MARK GATISS TACK LES ARTHUR CONA N DOYLE ONCE MOR E IN A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS
CREEPING AROUND A SPOOKY old manor is all in a day’s work for SFX – it’s either that or a quarry – but there’s something extra special when it’s Halloween and you’re on set for A Ghost Story For Christmas with Mark Gatiss.
It’s Thursday 5 October, to be precise for future TV historians, and we’re at Rothamsted Manor in Hertfordshire, a 900-acre estate that’s been around since the 12th century. It’s been the location for many film and TV productions – including Midsomer Murders and Grantchester, we’re informed – but today evil lurks in the dark for filming of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story “Lot No 249”.
“As always, every year we have no money,” producer Isibeal Ballance laughs. “So every year, we start with, ‘Right, what’s the story? Where can we find the best location?’”. When this location came up, she and writer/director Gatiss jumped in a car right away.
“We came here and were like, ‘Oh my god, this is absolutely perfect.’ It just enables us to put as much of our money into the other things that we need to make it, without having to build sets and pay. There’s so much detail and the production value is just so high.”
It’s no exaggeration – it’s like a labyrinth of beautiful wooden rooms, with tall ceilings, uneven floors, vintage furniture and paintings everywhere. But despite the wonderful authentic period setting, we’re actually sitting in a linen cupboard, which is where we’re watching filming in the next room via a monitor. Glamour and ghosts. Still, if we need to step in with a sheet…
BOYS’ CLUB
Set in 1884, the story focuses on Abercrombie Smith (Kit Harington) and Edward Bellingham (Freddie Fox), both students at the University of Oxford. Bellingham studies Egyptology and keeps an auction-bought sarcophagus in his room. But there’s something not quite right about the artefact Bellingham has christened Lot No 249, as Smith soon discovers…
The cast, Gatiss says when he pops by our cupboard between takes, have been “brilliant” and “so game”. “Freddie and Kit both said how much they loved it. Freddie was watching himself yesterday and he said, ‘I know it’s only four days, but I’ve never looked so good,’” he laughs. “Kit fell in love with his moustache.
“Also he said, ‘I’m not just saying this, I think Abercrombie Smith is one of my favourite ever characters.’ I said, ‘I think you should do more in this vein,’ because he really gets it, he gets how to play that kind of Victorian hero. I’ve got plans for Kit!” he laughs again.
The man himself is sitting at a desk in front of a journal and a skull, before someone hammers at the
