Our take
Gatiss's original ghost story is a love letter to radio horror and to the ghosts of broadcasting past, with Simon Callow gloriously fruity as an old-school presenter out of step with the times. It is as much a comedy of manners as a chiller, and some critics found it more scholarly than scary, but the studio setting is a clever and atmospheric idea.
What happens
Aubrey Judd has been presenting The Dead Room, a long-running radio horror series, since 1976, bringing mild disquiet to listeners in his rolling baritone. Now a national treasure picking up television bit parts, he finds himself out of step with his young producer Tara, who wants new stories, such as one about teenagers playing haunted computer games, while he rails against social media and insists on the classic rules of horror. They are recording in the BBC's old Maida Vale studios, where his show began 40 years earlier. As the session goes on, the eerie studio stops being quiet, and Aubrey discovers that elements of his own past are not as dead and buried as he hoped: a long-buried nightmare from his early days surfaces in the room.
Can the kids watch it?
No BBFC rating found for this film. It is more unsettling than gory, but deals with an old man's buried past, so best for teenagers and up.
Cast and crew
Starring
- Simon Callow as Aubrey Judd
- Anjli Mohindra as Tara Lohia
- Susan Penhaligon as Joan
Writer
- Mark Gatiss
Director
- Mark Gatiss