Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Joanna Lumley, Tobias Menzies, Nancy Carroll, Ben Mansfield, Polly Walker.
A tale told well is always worth the time spent watching it unfold, and yet its opposite is one that seems to spare itself from being truly explored feels to the viewer almost as if they are being punished for caring about previous encounters with the writer or the subject matter.
The more loyal you are to the genre, the more a disappointment even a middling ghost story at Christmas appears to be. The event should be a cause for excitement for those who find the truth of darkness to be enlightening, to be a thrill of cold before the warmth of the festive period hits home, and yet fir the first time Mark Gatiss, a true connoisseur of the dramatis horror, finds perhaps that not all that glitters in night hours of adaption and writing to be filled with suitable scares and monsters.
Adapted from E.F. Benson’s own short story, The Room In The Tower is one of a plethora, a literal overflowing of works from the English writer, and yet it could be argued by any fan that it is one of the weaker in the cannon of works, and a surprise for one to be televised when its plot suffers from pressures of living up to others versions of the supernatural and vampire story.
This pressure follows through to what is the sceptical feel of the piece, and with a exceedingly good cast, more could have been made of the revision of time, of getting to grips with the wonderful Joanna Lumley as the unnerving old woman at the centre of Roger Winstanly, played with conviction of dread by Tobias Menzies, a missing chapter maybe, an extra 15 minutes in which to open the tale up completely and allow the pair to offer the viewer a stronger, more intimate dialogue of fear than relying it is a confession of fright to Nancy Carroll’s character of Verity Gordon Clark. The production also does disservice to Polly Walker, one small scene, an almost afterthought of presence that does nothing for furthering the narrative.
It is a shame that such a run of Ghost Stories from Mark Gatiss has found a way to stutter, to struggle to send a chill down the spine just when television this festive period was crying out for a fierce response of trepidation, to throw light on the darkness surrounding the viewer’s own personal lives in the modern day.
The Room In The Tower could have been so much more, and even with the great dame Joanna Lumley offering her soul to the role, there is little to find of a fright in the year’s tale from beyond the veil.
Ian D. Hall