A GHOST STORY FOR XMAS - Wed 24 - bbc 2 - 10pm

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Always love a ghost story at Christmas

a man is haunted by a recurring dream, finds his nightmare real ……

Yes it seemed like she particularly wanted him, but why??
IMO they’re always a bit mediocre, they’re too short to build into much, but this one was really poor.

Just watched it as a family. My mum's verdict "what a load of crap!" 😂

It’s one of my favourite short stories but sad to say, this adaptation was just awful. None of his adaptations have been remotely creepy unlike the older ones which always had a spooky atmosphere at the very least. Such a shame.

Scary bad.

I agree. I have the box set of all the classsic Ghost Stories for Christmas and they’re much more creepy and atmospheric, occasionally even a bit disturbing. The Gatiss ones aren’t even a bit spooky, and dare I say, quite boring, and I love all The League guys so I always give him a chance, but disappointment every year!

That was so disappointing. Watched the Amandaland Christmas special after it and Joanna Lumley was 1000x more scary in that. Location, actors etc superb so how could it be so bad?

It was hyped up as usually good/ scary but not this year

2008 "Crooked House" by Mark Gatiss was excellent and I hope his Christmas offerings will equal this but they fall a bit flat .

The Dead Room ( 2018) was a good one .

Maybe 30 minutes is too short to condense a story and twist conclusion ?

I wish Mark Gatiss wasn't the designated horror writer for the BBC. The modern Ghost Stories don't have the atmosphere or the beauty or the scariness of the older adaptions.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget yes that’s it! Really spooky but very good!

just watched. Pointless shite. Very disappointing

T’was utter drivel .

So it was on my top 5 things to watch- it's got Joanna Lumley, plot sounds good etc etc.

But.... it was absolutely awful and 30 minutes wasted. I mean clearly someone at the BBC must have have watched it and given the thumbs up for it to be broadcast - what were they thinking. Massive disappointment!

I liked it 😳

I liked it too!

30 minutes is more than enough time to scare the bejesus out of viewers - Lost Hearts and Oh Whistle (both versions) manage it just fine, for example. I don't know what it is about Mark Gatiss, what he does just never quite takes off, for me. League of Gentlemen was the same, I can't get on with what he does. Maybe he's too heavy handed. Those M R James stories, the terror in them comes from the tiny flickers at the edge of our understanding being set alight while we stand trapped and helpless in our corporeal plane. It happens quickly, delicately, and in each of them you are before you know it faced with the possibility that absolutely anything could happen, where physical reality will not protect you.

Watched "Crooked House" today , it's probably more scary at 11pm than 2pm in the afternoon

I watched that yesterday. A question I had was that if the Widdowsons were happy to have someone else's child as their heir, why go to all that trouble? They could have just picked one up from an orphanage

I rewatched Count Magnus and Woman of Stone too. Enjoyed both.

I might watch "Martins Close" over New Year , I'm sure I've seen it but cannot remember it .

I found it scary and uneasy viewing - maybe I am easily scared going by what others have said. But I was really annoyed that there was no explanation as to why she was after him in particular, given that in real life they had never met - how did she even know who he was? Why did she want to feast on him? Why didn't she feast on him in the dreams where she looked normal, why only at the end where she was a monstrous rotting crone?? Were all of her family weird cannibals as well? Were they all evil? Why was her coffin filled with blood? I mainly felt terribly sorry and sad for the man that he ended up there. I would have preferred it if he had escaped and the house had been razed to the ground by a meteor strike or something. But I guess that's not the point.

We watched it last night and really enjoyed it.