M.R. James - The Tractate Middoth (2013 BBC)

“The Tractate Middoth“ is a short ghost story by British author M. R. James. It was published in 1911 in More Ghost Stories, James’s second collection of ghost stories. On 25 December 2013, a version of the story adapted by Mark Gatiss was broadcast by the BBC2 as part of the long-running A Ghost Story for Christmas series. It stars Sacha Dhawan, John Castle, Louise Jameson, Una Stubbs, David Ryall, Eleanor Bron, Nick Burns and Roy Barraclough. On his deathbed vicar Rant makes a secret confession to his niece Mary Simpson. Some twenty years later young librarian William Garrett is asked by elderly John Eldred to locate a book called ’The Tractate Middoth’ but a mysterious cloaked figure takes the book from the shelves and Eldred panics and leaves. On a second attempt to find the book Garrett is confronted by the mysterious borrower, a rotting ghost, the encounter causing him to faint. He goes to the seaside to recover and, by coincidence, stays with Mrs Simpson and her daug