Crooked House (BBC-4 2008, Mark Gatiss, Lee Ingleby)

Genuinely worthy of the term spine-tingling, Crooked House is a fabulously dark hark back to the BBC’s 1970’s annual Ghost Story For Christmas strand. With opening nods to the portmanteau films of amicus and with the museum curator telling the stories.

It begins with a young man called Ben paying a visit to a museum curator to find out more about a place called Geap Manor which is long demolished and whose land is now home to a surburban housing estate (where Ben has just bought a house). The curator (played with Cushing style elan by Gatiss) proceeds to tell him a ghostly story about the former inhabitants of the Manor.

There is a genuinely scary atmosphere throughout and with more than one jump out of your seat moment, story two in particular packs on the chills. The three storylines are looked at below. Some very good casting choices too, watch for an appearance by master magician Derren Brown in the third story The Knocker.

production details
UK / BBC-4 – Tiger Aspect / 30 minutes / 2008

Writer & Co-Producer: Mark Gatiss
Visual Effects: Framestore
Costumes: Claire Finlay
Music: David Arnold, Michael Price
Production Design: Sabina Sattar
Executive Producer: Richard Fell
Producer: Paul Frift
Director: Damon Thomas

cast
Julian Rhind-Tutt
Mark Gatiss
Andy Nyman
Philip Jackson
Lee Ingleby
Samuel Barnett
Beth Goddard
Rufus Jones
Derren Brown as Sir Roger Widdowson
Daniela Denby-Ashe as Hannah