The Tractate Middoth

I always enjoy a good ghost story, but having only intermittently watched these intermittent BBC Christmas schedule fillers over the last four decades can't consider myself a genre expert. And this one is also based on one of M. R. James' lesser short stories that I've not read. My reading of horror short stories peaked with H. G. Wells' The Cone and my appreciation of horror films hasn't progressed beyond Night Of The Demon.

Rather serious young male student helping out at university library is asked by a mysterious hopeful borrower for a copy of Hebrew book The Tractate Middoth – which apparently merely relates to the measurements of a temple – but is thwarted twice by uncanny events. The fabulous title might have been less impressive sounding if the book had been even more mundane, however it's what has been enclosed within the pages by a dying man and what it's worth that is the McGuffin. Suspend belief because! The uncanny events lead to the student's nervous breakdown, complemented by a breathtakingly outrageous plot contrivance and on the way to the (apparently faithful) trite but swift conclusion there's more unsettling spooky moments. This is my key experience of James: there always has to be a couple of unsettling spooky moments in his stories, and Mark Gatiss as writer/director gets this requirement over well. Acting and production were high quality; my cleverer daughter gave it a thumbs up although niggled by the updating of the setting to the 1950's. The programme was lean and slick and all I'd hoped, expected and desired, overall imho a good directorial debut by Gatiss who appears to be swarming all over the BBC at present. If only for the sake of continuing a good BBC Christmas tradition I can only hope it leads to many more James' from him!

Having just written my review of "The Mezzotint" I decided to go back and find a copy of 2013's "The Tractate Middoth", (it's currently on Youtube, if you're interested) the initial M R James adaptation that Mark Gatiss provided. I remembered almost nothing about this, but it's probably the best one so far.

William Garrett (Sacha Dhawan) is a library assistant who is tasked with locating a book by John Eldred (John Castle) from the archive he works at. Whilst fetching the book, Garrett is terrified by a hooded figure. Leaving for a constitutional break to the country, he then meets Mary Simpson (Louise Jameson), who tells him about an inheritance she was unable to collect, as her spiteful uncle hid his will in a book. The same book that Garrett was asked to collect.

This story was a lot more plot based than the other have been, those being mostly tone poems with a scare at the end. Here there was a lot more going on. There's establishing scenes of Mary visiting her uncle on his deathbed and him calling her closer, it's not until later that we hear what he says though. From there, there's quite a bit more world building before we even see the ghost. Garrett's trip to the countryside then has what might feel like an unbelievable bit of co-incidence, but I think in other stories, such as in "The Mezzotint", it's been established that supernatural organisation is possible.

Sacha Dhawan is a great performer, and here he gets to thrust some youthful, almost childlike, energy in Garrett before carrying the story onward. There's two characters providing comic relief. Nicholas Burns as George, Garrett's amiable friend at the library and the late Roy Barraclough, with a mannered performance. There's also a trio of fine veteran actresses with the aforementioned Jameson, joined by Eleanor Bron and another one sadly lost this year, Una Stubbs.

Strange that "Martin's Close" should be such as misfire then as this, and "The Mezzotint" are both excellent examples of a fine Christmas tradition I hope will continue for years to come.

THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH deserves commendation purely because it's a traditional ghost story and an adaptation of an M. R. James story to boot. Unlike the previous version of WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU, which starred John Hurt and unwisely tried to update the story to the modern day (very unsuccessfully, I might add), THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH is extremely traditional and true to the original story.

It's a labour of love for writer/director Mark Gatiss, who turns out to be a better writer than he is director. It's not that his direction is poor, it's just rather straightforward and perhaps slightly too subtle, even when adapting an author known for his subtlety. The story adaptation also has a few flaws, including some rather large coincidences, but then it does have to all tie up neatly in a rather short running time.

The period look and feel is spot on, and the plotting is quite a bit of fun. Most importantly, it feels true to the classic adaptations of the '70s, even if it is a lesser being. The horror does feel very gentle and the two 'scare' sequences aren't entirely successful, but I'm just happy that the BBC are going in the right direction for once. Let's hope Gatiss gets to do another one next year!

From actor, writer and director Mark Gatiss is an adaptation of a short ghost story from M R James.

Gatiss better known as a performer with The League of Gentlemen and as a writer on Doctor Who and Sherlock. He is an aficionado on horror and Victorian literature.

This is short simple, spooky tale. It has very little by way of tricks or fancy visual gimmicks. There are familiar British stalwarts such as Roy Barraclough, Una Stubbs and John Castle.

Sacha Dhawan plays an earnest Librarian in the 1950s whose disposition gets rather nervous after a spectral encounter when looking for a book in Hebrew.

Some might find the adaptation flat or uninspiring but it misses the point. It is a throwback to the old days when you had a plain ghost story told in a straightforward manner and still provides a few chills.

The BBC continued its Christmas Day tradition of adapting a ghost story by the celebrated master of the genre MR James to add a little spice and ice to the seasonal festivities. Unlike last year's "Whistle And I'll Come To You", this tale wasn't brought fully up to date instead finding itself attractively moved forward to a post-war time-span where crucially for the plot, libraries and the cataloguing of books were still important and commonplace occurrences.

I purposely read the source story immediately before I watched the programme and bar the time-change, the addition of a pipe-smoking crony of central character, earnest young student / part-time librarian Garrett to no doubt help with plot exposition, a further visitation by the horror-entity on a train journey and its suggested ominous reappearance in the final scene (the story ends happily in the original), was pleased to see some adherence to the original tale.

I liked the use of dust-flecked air to suggest the horror's presence, less so the slow-motion depiction of the thing itself. The set design was excellent throughout, particularly the library scenes and if the acting by some of the supporting actors was a little too melodramatic, the leads acquitted themselves better by playing it straight and simple.

The original story itself doesn't really stand up to much scrutiny anyway, the malevolence of the twisted priest against his surviving nephew and niece never properly explained but that's hardly the fault of writer/director Mark Gatiss who otherwise does a good job here in continuing the BBC tradition of bringing to light these slight but atmospheric and intriguing tales of ghosts and ghouls from a bygone age.