The Mezzotint

I like Mark Gatiss but I'm never sure his writing is very good for the Christmas horror. This however may have changed my opinion. He took M R James' story and really brought it to life. The ending was genuinely scary and I finished watching feeling frightened!

Would watch again, and would recommend.

Mark Gatiss adapts another M R James ghost story for BBC4.

Set in academia in what looks like the Edwardian era. Edward Williams (Rory Kinnear) is a rather stuffy university curator. He receives a mezzotint to add to his university museum's collection.

It looks like an ordinary picture of a house. Yet strangely things are pointed out to Edward that he did not previously notice such as moonlight. Then there seems to be a sinister figure. Parts of the picture just keeps changing.

Edward and his circle of friends look for a rationale explanation. Eccentric Mrs Ambrigail (Frances Barber) provides a diverting explanation of a hanged poacher who vowed to destroy a family that embroils Edward into it.

As always Gatiss has to work wonders with a small budget. It is very atmospheric and there are nods to the Japanese movie Ringu remade as The Ring in the USA.

Robert Bathurst goes a little hammy but he is no match for Barber.

The Mark Gatiss, M. R James adaptation is something of a Christmas tradition now. I didn't much care for "Martin's Close" back in 2019 but I liked "The Mezzotint" a lot more. You have to accept that these 30-minute chillers are just designed to be a short ghost story, rather than anything grander, but, if you do, then "The Mezzotint" is one of the better made ones I've seen.

Mr Williams (Rory Kinnear) an antiques appraiser, comes into possession of a Mezzotint picture. Though relatively unimpressed by the print, when he shows it to his colleagues, they are more enthusiastic, particularly about the hitherto unseen figure, crawling towards the house. Eager to find out more about the stately home that features in the background, Williams engages with Mrs Ambrigail (Frances Barber) to try and discover its history. Williams though begins to question his sanity, when the details of the picture, and specifically the location of the gruesome figure changes when he's not looking at it.

This is a really nicely performed piece. Rory Kinnear can do anything and he's in every scene of this short. Frances Barber has another great character here, who though working in ecclesiastical circles, doesn't really have faith but loves the gossip involved in finding out about the house. In a lesser piece of work, Williams three friends, Garwood, Nisbet and Binks, played by Robert Bathurst, Nikesh Patel and John Hopkins respectively, would find someway to dismiss his assertion that the picture changes and the episode might (predictably) be about them questioning his mental state, but here they concur and are suitably perturbed by it also.

I can imagine that other people might have found the ending a little anticlimactic, but you have to enter into the spirit of the piece. It's a ghost story, a brief chiller unconcerned with trying to explain everything and, in that regard, was entirely successful.

Superb 30 minute BBC production, genuinely creepy and a great, spooky yarn! The BBC have produced a multitude of these short plays/movies over many years, however, they seem to be in rapid decline in recent years.

Ohhhh! Creepy, Creepy!!

I don't like horror, violence or gore, but I always make sure I watch the BBC's Christmas ghost stories.

They are atmosphere, creepy and just the antidote, to all the Christmas cheery tv! Lol This was excellent, as always. I only wish it had have been an hour, instead of 30 minutes.