What to watch
Martin’s Close
BBC FOUR, 10.00PM
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a good old-fashioned spine-tingler. So thank heavens for Mark Gatiss, who channels his best impression of cult classic Witchfinder General into this brisk adaptation of MR James’s story. The setting is 17th-century England, at the court of Judge George Jeffreys, the notorious hanging judge and the man who oversaw the Bloody Assizes ending the Monmouth Rebellion. The judge’s current case is more straightforward – a young squire accused of murder – or so it first seems. Instead a tale of suppressed guilt, rumoured resurrection and a possible haunting slowly unfolds.
In truth, this isn’t the most scary of James’s stories. His best terrify because of what they suggest rather than show, whereas Martin’s Close is a rather more literal ghost story and one which makes pretty clear what’s going on from the start. Still, a cadaverous Peter Capaldi has great fun as prosecuting lawyer Dolben, as does Elliot Levey as the sharptongued Jeffreys – a man convinced there is only room for one star in his court. Any shortcomings in the plot are papered over by the atmospheric ending, which truly does send a small shiver down the spine. Sarah Hughes