The House in Marsh Road

This 1960 movie brings bickering, impoverished couple Jean (Patricia Dainton) and David Linton (Tony Wright) into ownership of a haunted house formerly belonging to Jean's aunt.  Once there, the alcoholic, philandering David can not wait to offload the property and drink the proceeds, but Jean falls for the house and the settled life it promises.

Ghostly mishaps begin immediately with the poltergeist, named Patrick by the housekeeper Mrs O'Brien (Anita Sharp-Bolster), taking an instant dislike to David, an animosity only strengthened by his escalating contempt and murderous intent towards Jean.

For a movie filled with drink, adultery, theft, and attempted murder, 'The House in Marsh Road' is a decidedly polite affair.  It's clunky editing belies a pretty packed script that would certainly have benefitted from another 30 minutes or so to really nail the landing but the core cast are fine, if a bit well-mannered, with Sandra Dorne (who also appeared in the ventriloquist horror, 'Devil Doll') as the vampish Valerie Stockley being the standout.

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Borley Rectory: The Most Haunted House in England

Made famous by ghost hunter Harry Price, Borley Rectory in Essex which he described as 'the most haunted house in England' was an 1862 Gothic style rectory that he investigated and wrote two books about after various inabitants reported ghostly sightings including a phantom coach complete with headless coachman and a ghostly nun.

This documentary film, made by animator Ashley Thorpe, narrated by Julian Sands and featuring Reece Shearsmith as Daily Mirror reporter 'V.C. Wall' and Jonathan Rigby as 'Harry Price', is a stylish melding of actor and animator with the cast playing their parts before a green screen with the house and it's associated shenanigans build around them later.  It's a bit too long and as a result a tad dull and the cast, being filmed out of context, often engage in some pretty hammy acting with everything feeling quite static, but it looks stunning and is an obvious labour of love and as such, well worth a watch.  

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The Maze

Here we have another episode from the early 1980s ITV series 'Shades of Darkness' which featured elaborate period pieces adapted from ghostly tales from the heyday of the genre by authors such as May Sinclair, Agatha Christie and Walter de la Mare.  'The Maze' was written by the lesser known C.H.B. Kitchin and revolves around Catherine Frode (Francesca Annis), her husband Arthur (James Bolam) and her daughter Daisy (Sky Macaskill) and an unexpected visitor (Duncan Preston) from Catherine's past within the garden maze of the her childhood home.

Directed by Peter Hammond, who'd cut his teeth on shows such as 'The Avengers', 'Out of the Unknown', 'Tales of the Unexpected' and 'King of the Castle' and who would go on to direct a number of episodes of the various Jeremy Brett 'Sherlock Holmes' series, this is a sumptuous and subtle ghost story of love and redemption which along with 'The Intercessor' is one of the stand out episodes of the series.

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Come and Find Me

'Leap in the Dark' was a supernatural BBC series shown in the late 70s into 1980.  Over it's 4 seasons it morphed from documentaries to docudramas to, in it's 4th season, pure drama.  This episode is taken from that final season which included episodes written by Alan Garner, Fay Weldon, David Rudkin and, in this instance, Russell Hoban who is perhaps best known around these parts as the author of the post-apocalypse novel 'Riddley Walker'.

Hoban's story gives a writer, Quilling (Alan Dobie - also to be seen in the 1987 adaptation of Robert Aickman's 'The Hospice'), a comission from the producer of a series called, funnily enough 'A Leap in the Dark', to write about a supernatural experience of his own or one from their files., We're never sure which he chooses but presumably it's the latter as he's soon seen chatting with a widowed woman, Mrs Anders (Penelope Lee), haunted by her husband who talks about how it's the very bricks and clay of the house that holds the ghosts.  In line with this idea for Quilling a ghost is "It's what's left behind when you go away and you haven't the strength to take all of yourself with you." But it's left ambiguous here whether that 'leaving' is entirely connected to death as the widow seems as much haunted by the absence of her ... possibly ... still living daughter as she was by the husband and is by the spirits of the young girl and the roundhead soldier that she sees potentially with the aid of spirits of a differnent kind.

With it's very intrusive music, Hoban's purple prose and it's disjointed time hopping narrative 'Come and Find Me' makes for a bit of a frustrating watch and I was glad of it's concise run time but with it's echoes of Nigel Kneale's masterful 'The Stone Tape' and an effectively creepy atmosphere - brought on, at east in part, by the poor quality of the copy - makes it an intriguing one too.



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Voice From The Gallows

I throughly enjoyed the last episode of mid 80's TV series World's Beyond that I featured here - 'Guardian of the Past' - so I thought I'd try another but this time the results are a lot less enthalling.

'World's Beyond' took it's stories from the archives of The Society of Psychical Research so the general conceit is that these are dramatisations of 'true' hauntings.  Here a couple (Darren McGavin & Connie Booth (Polly from 'Fawlty Towers') are awoken by a man's voice and discover that someone has tried to hang their daughter.  After trying again the spirit possessing  her changes tack and decides to ask for the family's help.

Unfortunately neither (long time Eastenders) director Sue Butterworth nor writer Brian Clemens (Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter) really manage to get to grips with the story and inject any sort of dynamism and it just kind of stumbles along in a jumble of cliches.  It's not terrible but it's a missed opportunty.

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Number 13

Adapted from the M.R. James story of the same name published in 1904 in 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary' this BBC version stars Greg Wise as Professor Anderson a repressed and slightly pompous Oxford academic investigating finds in a cathedral archive. These papers hold claims of devil worship on the part of a previous bishop and a man named 'Nicholas Francken' who had practiced his nefarious deeds in the house that had previously stood on the spot now occupied by the hotel in which Anderson is currently lodging.

With a sympathetic script by Justin Hopper (author of the hauntological memoir 'The Old Weird Albion') and an excellent cast that includes Tom Burke (now more known for his portrayal of J.K. Rowling's 'Cormoran Strike') and his father David Burke (Jeremy Brett's first 'Dr Watson') who had coincidentally also featured in the previous years 'A View From A Hill'. 

It's not entirely successful, the cast, Wise in particular, look more costumed than clothed, the early outdoor scenes are too crisp, bright and summery which sets an initial mood at odds with where the story wants to lead us and the director, Piers Wilkie, never quite manages to inject the required level of bacchanalian excess onto the oneiric orgies emanating from the ghostly room of the title but presents a convincing environment and for the most part succeeds in creating a tense atmosphere of encroaching dread leading to an unostentatious but satisfying climax.  

Buy it here - Ghost Stories from the BBC: A View From a Hill / Number 13 (DVD) - or watch it below.

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The Signalman

Originally written by Charles Dickens and published in the 1866 Christmas edition of his own weekly literary journal 'All the Year Round', 'The Signal-Man' is the story of the three appearances of ghostly figure to the solitary occupant of a signal box situated on a deep cut railway line at the mouth of a tunnel.  Each manifestation of the figure with its call of "Halloa! Below there!" has preceded an accident on that particular stretch of the railway line.

This adaptation was made in 1976 for the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas strand and features Denholm Elliott as the haunted signal-man and Bernard Lloyd as the visitor to whom he relates his story.  As with many of the other stories it was directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark who maintains an intimate sense of encroaching danger ably assisted by powerful performances from the two men, Elliott in particular.

Buy it here - UK / US - or watch it below.

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Lost Hearts

From the story by M.R. James published in his 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary' (UK / US) in 1895 this adaptation by Lawrence Gordon Clark for the BBC's 'A Ghost Story for Christmas' strand was screened on December 25th 1973.

