Ghostly Mark

WHAT is it that makes Christmas and ghost stories go so well together?

December 25 may be associated with family, togetherness and human kindness, but for some reason, being scared witless is nestled in there as well.

“It was a tradition that existed before Charles Dickens was around, but he certainly popularised it with A Christmas Carol and forever fused the two things together,” says County Durham’s League Of Gentleman star, Mark Gatiss.

“I think it comes from being the end of the year; it’s cold and dark outside, and people tend to gather around fires to talk.

Before the days of radio and TV, people telling each other stories was the natural entertainment, so Christmas, with all the family there, was the natural setting.

It’s a great tradition,” says the performer and writer from School Aycliffe, near Darlington.

He’s penned the three-part chiller Crooked House, which begins on BBC Four on Monday.

It’s what’s known as a portmanteau film and is made up of three separate stories with linking theme. One story is set in Georgian times, another in the 1920s, and the final piece in the present day.

“In a way, I’ve been waiting 35 years for this,” says Gatiss, beaming with excitement.

“I’ve always wanted to do a Christmas ghost story for the BBC. I had meetings about trying to do it a few years ago, but then the BBC actually did one of their own.”

The programme Gatiss refers to is A View From The Hill, written by MR James, an author whom Gatiss confesses is his inspiration.

He also talks at length about The Woman In Black – the TV adaptation of Susan Hill’s terrifying tale, first shown on ITV in 1989. Gatiss has watched it every year since, and maintains it’s one of the best programmes ever broadcast.

“Last year, I proposed doing a Christmas story as well, but we ran out of time to get it made.

Earlier this year, I got the whole thing revived again by saying ‘It’s not that long till Christmas,’ which it never is these days,” he adds.

It wasn’t until after the project was given the green light that Gatiss actually started writing the stories, although he says the ideas have been in his head for a lifetime.

“My obsession with horror started in the womb,” he says, with a rather sinister smile.

“I was a morbid child and had a red sheet or curtain that I used as a cloak, and a cameo brooch I pretended was a pocket watch.

My dream was owning a top hat, that was my great ambition as a child.”

He wrote the series over the summer, then the whole 90 minutes of Crooked House was filmed in an astonishing 15 days.

Considering Gatiss is also starring in the piece and is coproducer, he certainly had his work cut out to get everything done in time.

“We shot all my scenes in one day, which was the only way we could do it,” he says. “It might be tiring being the three different roles, but I love working like that, and will hopefully continue to do so, increasingly.

“It’s not about being a control freak, but if you have written something, and have a very clear idea of what it’s meant to be like, it’s for the best.”

Gatiss admits he needs a holiday after the last few months, which have seen him film not only Crooked House, but also sitcom, Clone, travel to Morocco for a role in Poirot and write a book. Even so, he says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“As long as I’m privileged enough to have more say in what I do, I need to have it. Look at The League Of Gentleman,” he continues, referring to the multiaward- winning TV series he starred in, co-wrote and produced with friends Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Jeremy Dyson (although the latter didn’t appear on-screen.) The eerie, jet-black comedy contained nods to sinister, cult film The Wicker Man and Hammer horror movies among other works, all wrapped up in a particularly British eccentricity.

“The whole thing about League... was that we did it all ourselves, there wasn’t any other way around it. Who else was going to produce it? We won the Perrier award at Edinburgh, and then did the radio show, so imagine if the BBC had come to us and said ‘These people are going to work with you’. It wouldn’t have been the show it was. If you can find the right people to form your team, it’s the most exciting thing.

“The principle I’ve always operated on, even before I was able to control my destiny, so to speak, is to make the sort of things I’d like to watch myself.

“If I wasn’t doing Crooked House, and I looked at the TV schedule and it said ‘Three new ghost stories for Christmas’ I’d cheer. It’s exactly what I’d like to watch.”

■ Crooked House, BBC4, Monday, 10.30pm