Bam, I actually laughed out loud at them doffing their caps! DH was waiting for the woman in black in the street scene photograph to get closer/turn round.
I wrote two of my dissertations on gothic horror, particularly involving children and this is absolutely packed with gothic tropes. Weather, corridors, spooky photographs, children, the sea, ageing, the unknown, innocence, the foreign/other, dreams, coincidence, repetition. So far it's avoided being clichéd and is using the tropes as they should be used. I hope it continues like this and has a good, meaty, plausible central conceit. If it goes all ridiculous and silly shock horror, I will be very disappointed.
We were saying the other night that we need a good spooky Christmas lead in. I even mentioned Whistle and I'll Come to You as the sort of thing they need to bring back. Looking forward to the next two Sundays now!