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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 27, 2018 14:18:18 GMT
The Haunting of M.R. James - BBC Radio 4TX details: Monday 17 - Friday 21 December, 10.45am - 11am; Saturday 22 December at 2.30pm - 3.30pmM.R. James produced his ghost stories at regular intervals, and read them to a Christmas audience of students and friends in his rooms at King's College, Cambridge, blowing out every candle but one. Radio 4 presents a series by Neil Brand with dramatisations of five of the most powerful tales by this master of the ghost story -The Mezzotint, Casting The Runes, The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral, A Warning To The Curious, Rats - followed by an overarching original drama, The Haunting of M.R. James. The latter follows Montague Rhodes James through half a decade of his career as provost of King's and into a nightmare world in which he becomes convinced that he himself is being haunted by a malevolent and murderous spirit from the past... It’s almost as if his own stories are finally catching up with him. Producer: David Hunter for BBC Radio 4 www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/xmas18radio/radio4
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Post by ropardoe on Nov 28, 2018 8:49:04 GMT
The Haunting of M.R. James - BBC Radio 4TX details: Monday 17 - Friday 21 December, 10.45am - 11am; Saturday 22 December at 2.30pm - 3.30pmM.R. James produced his ghost stories at regular intervals, and read them to a Christmas audience of students and friends in his rooms at King's College, Cambridge, blowing out every candle but one. Radio 4 presents a series by Neil Brand with dramatisations of five of the most powerful tales by this master of the ghost story -The Mezzotint, Casting The Runes, The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral, A Warning To The Curious, Rats - followed by an overarching original drama, The Haunting of M.R. James. The latter follows Montague Rhodes James through half a decade of his career as provost of King's and into a nightmare world in which he becomes convinced that he himself is being haunted by a malevolent and murderous spirit from the past... It’s almost as if his own stories are finally catching up with him. Producer: David Hunter for BBC Radio 4 www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/xmas18radio/radio4 Very excited about this, as you know, but looking at the timings I'm disappointed that the story dramatisations have been squeezed into fifteen minute slots. I suppose it was foolish to hope that they'd learned from past experience that this never works with MRJ's longer tales. I'm hopeful that "Rats" can be done justice to, but not so sure of the others.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 28, 2018 11:58:36 GMT
Very excited about this, as you know, but looking at the timings I'm disappointed that the story dramatisations have been squeezed into fifteen minute slots. I suppose it was foolish to hope that they'd learned from past experience that this never works with MRJ's longer tales. I'm hopeful that "Rats" can be done justice to, but not so sure of the others.[/quote] I seem to remember the series The Red Room making surprisingly effective versions of Casting the Runes and Count Magnus in shorter slots - even shorter as that series had a linking narrative. It appears that M.R. James appears in each of these, so I suspect narration will be involved. I'm hoping that the results will be more like The Red Room than that series of MRJ adaptations from a few years ago where they got Derek Jacobi in as James (no doubt when he was recording his far more effective CD of MRJ story readings) to introduce each tale then gave him nothing Jamesian to say.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 28, 2018 12:09:19 GMT
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 28, 2018 12:09:52 GMT
The Haunting of M.R. James - BBC Radio 4TX details: Monday 17 - Friday 21 December, 10.45am - 11am; Saturday 22 December at 2.30pm - 3.30pmM.R. James produced his ghost stories at regular intervals, and read them to a Christmas audience of students and friends in his rooms at King's College, Cambridge, blowing out every candle but one. Radio 4 presents a series by Neil Brand with dramatisations of five of the most powerful tales by this master of the ghost story -The Mezzotint, Casting The Runes, The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral, A Warning To The Curious, Rats - followed by an overarching original drama, The Haunting of M.R. James. The latter follows Montague Rhodes James through half a decade of his career as provost of King's and into a nightmare world in which he becomes convinced that he himself is being haunted by a malevolent and murderous spirit from the past... It’s almost as if his own stories are finally catching up with him. Producer: David Hunter for BBC Radio 4 www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/xmas18radio/radio4 Very excited about this, as you know, but looking at the timings I'm disappointed that the story dramatisations have been squeezed into fifteen minute slots. I suppose it was foolish to hope that they'd learned from past experience that this never works with MRJ's longer tales. I'm hopeful that "Rats" can be done justice to, but not so sure of the others. Considering Neil Brand's knowledge of and enthusiasm for each subject he broadcasts about, I expect great fidelity to M.R. James's original stories in this case.
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Post by ripper on Nov 28, 2018 12:35:20 GMT
I am looking forward to hearing how the writer and producer tackle Rats, one of my favourite of MRJ's relatively less well known tales, but one that chills me more than most of his work.
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Post by ropardoe on Nov 28, 2018 16:24:53 GMT
Very excited about this, as you know, but looking at the timings I'm disappointed that the story dramatisations have been squeezed into fifteen minute slots. I suppose it was foolish to hope that they'd learned from past experience that this never works with MRJ's longer tales. I'm hopeful that "Rats" can be done justice to, but not so sure of the others. I seem to remember the series The Red Room making surprisingly effective versions of Casting the Runes and Count Magnus in shorter slots - even shorter as that series had a linking narrative. It appears that M.R. James appears in each of these, so I suspect narration will be involved. I'm hoping that the results will be more like The Red Room than that series of MRJ adaptations from a few years ago where they got Derek Jacobi in as James (no doubt when he was recording his far more effective CD of MRJ story readings) to introduce each tale then gave him nothing Jamesian to say. [/quote] The Jacobi series was the one I was thinking of - but now you mention it, the ones in The Red Room series weren't bad at all.
