Ghost Stories for Christmas - The Definitive Collection (5-DVD set)

Product Information

Mark Gatiss's adaptation of " The Tractate Middoth", another story by M. R. James, was broadcast on BBC Two on Christmas Day 2013. This was followed by a documentary, M. R. James: Ghost Writer. [37] 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. Repeats of the original series on BBC Four at Christmas 2007 included The Haunted Airman, a new adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's novel The Haunting of Toby Jugg by Chris Durlacher, although this film was originally screened on 31 October 2006. [55] Leaving his ill and ageing wife in a care home, a retired astronomer revisits one of their old coastal haunts, but after discovering a ring on the beach is soon haunted himself. [36]

All four films in this 3-disc Blu-ray set have been remastered at 2K resolution from the original 16mm camera negatives held by the BBC Archive and are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The tradition of Ghost Stories for Christmas lives on. In 2018, Gatiss wrote and directed The Dead Room, a contemporary-set original story about an aging horror radio presenter who is haunted by his past. In 2019, he returned to M.R. James with Martin’s Close, starring Peter Capaldi. 2021 saw another new Gatiss adaptation, The Mezzotint starring Rory Kinnear. I love that Gatiss has become the shepherd of the Ghost Stories for Christmas cycle and he continues that tradition to this very day. BritBox The Stalls of Barchester". British Film Institute Database. Archived from the original on 1 June 2009 . Retrieved 22 August 2010. An orphan moves into the house of his older cousin, but is disturbed by visions of a pair of ghostly children. Is their message a warning to be fearful of his cousin's obsession with immortality? [5] [34]Also on disc one there is an archive introduction presented by horror writer Ramsey Campbell, as well as Campbell reading his own M.R. James inspired story ‘The Guide’. It’s not the only reading you get on this disc either, as ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad’, the original short story by James that the film is based on, is read by Neil Brand. There is also a short discussion between Miller and Christopher Frayling discussing the film itself. Almost as an afterthought the disc also contains the 2010 ‘Whistle and I’ll Come to You’ film, starring John Hurt. The only original special feature is a rather informative and enjoyable commentary from TV historian Jon Dear.

The school term has ended, and academic Professor Parkin arrives at a seaside inn on the East Anglian coast for a holiday of rambling and reading. While on one of his walks, he discovers a cemetery perched on the edge of a cliff that is in the process being reclaimed by the sea. Here he unearths an old whistle bearing a Latin inscription, which he translates and responds to, scorning its potentially supernatural overtones, but is soon given cause to question his long-held scepticism. 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]It’s 1922 and in the heart of an old English college, Edward Williams receives an engraving of an unknown country house. An imposing facade. A sweeping lawn. And, just perhaps, something else…? Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee - Number 13 (2000, 30 mins): Ronald Frame’s adaptation is brought to life by the horror maestro

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. a b c d Gordon Clark, Lawrence, interview for The M. R. James Collection. London: BFI Publishing. 2012. 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] After an infamous demonologist is ridiculed on a television programme, its producer soon finds herself targeted by malevolent supernatural forces. [22] A governess, incarcerated in a mental asylum, tells a doctor of the possession of her two pupils by a former governess and her lover. [56]

Bluebeard’s Castle

a b Rigby, Jonathan, "Traces of Uneasiness: Lawrence Gordon Clark and The Stalls of Barchester" in The M. R. James Collection, BFI 2012 (BFIVD965)

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] The supremely affable Clark, who directed seven of the BBC's Ghost Story for Christmasfilms, including three of the titles here, talks about how The Stalls of Barchesterallowed him to make the move from documentary to drama, his love of the writings of M.R. James, selecting his main location, casting Robert Hardy (also an M.R. James fan), and the importance of being able to frighten your audience.MR James’ original story, ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’, read by Neil Brand (2001, 42 mins) 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. Filming wrapped recently in the South of England. The Mezzotint will air this Christmas on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. Phillips-Jones, Richard (21 December 2016). "30 Things You Never Knew about A Ghost Story for Christmas". Spooky Isles. Cooke, Lez (2003). British Television Drama: A History. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85170-885-0.