UK, 23 December 1975
16mm film, colour, 4:3
mono, English
Series: A Ghost Story for Christmas (1971-1978)
A British horror television episode directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.
Plot Summary
After taking up his inheritance, Sir Richard Dickin is haunted by dreams of his ancestor Sir Matthew Dickin who condemned a local woman to death as a witch. Before dying, the woman cursed the Dickin family and when animals on Sir Richard’s estate start to die mysteriously, it seems the curse may be about to visit him. Put what part does the ash tree outside the mansion play in all this, and what horrors are lurking with its branches?
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Lawrence Gordon Clark
© BBC 1975
BBC
Producer: Rosemary Hill
A Television Version by: David Rudkin
[Based on a Story] By: M.R. James
Cameraman: John McGlashan
Film Editor: Roger Waugh
Costumes: Sue Cable
Make-Up: Jackie Fitzmaurice
Sound Recordist: Dick Manton
Dubbing Mixer: Ron Edmonds
Visual Effects: John Friedlander
Designer: Allan Anson
Production Assistant: terry Coles
Cast
Edward Petherbridge (Sir Richard/Sir Matthew)
Preston Lockwood (Dr Croome)
Barbara Ewing (Anne Mothersole)
Lalla Ward (Lady Augusta)
Lucy Griffiths (Mrs Chiddock)
Oliver Maguire (William Beresford)
Clifford Kerwshaw (the witchfinder)
Cyril Appleton (Master Procathro)
David Pugh (herdsman)
Glynn Sweet (young cleric)
References
Periodicals
- Time Screen no.7 (revised) p.27 – note
Books
- British Gothic Cinema by Barry Forshaw p.159
- The Complete Holly Wraiths by Jack L. Hughes pp.18-19
- A Green and Pagan Land: Myth, Magic and Landscape in British Film and Television by David Huckvale p.167
- The Routledge Companion to Folk Horror by Robert Edgar and Wayne Johnson (eds.) pp.21, 59, 62, 103, 105
