Abbot Thomas News Today

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas: Dramatisation of MR James' short story. The Treasure of Abbot Thomas airs on Talking Pictures TV at 11:45 PM, Thursday 18 April. Dramatisation of MR James' short story

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas: Dramatisation of MR James' short story. The Treasure of Abbot Thomas airs on Talking Pictures TV at 8:00 PM, Monday 11 March. Dramatisation of MR James' short story

With his new Conan Doyle ghost story airing on Christmas Eve, we pulled up a fireside chair with Mark Gatiss to discuss his favourite Ghost Story for Christmas and which other haunting short stories he’d love to adapt.

A conversation about this haunted history, the "British Spirit", and those traditional ghost stories for Christmas.

The BBC's television presentations of M.R. James stories became the spookiest tradition, A Ghost Story for Christmas. Here's all you need to know.

The Golden Age of British Short Stories 1890-1914. Edited by Philip Hensher. Penguin Books. This is the third anthology of short stories selected and edited for Penguin Books by Philip Hensher. Why does he describe it as a “golden age”? Because within this period three key elements came together to create a unique opportunity for writers and their readers: the 1871 Education Act had brought about mass literacy; print was cheap, assisting the rise of multiple magazines; and – crucially –...

A haunted Denholm Elliot in The Signalman Credit: YouTube There is a scare in The Signalman which Mark Gatiss remembers vividly from childhood. In the film — adapted from the Charles Dickens story, as part of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series — Denholm Elliot is haunted by the spectre of fate, a mysterious figure whose arm is raised to cover its own face, as if shielding itself from an oncoming rush of terror.  Until, that is, the mysterious figure reveals itself. “When the...