Orphan Stephen Elliott (Simon Gipps-Kent) is sent to live in the grand and secluded home of his much older cousin, Mr. Abney (Joseph O'Conor), where he is haunted by visions of two ghostly children (Michelle Foster & Christopher Davies) with gaping holes in their chests where their hearts have been removed.

It's a simple tale and a wonderfully effective one. Making good use of the short runtime Clark doesn't rush the story allowing it to gently unfold.  We have time to learn about each of the characters both living and dead and to experience Abney's giddy excitement at being so close to the fulfillment of his dream in a fantastic performance from O'Conor who could so easily have turned Abney into a pantomime villain.  Gipps-Kent gives fairly solid performance, as do James Mellor and Susan Richards as the houseservants  but we are treated to some mildly painful over-acting from the two ghosts.

Despite it's simplicity 'Lost Hearts' remains both one of my favourite James stories and one of my favourite of the adaptations and the scene of the two children dancing off into the distance having achieved their revenge makes me smile every time.

Buy it here - UK / US - or watch it below.

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Ghost in the Water

Based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Edward Chitham this ghostly tale was only ever screened the once on UK television - BBC1 at 4:40pm on New Year's Eve 1982 - and then disappeared into obscurity.

Directed by Renny Rye (who would later make 'Box of Delights') the story revolves around Tess (Judith Allchurch) and David (Ian Stevens) and their history project into the death of a young local girl named Abigail Parkes in the 1860s who begins to haunt Tess with visions of her life and ultimately of her death.

The two young and untrained actors are a delight helped in no end by a strong supporting cast and a script that delivers both on story and on quiet humour particularly from Tess' mum played by 'Last of the Summer Wine' regular (appearing in 273 episodes over 27 years) Jane Freeman.

Rye obviously has an eye for the supernatural, opening the film on a dark and rainy night with the two kids rooting around in a graveyard from which he cuts to a purpose made horror movie on the family television and including not one but two drowning sequences one of which features Tess simulating the experience in her bath which must have been an unexpected and shocking experience for anyone watching in its original tea time slot and not a scene you could imagine in any modern children's drama.

Drowning aside 'Ghost in the Water' is a fairly gentle film with a real warmth to it that plays off the relationship between the two kids, their classmates and Tess' family.  The narrative rolls along nicely and Rye makes good use of the limited run time to tell a concise story and one that is unexpectedly impactful and it's a real shame that this film has been mostly forgotten.

Buy it here - Ghost In The Water [DVD] - or watch it below.




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The Dead Room

Mark Gatiss has been on a seemingly one man crusade to bring back the glory days of the BBC ghost story and over the last few years has produced several sympathetic contributions to the series including an M.R. James adaptation, 'The Tractate Middoth'.

This contribution from 2018  has shades of the late 70s tale 'A Ghostly Voice' in its setting as a radio personality known for his readings of classic ghostly tales begins to experience unsettling events on his return to his old studio.

Here we have a typically strong performance from Simon Callow as 'Aubrey Judd' and also from Anjli Mohindra (Rani from The Sarah Jane Adventures) as his producer, 'Tara', in a tale that continually references modern technology whilst retaining a real period feel.  Gatiss' script is sensitive and his direction is measured and in the grand tradition the reveals and the suspense are allowed to build slowly as Judd slowly sinks into the clutches of the ghostly presence although the final reveal is a little heavy handed.  It is though a respectful but entirely modern contribution to the venerable series that retains all the flavours of the originals whilst adding some new ones of its own.



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Afterward

'Afterward' by American writer Edith Wharton is one of those classic ghost stories that turns up again and again in anthologies.  First published in 1910 it's a story of a married couple (Mary and Ned (Edward in the adaptation) Boyne) newly ensconced in their English country home after he has made their fortune in mining.  Warned that their new house is haunted the pair are enthralled by the idea even when told that it's a ghost seen in retrospect where you only realise you've seen a ghost long after you've seen it. Whilst walking on the roof of their new abode (as you do) the pair spot an unexpected visitor heading to the house who subsequently is nowhere to be found which leads to Ned becoming increasingly preoccupied but it's not until he disappears in the company of another visitor that Mary starts to unravel the mystery.

