Mark Gatiss should be applauded for keeping the BBC Christmas ghost story tradition going in a time of budget cuts. I fear that this might be the last for some years by the BBC.
At least Gatiss has skated around the low budget by gathering a classy guest cast in this short story by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Medical student Smith (Kit Harington) gets involved with unearthly happenings at his Oxford college.
A foreign student Monkhouse Lee nearly ended up dead. He had fallen out with fellow student Bellingham (Freddie Fox.) The louche Bellingham is an expert on Egyptology. He is in possession of a creepy mummified body and a strange Egyptian manuscript that he obtained from an auction.
Smith decides to confront Bellingham and get him to end his revenge on those who have crossed him.
It is not quite a mummy story, although a shadowy mummy coming to life is heavily implied.
It really harks back to the 1970s BBC ghost stories strand. There is plenty of atmosphere, although Gatiss cannot avoid putty a naughty easter egg with a teasing Sherlock Holmes mash up.
At least Gatiss has skated around the low budget by gathering a classy guest cast in this short story by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Medical student Smith (Kit Harington) gets involved with unearthly happenings at his Oxford college.
A foreign student Monkhouse Lee nearly ended up dead. He had fallen out with fellow student Bellingham (Freddie Fox.) The louche Bellingham is an expert on Egyptology. He is in possession of a creepy mummified body and a strange Egyptian manuscript that he obtained from an auction.
Smith decides to confront Bellingham and get him to end his revenge on those who have crossed him.
It is not quite a mummy story, although a shadowy mummy coming to life is heavily implied.
It really harks back to the 1970s BBC ghost stories strand. There is plenty of atmosphere, although Gatiss cannot avoid putty a naughty easter egg with a teasing Sherlock Holmes mash up.