Ghost stories
01:31:19
About
We hide our guilt, chill our bones and look for the tenth number as we watch “Ghost Storeis” by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson, adapted from their smash hit stage play. A film in which Daddy’s got Meow Meow; we all get to play Finger-Mouth with the dead; and Martin Freeman makes Adam look a right prat. Along the way we discuss the original stage version, Charlie Brooker’s “Dead Set”; the SNL Vincent Price specials; and the script of unmade horror film “The Otherwise”, by Mark E. Smith and Graham Duff. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers, and join us. APOLOGIES FOR ANY SOUND QUALITY ISSUES - THIS EPISODE WAS RECORDED REMOTELY.
When this bitch kicks, I'm moving to Vegas.
Famous lines
- "I'm too young to die. The only person I've had sex with is my babysitter."— Hajime
- "Kutabe! Kutabe! Kick the bucket! Kutabe! Kutabe! You can suck it!"— Spiritual Sleep Spell
- "Dude, we're gettin' a Dell."— Keiichiro
- "¡No corran en el hospital, cabrones!"— Nurse
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Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to Hora. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeYay!
LeeAnd we're here this evening at the behest of our friend and listener Joe, who has Joe, Joseph Watson, to use his full name because I've never actually spoken to him, so I probably shouldn't show his name, he might not like it.
Leewho who came up with a fantastic idea last week and messaged Adam and said, have you guys covered ghost stories from 2017? If you haven't, it might be one to cover.
Leeand we all went, oh shit, yeah, we've we all watched that and loved it and missed, oh,
Leeand I forgot to say spoilers and swearing.
ChrisYes.
LeeYeah. We want to start, you know, reintegrating that into the beginning of the show to give people a heads up because we've not done for the last couple of years.
ChrisHere's here's a spoiler.
ChrisJoseph Watson may or may not have gone very high up or very low down in my estimation of him.
LeeOh.
ChrisI'm not I'm not going to give it away.
AdamThat's not a spoiler.
ChrisYou got.
AdamThat's intrigue.
ChrisThere's there's a bit of intrigue for you.
AdamYeah.
LeeIntriguing cable.
AdamYou're a tease, Chris.
AdamThat's what it is.
Chrisno.
LeeI know.
Leebut before we get to the bottom of that and find out how Chris felt about this film.
LeeOh, really?
LeeI know.
LeeOh, my word.
Lee
ChrisIt's going well.
LeeI know.
LeeRight, so, before we get into that though, we're going to discuss what we've been watching.
LeeSo, over to you Chris, what have you been watching?
ChrisWell, I have been listening to
LeeOh.
Chrislistening to the Vampire Lestat audiobook.
ChrisWhich I know I know it's not Adam's favorite.
ChrisThat was, you know, he lost a bit of the the Anne Rice happiness during that book.
AdamThat's put him off the boil, I'll be honest.
ChrisOverboiled.
ChrisBut no, I've been enjoying it. I do actually really like the way she writes and the way she describes things and I still love the philosophy and the time and
ChrisLestat is is both likable and detestable.
AdamYeah.
AdamThat's that's the point of the character really.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
ChrisBut but I'll tell you what though, listening to it at night when you're half falling asleep, there is some weird stuff going on.
ChrisI was having some strange dreams about Vampire Lestat and his adventures in in the rock world.
ChrisBut I I got to say, I've I've actually been enjoying it, so I'm going to continue listening to these.
AdamExcellent.
ChrisYeah.
AdamInterview is the only sort of short book, the rest of them proper door stops.
ChrisThey do step up a bit, yeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisBut yeah, I'm hoping I don't know if I will get but at the moment I'm positive.
ChrisI'm definitely going to continue them.
ChrisSo, yeah, I've been I've actually really enjoyed going back to that because I did like them when I was younger.
Chrisand it's been long enough that I've forgotten the details.
ChrisLet's say, but I did, I loved watching the interview.
ChrisAnd yeah, that's the sort of thing that works for me.
LeeFantastic. Excellent.
LeeAdam, what have you been watching?
AdamI've, well, I've watched a documentary Sons of Sam on Netflix, which was a true crime documentary.
AdamBut the reason I mention it is it did make me listen to Hulver.
LeeOh, yeah.
AdamBecause the the bloke who did the music clearly has as well.
Adamand but yeah, that was interesting, but it's the conspiracy that I know is hogwash.
AdamBut it's quite interesting in that sense.
Adamalso Greg Davis has got a new dark comedy on.
AdamAnd it feels a bit inside number nine, the way it's done.
AdamHe's basically it's called it's called.
ChrisIs it the cleaner?
ChrisYes, funnily enough, we watched the first episode.
AdamYes, with Elena Carter.
ChrisYes.
AdamYeah.
ChrisI didn't think of it exactly as horror, but yeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisIt does have a dark enough element, yeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd yeah, basically Greg Davis is a crime scene cleaner, so he goes and mops up like murder scenes and dead bodies, basically.
Adambut each week he encounters someone different.
AdamSo the first week it's Helen Bonham Carter, who is actually the woman who stabbed her husband 35 times.
AdamAnd Greg.
ChrisShe's showed me next to it.
AdamYeah, showed me to about seven, you do it, everything else just show me next to it.
AdamAnd then the second episode was David Mitchell as a writer who's Nan exploded.
AdamSo, but yeah, they're sort of.
