Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Podcast to the Curious


As a fan of Ghost stories I have a great love of British author M. R. James' haunting short fiction. I have to admit that I first encountered his work in adapted form years ago when I saw the fantastic CURSE/NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1958). That film is a version of his brilliant story 'Casting the Runes' and its power is almost overwhelming making it one of the best horror films of the 1950s. If you've never seen the film I implore you to give it a try.

You would think that a movie experience that profound would have sent me in search of James' original work but it wasn't until I saw an adaptation of another of his tales that I finally woke up. This was one of the BBC Ghost Stories For Christmas produced between 1971 and 1978. The story was A Warning to the Curious and I was chilled to the bone by the incredibly effective sense of creeping, almost paralyzing terror the film elicited from me. At this point I sought out a collection of the author's stories and I've been reading and re-reading them ever since.

As you might expect, I am not alone in my appreciation for M. R. James and I have finally discovered a fine podcast that focuses on his work. A Podcast to the Curious is hosted by two fine English gents who seem committed to digging deeply into each James story to both celebrate his genius and pull apart the narrative in search of hidden nuggets of wonder. Here is their description of the show--

A Podcast to the Curious is the only podcast dedicated to the weird fiction of M.R. James!

Each episode your humble hosts Will Ross and Mike Taylor will be tackling a different M.R James story, providing a commentary on the story and discussing its themes and form interlaced with readings from the story. Along the way we hope to include discussion on stage, screen and radio adaptations of James’ stories, information on James’ life and interests as well as on the legions of authors who were inspired by him.

I've listened to the most recent two shows and I can already tell that I'm going to have to download and check out each and every one. If you have an interest in good tales of ghostly happenings in stately British surroundings then I recommend you read James' fiction and check out this podcast for fine discussion afterward. One enhances the other- at least for me. 


Podcast WebSite! 



3 comments:

JC said...

Oh, wow. This looks fantastic. I revisited a good chunk of Mr. James's stories this past December when I wrote up the BBC adaptations for my blog, and cozying up to his singular chills left me hankering for something exactly like this.


Another podcast for the heap. Thanks for the heads up!

Rector of the First Church of Halloween said...

Wow! Yeah, I'll have to check this out.

Brad said...

Wow! Your story sounds like mine. I saw Night Of The Demons about 4 years ago and followed it up with Whistle And I'll Come To You. Then I found A Podcast To The Curious in the related section of Naschycast on Itunes. And Jeffrey did indeed do a tremendous job covering the BBC Christmas horrors on his blog. You really cover the bases around here Rod!