CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES # 2 - THE STALLS OF BARCHESTER (1971)

DIRECTED & WRITTEN by Lawrence Gordon Clark based on the short story "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" by M.R. James 

STARRING  - Clive Swift as Dr. Black,  Robert Hardy as Dr. Haynes,  Thelma Barlow as Letitia Haynes,  Harold Bennett as Archdeacon Pulteney.

PLOT - 1932 - A scholar named Dr. Black has the task of cataloguing the Library of Barchester Cathedral. Black is shown a 50 year old diary detailing the events leading up to the mysterious death of Archdeacon Haynes. Slowly but surely Dr. Black begins to piece together the story regarding the strange circumstances that led to the clergyman's death and his horrific and terrifying final days...

1882 - We see the story of Haynes. Dr Haynes is an ambitious priest, he is tipped to take over as Archdeacon upon the event of the current incumbent - Archdeacon Pulteney's death. However Pulteney is a robust old fellow and seems in no hurry to shuffle off his mortal coil just to satisfy Haynes's ambitions.

As the years pass, Haynes grows increasingly frustrated. Finally upon Pulteney reaching his 93rd birthday Haynes's frustration gets the better of him. He pays Pulteney's maid to remove the carpet rod from the top step of Pulteney's staircase causing the old man to have a fatal fall down the flight of stairs. At last Haynes is promoted to the position of Archdeacon.

However, the spirit of his murdered predecessor is restless - Haynes starts to hear voices in the night when he is alone. He also starts to see visions of a grim reaper and a mysterious black cat. It soon becomes obvious that he is not going mad but is indeed being haunted...

DIALOUGE  - Haynes diary - "October the 11th - Candles lit in the choir for the first time at evening prayers. It came as a shock...I find that I absolutely shrink from the dark season."

PERFORMANCES  - M.R. James very often used to insert a fictionalised version of himself into his own stories. This fictional version of James would act as the stories Narrator. No doubt these "first hand accounts" from a noted scholar made his stories seem more realistic - and therefore scarier - when he read/performed these stories in front of his eager audience of students and fellow professors at King's College, Cambridge on dark Christmas time nights.

The character of Dr.Black (Clive Swift) performs this same function in the TV version. As a result we don't really find out much about Dr Black other than he's a respected academic who has been charged with cataloguing the library. Black does seem to have an inquisitive nature and as the story cuts back and forth to the "present day" of 1932 we see him slowly piece together the truth about what really happened to Archdeacon Haynes 50 years ago. Clive Swift plays the role well but he doesn't really get that much to do (he is afterall only the narrator). Luckily for Swift he would get a second chance to play Dr. Black in the following year's entry in the BBC's Ghost Story For Christmas series - A Warning To The Curious. In this second outing Swift would get a much meatier role in the story...but more on that another time.

The story's main protaganist Dr Haynes is played by Robert Hardy in the flashback sequences which form the main bulk of the story. Haynes is shown to be the ultimate hypocrite - a so called "man of God" who is not above a little spot of murder to help him achieve his ambitions. At the start of the story we see his growing frustration in a montage sequence showing the years passing by and his dreams being no closer to being fulfilled. It's a great sequence as we see several of Pulteney's birthday celebrations -  with each passing birthday there are less and less people there, Pulteney is obviously outliving everyone else. The frustrated look on Haynes's face is priceless as is the look of satisfaction on Pulteney's. The old boy just knows he's pissing Haynes off simply by remaining alive and seems to be enjoying every second of his discomfort.

Eventually Haynes hits breaking point and the foul deed is committed. Haynes at first acts like a strutting, preening peacock - supremely confident and arrogant in his new position. Full of self righteous hypocrisy he seems to justify his act by saying that Pulteney's death was for the good of the Cathedral - the old man had made a few financial mistakes with the funding of the place which Haynes is able to rectify.

As time passes we see Haynes begin to crumble under the pressure of the increasingly strange supernatural events that besiege him. There are some wonderfully creepy scenes of Haynes wandering around his home in candlelight, walking up and down the same staircase where Pulteney met his end. We hear ominous whispers and laughter, at one point a hideous looking hand taps Haynes on the shoulder causing him to gasp in sheer fright. Hardy plays these scenes with a real sense of revulsion and shock. It's a great performance, you can really get a sense of this arrogant and spiteful man beginning to totally unravel and be reduced to a gibbering fearful wreck.

SFX - There's not a lot in the way of special effects. The main one being the creepy taloned hand which menaces Haynes at various points. It's not a bad effect but perhaps looks a little rubbery. To be fair it's only ever on screen for a few seconds and is usually quite darkly lit. It does it's job well enough.

We also get the sequence where Haynes touches one of the wooden statues in the Cathedral's stalls and it appears to become a real grim reaper. This is achieved by simply showing a shot of what appears to be a real skull with a cloth hood draped over it. Simple but very effective...

VIOLENCE  - We get to see poor old Pulteney tumble to his death down the stairs. The shot of his dead face cuts to a shot of somebody cracking a boiled egg with a spoon. This nice bit of symbolism leaves us in no doubt as to the cause of the old man's death and is darkly funny.

At the end of the story its Haynes's turn to take a fatal tumble down the very same flight of stairs. This death fall is caused in part by the ghostly hand scratching Haynes's face with its claws...

Haynes falls to his death (presumably dying either from head injuries, a broken neck or sheer fright) and we are treated to a sight of his bloody torn dead face. It's all a bit gory for half past ten on the then quite conservative BBC 2.

RATING  - The Stalls of Barchester is an atmospheric and moody little chiller that gets the BBC'S Ghost Story For Christmas series off to a flying start. It has a compelling central performance from Hardy and perfectly evokes both a gloomy wintery atmosphere and man's primal fear of the dark and what may lurk within it.

It's not perfect. There's the odd little fault here and there - the main one being in the montage sequence which is supposed to show about a decade passing and yet it shows the same bunch of choirboys that never seem to get any older over a ten year period (they all stay looking about 12 years old). It's not a dealbreaker but it does take you out of the story a little when you notice things like that.

Overall though this is a great (and pretty faithful) adaptation of M.R. James's original tale that's ideal fare if you want a chill on a cold Christmassy night. 4 and a half terrified archdeacons out of 5.

ART -

Below is (I think) the first edition of More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary where "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" was originally published...

Also shown is the BFI DVD release and an audio book cover for the story...