A Ghost Story for Christmas

A Ghost Story for Christmas
Title screen of The Signalman, the 1976 adaptation. Because this was the first non-James story, the strand's title appears on screen for the first time.
Created by	Lawrence Gordon Clark
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	12 (8 in the original series and 4 in the revival series.)
Production
Running time	30–50 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC
Picture format	colour, 4:3 (original series) colour, 16:9 (revival series)
Original release	24 December 1971 – 25 December 1978
Chronology
Related shows	Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968)

A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived in 2005 on BBC Four. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.

Each instalment is a separate adaptation of a short story, ranges between 30 and 50 minutes in duration, and features well-known British actors such as Clive Swift, Robert Hardy, Peter Vaughan, Edward Petherbridge and Denholm Elliott. The first five are adaptations of ghost stories by M. R. James, the sixth is based on a short story by Charles Dickens, and the two final instalments are original screenplays by Clive Exton and John Bowen respectively. The stories were titled A Ghost Story for Christmas in listings such as the Radio Times, although this never appeared on screen, where they were regarded as individual films.

An earlier black-and-white adaptation of M. R. James's Whistle and I'll Come to You, directed by Jonathan Miller and shown as part of the series Omnibus in 1968, is often cited as an influence upon the production of the films, and is sometimes included as part of the series. The series was revived by the BBC in 2005 with a new set of adaptations that were produced intermittently over the next few years.