The Stalls of Barchester was the first episode of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas, an annual tradition that would endure until 1978 and then get revived on an irregular basis in the twenty-first century. The first five episodes are all adaptations of ghost stories written by acclaimed author M. R. James, in this case The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, and all except for the last of the episodes in the original nineteen-seventies run would be directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Over time, they have acquired a cult following that earned them a DVD release from the British Film Institute packed with extras; The Stalls of Barchester however is not the best of them.
Lawrence Gordon Clark was a documentary director for the BBC back when television companies had in-house directors, and The Stalls of Barchester was his first dramatic production. As well as directing it, he also wrote the screenplay, making a few modifications to James' original story. Therein lies the problem: Clark adds a framing sequence set in the present day, in which academic Dr Black discovers the diary of the late Archdeacon Haynes in the library of Barchester Cathedral and gradually uncovers what happened to the man. Unfortunately, this framing sequence keeps interrupting the narrative and prevents the atmosphere from ever getting quite as creepy as it should.
Nevertheless, The Stalls of Barchester has enough to commend it to make it easy to understand why it started an eight-year Christmas tradition. The main narrative, which follows Haynes as he gains his position, is implied to have been cursed for murdering his predecessor, and meets an unpleasant end, proves both gripping and creepy. In retrospect, it fits neatly into the bracket of folk horror, with Haynes discovery that pagan beliefs persisted in the Barchester area within living memory and influenced the strange carvings on the cathedral's stalls. The story is atmospheric, but the real chills are delivered by Clark's direction. He demonstrates here - and will do so again - an ability to unsettle, to unnerve, and to send shivers down the spine with brief glimpses of mostly-unseen horrors. Pause the DVD release and the claw that rests on Haynes' shoulder and later kills him looks rubbery: catch brief sight of it in context and it can still make the audience jump.
As Jonathan Miller did before him in the 1968 Omnibus production Whistle and I'll Come to You, Clark pioneers jump scares long before the term was coined. And for sheer atmosphere, his use of lighting and surreal edits (for example when Haynes' sees the skull beneath his hand rather than the carving) was seldom surpassed at the time, certainly not on television. The fact that the entire episode was shot in 16 mm film - as indeed would the rest of the series be - adds an air of cold realism. The Norwich Cathedral location filming and the BBC's characteristic flair for costume drama help considerably, as does the appropriately orchestral soundtrack.
The original run of A Ghost Story for Christmas is a like a Who's Who of British television actors at the time. The lead role in The Stalls of Barchester is taken by Robert Hardy, who conveys the character's transition from aloofness and arrogance to growing terror extremely well. Dr Black meanwhile is played by Clive Swift, and was possibly intended to link the adaptations: he would return the following year in A Warning to the Curious, which Clark would also write the screenplay for.
Had the framing sequence of The Stalls of Barchester been omitted - or at least confined to the beginning and the end of the episode - the resulting production would have been far more effective than it is. But despite that, it remains an impressive start to A Ghost Story for Christmas and a strong dramatic debut for Lawrence Gordon Clark. And he would learn enough from the experience to make the following year's festive terror one of the most memorable of the entire program.
Lawrence Gordon Clark was a documentary director for the BBC back when television companies had in-house directors, and The Stalls of Barchester was his first dramatic production. As well as directing it, he also wrote the screenplay, making a few modifications to James' original story. Therein lies the problem: Clark adds a framing sequence set in the present day, in which academic Dr Black discovers the diary of the late Archdeacon Haynes in the library of Barchester Cathedral and gradually uncovers what happened to the man. Unfortunately, this framing sequence keeps interrupting the narrative and prevents the atmosphere from ever getting quite as creepy as it should.
Nevertheless, The Stalls of Barchester has enough to commend it to make it easy to understand why it started an eight-year Christmas tradition. The main narrative, which follows Haynes as he gains his position, is implied to have been cursed for murdering his predecessor, and meets an unpleasant end, proves both gripping and creepy. In retrospect, it fits neatly into the bracket of folk horror, with Haynes discovery that pagan beliefs persisted in the Barchester area within living memory and influenced the strange carvings on the cathedral's stalls. The story is atmospheric, but the real chills are delivered by Clark's direction. He demonstrates here - and will do so again - an ability to unsettle, to unnerve, and to send shivers down the spine with brief glimpses of mostly-unseen horrors. Pause the DVD release and the claw that rests on Haynes' shoulder and later kills him looks rubbery: catch brief sight of it in context and it can still make the audience jump.
As Jonathan Miller did before him in the 1968 Omnibus production Whistle and I'll Come to You, Clark pioneers jump scares long before the term was coined. And for sheer atmosphere, his use of lighting and surreal edits (for example when Haynes' sees the skull beneath his hand rather than the carving) was seldom surpassed at the time, certainly not on television. The fact that the entire episode was shot in 16 mm film - as indeed would the rest of the series be - adds an air of cold realism. The Norwich Cathedral location filming and the BBC's characteristic flair for costume drama help considerably, as does the appropriately orchestral soundtrack.
The original run of A Ghost Story for Christmas is a like a Who's Who of British television actors at the time. The lead role in The Stalls of Barchester is taken by Robert Hardy, who conveys the character's transition from aloofness and arrogance to growing terror extremely well. Dr Black meanwhile is played by Clive Swift, and was possibly intended to link the adaptations: he would return the following year in A Warning to the Curious, which Clark would also write the screenplay for.
Had the framing sequence of The Stalls of Barchester been omitted - or at least confined to the beginning and the end of the episode - the resulting production would have been far more effective than it is. But despite that, it remains an impressive start to A Ghost Story for Christmas and a strong dramatic debut for Lawrence Gordon Clark. And he would learn enough from the experience to make the following year's festive terror one of the most memorable of the entire program.