GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS VOL. 2 (3 x Blu-ray)

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Kit Harington to star in BBC Christmas ghost story from Mark Gatiss". Radio Times. 19 October 2023. Campbell reads his own story, The Guide, which directly references James’s work. This was clearly shot at the same time as the introduction, and while Campbell is more animated in his reading here, the same problems with room acoustics remain. Attempts to provide visual variety with occasional cutaways of the book being read or imagery described (wheat in the wind, landscapes, etc.) add little, and the introduction of an oscillating sinister synthesiser note is equally ineffective. It does the job, but it really is worth getting your hands on the story and reading it yourself. 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.

A View From a Hill is one of M.R. James’s less widely known works (it’s certainly not in the first collection that I bought), but it bears a fair few of the author’s hallmarks, and there are strong similarities here to key early entries in the Ghost Stories for Christmas series. The basic premise of an academic who journeys to a rural location far from his home, and who inadvertently awakens supernatural forces through the acquisition of an old and possibly cursed artefact, is one you’ll also find at the core of more celebrated works like Whistle and I’ll Come to You and A Warning to the Curious.

Burton, Nigel (22 August 2007). "A Warning to the Curious in Aldeburgh, Suffolk: East Anglia's Ghost Trail". worldtravelblog.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 September 2010 . Retrieved 22 August 2010. I'm a 'purist' for the most part, and I also have two 4:3 CRT sets in my home, and I prefer to watch my old TV shows and video cassettes on them. For me, dual format releases are preferable, and it's why i'm often disappointed at things like Agfa's Spooky Tales that are upscaled on BD and converted to 24p, as it renders it impossible to watch this old material in the format it was shot in, on the type of TV it was made for. Schalken the Painter from the BFI is fine. It's disappointing in thiery that they felt the need to speed change it, but it's not noticeable when watching it, the pitch is correct, and the DVD in the set is the programme exactly as it was meant to be seen. The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974): directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, original story by MR James, starring Sheila Dunn, Anne Blake, Frank Mills 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)

A university museum curator is intrigued by the unfolding tale of horror told by an otherwise unprepossessing 19th century mezzotint. [43]Writer and broadcaster Simon Farquhar takes an enthralling look at what he regards as one of the most interesting films in the Ghost Stories for Christmas series, delivering a commentary that is a blend of the factual, the observational, and the analytical. He’s clearly interviewed some of the personnel involved, and thus has stories related to the shoot that I’ve not heard elsewhere, and while he praises many aspects of the film, he’s also not above criticising elements that he feels don’t quite work. There is specific detail on writer John Bowen, director Lawrence Gordon Clark and score composer Geoffrey Burgon, and he shares a persuasive theory over what makes the first two entries in the series feel different from the films that followed. There’s also an interesting discussion on why Christmas should be a time to tell ghost stories, a question that rears its head in one of the later commentaries. Ghost Stories for Christmas: Volume 2. The three-disc set release is scheduled to arrive on the market on November 20.

The BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series was shown on Christmas Eve during the 1970s and has been repeated countless times over the years. The stories are usually by MR James and are exceptional. Title screen of The Signalman, the 1976 adaptation. Because this was the first non-James story, the strand's title appears on screen for the first time. Newly recorded audio commentaries for Stigma and The Ice House by writer Kim Newman and writer and filmmaker Sean Hogan

Nil by Mouth

The BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas are the filmic equivalent of reading a ghost story by a warm fireplace on a cold night. As James' stories tend to do, each film takes its time building atmosphere and progressing the plot, ending with a finale that will send a shiver down the spine. Admittedly, contemporary audiences may find the films a little slow, but anyone with a fondness for ghost stories will find much to love in this ground-breaking 70s series.

The first three Ghost Story for Christmas films plus both versions of Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968 and 2010) were remastered from the original film negatives by the BFI and released on Blu-ray disc as Ghost Stories for Christmas: Volume 1 in December 2022. [62] The Mezzotint, a ghost story for Christmas from M. R. James and Mark Gatiss, is announced". BBC Media Centre. 22 February 2021. Broadcast in the dying hours of Christmas Eve, the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series 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. The folk horror box set from Severin has a number of 25fps SD video sources that are upscaled and converted to 24p. Robin Redbreast, Kadaicha etc. Penda's Fen is just speed adjusted to 24p. For his final M.R. James adaptation for the BBC, Clark talks about the problems of finding the right location (there's an interesting post-shooting story attached to this) and his delight at being able to work with the writer of Penda's Fen. Surprisingly, he regards this as one of his less successful M.R. James adaptations, and believes that's it's not as scary as it should have been.

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: ‘The Horse of the Invisible’ (1971)

Introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 39 mins): the director introduces The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman, and Stigma An injured RAF Flight Lieutenant suffers from repeated horrific nightmares while recuperating at a remote mansion in Wales. However, he begins to suspect his psychiatrist or aunt may be responsible. [55] 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. Writer and TV historian Jon Dear, who is currently working on a book about the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas (which I’m keenly looking forward to), apparently stepped in at the last minute after the original commentator, author and editor Johnny Mains, was taken ill. We wish him well. Frankly, given the research that Dear must have already done for his book, coupled with his knowledge of and passion for these films, you couldn’t really ask for a better substitute, and he does incorporate points made by Mains in his notes into his assessment. He provides information on the actors, screenwriter David Rudkin, the M.R. James short story on which the film is based, and even has details on the origin of the name Mothersole and the Ash tree and its significance in folklore. Newly recorded audio commentaries for The Stalls of Barchester and Lost Hearts by Kim Newman and Sean Hogan