The Mezzotint - Christmas Eve ghost story on BBC2 IIRC

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

I recorded and we watched the other night - anyone else?

It gave me the serious shivers! It was a story by MR James - king of ghost stories.
Well worth a watch on catch up if you like that sort of thing.,

I loved it!! Even forgave the charged ending :)

Love MR James ghost stories - Christmas tradition to listen to them while I’m cooking

On planner

Love a ghost story

I loved it. Creepy!

It was good have to have a ghost story on Christmas Eve.

It was an extremely good adaptation, but you can’t go wrong with that cast, really. The ending should have taken heed of “less is more” but as Mark Gatiss is the only one keeping the Ghost Story For Christmas TV tradition going, I’ll let him off

Much consternation about it in the MR James Appreciation group over on FB, though. They hate any messing about with the stories and there is a thinly-veiled homophobic tone to may of the comments about any Gatiss adaptation. Or indeed, an abject refusal to even think about whether James himself might have been gay. No diggin’ ‘ere!!!

at that ending!

I found myself truly terrified - MR James does it so well, and Victorian ghost stories really are the best.

Agree it was an excellent cast

I LOVED it! Mark Gatiss is just amazing.

There's a good reading of the same story on BBC sounds - it's one of the episodes in the Classic Stories series if you search for that. Lost Hearts, another of my M R James favourites is on there too.

I liked it better than the other Mark Gatiss adaptions and quite liked the new ending. But he should have stopped about 30 seconds before the end. It lost all the mystery.

Enjoyed this

Ghost stories where the ghosts come after innocent descendants of people who've done them wrong really grind my gears. Susan Hill is a repeat offender. It's creepy, but it's not fair!

@ImJustMadAboutSaffron

Ghost stories where the ghosts come after innocent descendants of people who've done them wrong really grind my gears. Susan Hill is a repeat offender. It's creepy, but it's not fair!

I agree - it's a change from the original short story and feels unfair and unsatisfying.

@ImJustMadAboutSaffron

You are so right, M.R. James never overdid it, the stories are subtle and leave a lot to the imagination. Sometimes you glimpse the creature, sometimes just out of the corner of your eye. Mark Gatiss, however much I like him as an actor is too heavy handed. He ruined Dracula as well, I'm actually beginning to dread his adaptions.

I was really disappointed. I love the story (maybe the problem is that I’ve read it too many times) and Mark Gatiss’ stuff generally, so had high expectations but I found it pretty dull with lots of waffling from the characters. The changed ending was unnecessary.