Ghost Stories for Christmas Vol 1
Dir Jonathan Miller, Lawrence Gordon Clark et al, UK 1968-2000 BFI, £29.99 (Blu-ray)
The stories by MR James are classic; so are the TV adaptations, a Christmas Eve tradition that lasted for some years – half a century old now, but on this new Blu-ray crisper and cleaner than you’ve ever seen them before, newly remastered from the original film.
This three-disc box set contains the first four plays; Volume 2 is scheduled for next December. “Whistle and I’ll Come To You” (1968) is in b/w and directed by Jonathan Miller, “The Stalls of Barchester”, “A Warning to the Curious” and “Lost Hearts” (1971-3) are in colour and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. We’re also given the very different 1980 interpretation of “Whistle” (directed by Andy de Emmony); apart from the slow growth of disquiet in both plays, the main similarity is the wonderfully lived-in faces of Michael Hordern (1968) and John Hurt (1980).
What is striking is the quality of the main actors: Hordern, Hurt, Robert Hardy, Peter Vaughan – and in a different pair of adaptations of “The Stalls of Barchester” and “A Warning to the Curious” from 2000 there’s the sheer joy of the rich tones of Christopher Lee playing MR James giving a dramatic reading of his stories to a rapt group of Cambridge students. Intensely powerful.
Other bonus material includes audio commentaries by Jon Dear, Kim Newman and Sean Hogan, a 2012 interview with Jonathan Miller, and introductions to his three plays by Clark. Neil Brand reads James’s “Whistle” and horror master Ramsey Campbell reads his own short story “The Guide”, influenced by James, and discusses the various adaptations of James’s work. In addition there’s a chunky 40-page booklet with essays by Campbell, playwright and horror writer Reggie Oliver, Jon Dear and others.
James’s stories “frequently present a reassuringly ordinary setting that is invaded by the malevolent and terrible,” writes Campbell. As Lawrence Gordon Clark says in his introduction to one of his episodes: “The only point in making a ghost story is frightening people.” MR James was a master of that, and these adaptations can still chill the blood decades on.