Ghost stories for dark nights…

[Zombie]

”It had more than four legs…”



50 years ago BBC TV began a tradition of showing creepy ghost stories on Christmas Eve intended to scare the bejeebers out of young children and send them off to bed screaming and gibbering. Mostly these were short movies, shot on film (usually around 35 minutes) of ghost stories written by the Victorian antiquarian scholar, Montague Rhodes James. 

M R James was educated and lived his entire life in the academic world of Eton College and Kings College Cambridge. When he became Provost of Kings College he began writing ghost stories, using his extensive knowledge of ancient artefacts and manuscripts. 

James was very sociable towards his (all male) students and joined the Chit-Chat Club where, on a dark autumnal evening in 1893, he first treated a small gathering of eager boys to a reading of two ghost stories in his oak panelled college rooms. In the flickering candlelight, warmed by the open fire and generous measures of port wine, the students enjoyed the thrill of terror that became an eagerly anticipated annual event in the club’s calendar.

In this film the late great Christopher Lee recreates MR James telling his story The Ash Tree.  Watch it with the lights turned down, when it’s dark outside, and you’re alone…

Edited September 18, 2023 by Zombie