''Number 13'' is the second adaptation of a ghost story by

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

broadcast by the BBC in an ongoing revival of the ''

A Ghost Story for Christmas ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were direc ...

'' tradition of the 1970s. Following ''

A View from a Hill Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

'' the previous year and preceding ''

Whistle and I'll Come to You "Whistle and I'll Come to You" is a 1968 BBC television drama adaptation of the 1904 ghost story 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' by M. R. James. It tells of an eccentric and distracted professor who happens upon a strange whistle whi ...

'' in 2010, the forty-minute film was first screened in December 2006 on BBC Four. The film was adapted by Justin Hopper from the

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

, first published in ''

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary ''Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'' is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1904 (some had previously appeared in magazines). Some later editions under this title contain both the original collection and its su ...

'' in 1904. The film stars

Greg Wise Matthew Gregory Wise, born 1966, is an English actor and producer. He has appeared in several British television programmes and feature films. He played the role of John Willoughby in '' Sense and Sensibility'', which also starred Emma Thompson, ...

as an academic lodging in room 12 of a drafty hotel in a small English cathedral town whilst assigned to authenticate papers which appear to date back to the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. Having previously noticed that the hotel rooms jump from 12 to 14, after being awoken one night he is shocked to find the door to room number 13 has mysteriously appeared. He decides to investigate, with fearful consequences. The cast also includes father-and-son actors David Burke and Tom Burke.

References

External links

* *
Ghost Stories for 2007
' at bbc.co.uk. Adaptations of works by M. R. James Television films based on short fiction British television films A Ghost Story for Christmas {{UK-tv-film-stub