A Ghost Story for Christmas – The Ice House: The Final Mystery of a First Strand of Seasonal Hauntings

The Ice House (1978) was the final episode of the original strand of A Ghost Story for Christmas and it was the only episode the first stand of the BBC’s annual A Ghost Story for Christmas (1971-1978) strand that wasn’t directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Rather, it was directed by Derek Lister and written by John Bowen, the latter of whom had previously adapted and written the screenplay for the 1974 edition of A Ghost Story for Christmas, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas. John Bowen also wrote the television drama Robin Redbreast (1970) which can be seen as a precursor to the iconic folk horror film The Wicker Man (1973) in part because its story, which centres around an outsider in a rural community who finds themselves the subject of a sinister, hidden and ancient fertility ritual, has marked similarities and parallels with that of The Wicker Man, and The Ice House also contains and explores some interconnected folk horor-esque tropes. It centres around a middle-aged middle-class…