Dec 31, 2024
A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone (BBC, 2024)
"It is their world, my poor lamb. Theirs to sully and despoil."
"Whose?"
"They're all alike, all of them. Them two knights, all them centuries ago. Your husband. Mine. Whether hewn from flesh or stone... they are all as one."
#a ghost story for christmas#woman of stone#horror tv#single play#new tv#2024#e. nesbit#mark gatiss#celia imrie#monica dolan#éanna hardwicke#phoebe horn#mawaan rizwan#ryan ellsworth#ashley jarvis#alberto bona#an improvement on Gatiss' offering from last year (time has only made me think worse of his Lot no.249 adaptation‚ im afraid)#but what this gains in competence (it's a p well told‚ well put together little thing) it loses in atmosphere: this was fine but it never#really began to approach creepy or spooky. and Gatiss can do that‚ if he tries: his Tractate Middoth and Martin's Close adaptations were#both very fine bits of modern telly horror. and this should have been; I'm very fond of Nesbit‚ a fiery socialist and writer of short#horror fiction but better remembered for her children's literature. Gatiss gives this tale a welcome nudge into more overt (but still#relatively mild) feminist territory‚ and the able cast are all very good (Dolan in particular shines during her scenes relating the myth at#the centre of the story). but this doesn't do its primary job of chilling or thrilling. it's Fine; it should be more than that#ho hum. for all my grousing im still very happy that we even have the ghost story for christmas strand back#its continued existence is far from assured and every year it goes on is a small triumph