Jeremy Dyson

In the run up to Christmas, settle in for some ghost stories and strange tales with the award-winning author, director and screenwriter Jeremy Dyson.

Jeremy talks about the authors who inspired him, not least Robert Aickman, who preferred the term “strange tales” to “ghost stories” and had a deep reverence for things we cannot understand.

Jeremy began writing his own strange tales when he was still working in a Leeds bookshop, scribbling down notes as he came up with ideas, and selling his first short story to a customer.

But then The League Of Gentlemen took off, the comic and occasionally grotesque stage show starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, which transferred to radio, and then television - with award-winning results.

He remembers The League Of Gentlemen Christmas Special in 2000, an anthology of spooky stories which deliver drama, comedy and fear. Jeremy considers it the apotheosis of this series, which celebrated its 20th anniversary with three new episodes and another live tour in 2017.

Jeremy talks about his writing and projects away from Royston Vasey. These include Ghost Stories, the long-running stage show Jeremy co-wrote and directed with Andy Nyman, which was adapted for the big screen last year. The production draws upon all the tricks in the book, to conjure fear in the audience, as the stories unfold.

We also enjoy two unsettling short stories from Jeremy’s debut collection, Never Trust A Rabbit, which was published in 2000 and adapted for BBC Radio 4.

Produced and presented by Ali Gardiner for Radio 4 Extra.

First broadcast in 2019.