Mark Gatiss Speaks!

Well, he spoke to the excellent Shadows at the Door, where you can find a substantial interview. I like interviews that cover a lot of ground, and that's certainly the case here. The obvious question, following the success of his adaptation of 'The Tractate Middoth', is whether the BBC is going to do more ghost stories for Christmas?

The only trouble is that I’d love to do it every year but they haven’t asked! (laughs) But I would love for there to be a broader field for others like Sheridan Le Fanu, who was James’ great hero, and all the people who came after him. James was the best, but it was would be nice to mix it up a bit. If only there were more of them, a Ghost Story for Christmas… Well, we could do with an anthology series really.

We could indeed. I was pleased to see that MG would like to do 'Count Magnus'. He also talks about another great writer, H.G. Wells, and I was delighted to learn that Graham Duff - another genre fan with his roots in comedy - has adapted four Wells stories for Sky.

Another point of agreement between yours truly and MG is that the sheer volume of modern horror films is a bit overwhelming. But there's no point in complaining - they're cheaper to make than most kinds of movie, and they tend to make money.