The Harrowing |
1)
The Stone Tape (1972)
Written
by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale, The Stone Tape
centres on a group of scientific researchers who move into a facility
at an abandoned stately home, tasked with developing a new recording
medium. When Jill Greeley (Jane Asher), girlfriend of charismatic but
tyrannical project head Peter Brock (Michael Bryant) discovers that a
long-unused room there is apparently haunted, replaying a traumatic
event from centuries ago, Brock is convinced he’s found the
breakthrough he’s looking for.
2)
Ghostwatch (1992)
Stephen
Volk’s now-classic 1992 ‘mockumentary’, although broadcast on
BBC’s Screen One and billed as a fictional TV play, fooled millions
across the country, and succeeded in scaring the living hell out of
them. Presented as a live investigation into a supposedly haunted
house, it starred many well-known TV presenters of the day, including
Mike Smith, Sarah Greene, Craig Charles and chat-show king Michael
Parkinson. Delivers a truly terrifying climax. Possibly not the best
thing to watch last thing at night, especially if you’re alone in
the house.
3)
The Signalman (1976)
The
first of the BBC’s Ghost Story For Christmas adaptations not
to be based on an M.R. James story – it’s based instead on one by
Charles Dickens – has an impeccable pedigree: adapted by Andrew
Davies (who went on to adapt Moll Flanders, Pride and
Prejudice and House of Cards), it stars Denholm Elliott in
the title role. Striking up a friendship with a traveller (Bernard
Lloyd), he confides how he’s tormented by a shadowy figure who
always appears before tragedy strikes on the line. The performances –
Elliott’s especially – are what carry this creepy little
half-hour.
4)
Countess Ilona/The Werewolf Reunion (1977)
Robert
Muller’s 1977 anthology series Supernatural (nothing to do
with the Winchester brothers) centred on The Club Of The Damned,
an exclusive London society where the price of admission is a true
account of the supernatural: the only catch is that if your story
doesn’t satisfy the audience, you won’t leave the premises alive.
Most of the eight episodes were stand-alone stories, but Countess
Ilona and The Werewolf Reunion form a crackling
two-parter. Ilona (Billie Whitelaw) is a former courtesan, married
off to the depraved Count Tyrrh by her former lovers (Charles Kay,
Ian Hendry, John Fraser and Edward Hardwicke.) Now a widow, Ilona
invites the four to her estate, with revenge in mind – because
Count Tyrrh was a werewolf, and thanks to her lovers’ machinations,
her beloved son is doomed to become a monster too...
The
first of the BBC’s Ghost Stories For Christmas, based on the
story by M.R. James. Orphaned Stephen (Simon Gipps-Kent) is sent to
stay with his eccentric older cousin, Peregrine Abney (Joseph
O’Conor), unaware that he’s to be the third and last in a series
of human sacrifices intended to make Abney immortal. But the ghosts
of Phoebe (Michelle Foster) and Giovanni (Christopher Davis), the
first two victims, are still present, and have their own plans for Mr
Abney. The ghosts are downright creepy, and O’Conor’s
performance, both funny and sinister, is a highlight.
6)
During Barty’s Party (1976)
Nigel
Kneale again, this time with this 50 minute screw-turner from Beasts,
a anthology series he wrote. During Barty’s Party is not
only the finest of the plays, but one of the scariest TV programmes
I’ve seen. Virtually a two-hander, starring Elizabeth Sellars and
Anthony Bate as a middle-aged couple whose home is besieged by an
army of murderous rats, it’s all the more frightening for the fact
that you don’t see a single rat throughout the play: the whole
thing’s driven by a combination of excellent sound effects and the
sheer quality of the performances from Sellars and Bate. Well, that,
of course, and the writing. Even after forty years, it’s lost none
of its power.
7)
A Child’s Voice (1978)
Written
by David Thomson, this rarity, made for Irish TV (it’s sometimes
inaccurately billed as a ‘lost BBC ghost story’) stars the late
great T.P. McKenna as a broadcaster (modelled somewhat on A.J. Alan)
who writes and performs tales of the macabre on late night radio. All
goes well until he begins a new story whose plot culminates in the
death of a child: he begins to receive telephone calls from a young
boy, telling him not to continue the story. Naturally, he doesn’t
listen...
You can view the complete play here:
8) The Nightmare Man (1981)
I’ve
written at greater length over at This Is Horror about this four-part
frightener, adapted by Dr Who and Blake’s 7 veteran
Robert Holmes from David Wiltshire’s novel. An isolated Scottish
island is stalked by a savage killer who appears both more and less
than human. To find out more, go here.
When
the BBC finally revived A Ghost Story For Christmas in 2005,
it was with Peter Harness’ highly effective adaptation of M.R.
James’ story. Fanshawe, an archaeologist, comes to a rural stately
home to catalogue its collection of finds, and comes into possession
of a pair of binoculars that show sights from the past. They turn out
to have been created by a local clockmaker, using the bones of hanged
men to achieve their effects – and now their ghosts are on
Fanshawe’s trail...
10)
The Harrowing (2014)
Concluding
the first season of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s
anthology series Inside No.9 was this darkly funny and creepy play,
with a fine cast including Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Helen McCrory.
Teenager Katy (Edwards) is hired by eccentric siblings Tabitha (McCrory) and
Hector (Shearsmith) to housesit while they’re out for the night.
Upstairs is their bedridden brother Andras, who can’t speak but
will ring if he needs help. But all is not as it seems…
If you're looking for some Halloween reading matter, Simon Bestwick's collection of ghost stories, A Hazy Shade Of Winter, is available as an ebook here. Or you could check out this list...
If you're looking for some Halloween reading matter, Simon Bestwick's collection of ghost stories, A Hazy Shade Of Winter, is available as an ebook here. Or you could check out this list...
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