AdamThey're they're that sort of, I don't know if you're not been gentler end of Black Comedy, I suppose.
AdamBut it's sort of, yeah.
Adambut I'm definitely going to be sticking with that.
Adamlet you know how that goes.
AdamAnd I've read the otherwise, which is the script of a film written by Marky Smith from the fall and Graham Duff, who wrote Doctor Terrible's House of Horrible and Nebulous and Ideal and loads of stuff.
AdamAnd it's basically they were in the process, well, they'd written this sort of weird horror script, and were sort of looking to get it funded, but then Marky Smith died.
AdamSo, and the fall were are actually in the story.
AdamSo and yeah, it's all set round a lonely recording studio and there's satanic bikers, but it's all like sort of just a very sort of Lancastrian or Yorkshire sort of psycho mania almost.
AdamBut yeah, and it's very, very strange, very interesting read.
AdamAnd it's also one of those ones where it's like, I'd really love to see this, but I can't see anyone actually funding it.
AdamUnless there's a really big full fan out there.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut I reckon they could have done it crowdsourcing, like you know, like online, so on.
AdamBut yeah, so that is and that's my that's all the weather.
LeeExcellent, fantastic.
Leeso I have started my run up to Halloween viewing.
Lee
Leeso I've been watching an awful lot, but the things I did want to mention,
Leeone, you can go onto YouTube and watch all of these.
LeeSo it's the Saturday Night Live Vincent Price Halloween specials.
LeeOh, wow.
ChrisSounds interesting.
LeeThey are fantastic, so it's Bill Hader, playing Vincent Price, and every year they do one and he has different guests.
Leeagain, they're set in the 60s in theory, so they're kind of famous people of the time.
Leeso Kennedy turns up in one and stuff.
Leebut yeah, Kirsten Wig is always with him playing a different person each time and she just
LeeI still think she's one of the funniest actors on TV at the moment, she just absolutely makes me cry.
Leeso yeah, so go and check those out, they've got a Thanksgiving one as well and a Christmas one.
LeeSo yeah, I like I spent a good hour and a half and then that just led me into going and watching loads of old SNL stuff.
Leeyeah, so that's a great afternoon, so I'd definitely recommend that.
Leeand in prep, well, not in prep, actually, because last night we watched ghost stories.
LeeAnd then today Jennifer said, we've not watched Dead Set, I don't think, since it aired.
Leewhich again was Andy Nyman, was in there.
LeeSo we watched all of that this afternoon in one sitting and,
ChrisWas it Charlie Brooker as well?
LeeIt was Charlie Brooker wrote it, yeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
ChrisI remember you mentioning about this.
LeeIt's amazing.
LeeIt's on it's on Netflix.
LeeYou can all go and watch it.
LeeThe whole thing.
ChrisSo is it a dark dark comedy?
LeeYes.
LeeYes.
ChrisOh, okay.
LeeSo it's basically it's a zombie outbreak takes place, and there are a group in the Big Brother house, so they don't know what's going on outside.
LeeAnd the main character is a runner on the show.
LeeSo it's her trying to find the best place to hide and trying to find somewhere secure and her boyfriend is halfway up the country and he's trying to get back to her because he's been carjacked.
LeeBy people trying to escape the zombie infestation and it's oh, it's just fantastic.
LeeLike Kevin Eldon's in it and Davina McColl is in it who
LeeI've only ever seen being a presenter, but she genuinely is fantastic.
LeeIt especially as a zombie, she's such a good zombie.
Leeso yeah, so go and check that out, it's on Netflix, it's like two hours and 20 minutes for the whole thing.
LeeAnd yeah, it's just brilliant.
LeeAnd it's aged 2008, I you know, I was thinking, oh, it must have been 2015 or 16 because it still feels really relevant and really modern.
Lee
LeeBut yeah, 13 years old and it still looks absolutely incredible.
LeeSo yeah, check out.
AdamI I suppose it's quite helpful that Big Brother hasn't fundamentally hasn't changed.
AdamAnd it's always like that sort of artificial environment.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo it's so you spend most of your time in an area that,
AdamI mean, I've no idea if Big Brother is still running.
Lee
Adam
LeeI don't know.
AdamBut, you know, it never really altered the format, would it be like, right, you lot are the servants and you lot are the nuls.
AdamAnd that will cause you lot to have a row, wouldn't it? And we can film it.
Adam
AdamBut yeah.
LeeWhich is why it was it which is why it worked great to have a zombie outbreak.
LeeBecause those zombie films, as we've said before, are always based more on the people than the zombies.
LeeAnd of course, they always get people like Adam, I don't watch Big Brother either, but I'm always aware of it.
LeeAnd they seemed after the first couple to always pick people who were going to hate one another.
AdamOh, definitely.
ChrisYou got to you got to have the drama, yeah.
LeeSo putting them in a genuine seriously dangerous situation where it's life or death and they've all got very different views just worked phenomenally, really.
Chris
AdamYeah, because I I did watch the first series of it.
Adambecause it was just like, it's a telly event, so I'm going to watch that.
AdamAnd that was basically, yeah, it was just we've got genuinely ordinary people in.
AdamSecond series, kind of the same, but you found a few more people annoying.
AdamAnd then by the third series, it was people who realized it was a springboard to a career.
ChrisYeah.
AdamSo you had annoying people of that level, plus the the program makers had like you say to that point where it's like,
AdamRight, let's make sure that these people, you know, let's get two people in who are definitely going to have a fucking route.
