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I have to admit I’m charmed by this BBCis amazing A Ghost Story for Christmas Ever since I’ve been old enough to stay awake to watch the series, I’ve been haunted by “The Signalman”, Crikey, a relatively early version that aired in 1976 (look it up on Wikipedia). Compared to the Hammer films often shown on late evening telly at the time, these adaptations of classic ghost stories were infinitely more exciting than Frankenstein’s monster, the mummy and the various antics of dear old Count Dracula. I believe it’s the difference between horror and horror – camp vs. insidious.
“The Signalman” is a story I remember only vaguely, but I have never completely forgotten. Nigel FarageI might also add that he’s not the only one who finds himself haunted by bad things that happened (or didn’t) happen 49 years ago.
A recurring nightmare is also the subject of this year’s story. It is written and directed by Mark Gatiss with his usual care, and is based on the E.F. Benson original (from 1912). these are the stars Tobias Menzies ,silky voice prince philip Crown) as Roger Winstanley, a completely normal middle-class man whose entire life is inexplicably affected by a horrific nightmare. “I can find no explanation of my story,” he confesses to a stranger in a Tube tunnel during the Blitz, as he frees himself of the burden by becoming conscious of his own mortality.
He can’t even guess its origin, except that his hallucinations involve the only person he knows, a modest school acquaintance named Jack Stone. In a recurring dream, Jack comes from a landed family living from the late Victorian era to just before World War II, and he invites Roger for tea at their fine Tudor mansion. The family is almost always silent, not smiling, and sitting stiffly and posed, as if in a period photograph.
Roger finds himself intimidated by Jack’s mother, a steely old matriarch – Mrs. Julia Stone. She is the only person who speaks in the nightmare, and is played with considerable strength by Joanna LumleyHis recurring line, which Roger recognizes as a mortal threat with a sinking heart, is as follows: “Jack will show you my room, I’ve got you a room in the tower,” It turns out that Roger’s dream is a premonition, and when, thanks to a genuine invitation to tea from a real friend, he finally tries to get some rest in the same room in the tower, he finds himself stared at by a Goya-ish self-portrait of Mrs, Stone,
Among many other accomplishments – from the atmospheric, fish-eye-lens filming to the unobtrusively suspenseful score – some of the scripting of this Benson/Gatiss story is beautifully, and appropriately, in the ancient genre. Of the image of Mrs. Stone, Roger says: “There was a terrible enthusiasm and vitality shining through the veil of dried flesh, a enthusiasm that was utterly deadly; a vitality that was frothy and foaming with unimaginable evil.”
That’s right, Rog. Now, I won’t share Roger’s other discoveries here, but needless to say, Mrs. Stone becomes even more sinister, giving a performance that I can only describe as Miss Havisham meets Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Dame Joanna Lumley will turn 80 next year, and is clearly still up for anything.
Don’t wait until Christmas Eve to see that everything will be completely resolved and the difference between the supernatural and the real will become completely transparent. Such mysteries cannot and should not be logically linked in the end, because after all, there are no ghosts, premonitions and the like, not even at Christmas time. But there is such a thing as an annual installment of exquisitely polished, gem-like entertainment from Gatiss.
Even with the BBC in its other perpetual troubles, I hope we can enjoy these intricate little horror mysteries for a long time to come. We can only dream.