This adaptation was made in 1983 as part of the ITV series Shades of Darkness that consisted of adaptations of stories by ghostly luminaries such as Walter de la Mare (watch 'Seaton's Aunt' here), Agatha Christie, Elizabeth Bowen and May Sinclair (watch 'The Intercessor' here).  As is the case with the others it's a very faithful adaptation but the rather sedate pacing of the original and the subtleties of the story means it's a much less successful adaptation than the two linked to above (both of which are highly recommended) but it is a solid if slight stolid version of a much loved tale that should satisfy both those familiar with the source material and those who are not.



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The Gourmet

Charles Gray, who many will know as both Blofeld to Sean Connery's Bond and Mycroft to Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes, plays the magnificently named Manley Kingston a gastronome of international repute who has dedicated his life to sampling all the foods the world has to offer. 

In this story, written in the mid eighties (IMDB says 1984, BFI says 1987) by Nobel winner Kazuo Ishiguo, we find Manley on the verge of achieving his greatest wish and an end to his ennui; having tried and tired of everything within the natural world he at last turns his taste buds to the supernatural.

The script is subtle with any horror elements kept to an absolute minimum and what we have is an enthralling character study of greed and obsession and the mixed blessings of fulfilling ones fixations.  In a reflection of the times in which it was made we see the corpulent consumerism of Manley's existence in stark contrast to the poverty of many of those around him as he descends upon a church in the East End of London with the sole intent to inflict more damage and indignity on a deceased poor man of the parish whilst feeling absolutely no shame in admitting his actions to a homeless man (Mick Ford) who is essentially a modern day equivalent to that unfortunate.

Gray, almost never a leading man, dominates the screen here with his beautifully expressive face alive with ennui, haughty disdain and the foulest gluttony as he wanders through the world aloof from and all but oblivious to those around him, presumably his proclivities having reduced them to little more than cattle in his eyes.



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A Child's Voice

Set in ye olde bygone days of radio as the primary source of in home entertainment this late 1970s story by David Thomson tells of popular radio host Ainsley Rupert MacCready (T.P. Mckenna) who reads ghostly tales to enraptured audiences.

"Radio fixes the person, but frees the imagination... and the people most affected by it were those who lived and listened alone."

His latest reading tells of a young magician's assistant who dies trapped inside a vanishing cabinet and whose ghosly voice torments the magician unto death.  It's after telling the first part of this tale that his life begins to mimic his art as he receives a midnight telephone call from a child asking him not to finish the story.

"The Story you are reading. I would prefer you to go no further with it. It troubles me a great deal."

Mckenna is an always reliable presence and the fabulously portentous narration by (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's 'Deep Thought' and Doctor Who's 'The Black Guardian') Valentine Dyall is a real treat. It's a fine low key and affecting tale that uses it's simple premise and obviously minuscule budget well although it does miss it's natural ending and continues on for just a couple of minutes too long.

The poor quality of the film serves, I think, to add to the unsettling ambience of the tale as we're left to decide whether this is the story of something breaking through or of someone breaking down.



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Mortal Echoes: Encounters With the End

Greg Buzwell (ed)
British Library Tales of the Weird

A strange figure foretells tragedy on the railway tracks. A plague threatens to encroach upon an isolated castle. The daughter of an eccentric scientist falls victim to a poisonous curse.
Yet for all its certainty and finality, death remains an infinitely mysterious subject to us all. The stories in this anthology depict that haunting moment when characters come face to face with their own mortality.
Spanning two centuries, Mortal Echoes features some of the finest writers in the English language – including Daphne du Maurier, Edgar Allan Poe, Graham Greene and H. G. Wells. Intriguing, unsettling and often darkly humorous, this collection explores humanity’s transient existence, and what it means to be alive. 

