Ghost story adaptations

[OceanBlue]

Airing on Channel 5 next Thursday night is a feature-length drama called Susan Hill's Ghost Story, starring Douglas Henshall (one of the series he's starred in has been Shetland). It's based on a Susan Hill novel called The Small Hand.

[Dickieduvet]

Watching the Susan Hill adaptation now.

Thought the Mark Gatiss adaptation of M.R. James's Martin's Close was well done.

Would really like a Blu ray collection of The Tractate Middoth, The Dead Room & Martin's Close from the BBC.

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by Dickieduvet

Watching the Susan Hill adaptation now.

Thought the Mark Gatiss adaptation of M.R. James's Martin's Close was well done.

Would really like a Blu ray collection of The Tractate Middoth, The Dead Room & Martin's Close from the BBC.

Rather have a BFI edition as they might make an effort with the bonus material or at least give us a booklet. Maybe sales of such a disc would convince the BFI there are enough customers out there to warrant a blu-ray upgrade of their Ghost Story for Christmas DVDs.

As for Ghost Story itself, looks like it could be good so I've bookmarked it and will hopefully find time to watch it tomorrow.

[Dickieduvet]

No idea why Ch5 changed the title of this from The Small Hand to Susan Hill's Ghost Story, seems very generic.

Maybe it's Trump related

[Dickieduvet]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Rather have a BFI edition as they might make an effort with the bonus material or at least give us a booklet. Maybe sales of such a disc would convince the BFI there are enough customers out there to warrant a blu-ray upgrade of their Ghost Story for Christmas DVDs.

As for Ghost Story itself, looks like it could be good so I've bookmarked it and will hopefully find time to watch it tomorrow.

I've rewatched all the classic Ghost Stories again via the BFI set over the last few days, these have stood the test of time and are still terrifying.

Would love a BD set of these.

The Signalman was filmed just a couple of miles from me, still looks the same.

[Dickieduvet]

Originally Posted by sleeperbloke

Oh wow really?! Do you mean the actual signal box is still there?

The actual signalbox exteriors were made up on sight but the interiors were shot locally too at Highley Railway Station. I took a pic last year when I visited.

IMG_20181103_162524.jpg

[HotRats]

The BFI set could do with a blu ray edition, what annoys me about the DVD box is it only includes three of Christopher Lee's readings. Also worth getting cheap is Network's DVD of Casting The Runes, obviously inferior to Night Of The Demon but it has a good documentary on James and an adaptation of Mr Humphreys And His Inheritance. Also worth seeing is the BFI's DVD of the three surviving episodes of Dead Of Night (The Stone Tape was made for the series but is available separately on DVD), Robert Holmes' Return Flight is the weakest episode but The Exorcism and A Woman Sobbing are very good.

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by HotRats

The BFI set could do with a blu ray edition, what annoys me about the DVD box is it only includes three of Christopher Lee's readings. Also worth getting cheap is Network's DVD of Casting The Runes, obviously inferior to Night Of The Demon but it has a good documentary on James and an adaptation of Mr Humphreys And His Inheritance. Also worth seeing is the BFI's DVD of the three surviving episodes of Dead Of Night (The Stone Tape was made for the series but is available separately on DVD), Robert Holmes' Return Flight is the weakest episode but The Exorcism and A Woman Sobbing are very good.

If the BFI could somehow secure the missing Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories for Christmas episode it would make a great bonus for any blu-ray reissues, even if only in SD.

Another BFI Horror TV DVD that seems to get overlooked is Robert Powell reading Classic Ghost Stories. My 9 old loved them when I showed her an episode earlier this year and we ended up watching everything on the disc over a couple of evenings. The included episodes of Spine Chillers, which proved to live up to my nostalgic fondness for the series, makes me wish the BFI had released a complete set, or even that at some point the BBC had put them out on VHS for me to hunt down.

[OceanBlue]

Getting a repeat airing on BBC Four next Monday night at 10 pm is Lost Hearts, followed at 10.35 pm by half-hour documentary The Story of the Ghost Story.

[OceanBlue]

The Ash Tree is being repeated on BBC Four next Monday night (at 10 pm I think). Checked Sky's TV listings earlier.

[OceanBlue]

The Signalman is being repeated on BBC Four next Monday night (at 10 pm), followed at 10.40 pm by a repeat of documentary M.R. James: Ghost Writer (presented by Mark Gatiss).

