A View From A Hill

An archaeologist visits a decaying country estate to survey its artefacts, but the artefacts lead him into a dark history.

Another slice of MR James alienation, where intellectual curiosity attracts the attention of distant, menacing figures and ends in nothing good.

The opening sequence is a little irritating with its slow focuses, but the rapid editing later on in the woods creates good tension. Music keeps the mood bubbling. Actors all excellent, and in the end nothing is explained.

Overall - not the spookiest, but confident enough not to deliver pat answers.

I think those two elements: Ghosts and Archeologists or treasure hunters are the common elements of this anthology folk horror series. If you are a die hard fan of this kind of material, it's OK, but if not, it may become boring after a while. Unless you decide to watch those chain made episodes only from time to time, let's say once a week. But that doesn't remove anything to their efficiency. Each of those tales are more or less scary, chilly, not advised to watch alone in the darkness. And the British touch, thee trademark of this series, always enjoyable to appreciate. This episode is quite good, though not that exceptional. Among ten or twelve of this kind, you'll rapidly forget it.

This adaptation of M.R. James's short story 'A View From A Hill' was first shown on British television in 2005, on the little watched digital channel BBC 4. I saw that it was being repeated again on BBC 4, and decided to give it a go, remembering the BBC's successful 1970's adaptations of other M.R. James stories including 'Whistle And I'll Come To You My Lad' and 'The Signalman'. Though not in the same class as these masterpieces, 'A View From A Hill' is nonetheless an enjoyable and at times suspenseful drama.

A historian arrives in a small rural village to look over the collection of a recently deceased collector of antique artifacts. Whilst out in the countryside, he sees an abbey that has been in ruins for hundreds of years. But what does this have in connection with an old pair of binoculars and a gruesome legend about the ominously named Gallows Hill? And what do the brusque country squire and his servant know about the situation? Whilst not scary in any way, I enjoyed this little production, and had the running time been longer than 40 minutes it could have become a truly great adaptation. As it is, it all feels a little rushed and a bit more exposition to set the mood would have been welcome.

I give it 7 out of 10.

Historian Dr Fanshawe comes to the country home of Squire Richards in order to review the artefacts he is selling off. On his way his luggage falls off his bike and his binoculars break. He borrows those belong to the late father of Richards as the two go for a walk. From the hilltop he believes he can see an abbey but with the naked eye there is nothing. The next day he heads to the spot and finds nothing but ruins, however is there more to the glasses than just magnification? As with other years BBC4 sees in the Christmas period with a season of films that serve as modern versions of the family sitting round the fire telling ghost stories. I have seen one or two of these in the past and decided this year to make more of an effort to see them – after all, one never knows if BBC4 will continue to be protected from tabloids keen to rip it down. The first film of the season I saw was A View From a Hill and it bodes well for the rest of the films if they can be this good.

The plot is simple and the film is short but it is a very good idea that uses the common device of having a character stumbling into a mystery that may or may not have claimed the life of the last person who was involved with it. The tone of the film is spot on as it delivers this story with a total lack of answers and never any more than the slightest glimpse of anything that may be a danger. My favourite example of this is a moment where Fanshawe believes he has seen something and flashes back to it; the pause function told me nothing was there but regardless it is still creepy as an effect. While the style is quite old-fashioned, director Watson uses modern camera movements sparingly and wisely – thus we do get "Evil Dead" rushing shots and jump cuts but they are far from overdone and work better for it.

Letheren leads the cast well with an innocent "everyman" who guides the audience into the story well as the "eyes". Torrens is quite fun but his performance did come over like the producers wanted to get Hugh Laurie but couldn't afford him post-House. Burke is obvious perhaps but perfectly functional while Linnell is a menacing presence and needs to be no more than that. Delivery from Watson is very effective as he controls what the viewer sees (even letting us see the abbey itself through the excitable glances of Fanshawe) and it is this tone and atmosphere that makes the piece work as well as it does.

Overall then a short but effective ghost story that is reassuringly free of cheap shots and gore, delivering a nice sense of creepiness instead.

In 2005 the BBC revived A Ghost Story for Christmas that were so effective in the 1970s.

Dr Fanshawe an archaeologist arrives at the home of Squire Richards (Pip Torrens) and his surly butler Patten (David Burke.) He is meant to catalogue some items that the squire is selling off.

He borrows a pair of binoculars that were made by a strange local man called Baxter. Patten tells Fanshawe that Baxter became obsessed with an old Abbey and dug up the bones of the hanged men in Gallows Hill next to it.

The Abbey is now a ruin but Fanshawe can see the Abbey when looking through the binoculars.

He later thinks that a shadowy figure is haunting him. Fanshawe certainly becomes haunted for an inexplicable reason.

Bristling with atmosphere. The colour is supplied by the performances of Torrens and Burke. Apart from the eeriness, it does not amount to anything more. It is almost there was a pattern to these MR James stories.