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] 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] 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.

On reaching the hall, Stephen is greeted warmly by his cheerfully eccentric cousin, who seems particularly keen to confirm the boy’s age and the precise date of his upcoming twelfth birthday. Stephen also learns that he is not the first child to stay at the Abbey, but that the previous two visitors – a girl named Phoebe and a boy named Giovanni – both mysteriously disappeared. The presumption at the time was that Phoebe was taken by travellers and Giovanni ran away, but as Stephen explores the grounds he repeatedly catches sight of a boy and a girl who may well be the ghosts of the two missing children. 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 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. 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.If like me you loved watching Ghost Stories for Christmas over the years then you’re in for a treat this Christmas. Before Clark's films came under the remit of the BBC Drama Department it commissioned a Christmas play from Nigel Kneale, an original ghost story called The Stone Tape, broadcast on Christmas Day 1972. With its modern setting, this is not generally included under the heading of A Ghost Story for Christmas [52] and was originally intended as an episode of the anthology Dead of Night. Introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 39 mins): the director introduces The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman, and Stigma https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/tractate-middoth.html Cast announced for Mark Gatiss's directorial debut, The Tractate Middoth, on BBC Two, BBC Media Centre press release 20 November 2013

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. Mark Gatiss's films The Tractate Middoth, The Dead Room, Martin's Close and The Mezzotint were released together as "Ghost Stories" in October 2022. 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.

All of the films in this first volume are linked by the author of the stories on which they were based, one Montague Rhodes James, about whom I’ll have more to say in a minute. The first title, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, is technically not a Christmas Ghost Story at all but a stand-alone work made as part of the Omnibus arts documentary series and first screened on 7 May 1968, but it most effectively pointed the way for things to come. The first official Ghost Story for Christmas came when former documentary filmmaker Lawrence Gordon Clark adapted and directed The Stalls of Barchester, a single tale of the supernatural broadcast on Christmas Eve of 1971. It developed into a series when he did likewise with A Warning to the Curious the following year, and the year after he directed Lost Hearts from a screenplay by Robin Chapman. By this point, the Christmas Ghost Story had become a BBC tradition, and other titles were to follow, but that’s a tale for later volumes… WHISTLE AND I’LL COME TO YOU (1968) I'm not overly concerned, I trust this is true 2k resolution and not upscaled. Either way they're new to my collection so it's not an issue for me, just curious is all. 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]

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]Lawrence Gordon Clark introductions (2012, 33 mins): introductions to The Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious and Lost Hearts previously recorded for the BFI’s DVD release

There's an almost Holmesian quality to Somerton and Peter's investigation, which peaks with the discovery of the hidden message and their dogged attempts to decode it, which is covered in a splendidly executed montage that screenwriter John Bowen apparently disliked. So well handled is this process and so convincing the performances of Bryant and Lavers that there were times when I forgot that I was watching a ghost story at all. Aside from Somerton's brief encounter with his own crippling vertigo on the monastery ramparts, the signs that the story will take a supernatural turn are teasingly oblique – a wine stain on a drawing, an indistinct shape on a photographic negative, a monk who may or may not be eavesdropping on their discussion. We're approaching the climactic scene before we learn, rather suddenly, that the treasure is reputed to be spiritually protected. 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. I have compared by BFI BD of Penda's Fen with the Severin release, and there's literally no way to detect the difference. I also compared my UK DVD of Robin Redbreast with the Severin BD. no difference in pitch. When the Hollywood remake machine really got going a few years ago, I remember my partner asking me why they only ever chose to remake films that didn't need remaking instead of ones that had botched up a decent idea. It's about money, of course, and it's long since been established that you've an easier sell if you're trading on an already famous name. The same principle theoretically applies to television, at least if you're selling advertising space, but when it comes to the BBC, which in theory is not required to bow to the non-creative demands of companies hawking products, then the motives are less clear. I, for one, was certainly a little bemused by the decision to remake what remains to this day the finest made-for-TV ghost story. On the surface, there seemed to be no good reason for it beyond producing a version that was in colour, set in modern times, and whose image filled the by-then standard 16:9 frame (which it doesn't, as it happens, having a 2.35:1 aspect ratio). But I was nonetheless intrigued. A lot of film horror has washed under the bridge since Jonathan Miller's superb 1968 TV chiller, and it was just possible that a new take could still prove effective if it approached the source material from a different angle. It certainly does that. The Turn of the Screw (1898), a novella by Henry James (no relation to M. R. James), was adapted as a feature-length drama by Sandy Welch and broadcast on BBC One on 30 December 2009. [56] Title

The second film, The Stalls of Barchester, sees the ever-lovable Clive Swift uncovering a long-hidden mystery of death and darkness while cataloguing the Barchester Cathedral library. This is a dry tale, but the film's use of shadowy lighting and unsettling, whispering sounds give a sense of foreboding, the influence of which can be felt in most modern horror today.