Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Eanna Hardwicke, Celia Imrie, Monica Dolan, Mawaan Rizwan, Pheobe Horn.
Drawing inspiration from E. Nesbit’s Man-Size In Marble, Mark Gatiss’ now traditional drawing back of the veil that separates the darkness of the night to that of the enlightenment and spirituality of the Christmas gathering, has once more offered a distinct look for the viewer of what lays hidden in the shadows of our mind, the shortness of breath that hangs icily in the air as we sense the apparition and the shade as they enter our realm and bring together the possibility of a death by nefarious means to our world.
Moving away from the works of M.R. James to which Mr. Gatiss has immersed himself within over the last few years, the 2024 Christmas offering of a Ghost story comes from, for many, the unlikely source of the creator of children’s tales, Edith Nesbit. A large swathe of the population, brought up on cinema rather than literature could well be excused for displaying ignorance of such a catalogue of tales from the Victorian/Edwardian writer, and yet it is to this homage of television that the distinguished texts and symbolisms of that almost hypercritical age shine through.
Woman of Stone, which stars a small ensemble cast, including the redoubtable Celia Imrie in the role of the honourable writer as she tells the gothic tale to her doctor on her sick bed, the impressive Mawaan Rizwan, is arguably not a straightforward ghost story, but one that routinely appears in anthologies, and has managed to keep a loyal fanbase apart from the ever green The Railway Children from being cited by the public as the seminal offering by Ms. Nesbit.
Whilst the sense of sexual tension and familiarity carried in the tale is missing from its television adaptation, the supernatural is very much in evidence, and it could also be seen as a warning to the viewer of taking a relationship for granted, for being preoccupied with the overall picture whilst neglecting the person closest to you, and in the final payoff the truth is revealed at the expense of an innocent life, the chill of judgement beyond the call of man-made laws in favour of the natural and supernatural, is one that sits with the viewer long into the morning as the sunlight of a Christmas Day radiates through the windows.
Woman of Stone is an impersonal but fruitful tale, designed to frame the unnatural order into which the supernatural can be brutal, taking without feeling, and a reminder for us to tread carefully when we live alongside the world of shadows and shades.
Ian D. Hall