#mr james christmas

[marypickfords]

The Stalls of Barchester (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1971) A Warning to the Curious (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1972) Lost Hearts (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1973) The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1974) The Ash Tree (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1975)

“For all five of these adaptations, Gordon Clark worked with cinematographer John McGlashan and sound recordist Dick Manton, who he credits with establishing the gloomy look that would be the hallmark of the series (as well as editor Roger Waugh who edited all the original series’ James adaptations save 1973’s ‘Lost Hearts’). Central to that aesthetic were the authentic East Anglian locations that have been the inspiration for many a terror tale, even aside from those of M.R. James.

‘James lived in East Anglia—the region that encompasses Norfolk and Suffolk—for most of his life,’ explains Helen Wheatley, citing this as one reason James set many of his stories there. ‘However, there is also a broader sense of the region as being rather out on a limb, a relative hinterland, which lends itself to ghost story telling,’ she continues. ‘In James’ stories, and their television adaptations, the geography and landscape of the region—expanses of flat land, the whispering grasses of the East Anglian coast line, sparsely populated agricultural land—has a particularly haunting quality.’

This landscape is key to the series’ hauntological appeal. Scholar Derek Johnston has an extensive catalogue of writing that examines nostalgia in relation to the Christmas ghost story—and the A Ghost Story for Christmas series in particular—and notes that the Victorian middle class idealization of rural life was subverted by James’ stories, which presented the country as peaceful on the surface but a place of dark, tumultuous secrets. He also points out that East Anglia is a land of invaders and colonizers, writing in his essay ‘Season, Landscape and Identity in the BBC Ghost Story for Christmas’ that ‘The connection to the local soil and landscape runs generations deep, but it has also been built upon the remains of earlier populations, with earlier connections to that landscape, overrun by the incomers...the landscape may encourage identification with the nation, but it also emphasises how the landscape is interpreted through the history of human action upon it.’” — Kier-La Janisse, from Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television (2017).

[mr-merlin]

Creatures of Magic ✨ Merry Christmas everyone! (insta | timelapse here! | commissions/prints)

[akendara]

A gift for Jim🖤

[garneneva]

Merry Christmas to people who like comic books

Merry Christmas to people who have only seen the muppets Christmas carol

Merry Christmas to young artists

Merry Christmas to Star Trek fans

Happy Hanukkah to people celebrating this time of year

Merry Christmas to people who secretly enjoy country music

[chernobog13]

Sweaters too ugly...eyes bleeding...!

[buonaseranatasha]

Happy Hour at the Institute

[thorcep]

I stayed up til 5 am on the 25th frantically making a 24 page jily Christmas comic. Have I ever made such a long comic before? No. Am I going to make it regardless? ABSOLUTELY!!!!

Here are some character designs sketches to give you a feel for it😘 stay tuned

[number1spongebobfan]

Thomas' Christmas Party [1984]

[mariocki]

Lalla Ward makes a brief appearance as Lady Augusta, intended bride to an ill-fated aristocrat, in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree (BBC, 1975)

[marypickfords]

Whistle and I'll Come to You (Jonathan Miller, 1968)

[pagan-stitches]

Christmas Eve viewing:

A Ghost Story for Christmas: Count Magnus (2022)

and

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree (1975)

Both were based on M. R. James short stories.

I really enjoyed The Ash Tree. It was genuinely creepy.

[akendara]

Spock, little Jim and the pet Dragon

[angelobadalamenti]

Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990) dir. James Ivory

I was told when Paul went to the hospital for the last time, he secretly went up into the attic and found a box of Christmas stockings, and he slipped his old compass inside Joanne's stocking. So that her first Christmas without him, she would have a present. - Ethan Hawke, The Last Movie Stars (2022)

[cult-princess]

all i want for christmas is one night with JPM in room 64 at the hotel cortez

[oscarwetnwilde]

A happy and Merry Christmas post and ending 2024 with a post dedicated to James Wilby as Mr. Vincent, in an episode of The Famous Five.

[nedison]

Quis est iste qui venit?