\u201cIt\u2019s been a glorious time \u2013 very hard work \u2013 and Christmas all year, for me,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut I don\u2019t mind. I love Christmas, and I love ghosts. So it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
One is his stage production of Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, where he plays the ghost of Jacob Marley (a long-held ambition), another is kid-friendly Sky movie The Amazing Mr Blunden<\/a> (which he directed, wrote and stars in) \u2013 and the third is MR James adaptation The Mezzotint<\/a>, the latest in his series of Christmas Eve ghost stories, resurrecting the \u2018A Ghost Story for Christmas\u2019 strand that appeared on the BBC in the 1970s.<\/p> A Christmas Carol has a showing on Christmas Eve, Mr Blunden kicks off at 7pm on Sky Max the same day, followed by The Mezzotint at 10.30pm. Was he aware he\u2019d essentially hijacked Christmas?<\/p>\n \u201cAfter various delays, I became aware that I was going to be visited by three spirits as it were,\u201d he grins. \u201cBut I can\u2019t complain.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Gatiss is remarkably placid looking back on what must have been an extremely challenging period for him. A Christmas Carol was pushed back a year, Mr Blunden was shifted \u2013 and worst of all, his planned original ghost story for Christmas 2020 had to be shelved entirely after the subject matter began to seem insensitive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were trying desperately to get a ghost story made for last year, and then COVID just made it absolutely impossible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was called The Night Wedding, and it\u2019s inspired by a true story. But it\u2019s a cast of very old people in hospital dying. Basically, it\u2019s a haunted hospital story.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018I don\u2019t think the public want to see old people in hospitals dying, when all they\u2019re seeing on TV is old people in hospitals dying.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Gatiss turned back to the works of legendary ghost story author M.R. James, having previously adapted his works The Tractate Middoth and (in 2019) Martin\u2019s Close.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking, \u2018Maybe what we need is a little comfort.\u2019 Which may sound like an odd thing from such a clammy story as The Mezzotint, but M.R. James provides a pleasing terror,\u201d he chuckles.<\/p>\n He admits he was disappointed to lose his own story \u2013 \u201cthe Night Wedding is there, and it may happen one day, but we\u2019ll have to see\u201d \u2013 but he also relished going back to the world of James for a third time.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s such a joy in making another adaptation. M.R. James has an immediate impact when they see the name,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd one of the reasons that it\u2019s lent itself so nicely is that it\u2019s a chamber piece. It\u2019s a sort of small story. It was made for COVID times, you know, even though it\u2019s set in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Said story (adapted and directed, again, by Gatiss) follows a sheltered academic (Rory Kinnear) who is sent an unusual mezzotint, i.e. an engraving made from a copper or steel plate, of a mysterious house. Over time, he and his colleagues (including Nikesh Patel and Robert Bathurst) notice that the picture is changing every time they look at it, with a horrifying figure slowly creeping up the house\u2019s lawn.<\/p>\n In James\u2019 short story, that\u2019s more or less where the story ends \u2013 but Gatiss adds his own flourish to the conclusion, making for one of his most chilling TV creations to date (I had to wince my way through the screening, in a good way).<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I think what you usually end up doing with an adaptation, say, of an M.R. James story, is trying to preserve the stuff that works best as dialogue, and isn\u2019t too chewy, but still has a wonderful period flavour, and then expanding the parts which need expanding,\u201d he says of these changes (and indeed, some of the lines in his script are lifted verbatim from the page).<\/p>\n \u201cAnd also, it\u2019s a different form. You\u2019ve got to feel like you could adapt it, and invent, and make it suit film or television in that way. Otherwise, it\u2019s just a sort of static retelling of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopefully, this won\u2019t be the last time he gets a crack at the half-hour ghost story format. While there are no official plans Gatiss says that if he could, he\u2019d \u201cbe very happy to make one every year for the rest of time\u201d.<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cThe thing is, as you say, there\u2019s such a need for it. I\u2019ve just done Lorraine, and she said my ghost story is now as much a part of Christmas for her as trying to stuff her face with a Terry\u2019s Chocolate Orange, and that\u2019s a quote which I think we should put on the back of everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI know there\u2019s a meeting this week, not specifically about it, but everything that it would come under, as it were, in terms of funding and iPlayer and stuff like that. I\u2019m hoping to know soon. That would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n Further ahead, Gatiss says that there\u2019s no risk of a triple ghost-off next Christmas \u2013 \u201cif we can do another one, that\u2019ll be the only one\u201d \u2013 with his acting\/directing\/writing dance card also filling up with various projects, most of which he can\u2019t talk about.<\/p>\n Could one such project be a return to the first place he wrote a Christmas ghost story \u2013 sci-fi drama Doctor Who<\/a>, now returning to the stewardship of ex-showrunner Russell T Davies? Gatiss started writing for the show under Davies, and went on to be its most prolific guest writer, after all.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve no idea,\u201d he teases. \u201cWho knows? But, you know, I had a wonderful run. I wrote for four Doctors, and left by playing the brigadier\u2019s grandfather in Peter Capaldi\u2019s regeneration story with David Bradley.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s more forthcoming on Davies\u2019 return in general, which seemed to take him as much by surprise as anyone else.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard,\u201d he says. \u201cI was on holiday. I literally had to sit down. I got a text, and I just sort of sat down on a tree stump, and went, \u201cWhat?\u201d It\u2019s just amazing. Yeah, very exciting. Very exciting times.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the most brilliant thing because Russell\u2019s doing it for all the right reasons. He\u2019s on a creative high. He doesn\u2019t have to do it, but he wants to do it. And I\u2019ve no idea what he\u2019s going to do. Isn\u2019t that a brilliant thought?<\/p>\n \u201cEvery Doctor Who fan has an idea of how they would do Doctor Who. Russell has done it, and now he\u2019s doing it again. So God knows what that will be.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, whatever comes next it\u2019s clear that Gatiss has lost none of his relish for the ghastly at Christmas \u2013 even if he did have to deal with a lot of it at once this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThese ghost stories are sporadic \u2013 that\u2019s not for want of trying,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I\u2019ve said many times, it\u2019s a very difficult thing to get off the ground these days, because there\u2019s no money for, essentially, a half-hour play. The slot sort of doesn\u2019t exist anymore, so you have to bang a lot of heads together, and also get a lot of odd sources together.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, you know, now we have Lorraine on board, anything can happen,\u201d he laughs. \u201cAs we know, she can move mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mezzotint airs at 10.30pm on Friday 24th December. For more, check out our dedicated Fantasy<\/a> page or our full TV Guide<\/a>. <\/strong>Visit our Big RT Interview<\/a> hub for more conversations with the biggest stars in TV and film.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\""The\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/10\/the-mezzotint-cast-adcf317.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C414"\" "\\"\"The\\"\/")
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