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Post by ropardoe on Nov 28, 2018 16:34:43 GMT
I didn't mention this here as I honestly wasn't expecting much interest in it - it's a bit specialist and off-topic. I've only had 40 copies printed, of which 25 are for sale. But the mention on Wormwoodiana today has already produced around ten orders, so it's possible that a reprint may be in the offing!
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 28, 2018 18:54:25 GMT
it's a bit specialist and off-topic. Good job nothing specialist or off-topic ever happens around the Vault, eh? Good to see that it's garnering interest. As for that BBC radio series with Derek Jacobi as James, my review of it was one of the first times I struggled to find any positives to say about something in a G&S review.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 3, 2018 12:16:50 GMT
Despite an afternoon of train cancellations and last minute delays en route, I made it to the really quite delightful premises of The Glasgow Theosophical Society on Friday night whereupon the living spectre of M.R. James was conjured from the ether by means of a few documents, photographs, pipes and candles on a small table next to chair, a set of formal clothes, a pair of spectacles and a gathering of shadows that crouched and danced upon the walls as Robert Lloyd Parry not only recited James' Casting the Runes and The Residence at Whitminster, but vividly performed these classic ghost stories, switching from the genial, initially amused narrator - Monty James, himself - to embody the harried Mr Dunning, the fearful Henry Harrington, the odious Karswell, the entire household of Whitminster from master to maidservant, and more through a mere turn of the head and change of timbre of voice. I've thoroughly enjoyed the DVDs RLP has released of his MRJ performances, but they only partially gave me an idea of what to expect. I've read many an account of those Christmas gatherings at King's College or Eton where M.R. James regaled his friends with his latest ghost stories in a warm, convivial atmosphere - on Friday night I finally got to feel like I'd stepped back across a century and experienced one of those Christmas ghost story gatherings at first hand.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 3, 2018 17:23:33 GMT
As for that BBC radio series with Derek Jacobi as James, my review of it was one of the first times I struggled to find any positives to say about something in a G&S review. Understand your struggle completely. And yet, when he's on form, Derek Jacobi is a fine actor.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 3, 2018 17:27:27 GMT
As for that BBC radio series with Derek Jacobi as James, my review of it was one of the first times I struggled to find any positives to say about something in a G&S review. Understand your struggle completely. And yet, when he's on form, Derek Jacobi is a fine actor. Jacobi's actual readings of MRJ's stories that were released on CD are terrific. He was badly misused - as was MRJ - by the makers of that radio series, however. Why on earth would you bring MRJ into proceedings to introduce the stories and then not give him anything actually written by MRJ to say?
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 3, 2018 17:31:00 GMT
Despite an afternoon of train cancellations and last minute delays en route, I made it to the really quite delightful premises of The Glasgow Theosophical Society on Friday night whereupon the living spectre of M.R. James was conjured from the ether by means of a few documents, photographs, pipes and candles on a small table next to chair, a set of formal clothes, a pair of spectacles and a gathering of shadows that crouched and danced upon the walls as Robert Lloyd Parry not only recited James' Casting the Runes and The Residence at Whitminster, but vividly performed these classic ghost stories, switching from the genial, initially amused narrator - Monty James, himself - to embody the harried Mr Dunning, the fearful Henry Harrington, the odious Karswell, the entire household of Whitminster from master to maidservant, and more through a mere turn of the head and change of timbre of voice. I've thoroughly enjoyed the DVDs RLP has released of his MRJ performances, but they only partially gave me an idea of what to expect. I've read many an account of those Christmas gatherings at King's College or Eton where M.R. James regaled his friends with his latest ghost stories in a warm, convivial atmosphere - on Friday night I finally got to feel like I'd stepped back across a century and experienced one of those Christmas ghost story gatherings at first hand. I envy you. At the MRJ event in York back in September, the RLP performance was a great disappointment. Which was weird. The audience was convivial, the setting (one of York's many marvellous medieval buildings) was terrific, the beer was most acceptable, RLP was animated and captivating, BUT... the acoustics and the general seating layout meant that only the front two rows could hear what was being said. Extreme straining to follow it was fatiguing and frustrating in equal measure and eventually I just gave up. Next time I'll ensure that I'm there as soon as the doors open and will rush to grab a front row seat.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 3, 2018 18:49:46 GMT
I envy you. At the MRJ event in York back in September, the RLP performance was a great disappointment. Which was weird. The audience was convivial, the setting (one of York's many marvellous medieval buildings) was terrific, the beer was most acceptable, RLP was animated and captivating, BUT... the acoustics and the general seating layout meant that only the front two rows could hear what was being said. Extreme straining to follow it was fatiguing and frustrating in equal measure and eventually I just gave up. Next time I'll ensure that I'm there as soon as the doors open and will rush to grab a front row seat. Oh, that sounds very disappointing. Thankfully the acoustics and room layout at the Theosophical Society were perfect for the assembly on Friday. We were also told at the break that there was a library upstairs if anyone wanted to take a look, which revealed a rather lovely room, not so much the dark, shadow-haunted libraries of James's scholars, but the kind of room that wouldn't look out of place in a 1970s drama about University dons with eclectic studies - I immediately felt like I was in The Omega Factor.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Dec 10, 2018 15:13:39 GMT
Very excited about this, as you know, but looking at the timings I'm disappointed that the story dramatisations have been squeezed into fifteen minute slots. I suppose it was foolish to hope that they'd learned from past experience that this never works with MRJ's longer tales. I'm hopeful that "Rats" can be done justice to, but not so sure of the others. Considering Neil Brand's knowledge of and enthusiasm for each subject he broadcasts about, I expect great fidelity to M.R. James's original stories in this case. Mark Gatiss (of course!) is M.R. James in the dramatisations and the new play. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001pjh
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