The Devil's Christmas
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Christmas week gets creepy on BBC Radio 2, as Dr Who star Christopher Eccleston reads four classic stories with a devilish sting in the tail.
Music by Chris O'Shaughnessy
Abridged and produced by Frank Stirling
First broadcast 21 to 24 December 2007, 12.00midnight-12.20am, Radio 2
(The series was originally scheduled to be broadcast from 17th December - 20th Decemeber 2007 but was postponed at the last minute.
Repeated 22 to 25 December 2008
192/44; 82 MB total; sound quality excellent
1. The Signalman, by Charles Dickens
first published in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round
The ghostly tale of a railway tunnel haunted by the ghost of a winter's death that is yet to come.
2. The Necklace, By Guy de Maupassant
"La parure" was first published in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois in 1884
A young wife yearns, like Cinderella, to go to the Twelfth Night ball. When her husband gets hold of a coveted invitation, she borrows a priceless necklace from a friend.
3. Thurlow's Christmas, by John Kendrick Bangs
published as "Thurlow's Christmas Story" in Ghosts I Have Met and Others (1898)
A haunting story about a writer who is tortured by the Christmas story he can't seem to finish.
4. The She-Wolf, a Clovis story by Saki
published in Beasts and Super-Beasts (1914)
At a winter house party, one unbearable guest has pretentions to be a master of the dark arts. There is consternation all round when he turns his hostess into a wolf.
Replies
I rarely like readings but short stories are a different matter, Thanks
Cheers Rick. Good stuff.
Robert Johnson
Thank you, Rick!
Roger
Thanks for sharing.