Joanna Lumley confirmed for Mark Gatiss's annual Christmas Ghost Story with new first look
Lumley will star opposite Tobias Menzies in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower.
It may only be October, but as the nights get darker and colder already thoughts turn towards Christmas. Now, a key piece of the festive TV schedule has been unveiled, as Mark Gatiss is bringing us another chilling Ghost Story.
This year's A Ghost Story for Christmas will be titled The Room in the Tower, and it will once again air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
The programme will star Wednesday's Joanna Lumley and F1's Tobias Menzies, alongside Nancy Carroll (Father Brown), Ben Mansfield (Sister Boniface Mysteries) and Polly Walker (Bridgerton).
Set in the inter-war years and based on an EF Benson story, it will follow Roger Winstanley, who for 15 has been haunted by an unsettling, recurring dream: An invitation to spend the night in the house of an acquaintance, where an unseen terror lurks and the figures who populate the dream seem to age in real time.
Nightmare and waking life seem to finally collide when an invitation to the dreaded ‘room in the tower’ becomes all too real.
Gatiss, the programme's writer and director, said: "I’ve always wanted to adapt the great EF Benson’s ghost stories and this is one of his chilling best. I’m also very grateful to have been able to continue the most Christmassy of Christmas traditions. The Room in the Tower has been prepared for you – and with Tobias Menzies and the legendary Dame Joanna Lumley to boot."
Meanwhile, Mark Bell, the commissioning editor for BBC Arts said: "Mark and the team have gathered a wonderful cast for this atmospheric treat where dream meets terrifying reality. 'I have given you the room in the tower' is a sentence nobody will want to hear once they have experienced this festive haunting."
This will be Gatiss's eighth Ghost Story for Christmas, following on from The Tractate Middoth, The Dead Room, Martin's Close, The Mezzotint, Count Magnus, Lot No 249 and last year's Woman of Stone.
The Room in the Tower will mark a reunion for Gatiss as Walker, as the latter also stars in his murder mystery series Bookish, which debuted on U&Alibi earlier this year. A second season of the show is already on the way.
A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower will air on BBC Two and iPlayer this Christmas.
Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
