The Stalls of Barchester (1971)

Directed by

Lawrence Gordon Clark

Genre

tv movie, horror

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

45 min

Rating

6.4 of 10 from 21 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A scholar investigates the mysterious death of an archdeacon 50 years earlier in a cathedral. The story unfolds through documents and supernatural hints from the past.

atmosphericslow-burnunsettlinggothiceeriequietscholarlymelancholic

What happens

The Stalls of Barchester is a short film which serves as the first of the British supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas. Written, produced, and directed by the series' creator Lawrence Gordon Clark, it is based on the ghost story "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" by M. R. James, first published in the collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911). It stars Robert Hardy as Archdeacon Haynes of the fictional Barchester Cathedral, whose mysterious death is investigated 50 years later by the scholar Dr. Black (Clive Swift), and first aired on BBC1 on 24 December 1971. Clark was inspired to initiate the series by Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), based on a James story and directed by Jonathan Miller for the BBC documentary strand Omnibus, and the oral tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas of which James' stories were a part. It was commissioned by Paul Fox and, like Miller's film, produced by the BBC Documentary Unit; Clark's approach was likewise inspired by his background as a documentarian, particularly his insistence on location shooting at Norwich Cathedral on colour 16mm film, which would become hallmarks of the series' original run. Since airing, the film has received praise as a work of supernatural television and horror cinema, and as a strong inaugural instalment of what would become a long-running strand. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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