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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2019 7:48:08 GMT
Anyone who saw last years BBC Christmas Ghost story written and directed by Mark Gattis and starring Simon Callow, The Dead Room, got a lovely horror treat that was more of an Amicus tribute than something more classical, as the BBC's Christmas Ghost Stories tend to be historically. It was great but not quite in the tone of the tradition a lot of us love in the Beeb's Christmas Ghost Stories. This year....that's getting remedied. Gattis is back. He's bringing Capaldi with him and they're doing an adaptation of M.R. James' Martin's Close. It's one of the short's in James' legendary More Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary from 1911 which also gave us Casting The Runes, which became of course Night Of The Demon. Anyone like myself and Number13 (A James name itself...hmmmm!) who has the BFI's volumes of the Ghost Stories from the 60s and 70s knows that the BBC and M.R. James are always a match made in heaven...well, sometimes hell but that's intentional!  This should be. No....I'll just say it - this WILL be wonderful. www.digitalspy.com/tv/a28779989/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-mark-gatiss-christmas-special-martins-close/ |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2019 11:33:13 GMT
Horrifically good news that the BBC are continuing with their Christmas Ghost Stories. They are a genuine treat. To have Gatiss and Capaldi together again makes it even more so. Very much looking forward to this. The only sour note is ... I had completely forgotten about 'The Dead Room' last year. How did I come to miss that?
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Post by number13 on Aug 22, 2019 11:47:14 GMT
Anyone who saw last years BBC Christmas Ghost story written and directed by Mark Gattis and starring Simon Callow, The Dead Room, got a lovely horror treat that was more of an Amicus tribute than something more classical, as the BBC's Christmas Ghost Stories tend to be historically. It was great but not quite in the tone of the tradition a lot of us love in the Beeb's Christmas Ghost Stories. This year....that's getting remedied. Gattis is back. He's bringing Capaldi with him and they're doing an adaptation of M.R. James' Martin's Close. It's one of the short's in James' legendary More Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary from 1911 which also gave us Casting The Runes, which became of course Night Of The Demon. Anyone like myself and Number13 (A James name itself...hmmmm!) who has the BFI's volumes of the Ghost Stories from the 60s and 70s knows that the BBC and M.R. James are always a match made in heaven...well, sometimes hell but that's intentional! This should be. No....I'll just say it - this WILL be wonderful. www.digitalspy.com/tv/a28779989/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-mark-gatiss-christmas-special-martins-close/WHOO HOO OH YES!  (A little bit excited...) So good it's being kept in period and I hope the language isn't updated too much - though I accept the authentically verbose 17thC style might be a trial (so to speak) for viewers; anyway, I have faith in Mark Gattis' adaptations!
I do hope he hands the Judge's last line over to Peter Capaldi's character, to deliver as the prosecutor:
{Spoiler}"I hope to God that she will be with you by day and by night until an end is made of you." Thanks Davy. (And yes of course I am named after the James ghost story, though it works in Time Lord terms too.  ) |
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Aug 22, 2019 12:10:46 GMT
Im really glad this is continuing. I'd also love if they repeated on BBC4 some of the classic ones as well. oh and the Christopher Lee narrated ones
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Post by number13 on Aug 22, 2019 12:21:44 GMT
Im really glad this is continuing. I'd also love if they repeated on BBC4 some of the classic ones as well. oh and the Christopher Lee narrated ones^ All of this. Most of all I'd like Christopher Lee's performance of 'The Ash Tree' because for some inexplicable reason that isn't included on the DVD with the relevant full-cast drama, while the other 3 he did all are. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2019 14:59:35 GMT
Anyone who saw last years BBC Christmas Ghost story written and directed by Mark Gattis and starring Simon Callow, The Dead Room, got a lovely horror treat that was more of an Amicus tribute than something more classical, as the BBC's Christmas Ghost Stories tend to be historically. It was great but not quite in the tone of the tradition a lot of us love in the Beeb's Christmas Ghost Stories. This year....that's getting remedied. Gattis is back. He's bringing Capaldi with him and they're doing an adaptation of M.R. James' Martin's Close. It's one of the short's in James' legendary More Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary from 1911 which also gave us Casting The Runes, which became of course Night Of The Demon. Anyone like myself and Number13 (A James name itself...hmmmm!) who has the BFI's volumes of the Ghost Stories from the 60s and 70s knows that the BBC and M.R. James are always a match made in heaven...well, sometimes hell but that's intentional! This should be. No....I'll just say it - this WILL be wonderful. www.digitalspy.com/tv/a28779989/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-mark-gatiss-christmas-special-martins-close/I don't think anything needs to be remedied. The Dead Room adhered to the tropes of MR James just in a contemporary setting. |
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Post by number13 on Aug 22, 2019 15:11:17 GMT
