Because Spratt's an insufferable snob. Dr Clarkson isn't titled or of noble family, so to Spratt he's a nobody, and barely worthy of being waited on.

I like to think that's a euphemism, rather than an excruciatingly awful piece of dialogue.

Watched the BBC's Mapp and Lucia, based on the comic novels by E.F. Benson about two women competing to be 'queen bee' in a small English seaside town (called Tilling in the novels; actually Rye in Sussex). The three-part show was filmed in Rye, which looked wonderful (the home Lucia rents for the summer was actually…

The Yorke family of Erddig (pronounced Er-thig) Hall near Wrexham in Wales held their servants in very high regard, treating them with real affection and celebrating them as important. There are plenty of photographs and portraits of the house's servants over the years, as well as verses written by members of the…

American audiences, in 1945, had to skip it, as the 'Golfing Ghost' story was dropped for the initial American release (as was the 'Christmas Party' story featuring a very young Sally Anne Howes; as Leslie Halliwell points out in an essay on the film, it makes Howes's part in the linking story rather odd, as she's…

The stage version is pretty creepy too. And with a cast of three, and no special effects beyond the practical.

I've often wondered what the deal was with ghost story writers only using (for the most part) initials. I guess they all decided Le Fanu and James (Monty, not Henry) had the right idea, and copied them. Montague Rhodes James; Herbert Russell Wakefield; Edward Frederick Benson; Alan Noel Latimer Munby; Alfred McLelland…

It is. I was able to see it at the Vancouver Film Festival many years ago - no idea why they screened it, but I jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen - and while there was a bit of noise from the (sold out) audience at the beginning (the film is rather dated, and lines like 'You can hide anywhere bar the…

I really wish that when moviemakers want to make this sort of film - atmospheric ghost stories set at some indeterminate period between the turn of the last century and about World War II - they wouldn't turn to pastiche (like Hill's novel) but would instead go back to some actual contemporary stories by people who…

If you like classic ghost stories and want to see a really good frightening film without one jump scare, find the 1945 Ealing film Dead of Night. An architect is invited to a house in the country - a house he's never been to, wherein are gathered people he's never met - only to realise that the house, and the people,…

***Spoilers***

For every wonderful bon mot Fellowes crafts for the Dowager Countess, he drops a handful of clangers for other characters to do their best with. My favourite from this season comes in episode 1 when, after a rather stilted conversation intended more to bring characters up to speed than to advance the plot, Mary ends…

I wonder if there'll be a new version of 'TCM Remembers'; since they released the 2014 edition we've lost Billie Whitelaw, Luise Rainer, David Ryall, Christine Cavanaugh, and Edward Herrmann.

I'm really surprised they haven't covered Billie Whitelaw's death. She was better known for her British TV and theatre appearances than as a film actor, but there's her classic turn in The Omen, which most AV Clubbers will know, and she was in Hot Fuzz, and was absolutely brilliant as the doting, ruthless mother of…

It's still 2014 here on the west coast, and in some parts of the world it's almost 2 January 2015. That doesn't seem right, somehow.

The LGC versions really are brilliant. I was living in Britain in the mid-1990s and the Beeb repeated them; I've since got the stories on DVD (my now-teenaged son saw 'Lost Hearts' with me years ago, and it scared the bejeezus out of him). Needless to say, Clark's version of 'Warning to the Curious' is near and dear…

Middoth was very good indeed; better than other recent BBC MRJ ghost stories for Christmas (a rather meh 'Oh Whistle, and I'll Come To You, My Lad' - really (and pace Jonathan Miller), can't someone do a decent filmed version of that story? - 'Number 13', and 'A View From a Hill'). You should also try to find the…

Yes, I saw your spirited defence of Monty: ta muchly! You can see The Knowledge in its entirety on YouTube; Nigel Hawthorne (as the examiner) is customarily brilliant. Here's a link to part one (of eight) with the lovely Thames TV logo:

Thanks, Judkins ma., for saying that. 'Tractate Middoth' has always been one of my favourite MRJ stories ('Wailing Well' is close behind; 'Warning to the Curious' is top of the list). If you read the story, the title isn't ridiculous at all (and you'll be looking over your shoulder for a while as well, and jumping at…

Funnily enough, I was re-watching The Knowledge - writer Jack Rosenthal's brilliant 1979 TV movie about people trying to qualify as London taxi drivers - last week, and Ryall is (spoiler for a relatively obscure 25-year-old British TV film) one of the few successful applicants. For me he was one of those British 'It's…