This time of year and Ghosts

What is it about this time of year that makes me crave Ghost stories, be they on the screen or the printed page? I think Dickens is to blame, with his famous festive short story! That particular tale has been adapted on numerous occasions, of course, and there have been some excellent ones...naturally I will single out the 1984 George C. Scott version, not only because it was filmed in this fair town, but also because when I first saw it, circa 1986/87 it scared the sh*t out of me!
Ghosts have always bothered me, far more than Vampires, Zombies and the like, and in recent years the BBC has resurrected the tradition of adapting the short stories of the wonderful M.R James for Christmas; from 1971 to 1975 the BBC adapted 'The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral' (dropping the Cathedral from the title of the transmitted version), 'A Warning to the Curious', 'Lost Hearts', 'The Treasure of Abbott Thomas', and 'The Ash Tree'. Later additions to the series included Charles Dickens' 'The Signalman' and ended with two original stories titled 'Stigma' and 'The Ice House'. With the exception of the last two, I have seen all of these wonderfully creepy, and at times unsettling pieces of television, all skilfully directed by Lawrence Gordon Clarke, and can heartily recommend watching them if BBC4 repeats them, as in previous years.
Best of these in my opinion is the 1972 offering, 'A Warning to the Curious', featuring Peter Vaughan as amateur archaelogist Paxton and Clive 'Richard Bucket' Swift as Dr Black who becomes involved in Paxton's discovery of an Anglo-Saxon Crown buried to defend the East Coast from Viking invasion. What Paxton doesn't bank on is the Crown's ghostly guardian....I won't spoil the plot, but as one of only two of these stories to be available on DVD, it is well worth getting and putting on at 11pm on Christmas eve with the lights off, a mince pie and a stiff drink.
'The Signalman' adapted by Andrew Davies, of 'Pride and Prejudice' and numerous other Dickens' series fame, is similarly available on DVD, and again a very good story. Denholm Elliott plays the haunted title character with suitable paranoia and fear, fear of the mysterious figure calling 'Helloa! Below there!'
These weren't the only ghost stories transmitted during the festive period, which brings me to two superb screenplays by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale; first was incidentally broadcast originally in 1972, titled 'The Stone Tape' starring Michael Bryant and Jane Asher, in which a team of electronics experts working in an old mansion discover a completely new recording method in the stone of a disused room of the house, after a series of creepy visions of a maid falling down some stairs, but what made her fall? The second Nigel Kneale related Christmas screenplay was again an adaptation, this time of Susan Hill's chilling book 'The Woman in Black'. Seeing the TV version of this gave me nightmares for some considerable time after I first saw it, where a sinister black clad woman terrorizes a young solicitor who blunders into an ancient curse when attempting to tie up a recently deceased old woman's affairs. Kneale made some changes in his script, the character's names being altered in a few cases, but the appearances of the woman are very faithful to the book and stay with you long after you've switched off the TV set...
Have a spooky Christmas!