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TV & Radio Reminders

I saw a trailer for Inside no 9 Christmas special if someone hasn't mentioned it already, I think it is on 23rd December.
 
A little round up of supernatural offerings from the BBC, with some programmes I've spotted in addition to what's already been mentioned (thanks all!)

Thursday 22nd December:
* Blackadder's Christmas Carol - BBC2 @ 6:15pm
* Inside No.9 - BBC2 @ 9pm
* Schalcken the Painter - BBC4 @10:30pm

Friday 23rd December:
* Count magnus - BBC2 @ 10pm

Saturday 24th December:
* Mark Gatiss and Richard Coles are on a ghost hunt - BBC Radio 4 @ 10:15pm

Sunday 25th December:
* The Signalman - BBC Radio 4 @ 3:15pm
* Mystery Playhouse: Blind Man's Hood - BBC Radio 4 extra @ 4pm
* A Christmas Carol: a ghost story - BBC4 @ 7pm
* Ghosts - BBC1 @7:25pm

Sunday 1st January:
* Oh, Whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad - BBC Radio 4 extra @ 4pm

Enjoy the season my fellow ghouls... :litg:

P.S. My favourite adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol' (featuring Patrick Stewart as Scrooge) is on Channel 5 on Tuesday 20th December @ 5:15pm. I highly recommend. :)
 
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Dmax channel 39 9pm tonight Extinct or Alive Tasmanian Tiger
looks like a part2 is on right after this,
And remember William Shatner is on Quest at 9.
 
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Stormkhan said:
I know what you mean about him. But I manage to separate his personality from his work. He is known to be such a fan of James, and other horror stories, that he treats them well.
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He can be a good actor. I saw him on stage in All About My Mother and he handled a tricky drag-queen role with sensitivity. Agreed, in general one should separate the artist 's personality from their work but there's a degree of self-satisfaction in his writing that mars it ultimately. He has Van Gogh's ear for dialogue, and often botches opportunities for real drama and atmosphere in favour of "See what I did there?". Yes, he's a knowledgeable and devoted fan of Conan Doyle, James, Kneale, etc. and I think that's part of the problem. For him, such material is a mirror, and passion plus unbridled ego isn't always an aid to creativity. There seems to be a notion kicking around that he's a natural successor to these people - the curator, flame-keeper, go-to talking head - when as a person or an artist he's not in their league, nowhere near.
 
Gerald McBoing-Boing said:
He can be a good actor. I saw him on stage in All About My Mother and he handled a tricky drag-queen role with sensitivity. Agreed, in general one should separate the artist 's personality from their work but there's a degree of self-satisfaction in his writing that mars it ultimately. He has Van Gogh's ear for dialogue, and often botches opportunities for real drama and atmosphere in favour of "See what I did there?". Yes, he's a knowledgeable and devoted fan of Conan Doyle, James, Kneale, etc. and I think that's part of the problem. For him, such material is a mirror, and passion plus unbridled ego isn't always an aid to creativity. There seems to be a notion kicking around that he's a natural successor to these people - the curator, flame-keeper, go-to talking head - when as a person or an artist he's not in their league, nowhere near.
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I agree with this, and was only discussing his work with a friend a few days ago. I watched the BBC Mezzotint the other night, and the radio story with Simon Callow, both by Gatiss, iirc? I can't quite get along with his interpretations of the James/xmas ghost stories. There's always something of an 'anti-climax' to them, a rushed conclusion, almost comic book..

(Edit, typo)
 
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MorningAngel said:
Anyone know what’s going on with these promised ghost stories on BBC sounds? I can find the trailer but not the stories it relates to. I just get an error message when I go to more episodes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0dj9r5m?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
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I see what you mean, and when I search for it in the app nothing comes up. However I've realised it's listed on the front page of the app, and from this I think I've found a page online which should work: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/curation/p0dkmppz?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

It's a bit of an odd one because it's a collection of random episodes temporarily grouped together rather than a series in its own right. There was a UFO collection like this about a month or so ago

P.S. I'd recommend listening to The Hotel in full rather than one episode. It's quite 'wordy' so perhaps not for everyone, however the episodes are interconnected and overall it's a decent, well crafted tale.
 
Stormkhan said:
23rd December, BBC 2, 10pm
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The Inside No. 9 Christmas special, titled The Bones of St Nicholas, will air on Thursday 22 December at 9pm on BBC Two. The episode will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer shortly after it is first broadcast. The special is 30 minutes long.
 
merricat said:
I agree with this, and was only discussing his work with a friend a few days ago. I watched the BBC Mezzotint the other night, and the radio story with Simon Callow, both by Gatiss, iirc? I can't quite get along his interpretations of the James/xmas ghost stories. There's always something of an 'anti-climax' to them, a rushed conclusion, almost comic book..
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I like Gatiss, but I do actually get this - as well as some of the other reservations posted here. He's also guilty of eagerly ringing one of the alarms I'm always waiting for when someone discusses M R James. It's surprisingly ubiquitous - even among commentators I totally respect. Best illustrated by something I've already posted on the M. R. James thread (post #79):

A while back a friend of mine sent me a copy of an LRB review of the Oxford edition of the stories. It's okay, but it repeats some of the clichés I think appear too often, and with too little justification, in reviews of James work. (Sorry, the review doesn't seem to be available online - you'll have to take my word for it.)

