptations ... have dated. They may boast the odd signifier of cheap 1970s telly – outlandish regional vowels, inappropriate eyeliner, a surfeit of depressed oboes – but lurking within their hushed cloisters and glum expanses of deserted coastline is a timelessness at odds with virtually everything written, or broadcast, before or since." [48]

The Stalls of Barchester is the first official entry in what was to become the Ghost Stories for Christmas series and was adapted from M.R. James’s story The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, which was first published as part of the More Ghost Stories collection in 1911. It takes its time to establish its supernatural credentials and is not quite as creepy as the other titles on this disc, but it's still an elegantly executed work with a sprinkling of unsettling sequences, and very effectively sets the style for BBC Christmas ghost stories to come. a b c d Gordon Clark, Lawrence, interview for The M. R. James Collection. London: BFI Publishing. 2012. Introduction to Lost Hearts, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas and The Ash Tree by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 11 mins, 11 mins, 8 mins) As we neared it, Henry Long felt, and I felt too, that there were what I can only call dim presences waiting for us, as well as a far more actual one attending us. Of Paxton's agitation all this time I can give you no adequate picture: he breathed like a hunted beast, and we could not either of us look at his face.”The following year, an expanded boxset featuring Robert Powell and Michael Bryant narrating M. R. James in the series Classic Ghost Stories (1986) and Spine Chillers (1980) respectively. [61]

I think [Jason fits] because the very first one of these [M.R. James adaptations] was Jonathan Miller’s Whistle and I’ll Come to You in 1968 which is a benchmark for [these dramas]. Miller cast Michael Horton who is a very funny actor. I remember saying to Jason, when I first talked to him about it, that I think Wraxhall is the most Michael Horton [style character] that I’ve done. Wraxhall is a pompous, middle-aged Englishman who thinks he knows everything. And he sort of loves the sound of his own voice and he loves his own company.Phillips-Jones, Richard (21 December 2016). "30 Things You Never Knew about A Ghost Story for Christmas". Spooky Isles. Count Magnus has long been one of Gatiss’ favorite James stories so it’ll be excellent to see what he’s done with it. While the cycle has been particularly hard to find in North America, the good folks at BritBox have added all of the above, plus some other ghost stories, to their service. And on Christmas Eve Eve of this year, Count Magnus joins the ranks. Introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 33 mins total): the director of seven of the BBC’s classic A Ghost Story For Christmas episodes discusses his part in the first three instalments he directed

Lost Hearts relies heavily on the creepiness of its two young ghosts, which has been impacted just a little by the passing of time. Certainly when they're grinning and waggling their overlong fingernails, there is a sense of children play-acting at being scary and not quite pulling it off, but when their movements fall into the rhythm of the hurdy-gurdy music in a slow dance of death, the effect is considerably more disconcerting. And while their deathly make-up may well have been influenced just a tad by Night of the Living Dead, it also uncannily anticipates a look that was to become popular for ghostly children in the later J-horror cycle. Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee - Number 13 (2000, 30 mins): Ronald Frame’s adaptation is brought to life by the horror maestro Commentaries and the 2020 adaptation of Whistle and I’ll Come to You aside, all of the special features have been sourced from the previous BFI DVD releases and are in standard definition. Whistle and I’ll Come to You (2010, 52 mins): John Hurt stars in this 2010 interpretation of MR James’s chilling taleNewly recorded audio commentary for The Treasure of Abbot Thomas by writer and TV historian Simon Farquhar a b c d e f g h D'Amico, John (12 February 2014). "An Interview with Lawrence Gordon Clark, Master of Ghostly Horror". Smug Horror.