Chris
AdamYou know.
AdamI mean, some sometimes it backfired, I remember they did Celebrity Big Brother and they had two of Jordan's exes in there.
AdamAnd everyone was like, oh, that's going to kick off, that's going to do that.
AdamAnd it's like, are you telling me they are going to be anything other than quite laid back.
AdamIf they are exes of Jordan, you know that they're going to be quite easy going.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah, it's fantastic. Yeah, Riz Ahmed, we discussed from when he was on Rogue One previously.
LeeI forgot that he was in this because it was before he was famous, so I'd never put two and two together, really.
Leehe's fantastic in it.
LeeBut Andy Nyman just steals the show as.
LeeYeah.
LeeAn absolute at times, he's the biggest prick ever and then at other times, I'm like, yeah, I kind of do what he's doing, I think, really.
LeeLike he's a bit slimey.
LeeBut ultimately,
Leehe's very, yeah, they might have been bit and I don't know, so I'm just going to lock this door and just leave him all to it.
AdamI won't spoil it for anyone.
AdamBut the but I will say the sequence with the bin.
AdamYeah, because Andy Andy Nyman and one of the losers from the Big Brother, like someone who's been evicted already on the Big Brother that is in the fictitious world.
Adamare stuck like stuck in the green room, aren't they?
LeeYeah.
Adamwith rabbit Divina McColl outside smashing on the door.
AdamAnd yeah, it's just.
AdamYeah, just some of the funniest fucking stuff I've seen.
LeeIt feels very much like Andy Nyman was kind of,
LeeIt's one of those things where you feel like they pointed a camera at him.
LeeAnd gave him a corpse and then said, right, here you go, 20 minutes just just riff on it.
LeeBecause so much of it felt kind of like it was in the moment.
Leeyeah, and a few of his other scenes as well, which again, I don't want to give anything away, give any spoilers because it's well worth watching.
LeeBut yeah, it feels very much like like he'd kind of written those lines, maybe.
LeeI don't know the details.
LeeBut yeah, really, really good.
LeeSo I'm I'm glad Jennifer suddenly said, that's something we could probably chuck on as we've got nothing on this afternoon.
LeeThat was a very good call.
Chris
Leeso that's it for what I've seen.
LeeTomorrow,
Leejust to give me a quick shout out, again, the White Bus company, who do horror on C, have been doing a film festival this weekend in Southend.
Leea lot of classic films, there wasn't anything that really grabbed my attention.
LeeAnd we were busy this morning, we had a historical walk and stuff.
Leebut tomorrow they are showing Parasite at the park in, which I've still never seen.
LeeSo, I will be going tomorrow to a screening by the White White Bus Company to watch that.
LeeOh, cool.
ChrisCool.
LeeSo, yeah, very excited.
LeeI don't know how it was one of those films, everyone was screaming about it and I kept meaning to watch it, and then I think because everybody watched it in a very short period of time because of lockdown.
LeeIt then got forgotten very quickly and I was like, oh yeah, haven't seen that yet.
LeeAnd everyone loved it.
LeeSo I shall report back on that next week.
AdamI did I did see also the guy who directed Host.
Adamhis name escapes me for the minute.
Adamhas his new film is being released.
Adamwhich is apparently all on a dash cam.
LeeOh.
LeeInteresting.
AdamSo.
AdamYeah.
AdamI mean, that's that's literally all I've heard about it.
AdamI don't know.
ChrisRob Savage.
AdamThat's it.
AdamRob Savage, yeah.
LeeNow that may or may not play into what we are covering on next week's episode.
Chris
LeeOh.
LeeMaybe.
LeeI'll tell you at the end.
AdamEveryone's a tease tonight.
ChrisThey are.
LeeAre you talking about my low cut top?
LeeOh, no, sorry, you were talking about teas, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, sorry, yeah.
LeeI'm on a different wavelength.
AdamI think I think I think it just counts as a jacket when it's low cut to the naval, Lee.
Lee
Leeyes, so, but before we get into this evening's main event, we did have a fantastic bit of correspondence from previous guest Dahney, he's he's listening to our episodes while he's jogging, so he's been catching up recently.
LeeAnd he's just listened to our 28 days later episode.
LeeAnd he had a very interesting story that comes from that.
LeeSo I'm going to hand over to Adam to read this.
LeeI got this message at like 11:0 at night and literally sat there howling with laughter and had to forward it.
Leeand I checked with him and he said we can share this story on on the podcast.
LeeSo Adam, would you like to.
AdamOh.
AdamI don't want to suggest you're getting on in years, Lee, but according to the according to the message, this was actually quite a while.
LeeI'll tell you.
LeeI'll tell you.
LeeOh, no.
LeeDo you know what it was, he sent it at quarter to eight.
LeeAnd it's it's.
AdamYou saw it.
LeeNo, no, no.
LeeNow this is going to prove how old I am because I do that old man thing of writing a paragraph and then pressing send.
LeeWhereas Dahney, being a youth, does the thing of writing a sentence, send, writing a sentence, send.
LeeSo I was sitting eating dinner and my phone went, bing, bing, bing and I was like, oh, for God.
LeeSo I just put it on silent and it wasn't until about 11:0 the night I suddenly went, oh shit, my phone's on silent, and I never found out who was messaging me, and I went and checked it and that was when I saw it.
LeeSo.