For instance:

But the ghosts themselves are so often women, spurned or murdered or guilt-ridden: Mrs Mothersole in ‘The Ash Tree’, Ann Clark in ‘Martin’s Close’, Theodosia Bryan in ‘A Neighbour’s Landmark’ and the terrible figure in ‘a shapeless sort of blackened sun-bonnet’ in ‘Wailing Well’.

Well, actually no. Of the thirty-one stories in my battered old Penguin edition, a grand total of six revolve around female ghosts. (Another one, Lost Hearts, has one of each sex - and the Haunted Dolls House has a mix.) So 'so often women' is not just pushing it, it's more or less nonsense.
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The reiteration effect has made this easily dismissed nonsense a 'fact' endlessly repeated by people who should know a lot better - presumably because it fits into the cod psychological profiles which see a man's bachelor status as automatically indicative of deep and confused sexual angst.

Thing is, even if that actually were the case, this isn't evidence of it - because it's a load of horseshit.
 
Cloudbusting said:
I see what you mean, and when I search for it in the app nothing comes up. However I've realised it's listed on the front page of the app, and from this I think I've found a page online which should work: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/curation/p0dkmppz?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

It's a bit of an odd one because it's a collection of random episodes temporarily grouped together rather than a series in its own right. There was a UFO collection like this about a month or so ago

P.S. I'd recommend listening to The Hotel in full rather than one episode. It's quite 'wordy' so perhaps not for everyone, however the episodes are interconnected and overall it's a decent, well crafted tale.
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Thanks. It seems to be working on the app too now.
 
To be honest, the obsession with James (much as I love him) to the exclusion of all else in televised ghost-land depresses me a bit. I can jive with his work having become a sort of a 'seasonal' tradition, however.
There's a wonderful depiction of Edith Wharton's 'Afterward' on youtube I wonder if any of you have seen it? If not I can link here!

Also It's that time of year again where I cozy down to rewatch the Children of Green knowe :p "Granneeeeee! Grannneeee!"
 
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merricat said:
To be honest, the obsession with James (much as I love him) to the exclusion of all else in televised ghost-land depresses me a bit. I can jive with his work having become a sort of a 'seasonal' tradition, however.
There's a wonderful depiction of Edith Wharton's 'Afterwards' on youtube I wonder if any of you have seen it? If not I can link here!

Also It's that time of year again where I cozy down to rewatch the Children of Green knowe :p "Granneeeeee! Grannneeee!"
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Agree entirely. Be nice if some new writers were allowed in too, either to adapt the old favourites or showcase their own work.

Yes please to the link!
 
merricat said:
To be honest, the obsession with James (much as I love him) to the exclusion of all else in televised ghost-land depresses me a bit. I can jive with his work having become a sort of a 'seasonal' tradition, however...
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Yes, I think sticking with older established writers as part of the seasonal thing is kind of forgivable - the cosiness of familiarity, mixed with the thrill of the dark is a perfect pagan yuletide accompaniment. There are other writers who could do with more exploration, though - EF Benson and Hugh Walpole would be my proposed alternatives. (And there really was an undercurrent of sexual angst in Walpole's work - work which can at times be very disconcerting.)

Not my favourite Walpole story, but there's a decent example from my current favourite YouTube reader (and creator - his own stories are pretty good) here. I thoroughly recommend the channel:

 
Gerald McBoing-Boing said:
Agree entirely. Be nice if some new writers were allowed in too, either to adapt the old favourites or showcase their own work.
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Totally agree, I always thought the EF Benson story 'The Room in the Tower' would make a good adaptation, the set would be easy to set up as its basically the same country house with just the characters changing. Also Robert Aickman, but I wonder if his subtle 'not quite right' feel would be too difficult to reproduce on TV?
 
Cloudbusting said:
I see what you mean, and when I search for it in the app nothing comes up. However I've realised it's listed on the front page of the app, and from this I think I've found a page online which should work: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/curation/p0dkmppz?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

It's a bit of an odd one because it's a collection of random episodes temporarily grouped together rather than a series in its own right. There was a UFO collection like this about a month or so ago

P.S. I'd recommend listening to The Hotel in full rather than one episode. It's quite 'wordy' so perhaps not for everyone, however the episodes are interconnected and overall it's a decent, well crafted tale.
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The spooky voice just sounds like Sandi reacting to me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p05kt53s?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
 
To save me trawling through the TV guide every day, looking for stuff worth recording/watching, I sat and spent about an hour yesterday evening going through everything on my 'favourites' channels over the course of the next 3 days, doing my selections.
TBH I think I only found about half-a-dozen things worth bothering with.
As I pointed out to my son - it's all 'christmas specials' of series that I'm not interested in anyway, or are repeats of same from previous years, or we have the usual 'end of the year' shows that round-up all the things in 'the news'/sport/entertainment etc etc from the past 12 months, or 'blockbuster' action films that we've seen loads of times before, or 'kids' things, (like one-off, 1 and a half hour 'special' with David Walliams etc) and then of course we have all the 'traditional' Christmas stuff like the Queens Kings speech, 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Die Hard', a couple of episodes of each of the 'soaps' in which people are murdered, buildings go up in flames, aircraft crash on the town, boats sink, big fights break out in the pub etc etc etc......
Yeah, Christmas TV sucks.
 
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