PBS Passport to Stream 'Ghost Stories' for Halloween 2024
A Ghost Story for Christmas initially debuted in 1971 on the BBC, a Christmas Eve anthology series of scary stories to tell in the dark while awaiting Santa. The original iteration ran for seven years, concluding in 1978. The first five adaptations were based on M.R. James' famous Christmas ghost stories from the interwar period, followed by an Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation of The Signalman, which became the initial series most critically acclaimed entry, before turning to original stories inspired by James and Doyle's works.
The series was revived in 2004, with new installments beginning the following year, again based on James' short stories, adapted by Neil Cross (Luther) and Peter Harness (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell). The series aired sporadically after that, with a Halloween edition in 2006, followed by "holiday" specials that aired randomly throughout December from 2007-2012. That's when Mark Gatiss (Game of Thrones) took over the franchise as writer/director and returned the series to its Christmas Eve premiere date.
However, Gatiss' schedule with Sherlock and Doctor Who kept the franchise on ice until 2018; since its return, the series has gone back to being a yearly tradition (save for 2020's pandemic-canceled edition). These six Gatiss-penned stories have now been rechristened as plain old Ghost Stories for PBS viewers and are PBS' big get for Halloween 2024.