Source: Sky's TV listings.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

The Signalman is being repeated on BBC Four next Monday night (at 10 pm), followed at 10.40 pm by a repeat of documentary M.R. James: Ghost Writer (presented by Mark Gatiss).

Source: Sky's TV listings.

One of my favourites. (I bought the boxset). Well worth watching.

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by Dickieduvet

I've rewatched all the classic Ghost Stories again via the BFI set over the last few days, these have stood the test of time and are still terrifying.

Would love a BD set of these.

The Signalman was filmed just a couple of miles from me, still looks the same.

You're not far from me then.

Apparently the elements dont exist for HD versions of the 70's BBC Ghost Stories, and the 'revival' stuff of Number 13 and View from a Hill were shot on SD video.
It's a shame that things made since haven't been released on disc (I discount the awful remake with John Hurt), maybe when there's a couple more the BFI will consider a compilation set worthwhile.

[Dickieduvet]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

You're not far from me then.

Apparently the elements dont exist for HD versions of the 70's BBC Ghost Stories, and the 'revival' stuff of Number 13 and View from a Hill were shot on SD video.
It's a shame that things made since haven't been released on disc (I discount the awful remake with John Hurt), maybe when there's a couple more the BFI will consider a compilation set worthwhile.

Agreed on the John Hurt Whistle adaptation, he was great in it but very strange to switch out the story so much. Tractate was good as were The Dead Room and Martin's Close.

Didn't realise View From A Hill and Number 13 were shot on SD. Suppose that's why they look a little rough on BBCHD. Maybe a production choice to match the look of the classics.

Looking forward to this years The Mezzotint, oh and I'm in Kidderminster, about a 5 min drive from the Signalman's tunnel.

[BarnDoor]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

Apparently the elements dont exist for HD versions of the 70's BBC Ghost Stories

I'm somewhat puzzled as to why Ben Stoddart has been suggesting this in recent years, given he appears to have once told James78 of this parish that the original materials exist in the BBC archives (see here).

Hi,

The original negatives are in the BBC archive. It's not a question of the negatives not surviving, it's more to do with whether they have been scanned in order to create a new HD master which in this case they have not. We (the BFI) have licensed the films from the BBC and therefore it is their decision as to whether they are going to create new HD masters and in turn supply them to us. Sadly that is not the case.

Best regards,

Ben

And things got all the more confusing recently in a discussion about the prospect of Blu-ray releases recently on the BFI DVD and Blu-ray Facebook group. When asked what might have happened to the original elements at the BBC, Ben responded:

Probably the same thing that’s happened to countless others.

However, Doug Weir (Technical Producer at the BFI) added in the same discussion:

All the original 16mm negatives are held in the BBC Archive.

I don't want to criticize Ben as he does a lot of great work, but it seems like he's being strangely contradictory on this matter, possibly because of the significant expense involved, I don't know. If the issue is that the BBC aren't allowing the BFI access to said materials, or don't wish to do an expensive new scan, fair enough. But it would appear that the materials do indeed exist for a Blu-ray upgrade.

[Eidolon]

BFI were the ones who stated that the elements didn't exist when people asked them about BD releases, when they did the dvd sets.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do actually exist, considering that things weve been told before that don;t have elements, such the director's cut of Army of Darkness, or most recently Night of the Demon, have had elements appear given time.

It's whether of not the BFI consider it worth doing, or even if the BBC make them available. Britbox seems to be eating up shows nowadays, with Grange Hill DVD sales tanking since it went up on there, I'd most likely expect the BBC just to put these shows on there from now on

[CrockettandTubbs]

MR James' The Mezzotint is on BBC2 on Christmas Eve at 10.30.

Directed by Mark Gatiss it stars Rory Kinnear

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rad...ewsupdate/amp/

[OceanBlue]

Checked the Sky TV listings last night, and next Monday night on BBC Four Stigma is being repeated at 10 pm.

[OceanBlue]

Double-checked the Sky TV listings tonight, and next Monday night on BBC Four The Ice House is being repeated at 10.30 pm.

[OceanBlue]

This could very well have been already announced/posted about elsewhere (like with The Mezzotint), but I read in the new issue of TV & Satellite Week today that a new Mark Gatiss adaptation of an MR James story will be airing on BBC Two sometime during the Christmas and New Year holidays. In the Christmas preview in the magazine, it's called "Ghost Story: Count Magnus". The only actor mentioned in the preview is Jason Watkins.

Edit/update: fellow poster CrockettandTubbs posted about it earlier today in the UK & Ireland thread about the BFI's Ghost Stories for Christmas Blu-ray release.