The Tractate Middoth

During the Seventies the BBC made a habit of broadcasting A GHOST STORY FOR Christmas, mostly written by M. R. James and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. This continued a tradition established by James himself, who initiated precisely the same ritual during his lifetime as he read out a newly-created story each Christmas to his intimate circle of friends. Directed and adapted by Mark Gatiss, THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH revives that tradition; it concerns Garrett, a young librarian (Sacha Dhawan) who works at an Oxbridge college and is asked by elderly user John Eldred (John Castle) to locate a book, "The Tractate Middoth." This book appears to have been taken by a mysterious borrower who turns out to be a rotting ghost. Garrett encounters this specter and is thereby unwittingly drawn into a dark family story of resentment and revenge. Gatiss' adaptation updates the material to the Fifties, which enables him to create a thriller in the style of the MAN IN BLACK series (which Gatiss revived on radio) or the Edgar Lustgarten mysteries for Merton Park Studios. The adaptation establishes a sense of security through the presence of familiar elements - notably the Oxbridge locations, and the presence among the cast of stalwart character actors such as Roy Barraclough, David Ryall and Una Stubbs. As the action progresses, this sense of familiarity is gradually dismantled, culminating in a violent denouement. We are left in no doubt what will happen, but Gatiss stages it in an unexpected manner in the middle of a rural clearing on what looks like a fine late summer's day. The adaptation contains some notable cameos - for example Barraclough as a librarian insisting on absolute silence in his premises (even though there doesn't seem to be anyone there apart from Garrett and his friend George Earle (Nicholas Burns); and Castle's John Eldred, whose increasing anxiety is suggested by his breathless delivery.

While I applaud the decision to resurrect the Ghost Story for Christmas series, which I always loved, this sadly isn't very good.

Extremely poor dialogue, overly mannered 'acty' performances, and a very rushed feel (understandable I suppose due to time constraints) all add up to a very inferior ghost story.

The usual predictable Gatiss Woke trappings in evidence, too.

Avoid.

The original collection of stories from the Seventies on the whole were great productions, each penned by the great M. R. James, sad;y they came to an end, thankfully in 2013 Mark Gatiss decided to adapt The Tractate Middoth. It is a super smart story, so much is crammed into the limited thirty five minute running time. It's slick, eerie, and best of all manages to capture the DNA of the original episodes, it could have easily been a failed bolt on to the series, but it feels very much a part of it. The acting is terrific, John Castle and Sacha Dhawan in particular give superb performances. The direction is slick and the special effects pretty good also. There is a great twist in the ending, it feels like it could have easily come from the Seventies. Really enjoyed, 8/10

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.