Another in the series of ghoulish tales from the British Library.  They've done about a dozen of these over the last little while and I  thought it was about time I got properly stuck into them.  The first one I read (Glimpses of the Unknown) was a fun excursion into the lesser known corners of the golden age of supernatural fiction.  This one takes a look at various visions of mortality.

In it's pages editor Buzwell includes a nice mix of real classics such as Charles Dickens' 'The Signalman', Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter' and Edgar Allan Poe's sublime 'The Masque of the Red Death' and a number of minor greats, Saki's 'Laura', Marjorie Bowen's 'Kecksies' and Robert Aickman's 'Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen' all of which will be familiar to connoisseurs of ghostly anthologies but all of which reward repeated readings.

We have several tales by well known authors who maybe aren't particularly associated with the supernatural such as Graham Greene's tale of an unpleasant encounter in 'A Little Place off the Edgware Road', Daphne du Maurier's murderous lady 'Kiss Me Again, Stranger' and a cosmic excursion in H.G. Wells' 'Under the Knife'.

Beyond these there are a few lesser known authors such as the under-rated May Sinclair, represented here by her fantastic 'Where Their Fire is Not Quenched', the darkly funny 'The School' by Donald Barthelme and Charlie Fish's amusingly daft 'Death by Scrabble'.

The problem with themed anthologies is they can quickly become quite tiresome but Buzwell has put together a nicely varied selection that entirely avoids this pitfall and this is one of the most satisfying and enjoyable anthologies I've read in quite a while.

Buy it here - Mortal Echoes: Encounters with the End (Tales of the Weird)

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The Keeper (1983)

'The Keeper', written by Alan Garner, was the final episode of the original 'Spooky' series of the long running Dramarama series, an anthology show for children.

Garner's story concerns 'Beacon Lodge' a dilapidated and long abandoned gamekeeper's lodge where two paranormal researchers - Peter (Tim Woodward) and Sally (Janet Maw) -  settle themselves in for the night.  We know right from the off that there is something already resident, and comfortably at home, in the house and it's not best pleased at the arrival of the interlopers. A game of scrabble and a poem set the scene for the conclusion as the secret of the house is revealed.

At the heart of the story is a typically Garner tale of the power that resides in the land, an animistic presence that holds sway over the patch of earth.  It's a short little tale that uses many well worn tricks to build suspense - eerie acoustic instruments, predominantly a dulcimer, and a restless camera that's constantly circling and hovering just behind Peter and, particularly, Janet - but it must be remembered this is a show made for kids for whom many of these tricks of the trade would be new and also they are well worn because they work.

A genuinely scary story from that golden age of kids television when film-makers had literally no qualms about utterly terrifying their young audience.



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Ghost of Venice

The 1977 BBC anthology series 'Supernatural', created and almost entirely written by Robert Muller, was intended to be a return to old fashioned gothic tales and the classic creatures of horror.  The series found new prospective members of the 'Club of the Damned' telling a sufficiently terrifying tale that would grant them membership or death.

This, the first episode, takes ageing Shakespearean actor Adrian Gall (Robert Hardy) whose maniacal rage at a theft only he remembers many years before during a performance in Venice returns him to that city to face the ghost of his past in the form of Leonora (Sinéad Cusack).

Filled with flowery monologues and a hysterically hammy performance from Hardy that will have you chuckling and cringing in equal measures.  The studio bound setting of the production makes everything feel a little cheap and the script could certainly have done with some judicial editing to curb it's more floridly bombastic aspects.  The series is generally regarded as a bit of a failure; already old fashioned in tone and in production values upon release it certainly hasn't aged well but personally I quite like a noble failure even if it's just for it's unintended comedy value of which there is plenty here.

You can find another episode from the series here - Night of the Marionettes.



