Both the original story and Gatiss\u2019s screen version follow the inquisitive Mr Wraxall (played here by Jason Watkins) who arrives in Sweden and begins investigating the ominous figure of Count Magnus, an inquiry which eventually sees him confronted by a malevolent force. But in its final scene, the BBC dramatisation adds a twist not present in the source material\u2026<\/p>\n
Be warned:\u00a0spoilers follow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Both versions of Count Magnus end with the violent death of Wraxall, whose mysterious demise is ruled by a jury to be \u201ca visitation of God\u201d. In the original story, the narrator of Wraxall\u2019s misfortunes is revealed to be the man who eventually acquired Wraxall\u2019s old house and is forced to pull the property down since nobody is willing to stay there.<\/p>\n But in Gatiss\u2019s adaptation, the narrator is revealed to be none other than Count Magnus himself, his life unnaturally prolonged by a deal with the devil, allowing him to narrate the story from within his tomb.<\/p>\n \u201cThis one needed a narrator, I think, just because there were lots of nice little passages [in the original story],\u201d Gatiss told RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201c<\/span>I just thought this one felt like it needed it \u2013 and then I thought about getting a big Swedish actor \u2013 in the final version, it\u2019s Krister Henriksson, who is the original Wallander and thankfully said yes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the story, it\u2019s an Englishman. But soon as I thought it could be a Swedish voice, I thought, \u2018Well, whose voice could that be?\u2019 and then the idea came to me of him [Count Magnus] lying in the tomb, narrating it for his own purposes! So yeah, that\u2019s what that came from.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Gatiss has overseen the A Ghost Story for Christmas strand since 2013, adapting The Tractate Middoth, followed by The Dead Room (in 2018), Martin\u2019s Close (in 2019), and last year\u2019s The Mezzotint<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though each of those stories were either an M R James adaptation or an original story of Gatiss\u2019s own devising, he revealed that he\u2019s keen to adapt the work of other authors in future. \u201cThere are lots of people to adapt \u2013 E F Benson is one of my other favourites,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I\u2019m just very thrilled to do it, to be able to continue that tradition \u2013 and I hope to continue further.\u201d<\/p>\n A Ghost Story for Christmas: Count Magnus is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n For more, check out our dedicated\u00a0Fantasy<\/a>\u00a0page or our full\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Morgan Jeffery Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am BBC Two\u2019s latest entry in its A Ghost Story for Christmas strand is\u00a0Count Magnus, adapted from the M R James short story by Mark Gatiss \u2013 but those familiar with the original text will have noticed a big change to the climax. Both the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27744,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/mark-gatiss-explains-why-he-changed-count-magnus-ending-with-new-twist.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Morgan Jeffery Published: Friday, 23 December 2022 at 12:00 am BBC Two\u2019s latest entry in its A Ghost Story for Christmas strand is\u00a0Count Magnus, adapted from the M R James short story by Mark Gatiss \u2013 but those familiar with the original text will have noticed a big change to the climax. Both the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/count-magnus-myanna-buring-3d449b6.jpg?quality=90&resize=618%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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