Jan 6, 2024
A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (BBC, 1974)
"In what other parish church in the advowson of the good Abbot Thomas shall we find Bartholomew, Jude, Simon and Matthias all together in one window?"
"Not the 'good' Abbot Thomas, Peter. That was never suggested, not even by himself."
#a ghost story for christmas#the treasure of abbot thomas#horror tv#single play#bbc#1974#m. r. james#john bowen#lawrence gordon clark#michael bryant#paul lavers#virginia balfour#anne blake#sheila dunn#frank mills#john herrington#peggy aitchison#rosemary hill#ok so the festive season may be over‚ but you know what they say: a Ghost Story for Christmas is for life‚ not just for.. uh..#yeah. anyway. continuing to revisit these peerless xmas shockers. i constantly flipflop on favourites and most scariests as i said#in the tags on my Warning to the Curious post‚ but i think this is a strong contender for creepiest entry.. certainly the final 10 minutes#are quite unlike anything else the other stories achieved. i have to point out too one of the greatest uses of silence in classic brit tv;#the final shots are played without a sound and are all the more terrifying for it. beautifully done stuff‚ LGC at his most formal perhaps#in terms of the beautiful composition of this piece. the great Michael Bryant (one of our most undervalued actors) superb as the clergyman#whose noble scholarly intentions and slightly sneering skepticism guve way in one awful rash moment to an impulse of very human greed#but an impulse that won't go unpunished... as ever Clark is content not to spoonfeed‚ leaving us to draw conclusions and connect gaps#(a genuine question for any fans who've seen it: do you think Peter put the treasure back? i never can decide)#a masterclass in subtle writing‚ direction and performance (and sadly everything this year's offering wasn't..)
