Among a raft of new commissions for BBC Four announced at the Edinburgh International Television Festival is one for fans of chilling tales. (You know, spooky ones, not ones about Instagrammers relaxing on photogenic beaches.) Horror enthusiast Mark Gatiss has written and directed a brand new ghost story for the channel.
Called Dead Room, the one-off half-hour story stars stage and screen veteran Simon Callow as the presenter of a long-running radio horror series.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Set and filmed at the iconic Maida Vale studios, The Dead Room tells the story of a long-running radio horror series and its veteran presenter and national treasure Aubrey Judd. But times are changing. Tastes are shifting. There’s a new young producer. Whatever happened to the classic ghost stories? The good old days? Aubrey soon discovers that all is not quiet in the eerie radio studio and that elements of his own past are not as dead and buried as he perhaps hoped…
A clever combination of theme and place there – after eighty-four years as a BBC venue, North London location Maida Vale studios is being closed down. Just one of many changes in broadcasting history happening this year.
Joining Callow in the Dead Room cast will be Anjli Mohindra, Susan Penhaligon and Joshua Oakes-Rogers. We’ll bring you an air date as soon as one is announced.