In 2005, BBC Four revived A Ghost Story for Christmas twenty-seven years after The Ice House concluded the original series. With the original episodes having gained a cult following over the years - bolstered by British Film Institute home media releases of a couple of the episodes in early years of the twenty-first century, and the BBC repeating some of them in 2004 - going back to basics undoubtedly seemed like a good idea. Thus, the new series began as the original did, with an adaptation of a short story by M. R. James.
A View from a Hill was adapted by Peter Harness, who remained fairly close to the original story. The story sees historian Dr Fanshawe - a typical James academic - arriving at the house of Squire Richards to catalogue and value his archaeological collection, where he inadvertently unleashes supernatural terrors by borrowing an old pair of binoculars that provide a view of a dark past. A story about haunted binoculars sounds faintly ridiculous, but Harness captures the creepy atmosphere typical of James's work very well. Tellingly, it is when Fanshawe starts to treat the binoculars as a gift - delightedly sketching the abbey that he can only see through them - that they vengeful ghosts punish him dragging him to Gallows Hill for a hanging. He survives, but the sting in the tale suggests that the ghosts haven't finished with him.
With Lawrence Gordon Clark long since retired, Luke Watson directs, and like his predecessor he makes good use of stark location filming to invoke the spirit of James' ghost stories. In an era where horror films tend to be blood soaked and violent, Watson manages to make this ghostly tale chilling without showing us much at all, particularly when Fanshawe is in the woods being stalked by an unseen presence and during the spine-tingling bathroom scene, which turns out to be a nightmare. It also on several occasions makes the viewer jump, such as when Fanshawe sees the poacher; some reviewers have been critical of the use of jump shots, a modern editing technique increasingly sneered at as lazy, but the reason that jump shots remain popular with horror film directors is that they work. And given that Clark was using a similar technique long before the term was in popular use, Watson can hardly be blamed for doing the same thing.
Mark Letheren and Pip Torrens give good performances as Dr Fanshawe and Squire Richards, especially Letheren who makes Fanshawe look convincingly terrified when he's spooked in the woods and metaphorically as well as literally haunted at the end. David Burke meanwhile is excellent as aging butler Patten, whose revelations about the past provide the explanation for what is going on. The finishing touch is a very atmospheric incidental score by Harry Escott and Andy Price. The end result is a fitting tribute to Clark's seventies episodes and a modestly impressive modern update of A Ghost Story for Christmas which sends the required shiver down one's spine.
A View from a Hill was adapted by Peter Harness, who remained fairly close to the original story. The story sees historian Dr Fanshawe - a typical James academic - arriving at the house of Squire Richards to catalogue and value his archaeological collection, where he inadvertently unleashes supernatural terrors by borrowing an old pair of binoculars that provide a view of a dark past. A story about haunted binoculars sounds faintly ridiculous, but Harness captures the creepy atmosphere typical of James's work very well. Tellingly, it is when Fanshawe starts to treat the binoculars as a gift - delightedly sketching the abbey that he can only see through them - that they vengeful ghosts punish him dragging him to Gallows Hill for a hanging. He survives, but the sting in the tale suggests that the ghosts haven't finished with him.
With Lawrence Gordon Clark long since retired, Luke Watson directs, and like his predecessor he makes good use of stark location filming to invoke the spirit of James' ghost stories. In an era where horror films tend to be blood soaked and violent, Watson manages to make this ghostly tale chilling without showing us much at all, particularly when Fanshawe is in the woods being stalked by an unseen presence and during the spine-tingling bathroom scene, which turns out to be a nightmare. It also on several occasions makes the viewer jump, such as when Fanshawe sees the poacher; some reviewers have been critical of the use of jump shots, a modern editing technique increasingly sneered at as lazy, but the reason that jump shots remain popular with horror film directors is that they work. And given that Clark was using a similar technique long before the term was in popular use, Watson can hardly be blamed for doing the same thing.
Mark Letheren and Pip Torrens give good performances as Dr Fanshawe and Squire Richards, especially Letheren who makes Fanshawe look convincingly terrified when he's spooked in the woods and metaphorically as well as literally haunted at the end. David Burke meanwhile is excellent as aging butler Patten, whose revelations about the past provide the explanation for what is going on. The finishing touch is a very atmospheric incidental score by Harry Escott and Andy Price. The end result is a fitting tribute to Clark's seventies episodes and a modestly impressive modern update of A Ghost Story for Christmas which sends the required shiver down one's spine.