Production
Background
The first five films are adaptations of stories from the four books by M. R. James published between 1904 and 1925. The ghost stories of James, an EnglishFilming
Lawrence Gordon Clark had made his name as a BBC documentary director during the 1960s. ''The Stalls of Barchester'' was the first dramatic production he directed.Rigby, Jonathan, "Traces of Uneasiness: Lawrence Gordon Clark and ''The Stalls of Barchester''" in ''The M. R. James Collection'', BFI 2012 (BFIVD965) Clark recalled in an interview for the BFI's DVD release in 2012 that "the BBC at that time gave you the space to fail, and generously so too. They backed you up with marvellous technicians, art departments, film departments and so forth."Gordon Clark, Lawrence, interview forI was itching to move into drama and knew I had exactly the source material I wanted. I'd discovered M.R. James at boarding school and loved him. So I met with Paul Fox, who was at the time Controller of BBC1. I brought a copy of M.R. James's ''Ghost Stories'' with me, with a bookmark stuck in " The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral". The fact that period drama always has been very popular at the BBC probably helped.Clark recalls that "Paul Fox gave us a tiny budget ... and we set out to do a full-blooded drama on location. Budgets were really tiny, and we shot for ten days and brought the film in for about 8,000 pounds." Unusually for a
Adaptation
The adaptations, although remaining true to the spirit of M.R. James, make alterations to suit the small screen - for example, ''A Warning to the Curious'' avoids the convoluted plot structure of M. R. James's original, opting for a more linear construction and reducing the number of narrators. In addition the central character, Paxton, is changed from a young fair-haired innocent who stumbles across the treasure to a middle-aged character driven by poverty to seek the treasure and acting in full awareness of what he is doing. After the first two adaptations, both by Clark, the tales were adapted by a number of playwrights and screenwriters. For ''The Treasure of Abbot Thomas'', Clark recalls John Bowen's script "took some liberties with the story—which made it for the better I think...It's really quite a funny story until it gets nasty, although the threat is always there. James has a mordant sense of humour, and it's good to translate that into cinematic terms when you can. I'd always wanted to do a medium scene, and John came up with a beauty." Clark is less complimentary of the adaptation of ''The Ash Tree'', which he felt didn't make Mistress Mothersole an effective villain, as a result of both his and adaptor David Rudkin's sympathy for witch trial victims; "We know so much about the hysteria of the witch trials and the ignorance and downright evil that fueled them that it was well-nigh impossible to portray her as James intended. Although, even he makes her a complicated character, hinting that she was popular with local farmers and the pagan fertility aspects that this implies. Frankly, I don't think the script quite did justice to the story, and maybe someone else should have a go at it." In his screenplay for '' The Signalman'' Andrew Davies adds scenes of the traveller's nightmare-plagued nights at an inn, and reinforces the ambiguity of the traveller-narrator by restructuring the ending and matching his facial features with those of the spectre. The film also makes use of visual and aural devices. For example, the appearance of the spectre is stressed by the vibrations of a bell in theLocations
The filming of the adaptations took place at a variety of locations. Clark notes that James gave him "a wonderful excuse to discover...places where you could best impart tension and atmosphere."Music
Adam Scovell, analysing the aural aesthetics of the BBC Ghost Stories, notes that although Clark talks about "stock music", the early adaptations make use of what were then new,Films
Original run (1971–1978)
With the exception of the final film, the tales were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. The final episode was directed by Derek Lister.Revival (2005–present)
Critical reception
The critical reception of the films has been varied, but several are regarded as classic television ghost stories. Dick Fiddy of the British Film Institute notes that the late hour of their broadcasts, and the contrast with the rest of the bright lights of the television schedules during the Christmas period meant that the adaptations made such an impact;They went out late at night, when television wasn't a 24-hour experience, probably watched by the dying embers of the fire before the viewer turned in for the night; the nightmarish quality of the stories would linger as they went to bed. Such conditions can magnify the power of the pieces, adding to their creepiness and helping the tales imbed themselves within impressionable minds.Sarah Dempster, writing in ''
Related works
Before Clark's films came under the remit of the BBC Drama Department it commissioned a Christmas play fromHome media
''A Warning to the Curious'', ''The Signalman'' and Miller's ''Whistle and I'll Come to You'' were released as individual VHS cassettes and Region 2 DVDs by theSee also
*References
;Bibliography * * * *External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Story For Christmas, A BBC television dramas 1971 British television series debuts 1978 British television series endings 1970s British drama television series British supernatural television shows Christmas television specials British horror fiction television series Adaptations of works by M. R. James Ghosts in television English-language television shows 1970s British anthology television series