The Dead Room

Mark Gatiss has been on a seemingly one man crusade to bring back the glory days of the BBC ghost story and over the last few years has produced several sympathetic contributions to the series including an M.R. James adaptation, 'The Tractate Middoth'.

This contribution from 2018  has shades of the late 70s tale 'A Ghostly Voice' in its setting as a radio personality known for his readings of classic ghostly tales begins to experience unsettling events on his return to his old studio.

Here we have a typically strong performance from Simon Callow as 'Aubrey Judd' and also from Anjli Mohindra (Rani from The Sarah Jane Adventures) as his producer, 'Tara', in a tale that continually references modern technology whilst retaining a real period feel.  Gatiss' script is sensitive and his direction is measured and in the grand tradition the reveals and the suspense are allowed to build slowly as Judd slowly sinks into the clutches of the ghostly presence although the final reveal is a little heavy handed.  It is though a respectful but entirely modern contribution to the venerable series that retains all the flavours of the originals whilst adding some new ones of its own.



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