AdamSo for anyone who anyone who gets trapped in a coffin underground with their mobile,
Adamdon't message Lee.
LeeYeah.
AdamWell, I'm sorry, he clearly suffocated, so I didn't even bother.
AdamBut anyway, so here's Dahney's story.
AdamI've got a fun 28 days later story for you.
Adamcatching up slowly, obviously, with the episode.
AdamSo, Frank's flat is in Balfrond Tower, which is where I grew up.
AdamMy dad still had that flat when they were shooting the film.
AdamWe got in the lift one day and Brendan Gleeson was in it.
AdamWith Megan Burns.
AdamMy dad, thinking he's fucking brilliant, gets out, holds the door to the main entrance of the building open and says,
Adamon the dad in here.
AdamSilly cunt thought he was Ray Winston.
AdamMy insides cringed.
AdamEnd of story.
AdamThat's good.
AdamThat was too that was too I know 28 days later was a couple of episodes ago, but that was too good to not.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt's the kind of thing I do and I think it's exactly.
LeeI can see myself in his dad's position where you do it and think it's really funny and then two days later, he suddenly go, oh my God, he wasn't in that film and that's it.
LeeI won't sleep for three days then, like just lay in there being so embarrassed about it.
AdamOne of them ones that comes back on the death bed.
LeeYeah.
AdamI said, oh.
AdamAre you in pain, Dad?
AdamNo, I've just remembered the time I just thought Brandon Gleeson was Ray Winston.
LeeSo thanks very much for sending that Dahney and allowing us to share that story.
LeeIt's
LeeYeah.
LeeFantastic.
ChrisThat is a classic.
Leeyes, so, onto this evening's main event because I'm sure this one's going to
Leegoing to get us talking for a little while.
LeeSo the quicker we get into it.
Leeso, as I say, Joseph Watson suggested this.
Lee
Leeand he said, oh, I don't know if you've covered it.
Leewhen Adam suggested it, I was like, we must have covered it because it was such a great film and we were podcasting at the time.
LeeSo we must have done it.
ChrisWhat what were we doing?
ChrisLike.
LeeI think we all saw it at different times.
LeeSo by the time we'd all seen it, it was, you know, between myself and Adam seeing it.
LeeI think it was a few months difference.
LeeSo we said we said, oh, we'll have to add it to the list.
LeeBut the list that we've been growing is ridiculous.
LeeSo we've just never quite gotten back to it.
LeeBut I'm so glad we did.
AdamWe still haven't covered the all of the 20 odd films we came up with for what we should do after the hundredth episode.
AdamAnd this is like 127 or something.
AdamSo yeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamThe list's ever expand, we just call us grounds keeper Willy because we keep moving the goal posts.
LeeOh.
LeeBut but listeners, if you ever have anything like this, where you're like, have you guys not covered this yet, why have you never done it, yeah, please do message us and let us know and if it's if there's a reason we haven't covered it then, you know, then we'll say so.
LeeBut yeah, stuff like this.
ChrisIf anything, I blame you and Adam, you know.
LeeYeah, we're shit.
AdamIs you.
ChrisThat's the best answer.
AdamYou can you can blame us, Chris, because yeah, you've.
ChrisI feel I feel it's within my rights to blame you on this one.
Leeand again, this is something that so before the film, this was a stage show in the West End.
Leeand Adam.
ChrisOh, that's interesting.
LeeYeah.
LeeSo Adam, I and Jennifer went and saw it when it first opened.
AdamYeah.
LeeOh.
AdamLook what I found.
AdamFor the benefits of the type, I'm holding up my still in its cellophane pack of three badges from Ghost Stories.
ChrisVery nice.
LeeWow.
AdamYes.
ChrisWhat does it what does it say?
Adamone says ghost stories, one says, what are you hiding from, and one says, Daddy's got meow meow.
LeeOh.
AdamI also bought a daddy's got meow meow t-shirt.
AdamAnd admittedly, it was extra large, which I'm doesn't come up quite to the level that you want it to, but I'm quite happy to look like, you know, a mentally challenged ping-pong player.
AdamBut.
Adamyeah, I I wore it once.
AdamMy mum went that's a drugs thing, isn't it?
AdamAnd I was like, no, no, it's in the context of thing.
AdamBecause it was when meow meow was the.
ChrisOh, yeah.
Adamthe drug of choice on the street, according to the Daily Mail.
AdamLike I think three people in the country had heard of it.
Chrislasted for about three days, like, yeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut but then it was the what was killing children.
AdamYeah.
Adamso yeah.
AdamMy mum went, that's a drugs thing, isn't it?
AdamAnd I was like, no, it's because in the play and they the cat food is called meow meow and it's like.
AdamAnd yeah, strangely enough, went in the wash, never saw it again.
AdamSo I can only assume she chat out this drugs paraphernalia t-shirt before I, you know, was corrupted immortally.
ChrisNow, did you get the badges and the t-shirt before or after having seen it?
AdamIt was when we saw it.
AdamIt was like.
ChrisBut I was wondering if you got them on the way in and you know what this all about.
AdamNo, no, because.
AdamBecause the reason I found those is I was looking for the program.
ChrisOh.
Adamwhen we when we saw it.
Adambecause one thing it had in there and I'm really pissed off I couldn't find it, but I do, I'll put it on the Instagram or something like that.
AdamBut both Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman had written their like their top five recommended horror films.
Chris
Chris
AdamAnd I'm sure Dead of Night was in there.
