CHRISTMAS GHOST STORIES # 3 - A VIEW FROM A HILL (2005)

DIRECTED BY Luke Watson

SCREENPLAY BY Peter Harness based on the short story by M.R. James

STARRING - Mark Letheren as Dr. Fanshawe, Pip Torrens as Squire Richards,  David Burke as Patten, Simon Linnell as Baxter.

PLOT - Dr Fanshawe - a young archeologist - is hired to catalogue and value an archeological collection belonging to Squire Richards, a down at heel aristocrat who is looking to sell the collection to boost his dwindling funds.

Fanshawe borrows a pair of old binoculars and soon discovers that they possess the uncanny ability to let him see a nearby ruined church as it appeared many years ago whenever he looks through them.

What do these seemingly magical binoculars have to do with a long dead watchmaker, what is their link to the nearby haunted Gallow's Hill and what dark forces has this bizarre window to the past awakened ?

PERFORMANCES - After a few decades away from our screens, in 2005 the BBC decided to revive thier much loved Ghost Story For Christmas series with this new entry.

Once again based upon a story by M.R. James, this new production bears much in common with it's illustrious 70's predecessors. There's also some differences - the main one being that the cast seems much more youthful than you got back in the 70's. This trend was probably most evident in the casting of Mark Letheren as Fanshawe.

The character of Fanshawe is a pretty typical James creation - a slightly stuffy academic who meddles in things he probably shouldn't do and ends up being menaced by a supernatural foe. It's years since I read the original story but I'm sure Fanshawe is much younger here than he was in the original.

Letheren gives a decent enough performance but Fanshawe does seem a little 'wet behind the ears', this works to an extent as you can put it down to his boyish curiosity leading him into danger but at the same time you can't really take him seriously as a supposedly respected archeologist as he just looks and seems so young.

The other main problem is that as a central character Fanshawe just isn't that interesting. He comes along, let's his curiosity get the better of him and ends up being taught a tough lesson. The end. Personally I like a little more characterisation to sink my teeth into, but I'm guessing this is probably also a flaw in James's original tale as well.

Probably my favourite character in this is Squire Richards played by Pip Torrens. Once again there's not much to him in terms of depth, what you see is what you get - he's an aristocrat whose money is running out, he's not particularly big on social skills but he's a decent enough chap deep down. 

The Squire's best scenes are the ones he has with his long suffering butler - Patten (David Burke), the two are like an old married couple constantly bickering but with an underlying respect and friendship for each other. Richards constantly berates Patten's lack of cooking skills (he can't afford a cook anymore, so Patten gets lumbered with the job), whilst Patten only sticks around because he's literally got nowhere else to go and is too old to find a new position. The scenes between the two are well played and quite funny in parts. It's like they're both having a private competition between themselves to see who can be the most grumpy and socially awkward.

SFX - Not really any as such. The magically reappearing old church as seen through the binoculars is just done via quickly edited camera work and cutting (with maybe a smidge of CGI here and there).

As for the ghosts that come after Fanshawe ? It's just a bunch of actors shot from a distance giving it a sort of "blink and you'll miss it/seen out of the corner of your eye" feel. It's all pretty subtle and quite old school for 2005.

VIOLENCE - The ghosts of the hanged men from Gallow's Hill don't like Fanshawe snooping around (or using magic binoculars that where glued together using the products of thier bones...funny that), so they basically gang up on poor old Fanshawe, kick the shit out of him and then try to hang him. This pretty much happens off camera. We really don't see anything except Fanshawe's kicking legs as he's slowly garrotted. Fortunately good old Squire Richards and trusty old Patten turn up to save him.

Fanshawe buggers off home the next day - a slightly more bruised but much wiser man. Considering the horrible fates that befall most of M.R. James's protagonists he gets off quite lightly really...

RATING - A View From A Hill is a decent enough adaptation and a reasonably solid start for the modern day strand of BBC Christmas ghost stories. 

It's let down by it's lack of an interesting central character and also by not seeing much of the actual ghosts themselves. Conceptually it's strong enough and it was nice to see the BBC revive the tradition but this doesn't really hold up to the standards set by the 70's series and also isn't as good as what was to come later.

Still worth a watch though - 3 and a half time-slip inducing binoculars out of 5.

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