The Turn of the Screw

Of all the programmes in this year's Christmas TV schedule, 'A Turn of the Screw' was the one that I was looking forward to most of all. Although not explicitly advertised as a "BBC Ghost Story for Christmas" that is exactly what it was: a BBC - ghost story - at Christmas. And with top director Tim Fywell at the helm, how could it possibly go wrong? Well, it did.

Others might like to list all of the myriad small problems with this production but, for me, there were two major faults which rendered it almost unwatchable: firstly, the two child protagonists were neither enchanting nor engaging which made it impossible to sympathise, or care, about their situation. Secondly, the way that the governess either thought that she heard things, or thought that she saw things, almost every second of every scene of her time on screen meant that there was absolutely no build-up of tension or foreboding throughout the whole production. Ultimately, and disappointingly, it ended up being just a very boring and completely unsatisfying ninety minutes.

Once again the true winter chills were to be found on BBC Four this year, with a re-run of the excellent 'Crooked House' and welcome screenings from the real master ghost storyteller - the other Mr. James.

All the television adaptations of M. R. Jame books have been extremely poor. Nothing scary about any of them. However reading his short stories is the only way to enjoy him, and his stories are far more frightening depicted in the written word.

To the latest version of this "The Haunting of Bly Manor". I turned to this more faithful adaptation after getting bored to death half way through season 1 of said series.

Perhaps it's not fair to compare versions, although many other reviews are doing the same to yet other adaptations. How many times has this been done? I guess it did establish the now almost stereotypical Gothic story of a young governess at a rambling old estate in the English countryside.

Dockery did a much better job of conveying a young woman trying to do her best and advance herself, although the obsession with "impressing the Master" detracted a bit. Compared to THOBM this was much more crisp, concise, believable, and even scary. That it was set in the 1920 instead of the 1880s? Who cares?

Check this out when you to become bored with a bloviated version.

Probably the best adaptation of this was done in 1961 with Deborah Kerr as the governess. The time frame presented there was turn of the 20th century (1896~1901); in keeping with the date of publication of this novella (1898) . The time frame for this version is instead the immediate post "Great War"; the father of the children being killed in the war, (the mother's death seems to have been just after childbirth of the younger child-the girl). The shortage of men in the United Kingdom, at that time, is emphasized in the beginning with the insinuation that a lot of young women, such as the governess, are lonely. This theme echos through the story. The new governess meets the guardian of the children before she departs for the estate where the little girl stays with the staff (all of whom are women due to the shortage of men). The guardian is the children's uncle; a handsome, young bachelor whom she is immediately infatuated with; but he does not return the interest. Nor is he particularly interested in visiting the estate anytime soon. Michelle. Dockery, as the governess, is presented as very plain young woman in this version; in order to enhance the frustration her character is feeling. Later, in the story, the older (though still a kid) brother of the girl arrives at the estate. All during this time disturbing things are occurring there, but what is actually happening? Can such things actually occur? Is her sexual frustration a part of this?

This story is told by the governess, confined to a mental institute recounting this to a psychiatrist; who happens to be another handsome young man. Though she initially is in a catatonic state in the institute she does respond eventually to his questioning. The story we see is her story; what we see happening and how it happened is presented through her recollection. And, this recollection is by a person who is definitely mentally ill. Or, is she? This departs from the original story somewhat which implied the possibility of mental illness by the governess but not was not explicitly as this version does.

A good adaptation though a little "too modern" (early 20th century versus late 19th century setting) IMHO.

I have watched several MR James adaptations, both film and TV, and admit that I have found some difficult to follow. Thankfully at 90 minutes long no such problem here. This TV movie has good acting and the bulk of it takes place at a magnificent looking, old British country estate. With sex scenes and male violence against women it isn't really suitable for kids, what lets it down for me is that sadly it simply is not scary. Michelle Dockery plays the 20 year old governess but she was about 30 at the time, either they should've found somebody younger or up her age to say 25. I do enjoy watching classic ghost stories over the Xmas period and much as I felt this to be reasonably entertaining I won't be watching it again in Christmases to come.