MR James’ original story, ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’, read by Neil Brand (2001, 42 mins)

Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee ‘Number 13 by MR James’ (2000, Eleanor Yule, 30 mins) 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 film begins with an almost orgasmic séance being conducted by medium Mrs. Tyson (Sheila Dunn) and her husband (Frank Mills) on behalf of the recently widowed Lady Dattering (Virginia Balfour). Its failure, claim the Tysons, is likely due to the cynicism of Lady Dattering's son Peter (Paul Lavers), who is a scholar of the learned and level-headed Reverend Justin Somerton (Michael Bryant). Somerton is one of those rare film priests that I instantly take a liking to, a no-nonsense pragmatist who agrees to attend the next séance because he is "interested in all forms of the higher silliness" and who smartly exposes the Taylors as frauds. How could you not warm to this man? It's Somerton who tells Peter about the titular Abbot Thomas, a self-proclaimed alchemist who was condemned as a charlatan and who is reputed to have hidden a large quantity of gold coins somewhere in the monastery. In the process of translating a document from Latin, the two men stumble on a clue to the location of this treasure, one that leads to a cryptic message on a stained glass window.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.

Disc three brings us ‘Lost Hearts’. Once again Clark directs, but here Robin Chapman adapts. With the story focusing on children, both living and dead, it’s already set up to be pleasantly spooky, and though probably the weakest story featured, it still doesn’t disappoint. This disc also has an introduction from Clark and Newman, and Hogan return in the commentary, but given the embarrassment of riches on the first two, the special features section feels rather sparse. 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. 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.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. The Mezzotint, a ghost story for Christmas from M. R. James and Mark Gatiss, is announced". BBC Media Centre. 22 February 2021.