AdamThe only other one I can remember was in there was Rec.
LeeSession nine.
AdamBut the Spanish.
LeeI remember Session 9 being in there as well.
AdamSession.
ChrisI haven't heard of any of those so far.
ChrisWe've got to find out what the last two are.
AdamSession nine.
LeeHow can they be their top five?
LeeAnd you've never mentioned.
AdamSession nine is on that list of 20.
LeeYeah, it is.
ChrisOkay, I'll let you off then.
LeeYou just haven't got around for it.
LeeWe certainly will get to it.
Leeand also, so when we saw it, so the the three vignettes.
AdamWe saw it.
AdamWe saw it in 2010.
LeeOh.
LeeOh, yeah.
LeeOh, bloody, yeah, seven years before.
AdamYeah, the lyric theater Hammersmith we saw it in 2010, which was like, I think it's first London run.
LeeYeah.
Adamand.
AdamAndy.
Leefantastic.
AdamYeah, Andy Nyman was playing Professor Goodman, Nicholas Burns, who's in this as the false psychic at the beginning.
Adamwas Mike Pridel, the role that goes to
AdamOh, what's his fucking name?
AdamI've drawn completely on his.
LeeYeah.
AdamHe's got.
AdamOh, Mark Freeman.
LeeOh, Mark.
AdamMark Freeman.
AdamThank you.
Adamand David Cardy was
AdamTony Matthews, the Paul White House character and Ryan Gage was Simon Rifkins, which is Alex's.
AdamI can't.
AdamYeah, Alex Lawther's character, like the young kind.
ChrisKind.
AdamOh, sorry.
AdamYes.
LeeBut yeah, it was interesting.
LeeSo the three vignettes were the same but the wrapper around story was different.
ChrisOh.
LeeWhich, yeah, which made it interesting.
Leecorrect me if I'm wrong, Adam, I might have remembered this wrong.
LeeBut it so Andy Nyman came out as a professor of.
Adamlike.
AdamYeah.
AdamThe paranormal, yeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd basically said, yeah, most stories can be, you know, sort of explained away.
LeeExcept for these three.
Leebut he he did like a long 20-minute thing at the beginning, it was really good and really funny.
LeeAnd they had a website that went along with it, that was a real website because we all went and Googled it afterwards.
LeeYeah.
Leeyeah, and it was it's it was really good, but that's what I loved about this.
LeeWas it was the three stories, it worked fantastically, but it wasn't like, oh, I've seen all this before.
LeeBecause that whole end bit where it turns out it was a coma and all the rest of it, spoiler alert.
Chris
Lee
LeeYeah, it was all new, but that's funny, see.
LeeSo I saw this when it came out, I hadn't seen it again, and when we kept getting the flash of you keep seeing the hospital window, don't you, and I kept thinking, yes, that's why do we keep seeing that?
LeeI know that's relevant, but I couldn't quite pick why out of my memory.
LeeAnd then when it came to it, I was like, oh shit, yeah, now I remember.
LeeOh,
Leeit's fantastic.
LeeSo Chris.
Lee
LeeWithout further ado,
Leewhere is Joseph going up or down from this one?
ChrisWell, I'm sure you've both got your thoughts about this.
ChrisI'm going to start with every action you've ever taken or didn't take has had an effect.
ChrisLeft a little trace, a ghost of itself.
ChrisMe choosing that phrase, that sentence.
ChrisWhat does that make you think that I thought?
AdamI'm guessing that you embraced this film, Chris.
LeeYeah, I'd be surprised if you if you didn't like this.
ChrisProbably say of anything given the title Ghost Stories, this could be right up the top of of what I would like in a film to do with Ghost Stories, probably.
ChrisIt's got everything done so well.
ChrisYou don't know for sure where it's going.
ChrisAnd for me, the ending was.
ChrisI mean, it's something I've thought about enough, you know, like the idea of the state of mind you could be in, levels of consciousness, when you're in a coma.
ChrisThe the way that and as I mentioned earlier, in fact, about listening to Vampire that, when you're you know, half asleep, the way what's happening in the real world can, you know, be woven into your consciousness and create this crazy story.
ChrisThat so yeah, watching that it's like, yeah, that absolutely could happen.
ChrisAnd I I just loved the way that ended.
Chrisbut as well.
ChrisLike the acting was fantastic.
ChrisLike.
ChrisI mean.
ChrisI think really at first Paul White House, I don't think I've seen him play a serious character.
AdamHe is so fucking good in this.
AdamI mean, everyone is.
ChrisThey they are, they are.
LeeYeah.
ChrisBut I think that was the shocker because it's like, I've only ever seen him playing.
Chrisyou know, in in his comedies.
ChrisAnd he was like, yeah, that's that's a powerful, you know, it's very believable.
ChrisI didn't realize at first Philip Goodman wasn't Andy Nyman till I checked because I was like,
Chrisoh, right, who is this?
ChrisI mean, I don't know if I if you'd perhaps mentioned it.
ChrisBut and I've never seen him before playing in anything.
Chrisyeah, like so just everything about it.
ChrisI was like, yeah, this is gripping me.
Chris
Chrisyeah.
ChrisI loved it.
ChrisFantastic.
AdamI mean, that I was I was watching I was watching it back with the commentary.
AdamWhich I hadn't done before.
Adambecause I just thought it's Jeremy Dyson, I mean, that's that's what we've.
