Such a terrible abortion BBC R4 have made of the (so far transmitted) M.R. 
James's Ghost Stories.

These pieces were mainly read by James to an enthralled circle of listeners, 
sitting round the fire, and hanging on his every word. This is why they 
succeed so well as ghost stories - short, to the point, and the listener 
left wondering at the end, as he is told by his housemaster (James), to be 
off to bed quickish.

They do *not* translate well into silly little ghost "playlets" created by 
goodness-knows-who for goodness-knows-what.

A waste of broadcasting space and no doubt, considerable sums of 
broadcaster's money. Why couldn't the BBC simply employ a good reader to 
*read* ghost stories like wot M.R. James rote?

Jacob Marley wrote:
> Such a terrible abortion BBC R4 have made of the (so far transmitted) M.R.
> James's Ghost Stories.
>
> These pieces were mainly read by James to an enthralled circle of listeners,
> sitting round the fire, and hanging on his every word. This is why they
> succeed so well as ghost stories - short, to the point, and the listener
> left wondering at the end, as he is told by his housemaster (James), to be
> off to bed quickish.

That'd go well in _Woman's Hour_...  As far as I can see he's out of
copyright, so fair game?

I'm not sure whose bed the boy tonight was supposed to be in - not Mrs
Naughtie's? - and why Antonio the organ-grinder and the gypsy girl
apparently were following /him/ around now, but then ghosts are not
necessarily clear thinkers, having been deprived of the apparatus.

There's probably a Martin Jarvis reading in the BBC archive and
Oneword should do a cheapie as well, but - has it been discussed? -
Oneword appears to be, well, in an advanced state of closed-down-ness:
Channel 4 and the other sponsor's money are gone, we're told, along
with, suddenly, most of the advertised book readings.  Something isn't
being paid for any more, I suspect.