As is TMINE’s want at this time of year, let’s celebrate the birth of Christ with a scary story by MR James.
Part of BBC Two’s legendary annual A Ghost Story For Christmas strand, The Ash Tree documents the tale of Sir Richard Fell, who has just inherited Castringham, a country seat with an unfortunate history. The house has been cursed since the day his ancestor, Sir Matthew Fell, condemned a woman to death for witchcraft. It is soon discovered that the ancient ash tree outside his bedroom window is the root of the problem…
Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, it stars Edward Petherbridge as Sir Richard and features that Lalla Ward off of Doctor Who as well. It was also written not by Gordon Clark for a change, but by David Rudkin of Artemis 81 and Penda’s Fen fame.
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
The TV programmes the BFI will show in December 2019, including previews of Dracula, Ghost Story for Christmas and Cinderella After Ever After, a pantomime season and Missing Believed Wiped […]