AdamI mean, we we've said we've it and we told people the ending.
AdamSo at this point, I think it's a bit bad that we're backtracking.
AdamWe assume that you know things.
AdamBut obviously written and directed by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson from their stage play.
Adam
AdamBut yeah.
ChrisNow, I don't know, so who, like Jeremy Dyson.
ChrisI don't really know, have I seen him in anything?
AdamYou wouldn't have seen.
AdamYou might have seen him in the background, actually, he's in the background of this.
AdamHe's the he's the DJ at the barmixer in the.
ChrisOh, okay.
LeeRight.
LeeDidn't even spoil that.
AdamYeah, looking looking a bit like Julian Barrett.
AdamBut but of an acceptable height, not a terrifying height.
Adam
AdamBut yeah, so.
AdamAnd he is the fourth member of the League of Gentlemen and basically he made the decision that he didn't want to perform.
AdamHe's like, he says, he's not an actor.
ChrisHe.
AdamHe, you know, he basically and also, I mean, the league, I suppose there is that thing, I mean, they're all good actors, so I suppose that if you didn't feel up to snuff.
AdamIf you're standing next to like Steve Pembton and then Reese and Mark Gates and, you know, you would be like, no, I think I'll leave it to you guys.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut but he then took on much more like a sort of production role and a directing role and things like that.
AdamWith it with it as a live show.
Adambut he basically the league is two groups of writers.
AdamAnd so Steve Pemington and Reeve She Smith write together and Jeremy Dyson writes with Mark Gatiss.
AdamSo.
AdamAnd even I mean, this is the extent to which he does not appear on film.
AdamIn the League of Gentlemen movie, which has the League of Gentlemen playing themselves.
AdamHe is played by Michael Sheen.
LeeOh.
AdamWhich which again is in itself I love because Michael Sheen only plays werewolves and real people who exist.
AdamThat's the that is his two roles, basically.
AdamSo.
AdamSo yeah, but so Jeremy Dyson sort of but he he's written he's written like.
AdamHe's written a lot of books.
Adamhe wrote and produced a mini series called Funland.
Adambut he also wrote and directed three series of Psycho bitches.
AdamNow Psycho bitches is one of those things that I really wish I could fucking get hold of.
AdamIt's not on DVD.
AdamI think the first series is available on to purchase on Amazon.
AdamBut series two and three aren't there.
AdamAnd basically the concept of psycho bitches was famous women through history going to their psychiatrist.
Lee
AdamOh, yeah.
AdamAnd so you've got and actually Jeremy Dyson turned up in it, I believe, as the mother of Jesus at one point.
Adamjust doing a full-blown Peter Cook and Dudley Moore mother sort of type thing.
AdamAnd I was like, he's out there and he's performing miracles, isn't he?
AdamBut yeah, so and Psycho bitches is genuinely one of the best fucking series I've ever seen.
AdamAnd I reckon if you can find it, watch it.
AdamAnd then get me a copy of it because I want to watch it again.
AdamBecause it used to be it's one of the finest fucking things I've ever seen.
AdamAnd it was you got loads of different comedy actresses on there like Julia Davis and
AdamMichelle Gomez, Francis Barber.
AdamAnd also and yeah, so he did three series of that.
AdamBut he's also written short story collections.
AdamThere's Never Trust a Rabbit, which I've read and it is fucking brilliant.
LeeWow.
Leethat from you, I believe.
LeeIs that yeah, you must have yeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeWonderful book.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd again, it's that sort of thing.
AdamWhere it's like one one of the stories in there is a like a a debunker who is then confronted with the genuine supernatural event or someone with apparently magical powers.
AdamSo.
AdamSo it kind of again feeds in as a thing as part of this, I suppose.
LeeThere was another one in there, correct me if I'm wrong, it was a basically it was an art teacher and he had a student who he really hated.
LeeWho was terrible, but one day did a really beautiful painting of a window with a storm going on outside.
LeeAnd then at the end of the story, spoiler of it, the teacher, I think he ends up with a prostitute and she stabs him.
LeeAnd as he's laying there bleeding out and he looks up, he sees that that is what this kid had painted all those years ago.
LeeAnd he gave it a terrible mark because although it was an amazing painting, he hated the kid, so he was like, yeah, no, you're rubbish.
LeeAnd yeah, and I'm sure that was in that book as well.
LeeI was trying to remember where I'd read it and I couldn't, but now you mentioned it, I'm sure it was in there.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt's that I think that is one of the stories in there and again, it kind of feeds into the ghost stories thing.
AdamWhere it's like the guilt.
Adamplaying out in your final moments or in your repose and stuff like that.
Adam
AdamHe also wrote the cranes that build cranes and the haunted book.
AdamHe's written one novel called What Happens Now.
AdamAn academic study that I really want to get my fucking hands on called Bright Darkness, the lost art of the supernatural horror film.
AdamOh.
AdamWhich was I think that was published mid 90s when basically I think basically it was one of those things where the book was written.
AdamAnd then J Horror exploded and then you got so many more like supernatural things happening.
AdamLike good supernatural things happening in horror.
Adam
AdamHe wrote the SX Files to Basildon and Beyond with Mark Gatiss, which was like a spoof.
AdamX Files book in the late 90s.
AdamAnd he's currently writing with Andy Nyman a series of books.
AdamThe first of which is called The Warlock Effect and that's due to come out.
AdamOh.
