A Ghost Story for Christmas - Episode Guide

A mysterious box in the old library of Barchester Cathedral reveals the strange story leading up to the death of a former archdeacon. From some old diaries, Dr Black, a scholar, pieces together a chain of events leading to a horrifying climax. As Dr Black delves deeper into the past a macabre explanation emerges. But surely such things cannot be...

A man comes to a Norfolk seaside town in winter. He is looking for an ancient crown he thinks is buried nearby. A local legend foretells disasters if anyone moves the crown. Indeed, some years before a visiting archaeologist was killed but no murderer was found. No one knows where the crown is buried, or if they do they won't say. The searcher persists and succeeds - but he finds a great deal more than the crown.

Orphaned Stephen goes to live with his uncle Abney and finds himself haunted by the ghosts of two children.

A 19th-century historian and his protege find a clue to Abbot Thomas 's treasure in an old stained-glass window. But the Abbot has set a guardian over his hoard. 

A nephew is haunted because of the testimony of his great uncle.

A lonely signalman is haunted by a hooded figure which warns of danger. But what is the danger?

A family move into a remote country house on the edge of a stone circle. When they decide to have a stone in their garden moved, they unwittingly unleash an ancient curse.

Does the Ice House hold a secret or is it, as they say, just ice? 

Adaptation of the classic ghost story by MR James. Ambitious archaeologist Dr Fanshawe is sent to authenticate the collection of his boss's old school friend and finds nothing much of interest except an 'odd couple' squire and servant, a pair of binoculars and a gruesome local legend.

Oxbridge academic Anderson settles into The Golden Lion Hotel in a small cathedral city to research its ecclesiastical history, when the subject of his research begins to disturb his slumber.

James Parkin has just left his wife in the care of a nursing home. Pensive and emotional, he travels to their old favourite destination for rambling, an off-season British seaside town. There he encounters an apparition on a desolate beach, which begins to haunt him - with terrifying consequences.

The chilling story of Dr Rant, whose wicked streak continues from beyond the grave. Based on the festive ghost story by MR James.

When a relative comes to find a particular book at the university library, young student Garrett is drawn into a family feud over a will and its legacy - with terrifying consequences.

Aubrey Judd, veteran radio presenter of The Dead Room, soon realises that elements of his own past are not as dead and buried as he perhaps hoped.

Adaptation of a ghost story by MR James. 1684. John Martin is on trial for his life. Facing him, the infamous 'hanging judge' George Jeffreys. However, this is not a cut-and-dried murder case.

1923. Edward Williams, gentleman and amateur golfer, lives an untroubled life as the curator of a small university museum. His speciality is the topography of the British Isles. So when an art dealer sends him details of an interesting engraving - a mezzotint - of an old country house, he's intrigued.

When the picture arrives, however, it seems perfectly ordinary - until Williams notices a figure in the picture where there was none before. A cloaked figure, with a skull-like head and legs that are horribly thin. Soon, within the mezzotint, the figure seems to be on the move across the moonlit lawn towards the house with murderous intent.

Long-forgotten secrets rise to the surface as Williams and his friends summon all the rational forces at their command to confront the impossible.

Sweden, 1863. A country not much visited by Englishmen. An exception is the inquisitive Mr Wraxhall, whose innocent rummaging through the archives of the noble de la Gardie family takes a sinister turn.

Wraxhall becomes fascinated by the long-dead founder of the dynasty, the fearsome Count Magnus, a tyrannical ruler who dabbled in alchemy and who once made a strange journey to the Holy Land on most unholy business. Despite the warnings of his hosts, Wraxhall is drawn ever deeper into the Count's dark world and discovers that the dreaded aristocrat may not lie easy in his tomb...

It's 1881, and Old College, Oxford plays host to three very different academics. Abercrombie Smith is a model of Victorian manhood, clean of limb and sound of mind. Monkhouse Lee is a delicate and unworldly student from Thailand. And occupying the rooms between them is the strange and exotic Edward Bellingham, whose unnatural researches into the secrets of ancient Egypt are the talk of the college. Can Bellingham's experiments truly bring the breath of life to the horrifying bag of bones that is the mysterious Lot No 249?

In her final days, Edith Nesbit recounts the chilling tale of newlywed Victorians Jack and Laura. As they settle into a small cottage in a quiet village, they soon find their idyll overshadowed by the superstitious warnings of their housekeeper and the legend of two marble tomb effigies who are said to rise each year and walk.

Jack dismisses this is as mere folklore. But as the fateful night draws near, he makes a terrifying discovery. And back at the cottage, Laura is all alone...

It's 1944, and while sheltering during an air raid, Roger strikes up a conversation with Verity, a Wren. When he asks if she dreams, he begins to recount the haunting vision that has followed him for most of his life: a recurring dream of a mysterious house, a silent family on the lawn and an unseen, unidentified terror lurking in the room in the tower.

But when he is invited to stay at a country estate eerily similar to the one in his dreams, and is assigned the very same room, he becomes increasingly disturbed as his nightmares begin to become reality. What is really waiting for him in the room in the tower?

1858. An inn with no name, an eccentric landlord and a lone traveller with a strangely familiar appearance. As he settles into his room for the night, the traveller is visited by an uncanny man in black, with a story to tell…

The Bride's Chamber tells the tale of a spurned and vengeful suitor who manipulates a young woman and marries her to claim her fortune. But his murderous plans create his own purgatory…