The final film in the original Ghost Storiesstrand was the first after Whistle and I’ll Come to You not to be directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. It remains the oddest and most narratively oblique of the series, never openly explaining the nature of its horror, in the process leaving itself open to multiple interpretations. a b Pfaff, Richard W., "Montague Rhodes James", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online Edition). Oxford University Press. September 2004. [1]. Retrieved 2010-08-15.

a b c d Gordon Clark, Lawrence, interview for The M. R. James Collection. London: BFI Publishing. 2012. Newly recorded audio commentary for The Signalman by TV historian Jon Dear and actor and writer Mark Gatiss

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All of the films in this collection have been remastered in 2K from the 16mm camera negatives held by the BBC Archive and are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Unusually for a Blu-ray, the films are presented in 1080i rather than 1080p, but this was standard at the BBC for some time even after HD became a production format standard.

When the Hollywood remake machine really got going a few years ago, I remember my partner asking me why they only ever chose to remake films that didn't need remaking instead of ones that had botched up a decent idea. It's about money, of course, and it's long since been established that you've an easier sell if you're trading on an already famous name. The same principle theoretically applies to television, at least if you're selling advertising space, but when it comes to the BBC, which in theory is not required to bow to the non-creative demands of companies hawking products, then the motives are less clear. I, for one, was certainly a little bemused by the decision to remake what remains to this day the finest made-for-TV ghost story. On the surface, there seemed to be no good reason for it beyond producing a version that was in colour, set in modern times, and whose image filled the by-then standard 16:9 frame (which it doesn't, as it happens, having a 2.35:1 aspect ratio). But I was nonetheless intrigued. A lot of film horror has washed under the bridge since Jonathan Miller's superb 1968 TV chiller, and it was just possible that a new take could still prove effective if it approached the source material from a different angle. It certainly does that. Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee ‘Number 13 by MR James’ (2000, Eleanor Yule, 30 mins) The reception of the two later instalments, Stigma and The Ice House, was decidedly critical. Most reviewers concluded that switching to original stories instead of adaptations was "misjudged". David Kerekes writes that The Ice House is almost "totally forgotten". [51] Wheatley has commented that they heralded a divergence from the stage-inspired horror of the 1940s and 1950s to a more modern Gothic horror based in the present day, losing in the process the "aesthetic of restraint" evident in the original adaptations. [19] The Stalls of Barchester". British Film Institute Database. Archived from the original on 1 June 2009 . Retrieved 22 August 2010.For a good part of its running time it would, I think, be fair to describe The Treasure of Abbot Thomasmore as a detective story than a tale of the supernatural. I'd even go as far as to suggest that the investigative elements are, on the whole, more effectively realised than the ghost story that they only subtly suggest and belatedly give way to. An aristocrat inherits his family estate and is haunted by visions of his ancestor's role in a witchcraft trial. [35] Newly recorded audio commentaries for Stigma and The Ice House by writer Kim Newman and writer and filmmaker Sean Hogan