My introduction to the macabre fiction of M.R. James holds up well dramatized for television for the essential A Ghost Story for Christmas program. Amateur archaeologist, Mr Paxton, travels to the coastal Norfolk town of Seaburgh where research has uncovered an old Anglo-Saxon legend telling of three fabled crowns that protect England from invasion of any foreign army. One is said to have been lost to thieves who melted it down, a second lost to the sea, but the third is thought to be hidden somewhere near his current destination. Paxton checks into a local inn where he may be getting the suspicious eye of a few locals but still manages to be told about another archaeologist who, a little more than a decade earlier, was also searching for said legendary crown. Disturbingly, this archaeologist was found murdered. His research leads him to the grave of a local man, who was said to be the last guardian of the crown. Paxton goes to search the woods near the man’s former home, but his excavation naturally ends up unearthing something more than just a fascinating piece of English history. The supernatural threat may not translate all that well to screen (and reminded me a bit too much of Monty Python and the Holy Grail) but luckily the piece can rely on its professional cast and interesting plot to make it more than just watchable.
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