ChrisSounds interesting.
AdamSo.
AdamSo yes, so I mean and he so he's obviously a co-writer.
AdamCo-director on this.
AdamWith Andy Nyman.
AdamAndy Nyman does kind of he says, I think Andy Nyman, I've heard an interview where he said,
AdamI basically, if you ask me, I'm an actor.
AdamBut he also writes, directs.
Adamhe's Darren Brown's fucking engineer.
ChrisSo so that's that's what really stood out to me.
ChrisI mean, I think you probably mentioned it when you mentioned this before, yeah, I mean, that that's intriguing, isn't it because, you know, I mean obviously no Deren Brown and to think that yeah, someone who works with him to create his, you know, masterpieces of magic and psychology is a yeah, very impressive.
AdamWell, I mean part of that.
AdamBecause again, this sort of feeds back into the play.
AdamBecause the interesting thing with the play was is as they they kind of.
AdamWeirdly enough, the play is the the sort of horror stories are kind of cliche.
Adam
AdamWell, certainly the the sort of settings.
AdamYou know what I mean?
AdamIt's like.
ChrisYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adama lonely home.
AdamYeah, a deserted building, the woods at night.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd what they said was is that basically the the thing they wanted to do with the play.
AdamWas prove that they could shit you up in the theater.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause it was kind of like.
AdamIt was.
AdamIt was like, yeah, you can make these horror films and you put in jump scares and you put it, you know, you can edit and flash a face up and do all kinds of things.
AdamBut if we can scare you live and make you jump and, you know, and they did.
LeeThey did.
ChrisThey did.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt was so fucking good.
AdamBut this all comes from this kind of all comes from his magic background.
Adam
ChrisYeah.
AdamSo a lot of the stuff that he did with Darren Brown sort of fed into that.
AdamAnd similarly in the film, there there's no there's no digital effects.
AdamThere's.
AdamThere's obvious stuff, like, you know, the actual look of like the like Mark Freeman's wife.
AdamYou know, that's obviously a CGI thing and everything else like that, but all the stuff like all the bottles piling themselves up on the on the thing.
LeeYeah.
LeeThat's just yeah, I was going to say you could see that actually like, you say you can see the difference between the practical effects and CGI.
LeeAnd it just made it look so much more sinister.
LeeBecause it's.
LeeAs good as CGI is now and it is incredible compared to what it used to be.
LeeYou can still see that it's like a looks like a computer game.
LeeWhereas that is, you know, just look like the movement of every block and everything was just and it just makes it so much more creepy.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd I think, well, they said the one thing it does as well is it gives the actor something to react to.
AdamSo rather than saying stare at that point where there'll be an effect happening.
LeeYeah.
AdamIt's like, shit, it's actually happened, you you react in time with it.
AdamSo you kind of you are in the.
LeeIt's actually happened, yeah.
AdamYou're in the moment, you are in the room in some and so forth.
AdamSo yeah, so the majority of the effects in it are practical ones.
AdamThat from sort of, you know, their magic tricks essentially and stuff like that.
AdamAnd the the ghosts in the bed.
AdamThat's very.
Adamwhistle and I'll come to you.
AdamThat was literally.
AdamFour fishing wires and a fan under a blanket.
LeeOh, no.
AdamAnd they were like they said that they were just like, wow, we expected this to be reasonable.
AdamBut this is actually.
AdamYou know, genuinely creepy and we know what it is and what they're doing.
LeeOh.
AdamYeah.
LeeAnd and it's I know we've discussed it before, but just the cast on this,
AdamWhich is.
AdamYeah.
LeeJust.
LeeSo good.
LeeSo like Samuel Bottomley, who played Goodman when he was younger, I I can't believe they I I'd never put the two together.
LeeBut when you see him side by side, you go, yeah, he just looks like a young version of it.
LeeIt's really, really good.
AdamHe really does.
LeeYeah.
Adaminterestingly enough, his son is an actor now.
LeeOh, is it?
AdamAndy Nyman's son is an actor.
AdamYeah.
AdamSo, but I think I think he's in the barmitz for, but I think he was just a bit too young.
Adamto actually play Goodman as like a 13-year-old.
AdamDid you spot the Utopia connection there, Lee?
LeeYes, I did.
LeeBecause so when he turned up, Jennifer went, we've seen him recently.
LeeAnd I went, Grant from Utopia.
LeeAnd she went.
LeeOh, my God.
LeeAnd that's the thing.
LeeIt even in Utopia, so from season one to season two.
LeeObviously they've all aged a year or two.
LeeBut because he's 10 years old, going from 10 to 11 or 12, he looks so much older.
LeeAnd again with this, it's, you know, it's a couple of years.
LeeBut he suddenly looks like a teenager and not a child.
LeeBut yeah, he's fantastic in this, really, really good.
AdamWell, I mean.
AdamI mean, that that bully sequence.
Adamis.
AdamThat's the.
AdamThat's the weird thing with this.
AdamIs that there's there are all the jump scares, but the really horrible bits are like the bully sequence.
AdamThe the the bit right at the start with Nicholas Burns doing the psychic.
LeeThat was horrible. Watching that woman scratching.
AdamThat's almost that's almost unbearable to watch.
AdamYeah, you know, with the and and it's all, you know, it's just very good actors.
AdamBut you are sort of like, oh, this is just horrible.
LeeOh.
LeeAnd and the one that the one that always gets me is Martin Freeman.
