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.

Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. In 'The Ash Tree' (1975) Sir Richard Fell (Edward Petherbridge) inherits his uncle's manor and grounds. These range from the terrifying rustling of sheets in a supposedly unoccupied bed, to the sharp noise that pulls Parkins out of his nightmare, a trick that was effectively repurposed five years later to equally jarring effect in William Friedkin's standard-setting The Exorcist. His shocked regression into childhood thumb-sucking and the very way he stares ahead, shakes his head and repeats the words, “Oh no…” feel more like the reaction of a man for whom all logic and the scientific certainty – the very foundations on which his life has been built – have just collapsed before his very eyes. 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.

These adaptations, which have a subtlety and style all of their own, have been a major influence on many contemporary British horror filmmakers and have come to be some of the most sought after British .

Lovely atmospheric landscapes like Norfolk which I visited on many occasions, really do have a haunting quality about them. The ever-amiable Clark discusses the series’ move to the BBC's drama department and the changes this imposed (including a shorter shooting schedule), the tracking down of locations (a task he managed to retain for himself), working with child actors, and the use of hurdy-gurdy music. 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. My partner adores these, and whenever we get stuck for something to watch, they’re immediately suggested. 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.It's when Haynes starts hearing noises and having unusual visions that the consistency falters a little, although much of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of changing times and the repeated use of some of the elements here in subsequent genre films and TV. As noted above, Whistle and I'll Come to You was produced for the BBC's Omnibus arts programme, which is why it opens with a spoken introduction by its director, Jonathan Miller, who provides a brief overview of the author's work and outlines the nature of the tale that is about to unfold.

Although, even he makes her a complicated character, hinting that she was popular with local farmers and the pagan fertility aspects that this implies. The episodes comprise: 'The Mezzotint', 'The Ash Tree', 'Wailing Well', 'The Rose Garden' and 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'. Haynes (Robert Hardy), which outlines his arrival in Barchester and his eventual ascension to the position of Archdeacon after his predecessor, the elderly Archdeacon Pulteney (Harold Bennett), takes a fatal fall down the stairs of his house. 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.Unfolding as a dual timeline, with Haynes' diaries dramatised in flashback, the film is over a third of the way in before the first signs of supernatural activity put in an appearance. Black from The Stalls of Barchester (again played by Clive Swift), whose relaxing holiday is severely disrupted when he becomes inadvertently caught up in Paxton's predicament. Haynes' inevitable demise lacks the drama and shock value it may once have had, and the wooden carving that transforms into a hooded skull is an image that now feels creakily old-hat.