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.

Here are the stories included and their synopses:

• The Tractate Middoth (2013) Starring: Sacha Dhawan, John Castle, Louise Jameson, David Ryall, Una Stubbs, Eleanor Bron, Roy Barraclough
  • A young librarian receives a request for an obscure Hebrew book from a sinister gentleman, unaware of its contents.
• The Dead Room (2018) Starring: Simon Callow, Anjli Mohindra, Susan Penhaligon, Joshua Oakes-Rogers, Christopher Allen, Mark Gatiss
  • Veteran radio presenter of The Dead Room, Aubrey Judd, realizes that elements of his past are not as dead and buried as he perhaps hoped.
• Martin's Close (2019) Starring: Peter Capaldi, Wilf Scolding, Elliot Levey, Simon Williams
  • A young squire, John Martin, is on trial for murder in a court presided over by hanging judge George Jeffreys, but the girl he is accused of murdering has been seen after her death.
• The Mezzotint (2021) Starring: Rory Kinnear, Robert Bathurst, Frances Barber, John Hopkins, Emma Cunniffe, Nikesh Patel, Tommaso Di Vincenzo
  • A university museum curator is intrigued by the unfolding tale of horror told by an otherwise unprepossessing 19th-century mezzotint.
• Count Magnus (2022) Starring: Jason Watkins, MyAnna Buring, Krister Henriksson, Max Bremer, Allan Corduner, Jamal Ajala
  • A travelogue writer, Mr Wraxhall, becomes fascinated by the story of Count Magnus, the long-dead founder of a Swedish family who once made a journey to the Holy Land for less than holy reasons.
• Lot No. 249 (2023) Starring: Kit Harington, Freddie Fox, Colin Ryan, John Heffernan, James Swanton, Jonathan Rigby, Andrew Horton
  • The purchase of an Ancient Egyptian mummy at an auction leads to a horrifying series of events for two Oxford students

All six episodes were written and directed by Gatiss. Episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5 are adapted from M.R. James' short stories of the same name; Episode 2 is an original story by Gatiss; Episode 6 is based on the Conan Doyle short story.

All six episodes of Ghost Stories will debut on select PBS Passports and air on linear during October on select local PBS stations. As always, check your local listings and streamers.