Ghost Stories for Christmas

Christopher Lee stars as M.R. James, provost of Kings college, Cambridge. James, the foremost writer of ghost stories of his day(and as far as I am concerned, nowadays too), would gather a select group of friends and students to his study each christmas eve and read them his latest tale of horror. This set of spine-chilling ghost stories was aired a couple of Christmas's ago, and had me glued to the screen each time. The BBC is to be celebrated for adapting these stories, as it did so successfully with James's work in the early 1970's.

The set-up is simple: Lee simply sits in his study and recounts each story to his "students". There are no cutaways to actors playing the characters in each tale; the tension instead builds through the occasional cutaway or point of view shot, layered with extremely effective(and scary)music. The best of the four stories is "The Ash Tree", a deeply chilling tale of witchcraft and revenge; the weakest (though still very good), is the opening "The Stalls Of Barchester". "Number 13", the story of a ghostly, hidden room is also very impressive, as is "A Warning To The Curious", which features some seriously creepy shots of dark, disturbing coastline, riddled with Lee's chilling recital of a man pursued by the terrifying forces he has unleashed. Lee reads each story with terrific pace and conviction, and brings James' words to life superbly.

Granted, this is traditional, old-style horror that doesn't rely on shock tactics or sophisticated special effects to achieve its terror. That is precisely why it succeeds so well. The real success of "Ghost Stories For Christmas" lies in its ability to stay with you long after it's finished...especially while you're alone at night. So tuck yourself in, close the curtains, switch off the lights, and switch on "Ghost stories For Christmas".

The stories themselves are well told and entertaining, and the setting is arranged to give the right air of dated formality.

The mysteries aren't particularly difficult to anticipate, and the conclusions aren't a surprise, but this is generic ghost story stuff, and I read most, if not all, of these as a child, so though I don't recall them precisely, they resonate with a feeling of. Déjà vu, probably because of that vestigial memory.

It's interesting, too, that anybody should find more than a minutes occupation with the subject of.episcopy, but he gets months of entertainment from it.

The most jarring bits is that the dates are the wrong way around. English writers, would talk about the 5th of January, of course. I'm not sure why they make this, clearly deliverate, error.

In this BBC series of four episodes Christopher Lee plays the role of M. R. James, an academic who worked at Eton and Cambridge. He wrote his ghost stories between 1911 and 1925 and was in the habit of reading them aloud to an audience of his friends and some students on Christmas Eve.

The introduction to each episode includes eerie choir music and night time shots of the roofs of old college buildings, which nicely sets the atmosphere, followed by a close up of James pouring sherry into glasses in front of the fire while he waits for his audience to arrive. The stories are presented simply, consisting only of M. R. James (Christopher Lee) recounting them to a silent audience of students sitting round his room, with occasional shots of their faces to show their reactions. The drama is provided by the stories themselves. They are, in a sense, historical dramas since they are all set more than 100 years ago.

Lee is the perfect actor for this series, partly because of his previous association with horror films, but also because his resonant voice and use of pauses and changes of tone to build tension as each story progresses is exactly right.

The only flaws I can see in this series are in the stories themselves. Number 13 has a somewhat weak ending and The Stalls Of Barchester is over wordy and this mutes the tension and slightly tests the listener's patience. Other than that, they are excellently chilling entertainment. Myself, I wish Christopher Lee had been able to make more than four of them.

It is currently (December 2024) possible to find all four episodes on Youtube.