By Will Barber Taylor

1881. Old College, Oxford plays host to three very different young academics: Abercrombie Smith (Kit Harrington), a model of Victorian manhood, clean of limb and sound of mind; Monkhouse Lee (Colin Ryan), a delicate and unworldly student from Siam; and the strange and exotic Edward Bellingham (Freddie Fox), whose arcane research into Ancient Egypt is the talk of the campus.

Could Bellingham’s unnatural experiments bring the breath of life to the horrifying bag of bones tagged Lot No.249?

Whilst M R James has often been considered the master of ghost stories, he was not the only writer who during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries dabbled in the form. E F Benson, author of Mapp and Lucia was a famous practitioner of the art of the macabre tale. Charles Dickens was equally able to create a spine chilling ghost story; whilst A Christmas Carol may be recognized as Dickens’ most famous ghost story it is perhaps not the best representation of his mastery of the other worldly; The Signalman for many holds that title.

The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, was an ardent writer of many different genres of fiction from the historical to the fantastical. It is one of Conan Doyle’s spine chillers, Lot No. 249, that has been chosen by Mark Gatiss the current curator of the BBC’s strand of ghost stories, A Ghost Story For Christmas, is to be this year’s ghostly offering.

Of course, Lot No. 249 does not feature a ghost as such – at its heart is an Egyptian mummy and Gatiss is aware of the connotations of using such an iconic figure from the world of screen horror. This adaptation of the story clearly owes a great deal to the Hammer Horror chillers of the 1970s visually; Gatiss’ direction of the staggering, silent mummy is reminiscent both of the 1959 Hammer offering The Mummy and the classic Universal horror of the same title. Indeed, whilst the plot is generally faithful to that of the original short story, Gatiss makes two very deliberate deviations from the original plot that make this story feel, at least visually, much closer to a Hammer Horror than other offerings from A Ghost Story For Christmas have been.

The other deviation is perhaps one that some may feel is slightly self-indulgent – the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes. No doubt Conan Doyle himself, who had a notoriously complicated relationship with the great consulting detective, would have felt somewhat put out that the first adaptation for the BBC of his iconic short story has Holmes included. It is though, certainly a treat for admirers of the great detective to see him brought to life so well by John Heffernan whose performance is pitch perfect. His costume as well is clearly straight out of The Strand and with so many continual updates and changes to the character (not least by Gatiss himself) it is delightful to see a version of the character that Conan Doyle himself would find recognizable to be gracing our screens.

To focus on the story itself – it is, in its literary form a pacey and punchy story. Gatiss brings this punchiness fully to life and keeps the necessary speed of pace consistent throughout the episode. There is an urgency both to his writing and to the performances of Harrington and Fox, in particular during the scenes when Smith is confronting Bellingham. Both performances burst with an energy that accurately adapts the characters as Doyle wrote them. Harrington’s Smith is the epitome of the Victorian man of education – somewhat restrained, athletic and intellectual and the contrast with Fox’s overly smooth, sleazy Bellingham is perfectly done. Fox brilliantly imbues his performance with a sense of utter disdain for the world that he inhabits, a desire to embrace the esoteric and master all around him. The contrast between the two and Bellingham’s having spent time in the then seemingly mystic and exotic reaches of Empire have led many literary critics to see this work as a representation of the British Empire itself with Smith and Bellingham representing opposing sides of the imperial dream – the conventional values and standards of Victoriana in Smith and the dangers of over influence from other countries in Bellingham. Gatiss does not perhaps indulge in this metaphor as some might like and as I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, the production owes as much to the creaking, clingy visuals of the Universal and Hammer Mummy films as it does to the text itself. This does not dampen enjoyment of the piece but rather places it in a clear context – that of an adaptation that is faithful to the general idea of the story whilst introducing later revolutions in horror to make it more recognizable for a contemporary audience.

Lot No. 249 is a worthy addition to the cannon of A Ghost Story For Christmas. Though some may quibble about the alterations that have been made to televise the tale, viewed on its own merits it is a fine and engaging television experience that is well worth watching if you’re an admirer either of the work of Conan Doyle or of the fine tradition of enjoying a spooky story whilst unwrapping your presents. As long as your present isn’t from Ancient Egypt, you should be fine to enjoy this film…