I stumbled across a 30-minute episode called, “Lot No. 249” (2023) last year around this time but failed to make note of the fact that it was part of a long-running holiday special from the UK called A Ghost Story For Christmas (2005-). It wasn’t until this year that another installment in the series — “The Mezzotint” (2021) — popped up on my Prime suggested titles and, prompted by the utter weirdness of the show, I started digging deeper, revealing a treasure trove of 30-minute bite-sized historical spooky mysteries to binge watch. Annoyingly, however, not all of them are labeled as part of the A Ghost Story for Christmas collection, and not all of them are apparently available on Amazon/BritBox/YouTube here in the States, where everything sucks and we can’t have nice things. Even for Christmas.
Now, the tradition of telling scary stories at Christmas is not a typical American one (aside from the reference in Andy Williams’ classic Christmas song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” which always left me wondering wtf he was talking about), but apparently this is a time-honored pastime across the pond. But I am never one to turn down a nice, short historical costume flick with decent costumes and good actors, so I am totally on board with the concept.
At the risk of turning this into a post better suited for a Top 5 Friday, I’ll just offer up for discussion the list of episodes I’ve watched so far. Believe me, I’m binge-watching all of them, just give me time.
“Lot No. 249” (2023)
Like I said, this is the first episode I stumbled across last year, not really understanding what it was or why it such a short stand-alone piece, but I enjoyed the creepy weirdness of it. The episode is based on a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892 and the show more or less conforms to that era with the costuming (which was by Claire Finlay-Thompson, who is notable for her work on The Critic and Houdini & Doyle). An Oxford student discovers that his neighbor is getting up to go good with a reanimated mummy.
“The Mezzotint” (2021)
This episode is based on a ghost story by M.R. James (many of the episodes are based on James’ work, fyi) and is set in 1922. It deals with a haunted mezzotint that comes into the possession of a museum curator who subsequently finds out that he has ancestral ties to the cursed image. No costume designer listed on IMDB, but Ella-Rae Gordon is listed as “principal costume standby.”
“Count Magnus” (2022)
Another M.R. James adaptation. Its set in 1863 and follows a Mr. Wraxhall, a British travel writer who has come to Sweden to write a guidebook, but is massively sidetracked by the story of a 17th-century landowner who was known for his brutality. This one was also costumed by Claire Finlay-Thompson.
“Martin’s Close” (2019)
Yep, another M.R. James adaptation, this one set in 1684 and follows the story of a young man convicted of the murder of a developmentally delayed young woman. No costume designer is listed, but IMDB credits Yolanda Collins as Costume Supervisor, Lottie Cutcher as Costume Assistant, and Anne Thompson as costume trainee. Peter Capaldi is the King’s Counsel.
So, to make it easier for those of us on the wrong side of the pond to find episodes of this delightfully spooky show, I’ve got great news! It appears that all of the episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas are preserved on the Internet Archive for the low, low price of totally free and without ads! There’s a reason why the Internet Archive gets my precious donation money, btw, and this is it. In a world where the Internet is actually not forever, like we all thought it was, the Internet Archive is preserving media, new and old. As a research nerd, this is an invaluable resource and must be protected at all costs. Not least of all because it’s come in clutch time and again when we try to track down hard to find media to review here.
This year’s installment of A Ghost Story for Christmas is set to air on December 24, 2025, in the UK, and stars Joanna Lumley and Tobias Menzes. No telling when us lesser mortals over here in States will get a look at it, but if the Internet Archive has anything to do with it, I’ll be sure to update you all!
Do you have a favorite Ghost Story for Christmas (2005-) episode? Tell us about it in the comments!Â
Find this frock flick at:
Fun fact: Lot No. 249 was also adapted as a modern-day story as part of the Tales From the Darkside movie. IIRC, Christian Slater tried to dispatch the mummy with an electric carving knife. :)
As somebody from the right bank of the Atlantic my best explanation for the pairing of ghost stories and Christmas would be ‘Charles Dickens’ (For what is A CHRISTMAS CAROL if not a ghost story?), although my understanding is that the late M.R. James was a key inspiration for the BBC tradition.
