And they're showing two 1970s Ghost Stories for Christmas after it, Lost Hearts and The Ash Tree, both James I think.
Mark Gatiss to reunite with Peter Capaldi for Christmas ghost story
by Press Association
August 21, 2019, 2:47 pm
Mark Gatiss will reunite with former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi when he pens and directs a new Christmas ghost story for BBC Four, it has been announced.
Martin’s Close is an adaptation of the M.R. James story of the same name, which follows the murder trial of John Martin.
Set in 1684, Martin is on trial for his life before the infamous “hanging judge” George Jeffreys but the case is thrown into question because the innocent young girl Martin is accused of killing has been seen after her death.
etc
https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-12-23/mark-gatiss-more-christmas-ghost-stories/Mark Gatiss hopes to bring more festive ghost stories to BBC Four
The Sherlock and Dracula co-creator said he'd love to alternate between originals and adaptations each Christmas
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other media, Gatiss said, “It’s such a privilege to do this, I’d love to carry on and I’m sure we’d all like to do one next year.
Hopefully they will follow it up with Martin's Far Away.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jxybA Mass of Cobwebs - Based on 'The Tractate Middoth' – a short story by M.R. James.
William Garrett …. Peter Howell
John Eldred …. Edgar Norfolk
Hodgson …. Charles Simon
George Earle …. Derek Martinus
Mrs Simpson …. Sheila Keith
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1959.
The Ash Tree' was the fifth and final (for three decades) M.R. James adaptation made for the BBC's annual 'A Ghost Story for Christmas' strand. Like its predecessors (and two of its immediate successors) it was directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark who here is joined by the writer David Rudkin fresh from scripting 'Penda's Fen' the previous year.
Gollum's really let himself go.
Those Aussie girls, eh? Tsk!Posed like a Sheela! I hadn't noticed that before.
Yesterday I finally took possession of a Folio Society 1970's edition of Ghost Stories of M R James.
I've been looking for a decent, reasonably priced copy, on and off, for years - mainly because of the inclusion of Charles Keeping's lithographs.
On removing the book from its slipcase and opening the front cover - and I seriously kid you not - a piece of paper fluttered out from between the pages and blew across the kitchen!! (Only an MR James fan will know what that means to an MR James fan.)
Thankfully said piece of paper turned out to be a review of Michael Cox's book MR James - An Informal Portrait, cut from a newspaper. And fortunately the fire in my kitchen was not lit; had this fragment ended up taking a dive into that - as its fictional counterpart did - I WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN WHAT WAS ON IT!!!
(It has been inspected minutely for runic writing. And I'm wondering about slipping it to my neighbours - just to be on the safe side.)
If one night you put your hand under your pillow and feel a hairy non-human mouth with teeth ....... let us know please.
"So he put his hand into the well-known nook under the pillow: only, it did not get so far. What he touched was, according to his account, a mouth, with teeth, and with hair about it, and, he declares, not the mouth of a human being."...
If one night you put your hand under your pillow and feel a hairy non-human mouth with teeth ....... let us know please.
"So he put his hand into the well-known nook under the pillow: only, it did not get so far. What he touched was, according to his account, a mouth, with teeth, and with hair about it, and, he declares, not the mouth of a human being."
https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/james-runes/james-runes-00-h.html
I sometimes listen to the MR James stories in bed, read by Peter Yearsley. He does all the voices without the bumbling posh Michael Hordern-type effects.
The bit in Runes where Karswell shows a slide of disgusting slimy creatures slithering around is particularly effective when you're drifting off to sleep and your cat nuzzles your face...
I would not be able to sleep if I listened to MR James in bed.