It’s Christmas Special time again! This year Will & Mike look at the one and only M.R. James story actually set during the festive season, ‘The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance’. This episode also features a Christmas Bonus in the form of an interview with film director Stephen Gray whose new adaptation of ‘A Haunted Doll’s House’ is available to watch online for a limited period only, starting Christmas Eve! Our reader this week was Peter Ross and the accompanying artwork is by Alisdair Wood. As mentioned in our interview, Stephen would like our listeners help deciding which story to film next! Please state your preference below. Show notes Story notes by Rosemary Pardoe (Ghosts & Scholars) The ever-reliable Ghosts & Scholars website features some useful notes on the more perplexing terms used in this story. Punch and Judy (Wikipedia) For those unfamiliar with Punch and Judy shows, Wikipedia gives a good explaination of this peculiar form of traditional entertainment. Fuseli’s ‘The Nightmare’ (Wikipedia) In this story the writer compares Punch’s face to that of ‘the vampyre in Fusili’s foul sketch‘, a reference to the creature in Fuseli’s painting ‘The Nightmare’. Bicester, Oxfordshire (Monty’s World) Rosemary Pardoe tells us that in the original handwritten manuscript for this story the town called ‘B—‘ in most printed versions is actually given as ‘Bicester’. Bicester is a market town in north Oxfordshire. Chrishall, Essex (Monty’s World) The first letter in this story is addressed from ‘Great Chrishall’. There is no ‘Great Chrishall’ in the UK, but there is a ‘Chrishall’ and a ‘Great Chishill‘, both near Essex’s border with Cambridgeshire. Professor Bert Codman and ‘Toby’ (Punchandjudy.com) Mike mentions this fellow in the podcast, one of the famous Codman dynasty of Punch and Judy performers. Apparently Bert died in 1969, just two days after the death of his beloved dog Toby! Photos of Bicester (Facebook) Will took a trip to Bicester to have a look around the various locations which feature in this story. Photos from the trip can be found at our Facebook page. The image below shows the King’s Head/Arms inn which features in this story, as it looked in 1885.

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