The infinite supply of BBC ghost stories for Christmas

There are only eight episodes of the BBC Ghost Story for Christmas, produced between 1971 and 1978. That’s not enough. Here are some suggestions for where to go next.

First, let’s address a technicality: the 1968 adaptation of M.R. James’s ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ directed by Jonathan Miller was a standalone film in the Omnibus strand.

It inspired A Ghost Story for Christmas and is often spoken about as part of that strand. In the unlikely event you haven’t seen it – start there!

Seven of the eight core episodes were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. He wrote the first two before handing over that duty to people like John Bowen and David Rudkin.

The final episode of that original run, ‘The Ice House’, from 1978, was written by Bowen and directed by Derek Lister.

The short films and television episodes listed below aren’t all ghost stories. And they weren’t all produced by the BBC.

Some are lighter, some are darker. Some are quite cinematic, others distinctly low-budget studio productions.

I’ve chosen them because they trigger in me something of the same feeling I get from, say, ‘Lost Hearts’, an M.R. James adaptation with a period setting, or from ‘Stigma’, which has an original story and a contemporary setting.

If I’ve omitted a film you like, it might be because I don’t know about it – do leave suggestions in the comments. But it’s probably more likely at this point that I do know about it but decided it didn’t fit.

‘The Beast’ from the 1982 West Country Tales series, for example, doesn’t feel to me like the same thing at all, enjoyable as it is.

1. Dead of Night: The Exorcism, 1972

Written and directed by Don Taylor this episode of the anthology series Dead of Night works as both (a) a terrifying ghost story and (b) a commentary on class. It has a group of well-to-do friends gathering for Christmas in an old working man’s cottage which one couple has bought and renovated. The title hints at a twist.

BFI DVD (out of print) | YouTube

2. Dead of Night: A Woman Sobbing, 1972

Another story from the same anthology series which combines social commentary with effective, shiver-inducing horror. John Bowen’s script is about unhappy marriages, the sidelining of middle-aged women, and menopausal depression. Anna Massey is a brilliant actress and there’s less scenery chewing than in some TV plays of the period. And the sobbing woman, symbolic as she may be, is as creepy as hell.

BFI DVD (out of print) | YouTube

3. Wessex Tales: The Withered Arm

Adapted from a Thomas Hardy story this has the perfect mix of bleak landscapes, horrifying moments, and stillness. It’s got a distinct folk horror feel, too.

BBC iPlayer

4. Beasts: Baby, 1976

The whole of this series written by Nigel Kneale is interesting, and very much worth watching. But this is the episode which feels, to me, closest in tone to the work of Lawrence Gordon Clark and his collaborators. It’s about a haunted house, essentially, with Jane Wymark as a pregnant woman and Simon MacCorkindale as her VERY SHOUTY husband. They find a mummified animal in the walls of their cottage and (probably) supernatural occurrences ensue.

Network DVD (out of print, eBay) | YouTube

5. Mr. Humphreys and his Inheritance, 1976

A 1970s M.R. James adaptation ought to hit all the right notes but this very short adaptation of a lesser-known James story is flawed and slight. It was made by Yorkshire Television as an educational piece to demonstrate the power of music in film which means it has intrusive music throughout. The pay-off is worth 15 minutes of anyone’s time, though – one of those psychedelic, nightmare images that works so well on grainy 16mm film.

YouTube

6. A Child’s Voice, 1978

This is often described online as a BBC production, presumably as a bit of search engine optimisation clickbaitery. Not only is it not a BBC production – it is not even British. It was produced by the Irish company B.A.C. Films and filmed, I believe, in Dublin, with an Irish director, Kieran Hickey, and Irish crew. The script is by a Brit, though – film critic David Thomson. It stars T.P. McKenna as a writer who has a cult following reading his own ghost stories on the radio late at night. Then a character from one of those stories begins to call him on the telephone…

YouTube

7. Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man, 1978

A recent discovery for me, this BBC production was written by Peter McDougall and directed by John Reardon. It’s set and was shot in Cornwall and tells the story of a troubled young man who becomes obsessed with a local tramp, and has nightmares about the stained glass in a local church. It’s Penda’s Fen adjacent but with a grittier, tougher feel, as Kim Newman has written about on his blog

YouTube

8. Casting the Runes, 1979

This is a big one being an M.R. James adaptation directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, but for ITV (Yorkshire Television) rather than the BBC. It updates the story to 1970s Leeds and makes great use of bleak, snowy locations. It also makes the protagonist a woman (Jan Francis) and has her working in TV journalism, instead of academia. It’s atmospheric and unsettling but, like the original story, also has an element of suspense and adventure.

Network DVD (out of print, eBay) | YouTube

9. Ghost in the Water, 1982

This was made for children and it shows, being more Grange Hill than Lawrence Gordon Clark. It’s about working class children investigating a haunting in the industrial landscape of the English Midlands – all canals, comprehensive schools and council estates. The lead actors are amateurs and their performances sit somewhere between monotonous and annoying. But, still, that arguably adds to the unusual feel of the piece. It was directed by Renny Rye and based on a story by Edward Chitham.

BBC DVD (Google it) | YouTube

10. Classic Ghost Stories: Wailing Well, 1986

This series of five 15-minute Jackanory-style readings of M.R. James stories by Robert Powell is more effective than you might expect. They’re all good but I’ve singled out this one as a story that hasn’t, as far as I know, been adapted elsewhere. They were offered as extras on my BFI DVD set of the BBC Christmas ghost stories and are also available as a standalone disc.

BFI DVD | YouTube

11. The Woman in Black, 1989

I hesitate to mention this as it’s so well known, and feature length. But the mood and feel is so close to the work of Lawrence Gordon Clark that I can’t exclude it from the list. It was also hard to see for a long time, until the defunct label Network released a Blu-ray in 2020. It was adapted for ITV by Nigel Kneale from Susan Hill’s 1983 novel and was filmed partly on location at Osea in Essex. It’s fantastically moody and also has one legendary jump scare that still works even when you know it’s coming.

Network Blu-ray (Google it) | Amazon Prime streaming

12. Ghosts: Three Miles Up, 1995

An adaptation of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s classic of weird fiction made for a short-lived BBC anthology series. It takes some liberties with the original story but catches some of the mood – and also borrows from Lawrence Gordon Clark that love of desolate but beautiful English landscapes. It’s about two brothers who try to fix their relationship by going on a canal boat holiday together. It’s already going badly when they pick up a strange girl and things get really strange.

YouTube