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Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories

Various
English Heritage

Rooted in place, slipping between worlds - a rich collection of unnerving ghosts and sinister histories.Eight authors were given after hours freedom at their chosen English heritage site. Immersed in the history, atmosphere and rumours of hauntings, they channelled their darker imaginings into a series of extraordinary new ghost stories.
Within the walls of these historic buildings each author has found inspiration to deliver a new interpretation of the classic ghost story.

This odd little book contains eight stories by contemporary writers each set at an English Heritage site.  For the most part the various authors plump for something ghostly and strange in a typically spooky environment with the exception of Mark Haddon's science fiction tale set in the York Cold War Bunker.

Most of the participants bring the goods with Sarah Perry's inexplicable revulsion in 'They Flee From Me That Sometime Did Me Seek' and Jeanette Winterson's love story 'As Strong As Death being particular stand outs.

The book proved to be a ridiculously quick read and I was closing the covers on it after less than 2 hours having devoured the 8 tales and skimmed the article on the genesis of the English ghost story by Andrew Martin and entirely skipped - due to a lack of interest - the 'Gazateer of English Hauntings'

So, a - very - quick read but in the main an enjoyable one although perhaps lacking somewhat in content.

Buy it here - Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories

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The Intercessor

'The Intercessor' was originally written by May Sinclair and published in 1931 in her second collection of supernatural stories called, funnily enough, 'The Intercessor and Other Stories'.  Sinclair is a neglected figure in the history of spooky stories and unjustly so as her stories have a gentleness and a subtlety that is often less pronounced in the work of her contemporaries and core characters that reflect her non literary work as a campaigner for women's and worker's rights.

In 'The Intercessor' a writer, Mr Garvin (John Duttine ('Day of the Triffids)) seeking refuge from the noisy kids in town he relocates to the spare room of the Falshaw's remote farmhouse where he finds a childlike distraction of a very different kind and, as the story progresses, he becomes embroiled in a family history rife with betrayal, bitterness and death and resolves to heal the rifts.

Made for the mid 80s series 'Shades of Darkness', which also included adaptations of stories by Walter de la Mare (watch 'Seaton's Aunt' here), Agatha Christie, Elizabeth Bowen and Edith Wharton, 'The Intercessor' is, almost, as much a family drama as it is a ghost story and in it's limited run time makes the most of both aspects.  The ghostly presence at the heart of the film is refreshingly non-malevolent but the vaguely hallucinatory nature of her appearances is handled fantastically well.

'The Intercessor' is a tale of resentment, loss, madness and redemption filled with great performances from all involved in a very satisfying, coherent and just simply lovely story that, like it's author, deserves to be much better known.

(Please note that the film is only the first 50 minutes of the vid the rest is the episode repeating itself)

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Glimpses of the Unknown

Mike Ashley (ed)
British Library

A figure emerges from a painting to pursue a bitter vengeance; the last transmission of a dying man haunts the airwaves, seeking to reveal his murderer; a treasure hunt disturbs an ancient presence in the silence of a lost tomb.
From the vaults of the British Library comes a new anthology celebrating the best works of forgotten, never since republished, supernatural fiction from the early 20th century. Waiting within are malevolent spirits eager to possess the living and mysterious spectral guardians—a diverse host of phantoms exhumed from the rare pages of literary magazines and newspaper serials to thrill once more.

Over the last couple of months the British Library has begun publishing a veritable treasure trove of strange macabre and outre fiction from it's vaults with collections featuring the work of such luminaries as Walter de la Mare and M.R. James alongside less well known writers like Charlotte Riddell.  This particular collection celebrates the forgotten and the unloved as anthologist supreme Mike Ashley here presents eighteen previously unreprinted tales from the golden age of ghostly fiction (1890 - 1920) including a previously lost story by E.F. Benson.  It has to be said upfront that there are no unrecognised classics of the genre here but there are very few stinkers, a couple of pretty nifty ones and a host of readable ones.

