Silent FRIGHT

FREDDIE FOX on bringing to life an Arthur Conan Doyle chiller

- JUDY EWENS, IAN MACEWAN

Spine-chilling ghost tales are as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, and this year, BBC2 is offering up an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story Lot No. 249.

Adapted by Sherlock cocreator and star Mark Gatiss, the 30-minute drama revolves around three very different academics in Oxford: the unworldly Monkhouse Lee (played by Leonardo’s Colin Ryan), the epitome of Victorian masculinity Abercrombie Smith (Games of Thrones’ Kit Harington) and mysterious scholar of Eastern languages Edward Bellingham (Slow Horses’ Freddie Fox).