Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kit Harrington, Freddie Fox, John Heffernan, Colin Ryan, Andrew Horton, James Swanton, Jonathan Rigby.
A good ghost story at Christmas is fitting, it reminds us not to take life for granted, it urges us to think of those we have lost, not just in the passing of the calendar year, but throughout our lives; for in that memory, we understand that time is fleeting, it is corporeal, and at times the lesson it wishes to teach is one to which is required to scare us into doing the right thing.
The adaption of many a tale that does not require the usual fare offered to the public in the guise of Ebeneezer Scrooge and the spectres that reveal the outcome of his miserable path, is to be applauded, it shows with immense pride the depth of British literature in which television can with care adapt for the modern age, and offer us a glimpse of what lays behind the veil, a peek at the world that stands between us and what is beyond our comprehension.
Following on from recent treats of the mysterious, the stunning adaptions of M.R. James’ works such as The Tractate Middoth, Martin’s Close, and Count Magnus, the latest offering from the seismic story-telling mind of Mark Gatiss is one ripe for the picking of the season, the short and chilling tale of Lot 249 by the father of the greatest detective of them all, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one that brings to mind perhaps that which pinpoints directly the British act of cultural vandalism and the need to explain our obsession with that of the desecration of Egypt’s past, especially that of the Mummy.
Lot 249 shows with intrigue just how that obsession worked, how some would partake in digesting the mummified remains, a peculiar, even revolting habit that became a ritual in itself amongst certain classes; and with a flourish, Lot 249 becomes not only a ghost story, but a rebuke from the past that we need to admit more honestly.
The short tale lends itself well to the television viewer’s expectations of having their mind opened to possibility of there being more beyond our understanding, and as Kit Harrington and Freddie Fox battle for the sake of sanity over Fox’s Edward Bellingham and the thrall that he has over the mutual acquaintance and fellow academic Monkhouse Lee, played with conviction by Colin Ryan.
The effect of the past interfering with the present is a common theme, but to see it so presented as one of compulsion leading to personal suffering, perhaps is framed with an unnerving quietness, the appreciation of knowing that you will be looking over your shoulder at some point during the following days, that every brush of draught that weaves its way through small cracks in time could well be the touch of that which died long ago as it looks to take revenge and damn your soul.
Lot 249 is a super tale to which to ring in the bells of Christmas, a rebuke, a warning, a reminder to take care with your actions in a time that is built on the suffering of ancestors.
Ian D. Hall