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The Stone Tape (TV Play)

I think TC Lethbridge wrote about the stone tape theory but can't remember if he used that term before Nigel Kneale did.
 
I think TC Lethbridge wrote about the stone tape theory but can't remember if he used that term before Nigel Kneale did.
I can't recall either, but Lethbridge certainly thought some place-types were associated with phenomena-types.
 
can't remember if he used that term before Nigel Kneale did

According to Wikipedia, the name of the television play has been applied retrospectively to Lethbridge's ideas.

The whole notion of haunted places pivots on the genius loci, traditionally a protective spirit. This can be viewed as an extension of the mind-body problem which preoccupied Descartes later on, the physical life of a building seeming to demand a spirit or personification. For Lethbridge and others, the phonograph and camera offered the notion that the spirits glimpsed in old places were reflections or records of physical events, powered by some strong emotion. It is a long time since I saw the Kneale play but I recall the focus was on the contrast between the destructive and competitive male ego and the spiritually-sensitive female, reframing the dualist puzzle in terms of sexual politics. The conclusion can't resolve such a major issue except as a paradox: the sensitive is physically killed but establishes the veracity of her vision, which the audience shares. :died:
 
I need to dig my Lethbridge books out of storage to check, but I believe his theory was that places near running water or underground streams were more likely to trigger the stone tape "recordings".
 
I need to dig my Lethbridge books out of storage to check, but I believe his theory was that places near running water or underground streams were more likely to trigger the stone tape "recordings".
That's my recollection, but likewise, mine are in the attic. Damp places were associated with what he called 'ghouls' iirc.
 
The complete broadcast of The Stone Tape is on youtube...attached below. I watched it yesterday. It's really enjoyable. As id have been 4 years old im in 2 minds as to whether i could possibly have any memory of seeing it at the time, or ive just heard of it or perhaps caught a repeat later in childhood. But at any rate its title and central conceit - the play itself gave its name to the theory about location hauntings - is one i seem always to have been aware of .

Like most of those pre-80s tv productions it very much looks and feels like a stage play. The pastiche of its genre in an episode of Inside Number 9 will come to mind, if you've seen the latter. And the high powered executive under pressure talk of its male lead (strangely reminiscent of John Sessions) kept making me think of those Fry and Laurie sketches ("damn fire and hellblast, Jooooohn!"). But those distractions aside its really enjoyable.

Interestingly watching it so soon after the play Baby i was searching for in my first post, you notice the author of both, Nigel Kneale (what a coincidence!), is not beyond plagiarising himself. There are elements of both the latter play and of Quatermass And The Pit in it. But you'll work that out for yourselves.

 
The title is a bit of a misnomer. Throughout the play we are told that the ghosts are in people's heads...but towards the end, Jill finds herself climbing up onto the roof of the building as it was in an earlier time, and then falling to the floor. I doubt falling, seemingly through the ceiling, and climbing a nonexistent parapet was in her mind.
 
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