The ghost stories of M.R. James

M.R. James: Ghost Writer, originally broadcast on Christmas Day 2013, saw Mark Gatiss step into the mind of the enigmatic English master of the supernatural story. How did this donnish Victorian bachelor, conservative by nature and a devout Anglican, come to create tales that continue to chill readers more than a century on?

In the clip above, actor Robert Lloyd Parry recreates the moment James, at a Chitchat Society meeting in Cambridge in the 1890s, first unveiled his tales of terror. You can view more clips and readings from the show here.