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TV & Radio Reminders

Oh my goodness, is it fictional then? I do apologise for misleading. I've an unshakeable habit of believing people are honest, & and are 'speaking' the truth to me when we communicate. And so I assumed that everyone involved - even the Guardian feature writer - was relating a true-life story. :(
 
Steven said:
Oh my goodness, is it fictional then? I do apologise for misleading. I've an unshakeable habit of believing people are honest, & and are 'speaking' the truth to me when we communicate. And so I assumed that everyone involved - even the Guardian feature writer - was relating a true-life story. :(
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No I think it is true. If you read the archives thing I think a writer got involved. I’ve not read it because of spoilers.
 
Supernatural offerings from the BBC over the festive season. I'm afraid most are radio programmes, some have already been mentioned and there are a fair amount of repeats (I didn't bother including some such as old xmas specials of Ghosts):

Saturday 23rd December:
* The Birds - BBC Radio 4 Extra @4pm

Sunday 24th December (Christmas Eve):
* The Spirit of the House - BBC Radio 4 Extra @12am
* Of Withered Apples - BBC Radio 4 Extra @12:30am
* A Christmas Carol by Candlelight - BBC Radio 4 Extra @6pm
* A Ghost Story for Christmas (Lot No. 249) - BBC2 @10am

Monday 25th December (Christmas Day):
* The Haunting of MR James (The Mezzotint) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @5:15pm
* Ghosts (the final episode! :() - BBC1 @7:45pm
* You're Dead To Me: Medieval Ghosts - BBC Radio 4 @8pm
* Inside Classical: The Hound of the Baskervilles - BBC4 @8:30pm
* Uncanny - BBC Radio 4 @10pm

Tuesday 26th December (Boxing Day):
* The Haunting of MR James (Casting the Runes) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @5:15pm

Wednesday 27th December:
* The Haunting of MR James (The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @5:15pm
* The Woman in Black - BBC2 @10pm

Thursday 28th December:
* The Haunting of MR James (A Warning to the Curious) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @5:15pm

Friday 29th December:
* The Haunting of MR James (Rats) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @5:15pm

Saturday 30th December:
* Grimm's Fairy Tales (The Juniper Tree) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @4pm
* Absent Friends - The 7th Dimension - BBC Radio 4 Extra @4:40pm

Sunday 31st December (New Year's Eve):
* Frankenstein (part 1 of 2) - BBC Radio 4 Extra @4pm
* NOTE: All the MR James tales listed above are being repeated on this day in an omnibus on BBC Radio 4 Extra @6:50pm.

Monday 1st December (New Year's Day):
* Yeti - BBC Radio 4 @11pm.

You can of course catch up on iplayer and BBC Sounds if you miss anything. You can also keep an eye on these pages for new programmes:
* Horror & Supernatural
* SciFi & Fantasy

Enjoy fellow ghouls! :litg:
 
I’ve just come across this on BBC sounds. It looks interesting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000mrcg?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
IMG_3586.jpeg
 
Don't think this has been mentioned but apologies if I'm repeating someone else.

I've spotted that Talking Pictures (which is available on Sky and Freeview etc) are running a series of 'Ghost Stories for Christmas' around 10pm each evening over the next few days. Unfortunately I think I've missed some but there are a couple of classics coming up including MR James adaptations.
 
Cloudbusting said:
Don't think this has been mentioned but apologies if I'm repeating someone else.

I've spotted that Talking Pictures (which is available on Sky and Freeview etc) are running a series of 'Ghost Stories for Christmas' around 10pm each evening over the next few days. Unfortunately I think I've missed some but there are a couple of classics coming up including MR James adaptations.
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I’ve been watching these and caught up with a few I missed or forgot. There was a great one the other night with Michael Bryant - The Treasure of Abbot Thomas.
Like others in the series, it’s strangely evocative with dilapidated yet authentic locations, odd camera work with unnerving closeups of gargoyles and candle-powered lighting. However, it differs slightly to others in the series in that the first half has a good subplot of a family being deceived by fake mediums who are cleverly exposed and kicked out.
Best watched in a proper leather armchair by a crackling open fire with a glass of something warming and a slightly wet dog drying out at your feet.
 
I thought The Spirit of the House - BBC Radio 4 Extra was excellent and would love to see it on the Tv screen.
 
Well, yesterday I watched Lot 249. Not bad, not good. Harrington overplayed the Victorian gentleman a tad. Amusing call-backs to Sherlock Holmes, which weren't in the writing as far as I'm aware - I must re-read. It might pale in comparison to James because James was a better writer of horror than Conan Doyle.
 
No offence to Mr Gatiss but I wish somebody else would get a programme of this kind commissioned now and again for a change. Personally, I'd prefer someone to take ghosts, Horror, supernatural tv & films etc seriously rather than mock - even with (supposed) affection - and distort the whole thing. Take his recent Dracula effort: for all its flaws as a novel, Stoker's story (especially Count Dracula himself) has tremendous grandeur and even existential depth...yet what we saw was the usual modern irony in place of actual wit, flippancy, and apparent nods to Derry Girls. A multi-faceted character reduced to vaudeville. For all Gatiss & company's arch ridiculing of the 'cheesy' shows of the past, his throwaway effort made the BBC's 1977 Count Dracula seem a work of art in comparison with his own attempt.
 
"I find most endings of Mark Gatiss Christmas horrer the same and predictable...."
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Thing is, Gatiss isn't the writer. So he's not responsible for the endings - James was. Often in less obvious conclusions perhaps.
"Well Lot no. 249 was a boring boys club. That wasn’t a ghost story that was a horror story, yawn. They’ve gone down hill in recent years."
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Again, this was Conan Doyle's work, neither Gatiss' nor James. Conan Doyle came up with a few 'horror' stories like "Bluejohn Gap" and "Horror of the Heights" ... and he isn't good in the horror genre.

Gatiss' is struggling to maintain the quality of Jamesian horror of his early work and branch out to other writers of the same period - this might be good or bad in content, but that's his intention.
I don't assert he's good at what he does - I enjoy some outings less than others but he's certainly not perfect. What he is attempting is to recreate the tradition of Victorian ghost and horror stories to an audience who've had more experience and critical view of ghost and horror stories. He's not trying to make a film to rival CGI-choked slasher-movie horror stories; he's trying to create the feelings of a less jaded audience - badly or well.
 
Gatiss mentions he ‘couldn’t resist’ adding the Sherlock aspect to this production but toned it down from more blatant reference in earlier versions of the script. There was also a Doctor Who Easter Egg of an alien villain illustrated on the scroll.
Gatiss mentions that funding for these productions is difficult to get, given the nature of the genre and the slot.
It does seem that he is getting increasingly self-indulgent in his plays though which probably isn’t helping.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/mark-gatiss-lot-249-sherlock-holmes-exclusive-newsupdate/

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/mark-gatiss-lot-249-doctor-who-exclusive-newsupdate/
 
Stormkhan said:
Again, this was Conan Doyle's work, neither Gatiss' nor James. Conan Doyle came up with a few 'horror' stories like "Bluejohn Gap" and "Horror of the Heights" ... and he isn't good in the horror genre.
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Gatiss (and/or the team he is working with) did change the narrative of Lot 249 though. The ending was changed and I don't believe the nod to Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were in the original text either.

He says he's a big fan of classic ghost stories and perhaps he is, but the way he adapts them often feels kind of trite and borderline camp. For me he just gets the tone all wrong.

Whilst I love the likes of classic MR James tales for what they are, I'd love to see more modern folk horror on the BBC. I'd imagine it's a hard sell to the BBC though!
 
There was a version of Oh Whistle starring John Hurt and the delightfully batty Sophie Thompson that was contemporary yet still retained the full sense of remote isolation necessary for these tales.
Gatiss has increasingly become more loose in his interpretation of, let’s not forget, stories that are loved by readers and fans for what they are and were originally intended and crafted to be.
If he could get Carry On Screaming down to 50 minutes for next Christmas, I reckon he’d be in heaven and I’d be on board to see what he could do with it. Although turning it to full-on straight horror would be my guess.
 
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