My faves from the series are probably Number 13 from 2006, starring Greg Wise, along with Paul Freeman, David Burke and Tom Burke; Whistle and I’ll Come to You from 2010, starring John Hurt (though this one isn’t a Frock Flick but still a good story); The Tractate Middoth from 2013, starring Sacha Dhawan, John Castle and Louis Jameson (and the first to be written and directed by Mark Gatiss who has written/directed all the subsequent shorts in the series); and The Dead Room from 2018, starring Simon Callow and Anjli Mohindra (another non-Frock Flick one though it does have flashbacks to Callow’s character’s youth in the late 1970s).
I haven’t seen any of the original run from the 1970s though so hopefully they’re included in the ones preserved by the Internet Archive.
Yes! Number 13 was the first one I saw, probably around 2007/2008, and it introduced me to M.R. James. There’s also an adaptation of the story “A View from a Hill”. Like the adaptation of the Mezzotint, it has a darker ending than the original short story. Number 13 is still my favorite James adaptation to rewatch.
I just started the 1970s original run, and they are great (maybe not as Frock Flicks although they are set in the 18th, 19th & early 20th C). The three I’ve seen so far I found on various places — A Warning to the Curious (great title) with a 40 something Peter Vaughn as a late 19th C lower middle class amatuer archeologist (the version with John Hurt is a total rewrite of the MR James story which I found inferior despite Mr. Hurt and Gemma Jones); The Stalls of Barchester, with Robert Hardy in FULL Victorian clery garb and Mutton Chops on YouTube, and The Ash Tree, with a youngish Edward Petherbridge, found on Prime. Don’t get confused — there are also “Ghost Stories for Christmas” which are just Christopher Lee reading the stories. Not that that’s bad, but … Wikipedia has a informative article on the 1970s run of stories –https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Ghost_Story_for_Christmas.
You might arguably include the BBC COUNT DRACULA featuring Mr Louis Jordan in this milieu – since I believe it was broadcast at Christmas and it’s certainly good stuff.
I like the cut of your jib. :)
The ghost stories thing is from the same place as decorated trees, Santa, the date… you guessed it – Christianity’s crowning cultural appropriation achievement: Yule!
Krampus, Berchta, Lutzelfrau, and a cat you would probably find kinship with, they are all spooks who haunt the dark which Yuletide is celebrating the retreat of. There is a host of horrors in Norse legend centered in the deadliest time of the year, though most Anglo-centric Christmas tradition comes from Celtic Yule.
I’ve got to give a shout-out to ‘Schalken the Painter’, which totally terrified but also enthralled me when it aired in Christmas 1979 (I see from its wiki entry that it was an episode of Omnibus, not AGSFC proper). It’s a dramatisation of a short story by Sheridan Le Fanu: Godfried Schalken was a real historical 17th-century Dutch painter best known for his candlelight scenes, a pupil of Gerrit Dou who also figures in the story. The whole production is steeped in Dutch Golden Age painting – the costuming, the sets, the lighting, even the faces. Every scene is really beautiful, as well as scary AF.
As a brit who enjoys all things spooky, I’d guess it’s probably due to the coziness of a good mystery . The JeremyBrettSherlock the ”the Blue Carbuncle” is a holiday classic, though it is quite a simple story. And of course Dickens’s ”Christmas Carol’ sets the bar for ghost stories all round, maybe it’s to do with christmas being a time for loved ones, and those not around anymore? The Lucy Worsley doc ”A Very British Murder” is an interesting look at our fascination with murder mysteries, and why we find them so enjoyable.
Let’s not forget my all-time favourite M R James adaptation, “Lost Hearts” (1973), which is available on YouTube.