Martin's Close

Martin's Close is one of the weak M.R James stories. I've not found any of the Mark Gatiss adaptations to be of the same standard as the Lawrence Gordon Clarke productions. Despite having today's production technology, it fails to capture any atmosphere of the story.

I like the idea that ghost stories and Christmas are intertwined and I was looking forward to this version of M.R James' story written and directed by Mark Gatiss. I watched "The Dead Room" last year and found that a passable short - but this one didn't work for me.

John Martin (Wilf Scolding) is on trial for the murder of village girl Ann (Jessica Temple) with whom he's being spending his time, at the expense of his reputation. Up before Judge Jeffreys (Elliot Levey) and already fearing the outcome, his case take a turn for the bizarre when the Prosecutor (Peter Capaldi) professes that the victim has been seen, since the murder.

What can I say, the performances were fine and the setting was OK. But I don't feel like the story was scary, funny or clever enough to warrant its telling. I assumed the meta element of having Simon Williams telling the story contemporarily was going to pay back into it somehow, but it didn't..

Nothing technically wrong, just a little underwhelming.

No atmosphere, no scares, bland. That says it all.

John Martin is up before a Judge, and twelve good men and true, for the murder of Ann Clark, a poor woman and easy target.

Nicely made, very well acted, just a bit on the slow side. In the same style as the great stories from yesteryear, just lacking the depth and shock factor of say, The Signalman.

Peter Capaldi was of course a big draw, and does indeed have star quality, Wild Scolding I thought was terrific as the man on trial.

I did enjoy it, if I'm honest I would say it was just a little dull, they could have added some horror, or even a few minor scares.

Enjoyable though. 6/10

I don't often post my views on IMDB because I know how difficult it is to make a halfway decent drama. This one is so strangely bad that I feel I have to flag it up. It's so dud that it has the feel of a student movie and apart from the performances of Peter Capaldi and Sara Crowe there's a distinctly amateurish air throughout (Simon Williams is good but wasted as the unnecessary modern commentator). Any courtroom drama should have plenty of coverage plus a few unique angles to give the editor (and the audience) a sporting chance of a stimulating ride. In this case there's far too much in close up - you could be watching Eastenders for goodness sake! The real curse is the script which has its own spoilers built-in, no surprises anywhere and, crucially for a ghost/horror story, none at the end. That such a remarkably bad production has Mark Gatiss's name on it is plain weird. There is so much brilliant drama on British TV (often written by Moffat & Gatiss) that this is definitely an oddball orphan. Over the years the BBC has made several half-hearted attempts at Christmas ghost stories. Even the better ones seem to lack conviction, 'going through the motions' almost. Come on BBC, it a great genre, give us a cracker for 2021!