LeeI like Martin Freeman, I think he's a great actor in Sherlock and I I've got a lot of time for him as an actor.
LeeBut the big surprise in this when you suddenly find out who his other character is.
LeeI I just couldn't see it, I couldn't see him through that makeup.
LeeAnd then when he rips it off, I was just like, oh my shit.
LeeHe does such a good job in this.
AdamWell.
AdamI think I I think I've I think I've mentioned this certainly, I think I've mentioned this to you, Lee.
AdamWhen I finally got around to to watching this, because it yeah, like I think it was like a couple of months after it come out that I finally got it and watched it.
AdamBecause it I think also there was an element of like, I've seen the play.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and it's like, well, it's just going to be, you know, the play because again, that's the weird thing is if you just did the play straight onto screen, it would just be jump scares and stuff like that.
AdamThey they didn't really have.
AdamBecause you had did have all those sort of bits in there, but it like you say, it was presented as a lecture, whereas this you have.
ChrisLike any sense that watching the film would have possibly taken away from the effect of the play.
AdamMay have.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisBecause I just wonder like I could imagine if they'd done a really good job on the play and that's almost a bit unexpected that they could do that, you might think, oh, you know, the film's just going to be a bit more normal, not really as effective.
LeeYeah, certainly, because I know the play's done another run fairly recently.
LeeOh, yeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeSo I'd say to anyone who enjoyed this film.
LeeDefinitely go and see it as a play.
ChrisThat's still definitely worth going to, yeah.
AdamYou get a different experience.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeExactly.
LeeAnd and again, seeing the way that they do this, you know, like the Paul White House story that we, you know, in the warehouse, like seeing that done on a stage with one actor and just set changes, the way they do it is absolutely and it's all done kind of in front of your eyes.
LeeYeah, they use lighting to take your eye away from what's going on on the on the, I won't, I'll say I won't give it like.
LeeSo it's like.
LeeYeah.
LeeBut because it's so dark, it allows them to change the sets.
LeeSo the lights come up, you're looking at it, the lights go down and it's just him walking around with a torch, lights come up again, it's a totally different set.
LeeThere's no noise, no, it's just it's so clever.
LeeIt's absolutely unbelievable.
AdamI think.
AdamI'd so I think one of the other things that came up was and I remember this from the time.
Adamwhen the film came out, one of the taglines was the brain sees what it wants to see.
AdamAnd so.
AdamThey they misspelled stories on the poster, they transposed the I and the E and so and yeah, and it was a thing that you know, it.
AdamYou know, it definitely knew glances it was okay. Oh, yeah, yeah.
AdamBut funnily enough, I was because I was looking into that.
AdamAnd I saw like there was some it was like some old forum post where it was people talking about it when the film was coming out.
AdamAnd like saying, oh, well, I hope, you know, most people were like, well, if it's as good as the play, it would be fucking brilliant and so on and so forth.
AdamBut there was one guy who was like, I'm not sure if they've done this deliberately.
AdamOr whether the bloke who put it on the side of the bus fucked it up, but have you know, has anyone else noticed that the E and the I are around the wrong way?
LeeYeah.
LeeBut again.
AdamThat's that's very Darren Brown is I was just about to say that is Andy Nyman and Darren Brown all over, isn't it?
AdamStuff like it's yeah.
Adamyeah, he's it's that magic thing of.
Adamtricking you into seeing stuff, I I remember because it's funny once you get to know his stuff.
AdamIt kind of we went to see him once, in a a tiny little theater under it was a little underground place.
Adam
AdamI can't remember where it was now.
AdamI remember we got off the station.
AdamAnd it was in some arches.
AdamIt was a tiny little theater and he was basically saying to people, in the interval, I want you to queue up and come and write an animal on the board.
AdamThink of an animal and he gave you three animals to think of.
AdamAnd we we didn't go and queue up, but we sat in the seat and then later on, we noticed all of the posters leading up to it, which were made to look like other things they were doing as productions.
AdamBut they.
Adam
AdamOh, no, it's not.
AdamNo, no, no.
AdamYou got.
AdamThe monkey, elephant, and giraffe.
AdamThey were made to look like other things they were doing as productions.
AdamBut they all had the word tiger in them, so it obviously set up.
AdamSo it's one of those.
AdamIt was only once you spotted it, you went, oh shit, yeah, like, I wonder how many people that worked, but it's just it's so clever, it's absolutely unbelievable.
AdamThe the thing.
AdamThe thing that got me when we saw Darren Brown was when they he did that.
AdamIt was like at the start of it, he did like a relaxation thing.
Adamwhere it was like, all right, you know, and it was all I want you to picture this and everything else like that, like got everyone stand up, and then it was like, yeah, if you if you felt tired during that or I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was like, if you felt tired or you could really hear that in your head, remain standing, and it's like, and as I sat down, I was like, you've just picked out all the suggestible people.
AdamWell done, I've that's you know, immediately right, these are the people I'm going to focus on because I've actually hypnotized them now.
AdamLet them, yeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd a lot of it is all stuff that sort of hits into this.
AdamSo, but I don't think.
AdamOne thing we have to say is that it might be the only time that Danny Dyer will appear on this podcast.
AdamBut we might have to do Severance at some point.
LeeOh, I thought that earlier when Chris said, I don't think I've seen Andy Nyman in anything.
LeeAnd I was like.
Lee
LeeYeah.
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