Martin's Close (2019)
The latest Ghost Story for Christmas from Mark Gatiss is a nice tidy and occasionally creepy tale of a murder trial set in the 17th century.
The always excellent Peter Capaldi plays a barrister prosecuting a wealthy young nobleman for the murder of a young woman from a lesser background, in front of the 'Hanging Judge' Jeffreys.
It's quite a low budget affair and the way it's composed telling the story with two framing devices reminded me of the Christopher Lee / Robert Powell Christmas story telling series (Sections are read in the present day by Simon Williams) as much as it did the classic Ghost Stories for Christmas. It does hark back to all three due to the fact that
Martin's Close is from the pen of the great M.R. James as well.
As well as being creepy, especially the finale, there's a wicked streak of black humour thoughout in particular from Elliot Levey who comes across more like Judge John Deed at his most playful than at least my idea of Judge Jeffreys, and the tale also delves into class struggle as well as ghostly goings on.
So whilst this may not be up there with the very best Ghost Stories for Christmas i did really enjoy it and would love to see it released on disc by the BFI in time for next Christmas along with Gatiss' other entries into the series
The Tractate Middoth (2013) and
The Dead Room (2018)