Haunted

Dark psychological contemporary thriller, by Sally Griffiths. Really great stuff, well worth your time.

"Professional illusionist, Will Morgan, is to front a TV show in which he exposes spiritualist mediums as frauds. Hayley Taylor is the spiritualist medium who refuses to back down under Will's scrutiny - a challenge Will can't walk away from. Both are to have their belief systems sorely tested when a voice from one of their pasts refuses to keep silent. Starring Steffan Rhodri as Will and Zoë  Tapper as Hayley.

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The Teeth of Abbot Thomas

The second of two M.R. James pastiches by Stephen Sheridan. This time more parody than pastiche from 1987 starring Robert Bathurst and the late, great Alfred Marks.

"A quest for a set of medieval false teeth. Discover a ghastly secret in the rib-tickling, toe-curling tale of orthodontic outrage.

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The House at World's End

The first of two ripping M.R. James pastiches by Stephen Sheridan.

"M.R.James, Provost of King's College Cambridge explains to a Christmas gathering of friends and undergraduates how he first became interested in the supernatural. He tells the tale of an ancient cabalistic text that dooms the family and associates of a Cornish bibliophile.

What terrible secret lies hidden in the library at Cranleigh Hall, and why is old Uncle Magnus so afraid of the night?

Cranleigh Hall, earlier.

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M.R. James at Christmas

Derek Jacobi plays Montague Rhodes James and is our narrator for these five brief dramatized contemporary audio adaptations. Though well worth a listen in their own right, they are simply too short to capture the mood of James' prose. Ripping yarns for the time poor if you will.

Illustration by  James McBryde for 1st ed. of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.

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Further reading - BFI: Sight & Sound: "Ghosts Of Christmas Past - M.R. James, Lawrence Clark and 'A Ghost Story For Christmas'. M.R. James links.

Seasons Greetings

Late Night Story with Tom Baker

Late Night Story (1978). The 4th Doctor takes time out from battling Kroll, the giant Lovecraftian god creature that lives beneath the marshes of Delta Magna, to read five tales of terror from the comfortable surroundings of TARDIS back up study #3f. Audio is ripped from video in similar fashion to the previous post and comes courtesy of the supreme being, X-Y-Z Cosmonaut.

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Classic Ghost Stories

"Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin."

Robert Powell reads the classic ghost stories - The Mezzotint,  The Ash Tree, Wailing Well, Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad and The Rose Garden - of Montague Rhodes James.  The short series was originally broadcast over the BBC 2 Yuletide schedule back in 1986. You can find them (ripped from off air VHS by the look of it) out there in torrent land, or via the youtubes below. For this post I've ripped the audio, corrected the mono balance for stereo playback and cleaned it up the hiss a little where possible. I think they work rather well as audio-books without the visuals.

The Mezzotint (Pt.1)

The Ash Tree (Pt.1)

Wailing Well (Pt.1)

Oh, Whstle and I'll Come To You My Lad (pt.1)

The Rose Garden (Pt.1)

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Denton & Cook - Hong Kong Beat LP

Saving the best for last, here's a fresh rip of Hong Kong Beat & Other BBC TV Themes - Richard Denton & Martin Cook which I found only recently and what's more, for a sensible price after a fair amount of searching. All the 7" singles I've posted here are repeated in the track-listing, plus the one that got away, the theme tune to The Great Egg Race. A fine body of work, a great pity that there was never any more released. 

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Denton & Cook - Jigsaw

Richard Denton & Martin Cook's theme tune for the Children's BBC programme Jigsaw (1979-84) was never released officially, a great pity that as it was always a favourite 'round our house. To be honest Jigsaw was one of those shows I watched because there was nothing else on the telly. The puzzle based content flew right over my tiny brain and that Mr. Noseybonk... well he was a bit disturbing.

In the spirit of make-do-and-mend I've grabbed some audio from the youtubes cleaned it up a bit, edited it looping around the dialogue as best I could and here are the results:

There are also a few Real Media files on some ancient fan sites that date back to the World Wide Web's Triassic era here and here. In addition to those, you can also hear library music featured on Jigsaw on this compilation courtesy of the excellent Retro-Teque blog.

Don't have nightmares!

Denton & Cook - Quiller (Soundhog Extended Edit)

Denton & Cook - Quiller (Soundhog Extended Edit)

Listen to the original 7" here.

Stone Fox Chase

Top BBC TV Themes (1978). The usual mixed bag of tunes. Highlights naturally include Denton & Cook's The Hong Beat, also any beat hunters out there should dig Area Code 615's  The Old Grey Whistle Test (Stone Fox Chase) and Alan Parker's funky theme to Angels, I know I do.

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Silver Journeys

Peter Howell - Legend. This album of ethereal electronics from 1987 sees Mr Howell building on the template set by the epic opening track from his earlier album Through A Glass Darkly. It gets rather new-agey at times but the music has far more personality and variety than that label would suggest. This could easily be the soundtrack to some mid '80's family friendly fantasy movie, long since forgotten.

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Stylophone

Rolf Harris talks up the Stylophone by Dubreq big time: