Spirit of the archive: the enduring mystery of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas

While the future of BBC Four is uncertain, it has played a significant role in reviving interest in vintage British television drama. As custodian of the BBC archive, not only has it screened repeats of the original episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas (BBC1 1971-1978) but also revived the strand in the mid-2000s with new adaptations of the work of M.R. James. It also championed the work of Mark Gatiss, who established himself on the channel as an aficionado of British television horror. T...