Between 1971 and 1978 the BBC used to dramatise a ghost story every year under the title "A Ghost Story for Christmas". The first five entries in the series were all based upon tales by that great master of the genre, M. R. James. "The Ash Tree", first shown in 1975, was the last of these; the ghost story for Christmas 1976 was an adaptation of Charles Dickens's "The Signalman", and the offerings for 1977 and 1978 were original stories.
The story is set in the mid eighteenth century. Sir Richard Fell, an English aristocrat, has recently inherited a stately home from his great uncle Sir Matthew. He arrives at his new home, full of plans for rebuilding the old manor house in the then fashionable Classical style. His peace of mind, however, is disturbed by the strange circumstances of Sir Matthew's death- it is suspected that he was poisoned, but hard evidence is lacking- and by mysterious sounds which suggest that the house may be haunted. These manifestations seem to centre upon an old ash tree outside the window of Sir Richard's bedroom, the room in which Sir Matthew died.
Intercut with the main action are flashbacks to the time of another Sir Matthew who was responsible for the execution as a witch of a local woman named Anne Mothersole. (Sir Richard and this Sir Matthew are played by the same actor, Edward Petherbridge). Local people begin to suspect that the strange disturbances which affect the manor are being caused by Mrs Mothersole's vengeful ghost, but Sir Richard dismisses such talk as superstition. "The dead are dead".
In the original story Mrs Mothersole's was "one of a number of witch trials" which took place in Suffolk in the year 1690, but in the television adaptation her trial takes place during the great witchcraft hysteria of the 1640s and 1650s, probably because by 1690 this hysteria had largely died down in England and prosecutions for witchcraft were few. To accommodate this change the first Sir Matthew (in James's story Richard's grandfather) here becomes a more distant ancestor. With this exception, however, "The Ash Tree" (unlike some of the other Ghost Stories for Christmas) keeps relatively closely to the original.
This is not the best of the Ghost Stories for Christmas; there is no single dominating performance like that of Peter Vaughan in "A Warning to the Curious" or Joseph O'Connor in "Lost Hearts". I would, however, rate it more highly than "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas", which is less a ghost story than a follow-the-clues tale of buried treasure with an unconvincing ghostly ending tacked on. "The Ash Tree", by comparison, is more atmospheric and does have a genuinely scary ending. 7/10.
The story is set in the mid eighteenth century. Sir Richard Fell, an English aristocrat, has recently inherited a stately home from his great uncle Sir Matthew. He arrives at his new home, full of plans for rebuilding the old manor house in the then fashionable Classical style. His peace of mind, however, is disturbed by the strange circumstances of Sir Matthew's death- it is suspected that he was poisoned, but hard evidence is lacking- and by mysterious sounds which suggest that the house may be haunted. These manifestations seem to centre upon an old ash tree outside the window of Sir Richard's bedroom, the room in which Sir Matthew died.
Intercut with the main action are flashbacks to the time of another Sir Matthew who was responsible for the execution as a witch of a local woman named Anne Mothersole. (Sir Richard and this Sir Matthew are played by the same actor, Edward Petherbridge). Local people begin to suspect that the strange disturbances which affect the manor are being caused by Mrs Mothersole's vengeful ghost, but Sir Richard dismisses such talk as superstition. "The dead are dead".
In the original story Mrs Mothersole's was "one of a number of witch trials" which took place in Suffolk in the year 1690, but in the television adaptation her trial takes place during the great witchcraft hysteria of the 1640s and 1650s, probably because by 1690 this hysteria had largely died down in England and prosecutions for witchcraft were few. To accommodate this change the first Sir Matthew (in James's story Richard's grandfather) here becomes a more distant ancestor. With this exception, however, "The Ash Tree" (unlike some of the other Ghost Stories for Christmas) keeps relatively closely to the original.
This is not the best of the Ghost Stories for Christmas; there is no single dominating performance like that of Peter Vaughan in "A Warning to the Curious" or Joseph O'Connor in "Lost Hearts". I would, however, rate it more highly than "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas", which is less a ghost story than a follow-the-clues tale of buried treasure with an unconvincing ghostly ending tacked on. "The Ash Tree", by comparison, is more atmospheric and does have a genuinely scary ending. 7/10.