The Treasure of Abbot Thomas is a 1974 supernatural drama produced by the BBC as part of its A Ghost Story for Christmas series. Running at 37 minutes and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, it was written by John Bowen with an atmospheric musical score by Geoffrey Burgon. Based on the 1904 short story "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" by M. R. James, [1] the drama was originally broadcast on 23 December 1974 and starred Michael Bryant and Paul Lavers. [2]
In 1859 [1] the Rev Justin Somerton (Michael Bryant), an academic clergyman and Medievalist, and his aristocratic protégé Peter, Lord Dattering (Paul Lavers) expose two fraudulent mediums, Mr and Mrs Tyson, who claim they are able to communicate with the recently deceased husband of Lady Dattering (Virginia Balfour).
Somerton tells Dattering about his researches into the history of an ancient local monastery. He tells of a supposed cache of gold said to have been hidden by one Abbot Thomas, a disgraced former churchman and alchemist who, according to legend, was carried off by the Devil in 1429. Together, they follow the clues during which they visit a church where they discover hidden messages in an old stained-glass window referring to the location of the treasure hidden long ago by the evil Abbot Thomas. Despite the warning that the Abbot had "set a guardian" to protect his treasure, Somerton sets out to unearth it - and discovers its horrific secret.
In creating his adaptation, Bowen changed a number of elements of M. R. James's story, such as removing Somerton's servant Brown from the story and adding another character – Peter, Lord Dattering (Paul Lavers) [4] – as Somerton's protégé, with whom he shares his investigation. Unlike James’s original story, the television version is not told in flashback, and includes a scene in which Somerton exposes two fraudulent mediums, which acts as a demonstration of Somerton's rational approach to the supernatural. [5]
For The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, Clark recalls John Bowen's script "took some liberties with the story—which made it for the better I think...It's really quite a funny story until it gets nasty, although the threat is always there. James has a mordant sense of humour, and it's good to translate that into cinematic terms when you can. I'd always wanted to do a medium scene, and John came up with a beauty." [6]
A parody, written by Stephen Sheridan and named The Teeth of Abbot Thomas, was made for radio broadcast and is currently available on YouTube.
Although James’s original story was set in Germany, [1] for budgetary reasons in the television version the action was relocated to England. Clark used the grounds of Wells Cathedral in Somerset for the entrance to the well where Abbot Thomas hid his treasure. Wells Cathedral Chapter House and its adjoining steps also were used in various scenes. The house featured is Orchardleigh, on the outskirts of Frome - also in Somerset. The 13th-century church of St Mary, Orchardleigh also featured in the production, as did Vicars' Close in Wells, Somerset.
Montague Rhodes James was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–1915).
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".
Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weird fiction either eschews or radically reinterprets traditional antagonists of supernatural horror fiction, such as ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. Writers on the subject of weird fiction, such as China Miéville, sometimes use "the tentacle" to represent this type of writing. The tentacle is a limb-type absent from most of the monsters of European folklore and gothic fiction, but often attached to the monstrous creatures created by weird fiction writers, such as William Hope Hodgson, M. R. James, Clark Ashton Smith, and H. P. Lovecraft. Weird fiction often attempts to inspire awe as well as fear in response to its fictional creations, causing commentators like Miéville to paraphrase Goethe in saying that weird fiction evokes a sense of the numinous. Although "weird fiction" has been chiefly used as a historical description for works through the 1930s, it experienced a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s, under the label of New Weird, which continues into the 21st century.
Michael Dennis Bryant was a British stage and television actor.
Captain J. Flint is a fictional golden age pirate captain who features in a number of novels, television series, and films. The original character was created by the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894). Flint first appears in the classic adventure yarn Treasure Island, which was first serialised in a children's magazine in 1881, and later published as a novel in 1883.
The Stone Tape is a 1972 British television horror drama film written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Michael Bates and Iain Cuthbertson. It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972. Combining aspects of science fiction and horror, the story concerns a team of scientists who move into their new research facility, a renovated Victorian mansion that has a reputation for being haunted. The team investigate the phenomenon, trying to determine if the stones of the building are acting as a recording medium for past events. However, their investigations serve only to unleash a darker, more malevolent force.
Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, who used the pseudonyms Marjorie Bowen, George R. Preedy, Joseph Shearing, Robert Paye, John Winch, and Margaret Campbell or Mrs. Vere Campbell, was a British author who wrote historical romances and supernatural horror stories, as well as works of popular history and biography.
Castle Balfour is a castle situated in Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It sits at the edge of the parish graveyard just west of Main Street. The castle is a State Care Historic Monument sited in the townland of Castle Balfour Demesne, in the Fermanagh and Omagh district area, at grid ref: H3622 3369.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1904. Some later editions under this title contain both the original collection and its successor, More Ghost Stories (1911), combined in one volume.
Ectoplasm is a term used in Spiritualism to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums. It was coined in 1894 by psychical researcher Charles Richet. Although the term is widespread in popular culture, there is no scientific evidence that ectoplasm exists and many purported examples were exposed as hoaxes fashioned from cheesecloth, gauze or other natural substances.
Kidnapped is a 1960 American adventure drama film. It is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1886 novel Kidnapped. It stars Peter Finch and James MacArthur, and was Disney's second production based on a novel by Stevenson, the first being Treasure Island. It also marked Peter O'Toole's feature-film debut.
Jessica Amanda Salmonson is an American author and editor of fantasy and horror fiction and poetry. She lives on Puget Sound with her partner, artist and editor Rhonda Boothe.
Lawrence Gordon Clark, is an English television director and producer, perhaps best known for his A Ghost Story for Christmas series of mostly M. R. James ghost stories, which were broadcast annually by the BBC throughout the 1970s.
Albert Frank Mills was an English actor. He starred in numerous films and television series such as Rumpole of the Bailey. He was best known for his television work, notably the role of Billy Williams in Coronation Street.
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.
Spine Chillers was the name of two separate supernatural television series, broadcast on the BBC.
The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James is an omnibus collection of ghost stories by English author M. R. James', published in 1931, bringing together all but four of his ghost stories.
"The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James. It was published in his book Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904).
The Ice House is the last of the eight short films originally broadcast as part of the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas series of the 1970s, the first not directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark; Clark had become a freelance director and was working for ITV. The film was instead directed by Derek Lister.
Paul Lavers is a British film, television and stage actor. He has been a presenter for Anglia Television and for several shopping channels.
