Split Picks finds the holiday spirit with a look at two BBC Ghost Stories For Christmas
No one would actually take something from a grave with an ominous warning written on it and then proceed to put said item in their mouth, right? Split Picks is back to give a definitive answer: no. But as author M.R. James and the BBC would have you believe, there is at least one person who would risk it all in the name of disbelieving superstition. Though ghosts and Christmas time may conjure images of A Christmas Carol, in the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC aired a yearly ghost story, often adapted from James stories at the holidays. With Bennett Glace and special guest Zach Fleming, director of Mickey Dogface, Split Picks discusses the classic A Ghost Story For Christmas entries Whistle And I’ll Come To You (1968) and The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974).
In Whistle, a growling professor on holiday finds some souvenirs come with risks. It also proves that horror is sometimes at its most effective when at its simplest and most elemental. In Abbot Thomas, a clergyman and his student seek the hidden treasure from an alchemist who left behind clues about his alleged fortune. Once discovered, the clergyman meets the goopiest entity in the BBC ghost canon.
Are the M.R. James stories superior to their adaptations? Did the series reboot in the 2010s live up to the originals? Will Bennett’s streak of saying “Lynchian” in every episode finally come to an end? Find out in this special holiday episode of Split Picks!
Listen to the episode below, or on Spotify, Apple, or Amazon:
Read Bennett’s full essay on Whistle And I’ll Come To You