The book begins strongly with Hugh E. Wright's 'On The Embankment' an enjoyably creepy, if a tad moralistic, story of a ghostly tramp which is followed by an unusually haunted house in 'Mystery of the Gables' that gives author Elsie Norris what feels like a very modern sensibility.

The welcome strangeness of 'Phantom Death' by pseudonymous Huan Mee is sandwiched by two of the books absolute stinkers before it once again finds it's feet with a poignant tale of obsession and redemption in 'The soul of Maddalina Tonelli' by James Bar one of several authors here I'd like to read more by.

Jack Edwards' 'Haunted' is a nifty piece of weird fiction about a man haunted by an amorphous spectral presence before crime writer Percy James Brebner gives a slightly more traditional ghostly tale with one foot in it's author's preferred genre.

E.F. Benson

The next two contributions both take a more melancholy path as love proves death is no barrier in Guy Thornes sentimental but lovely 'A Regent of Love Rhymes' and that love sometimes comes too late in 'Amid the Trees' by Francis Xavier.

Neither Mary Schultze's 'The River's Edge' with it's overtly and overly religious tale of a ghostly rescue nor Mary Reynolds' anticlimactic 'A Futile Ghost' provide much of a distraction but Lumley Deakin's 'Ghosts' with it's enigmatic central character 'Cyrus Sabinette' proved to be possibly the gem of the book and I'd love to read more of the rest of the series of stories he wrote featuring the character.

The book's sole US contributor, Elizabeth Jordon, is represented by her story 'Kearney' that tells of an accidental if impetuous shooting that leaves a young military man haunted by his victim whilst Philippa Forest provides a Holmesian tale of murder albeit one with a ghostly heart.

Eric Purves' 'The House of the Black Evil' is an oddly affecting piece of weirdness with a slightly week ending but an interesting premise that for some reason reminded me of Hope Hodgson's 'Carnacki' stories.  Following this is the aforementioned lost E.F.Benson story, 'The Woman in the Veil', it's not great.  What it is is a perfectly functional but slightly tired story of ghostly comeuppance of the type we've already seen in the Brebner story before the book ends with a fantastical adventure tale of ancient dead and elemental forces that feels both an odd fit with the rest of the rest of the book and a strange place to end.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this write up Ashley is a seasoned pro at this anthology curating lark and with the aid of the British Library has compiled a fine collection weighted heavily to the good with only a few unsatisfying or dubious moments.  This is only one book in what appears to be an ongoing series under the umbrella title of 'British Library Tales of the Weird' that looks to be a very fine selection indeed.

Buy it here - Glimpses of the Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories (Tales of the Weird)

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A View From A Hill

Between 1971 and 1978 the BBC produced eight instalments of it's A Ghost Story For Christmas series predominantly based around the works of M.R. James.  More recently the series has been periodically revived (in 2005, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2018) beginning with this adaptation of James' 'A View From A Hill'.

In fairly typical James style the story has at it's centre an obsessive academic, in this case the timid and rather fussy archaeologist Dr Fanshawe (Mark Letheren), who, arriving at the home of Squire Richards (Pip Torrens) to archive a collection of archaeological antiquities, makes use of an old pair of binoculars through which he sees far more than is at all healthy or wise.

Peter Harness' sympathetic screenplay updates the Edwardian setting of the original story to the 1940s (more info on why here) which changes the dynamic of the relationship between the three principles (including David Burke as the butler Patten) putting them on a more equal footing with Richards having to adjust to reduced circumstances and the changing relationship with those around him as reflected in the slightly belligerent attitudes of the others to his now somewhat outdated manner.  This more deteriorated setting gives a darker shade to the programme pervading it with a deeper sense of reality and placing the residents of the house more securely in the heart of such a morose and 'haunted' landscape which makes for some truly engrossing and chilling viewing.

Buy it here - Ghost Stories from the BBC: A View From a Hill / Number 13 (DVD) - or watch it below.



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