Ghosts was a mid 90s BBC1 series of modern day ghostly tales - two of which, 'Three Miles Up' and 'The Chemistry Lesson', we've featured here before - that has mostly disappeared from people's memories which I think is a real shame as it had some interesting moments and this episode, the first in the series, is one of them.
Written by 'Ghostwatch' writer Stephen Volk it's the story of incarcerated gangster Jack Rudkin (Derrick O'Connor) who after a near death experience develops the ability to astral project which he uses to spy on and terrorise his wife Suzi (Anita Dobson) and brother Les (David Hayman) who he discovers are having an affair.
O'Connor who had a Wyrd Britain pedigree second to none with appearences in 'Blood on Satan's Claw', 'The Final Programme', 'Hawk the Slayer', 'Jabberwocky', 'Time Bandits' and 'Brazil' is phenomenal here and utterly terrifying. Dobson is on familiar 'Eastenders' ground as the rattled wife of the proverbial dodgy geezer and falls apart with aplomb as Jack's revenge escalates and Hayman is nicely understated as the backstabbing brother.
With a running time of less than an hour Volk has crafted an entirely satisfying plot from which spin off a number of well realised narrative threads with only the very closing scene feeling a tad contrived and obvious. Director John Strickland keeps everything well grounded but successfully imparts a queazily oneiric quality to Jack's astral excusions and in all what we have is an entertainingly bleak and occasionally brutal melding of prison drama, gangster movie and ghost story.
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Starring Alan Cumming and Samantha Bond 'The Chemistry Lesson' is an episode of the 1995 BBC anthology series 'Ghosts'. The story concerns nerdy, needy (and more than a bit creepy) teacher Philip (Cumming) who turns to magic in order to seduce his married colleague Maddy (Bond) which soon spirals way beyond his control.
As you can imagine from the presence of the two leads it's fabulously acted by all involved with Bond playing an absolute blinder as the magic drives her in unwanted directions and takes a heavy toll on both her life and her psyche and Cumming increasingly lost as a man flailing against the extremity of the new reality of his callous lust.
The finished film is very much an updated take on the classic Hammer / Amicus witchcraft tale and in line with that there's a fairly 1970s sexual sensibility at work (perhaps also a reflection of the hideous 'lad culture' of the time). The story (written and directed by Terry Johnson) builds beautifully with the tension rising unbearably to a harrowing climax that's only slightly spoilt by a vaguely heavy-handed coda.
Another episode from 'Ghosts', an adaptation of Elizabeth Jane Howard's 'Three Miles Up' can be found by clicking here.
If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
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Elizabeth Jane Howard wrote 'Three Miles Up' as one of her three contributions (along with ‘Left Luggage’ and ‘Perfect Love’) to 'We Are For The Dark: Six Ghost Stories' a collaborative book with Robert Aickman published in 1951. Other than these Howard only ever wrote one other story of the supernatural, 'Mr Wrong', which is a crying shame as her take on the genre is very much in line with her previously mentioned collaborator and we all know how far he developed the genre.
'Three Miles Up' is by far the most famous of her 4 tales turning up in numerous anthologies and it's easy to see why it was chosen for adaptation both in terms of budget constraints as it's all set in the very enclosed environment of a canal barge travelling through a sparse and desolate landscape and in the inscrutable power of the story.
The original tale sets two friends, one recovering from a breakdown, on a canal holiday that they are woefully ill-prepared for and soon fall to bickering before the discovery of a young woman asleep near the canal who agrees to travel with them sets them down a very different (tow) path. The TV version made for the short lived mid 90s series 'Ghosts' changes some elements of the story making the two men brothers (played by Douglas Henshall & Dan Mullane, with Jacqueline Leonard playing the mysterious Sara) and adding in a slightly confused and overwrought back story regarding the death of their mother that allows the actors chance to chew some scenery and for the director to bring the story to a more definite close than the more powerful and enigmatic ending of the original.
If, like me, you are a fan of the original story I doubt this version will take it's place in your affections but it's an interesting attempt at updating and filming one of the finest takes on the modern supernatural tale.
If
you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the
blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