Anyone who saw last years BBC Christmas Ghost story written and directed by Mark Gattis and starring Simon Callow, The Dead Room, got a lovely horror treat that was more of an Amicus tribute than something more classical, as the BBC's Christmas Ghost Stories tend to be historically. It was great but not quite in the tone of the tradition a lot of us love in the Beeb's Christmas Ghost Stories. This year....that's getting remedied. Gattis is back. He's bringing Capaldi with him and they're doing an adaptation of M.R. James' Martin's Close. It's one of the short's in James' legendary More Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary from 1911 which also gave us Casting The Runes, which became of course Night Of The Demon. Anyone like myself and Number13 (A James name itself...hmmmm!) who has the BFI's volumes of the Ghost Stories from the 60s and 70s knows that the BBC and M.R. James are always a match made in heaven...well, sometimes hell but that's intentional! This should be. No....I'll just say it - this WILL be wonderful. www.digitalspy.com/tv/a28779989/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-mark-gatiss-christmas-special-martins-close/I don't think anything needs to be remedied. The Dead Room adhered to the tropes of MR James just in a contemporary setting. But why have 'Jamesian' when you can have James and only about 1/3 of his stories have yet been made for TV? His fans know him as The Master for a reason. (Which has nothing at all to do with "Old Pointy-Beard", as Sixie called him. )
Being serious for a second, when James laid out his 'rules' of ghost stories, period atmosphere was one of them. 'About 30 years ago' I think he said, which at the time meant somewhere in the Edwardian era and while some later settings can work, imo if we move too far into the modern world then much of the charm of the genre starts to fade away, like a ghost... |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2019 18:14:43 GMT
I don't think anything needs to be remedied. The Dead Room adhered to the tropes of MR James just in a contemporary setting. But why have 'Jamesian' when you can have James and only about 1/3 of his stories have yet been made for TV? His fans know him as The Master for a reason. (Which has nothing at all to do with "Old Pointy-Beard", as Sixie called him. )
Being serious for a second, when James laid out his 'rules' of ghost stories, period atmosphere was one of them. 'About 30 years ago' I think he said, which at the time meant somewhere in the Edwardian era and while some later settings can work, imo if we move too far into the modern world then much of the charm of the genre starts to fade away, like a ghost... & that was one of the conceits of The Dead Room, it was quite meta about the tropes of ghost stories with the rules being set out by Simon Callow's character. & the horror itself was related to an incident in the 70s. I think more MR James is great. But don't see why a Christmas ghost story has to be a James one. & starting this thread by having a go at a really good ghost story seems odd. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2019 18:33:05 GMT
But why have 'Jamesian' when you can have James and only about 1/3 of his stories have yet been made for TV? His fans know him as The Master for a reason. (Which has nothing at all to do with "Old Pointy-Beard", as Sixie called him. )
Being serious for a second, when James laid out his 'rules' of ghost stories, period atmosphere was one of them. 'About 30 years ago' I think he said, which at the time meant somewhere in the Edwardian era and while some later settings can work, imo if we move too far into the modern world then much of the charm of the genre starts to fade away, like a ghost... & that was one of the conceits of The Dead Room, it was quite meta about the tropes of ghost stories with the rules being set out by Simon Callow's character. & the horror itself was related to an incident in the 70s. I think more MR James is great. But don't see why a Christmas ghost story has to be a James one. & starting this thread by having a go at a really good ghost story seems odd. I called it a "lovely treat" in the first line so not sure "having a go" is a terribly apposite description of the post. I even called it "great" in the following sentence. I know you do tend to only post to either argue or moan by and large but please don't assume we're all the same. I posted a glowing review of The Dead Room at the time and when I said the series was being "rectified", I was clearly saying - as Number 13 certainly inferred correctly - that we're getting more to complete the canon of classic James that hasn't been done in this long-running series. Not that I had an issue with The Dead Room which, again, was both a lovely treat and great as I literally said in the post you say is "having a go" at it. It is - amazingly - possible to like both approaches, modern takes and classic adaptations. Having a preference for one over the other because James is a favourite and we only get these once a year IF that? Everyone else took the post as the "here's something cool..." that was intended but if you want to be as negative as always, pick a hole and be downbeat, well, why break the habit of a lifetime I suppose.... |
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Post by number13 on Nov 26, 2019 23:08:53 GMT
Top of the BBC4 Christmas publicity and quite right too:
(Just imagine... if he'd played the Doctor in that wig! )
EDIT: I complained upthread that Sir Christopher Lee's 2000 performance of 'The Ash Tree' wasn't released on DVD (while the other 3 were), well, it still hasn't been released as far as I know but the soundtracks to all four stories are now available as a bundle on Audible, which is better than nothing.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2019 3:41:39 GMT
It was quite wonderful. Martin's Close is one of the stories that is eerie rather than outright scary. It's a sense of dread and inevitability more than the unknown in this story. Martin has to die, and it's a long, slow, decline for him in front of our eyes. I liked that they called him John rather than George here, I guess a George Martin ghost story would disappoint Beatles fans! Capaldi was, obviously, excellent with his lengthy monologues as the prosecutor but it was Elliot Levey who made the most impression on me as a rather irascible Hanging Judge Jeffreys. How lovely a role for Simon Williams too - looking every bit as refined as he did in his heyday as James Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs. Of course he's most famous on here as Chunky Gilmore in Counter Measures. He was always who I pictured as Biggles when I read the books as a boy. As an adult too I've come to love his part in one of my favourite films, Blood On Satan's Claw. Yes...a lovely Christmas treat seeing Simon back on screen and being so playful too. |
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(A little bit excited...)
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