GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS

Originally broadcast in the dying hours of Christmas Eve, the BBC's A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS series was a fixture of the seasonal schedules throughout the 60's and 70's. Tucked away from the more joyous yuletide celebrations late at night, the hour long films gave viewers an extra winter chill, continuing a long tradition of spooky stories that undercut the seasonal cheer. The films are classic slow-burners. There's no rush to get to the scares, nor any false jump-shocks to punctuate proceedings; just a buildup of dread, taking time to concoct a thick atmosphere of unease, with strange, intriguing characters, things glimpsed out of the corner of the eye, and then great payoffs that are impossible to completely shake off.

We'll be presenting two of the best films from the annual series. THE SIGNALMAN is adapted from a story by Charles Dickens in which isolation, confinement and impotence can light cinders in the darkest corners of the mind, cause vibrations in the soul and signal the most terrible of horrors. WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU is maybe the purest distillate of that real essence of all great stories: the collapse of rationality in the face of an overwhelming supernatural event. Adapted from a ghost story first told by the master of the form, M.R. James, at one of his legendary nocturnal Christmas gatherings in his chambers when he taught at Eton, this is one of the best haunted stories ever put to film. So gather close round the fire and help us keep alive the fantastic tradition of sharing terrifying tales in the dead of winter.