The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special, first broadcast on 27th December 2000. Set in 1970s Duisburg, this is one of three stories in the portmanteau style special is a forerunner and worthy companion piece to Inside No 9's The Devil of Christmas. The era is lovingly recreated (as always) to almost nauseating effect... Frau Lipp's nipples in particular are once seen, never forgotten.
Well What else could it be except M R James' Number 13 (yes, apart from the 1980s horror slasher type film Friday 13th but it's ot really my bag and also not entirely sure it's even got a supernatural element in it). Number 13 is one of my favourite M R James stories. This is slightly odd as I'm not keen on ghosts who make impossible physical changes to things - even if I don't believe in ghosts I want their fictional representatives to at least be remotely credible. The physical change here is quite a major one, the numbered room of the title, which seems to come and go at will, baffling the resident of an ancient hotel in the Danish city of Viborg. The resident, it will come as no surprise, is a scholar, researching Christianity in early modern Denmark. His research will lead him to a rather startling conclusion regarding the shapeshifting nature of his creaky old digs.
I think I love it so much maybe at least partly because when I think of it I hear Christopher Lee's narration from the selection he did for the BBC in 2000, which is now available on Audible. The BBC also made it into one of their Ghost Stories for Christmas in 2006, which is available on Youtube. The symbols around the margins of the letter, by the way, are actually Icelandic magical staves, including my favourite one, to 'put fear into an enemy'. (Short and slightly off the topic advert: If you're ever in the Icelandic town of Hólmavik go and visit the Museum of Witchcraft which is brimming with staves, and also a pair of necropants - magical trousers made out of human skin. I bloody love Iceland.)
This is an edited and updated version of an earlier blog post!
A Warning to the Curious by M R James. This one is based on my reading of the story rather than the TV adaptation for the Ghost Stories for Christmas strand (or NOT CHEATING as you may prefer to see it...). Another meddling antiquarian comes a cropper after digging up an ancient crown and then finds that he 'couldn't put it back', words I can only now hear in the velvet tones of Christopher Lee, who narrated the story for his own very wonderful short TV strand which was first broadcast in 2000 and can be watched here
