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Kit Harington, Freddie Fox, Colin Ryan, John Heffernan, James Swanton, Jonathan Rigby, Andrew Horton An aristocrat inherits his family estate and is haunted by visions of his ancestor's role in a witchcraft trial. [35]
A Warning to the Curious, The Signalman and Miller's Whistle and I'll Come to You were released as individual VHS cassettes and Region 2 DVDs by the British Film Institute in 2002 and 2003. [57] [58] A number of the adaptations were made available in Region 4 format in Australia in 2011 and The Signalman is included as an extra on the Region 1 American DVD release of the 1995 BBC production of Hard Times. For Christmas 2011, the BFI featured the complete 1970s films in their Mediatheque centres. [59]
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Piers Wenger, Director of BBC Drama, says: “I’m delighted that Mark Gatiss has assembled such an outstanding cast to conjure up another unmissable ghost story for BBC Two and iPlayer this Christmas. The Mezzotint is classic M. R. James, and the perfect slice of horror to thrill us this festive season.” The Stalls of Barchester (1971, 45 min); A Warning to the Curious (1972, 50 min) Filmed introductions by director Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 10 + 12 min) Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee The Stalls of Barchester by M R James and A Warning to the Curious by M R James (2000, Eleanor Yule, 2 x 30 min). An electronics company looking for a new recording medium discover that ghosts in their research building could inspire the new format they were after. [52]
Spectres, Spirits and Haunted Treasure: Adapting MR James (2023, 17 mins): a newly commissioned video essay by Nic Wassell exploring some of the classic BBC adaptations of the work of MR James. One of my favourite things about Lost Hearts is, rather annoyingly, something I can't really discuss without spoiling the story's biggest and frankly most startling surprise. I can't even allude to it without prompting a number of you to second guess what I'm trying to avoid revealing. And for maximum impact, this is one time when you really should go in cold.They went out late at night, when television wasn't a 24-hour experience, probably watched by the dying embers of the fire before the viewer turned in for the night; the nightmarish quality of the stories would linger as they went to bed. Such conditions can magnify the power of the pieces, adding to their creepiness and helping the tales imbed themselves within impressionable minds. [47]
A university museum curator is intrigued by the unfolding tale of horror told by an otherwise unprepossessing 19th century mezzotint. [43] Wigley, Samuel (3 April 2014). "Ghost Stories at Christmases past". BFI features . Retrieved 31 October 2014.
Radio Times’ billing for The Stalls of Barchester on Christmas Eve, 1971
After an infamous demonologist is ridiculed on a television programme, its producer soon finds herself targeted by malevolent supernatural forces. [22] Broadcast in the dying hours of Christmas Eve, the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmasseries was a fixture of the seasonal schedules throughout the 1970s and spawned a long tradition of chilling tales, which terrified yuletide viewers for decades to come. With the exception of the final film, the tales were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. The final episode was directed by Derek Lister. [33] No. The filming of the adaptations took place at a variety of locations. Clark notes that James gave him "a wonderful excuse to discover...places where you could best impart tension and atmosphere." [23] East Anglia, where M. R. James set many of his stories, was the location for the two first films. The Stalls of Barchester was filmed at Norwich Cathedral and in the surrounding close. [24] For A Warning to the Curious, "Seaburgh" (a disguised version of Aldeburgh, Suffolk) was filmed on the coast of North Norfolk at Waxham, Holkham Gap, Happisburgh, Wells-next-the-Sea and on the North Norfolk Railway. [25] [26] Clark recalls filming in North Norfolk in late February, with consistently fine cold weather "with a slight winter haze which gave exactly the right depth and sense of mystery to the limitless vistas of the shoreline there." [17] The first five films are adaptations of stories from the four books by M. R. James, published between 1904 and 1925. [8] The ghost stories of James, an English mediaeval scholar and Provost of Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, were originally narrated as Christmas entertainments to friends and selected students. [8] [9]
Introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 39 mins): the director introduces The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman, and Stigma
Ghost Stories for Christmas Volume Two
Newly recorded audio commentaries for Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) and A Warning to the Curious by TV historian Jon Dear Laced with M. R. James' trademark terror, The Mezzotint will guarantee a chill in the air for viewers this Christmas. In the region surrounding the Norfolk coastal town of Seaburg, legend has it that three Anglo Saxon crowns were once buried to protect England from invasion. The first was plundered by thieves, the second lost to the sea, but the third remains hidden somewhere beneath the local turf. For five generations, the members of a single family have dedicated their lives to protecting it, but the last of the line, William Ager, died without leaving an heir. Having read of the legend, middle-aged former clerk and amateur archaeologist Paxton (Peter Vaughan) arrives in Seaburg with the intention of locating and retrieving the crown, unaware that the spirit of William Ager continues to guard it from beyond the grave. An eccentric professor finds a whistle carved from bone in a graveyard while on holiday in Norfolk. After blowing the whistle, he is troubled by terrible visions. [57]
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