The Music on the Hill

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of H.G. Wells, M.R. James, John Wyndham and in this instance Saki, read by Jonathan Pryce.

First published in 1911 in 'The Chronicles of Clovis', 'The Music on the Hill' tells the story of Sylvia who, having finally coaxed her new husband Mortimer away from town to his country home, falls foul of the God Pan after she spurns his existence and interferes with his shrines.

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The Red Room

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and others and in this instance H. G. Wells, read by Freddie Jones.

First published in The Idler magazine in 1896, 'The Red Room' is the story of an overconfident man who decides to spend the night in the haunted red room of Lorraine Castle where he fights a losing battle with the candles, the furniture and his own fear.

 

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The Diary of Mr Poynter

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, H.G. Wells, John Wyndham and in this instance M. R. James, read by Michael Bryant.

Originally published in James' third collection of stories, 'A Thin Ghost and Others' in 1919, it tells the story of a diary, some curtains and a hairy visitor.

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The Devil's Ape

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and in this instance Barnard Stacey, read by John Woodvine.

Originally published in 1933 in The Evening Standard it's the story of three chums who upon aquiring a spell book decide it would be a wizard wheeze to use it to transfer the soul of their grumpy neighbour into a lay figure.

With it's satanic undertones this is without doubt the most enjoyably and luridly pulpy of the Spine Chillers episodes I've seen and benefits immensely from a suitably urgent and dynamic reading from Woodvine. 

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The Treasure in the Forest

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and in this instance H. G. Wells, read by Freddie Jones.

Originally published in the Pall Mall Budget on 23 August 1894, two greedy English treasure hunters kill a Chinese man in order to steal his map but too late learn the meaning of it's enigmatic symbols and the dead man's grin.

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The Yellow Cat

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and in this instance by Michael Joseph, read by John Woodvine.

Far more familiar to book lovers as the owner of the publishing house that bore his name, Michael Joseph was also the author of several collections of stories about cats.  'The Yellow Cat' first published in Hutchinson's Mystery Story Magazine in June 1924 is the story of a stray cat, a gambler and changing fortunes. 

 

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The Mezzotint

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, H.G. Wells, John Wyndham and in this instance M. R. James, read by Michael Bryant.

James' story, taken from his first collection 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary', is of an engraving of a manor house, an engraving that changes each time it's viewed.

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The Stolen Bacillus

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and in this instance H.G. Wells', read by Freddie Jones.

Originally published in the Pall Mall Budget on the 21st June 1894 and then, a year later, in the collection that bore it's name, it's the story of a bacteriologist, an anarchist and a vial of 'Asiatic Cholera'.  It's an odd but amusing little story of braggadocio and zealotry with an anticlimatic ending but it's, as you would expect, wonderfully read by Jones.

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The Hobbit (Jackanory)

Between the 1st and the 12th of October 1979 Jackanory -  a long running Children's BBC series where actors and authors would read a story directly to camera - the BBC undertook a 10 episode telling of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit'.

To do this director Roger Singleton-Turner turned to his most reliable reader, the man who had very much become the face of the show as well as being the voice of 'The Wombles', Bernard Cribbins here ably supported by the brilliant Maurice Denham, Jan Francis and David Wood.

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Jackanory

Between 1965 and 1996 the BBC produced several thousand episodes of a series based around a wonderfully simple idea; an actor / author reading a story in 15 minute chunks directly to camera.  The series, 'Jackanory', became a staple of children's television featuring many key books, authors and actors during it's long run.

Alongside folktales, classic fairy tales and long established writers such as Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Beatrix Potter and P.L. Travers it also featured stories by less recognisable or less mainstream authors such as J. G. Ballard, Joan Aiken and Richard Hughes.

The list of those who signed up to read stories speaks volumes about the regard that the programme was held in; from the programmes most prolific reader Bernard Cribbins (who read some 114 different stories) and other well known British TV icons such as Spike Milligan, Kenneth Williams, Brian Cant, Thora Hird and Joyce Grenfell through 7 different incarnations of The Doctor (numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 & War) to royalty (Prince Charles) and international superstars like Peter Sellers, Michael Palin, Ian McKellen, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart and Judi Dench.

In 2006, 10 years after the original series ended, the BBC produced two new stories, dedicated several hours of BBC4 to a celebration of the show (Jackanory Night) and created an hour long documentary celebrating it's history.

Enjoy.