Maybe I should have qualified that as #1 Favourite TV Adaptations of English Ghost Stories, for whilst Monty knocks Charlie off his perch rather (as far as he was ever one one o course, & I don't think the sentimental Victoriana of a Christmas Carol quite qualifies somehow; give me Le Fanu anyday!) I feel that it's his strengths as a writer have made the various TV adaptations problematic to say the least, much as I love them - not least the recent adaptation of View from a Hill which I found very effective! The exception, of course, is Jonathan Miller's superb adaptation that is Whistle and I'll Come to You which rides as much on Michael Hordern's superlative portrayal of Prof Parkin as it does on the stunning cinematography. Either way, it's a world away from Monty's original somehow...

I've got tapes of Michael Hordern reading the M R James stories which are an absolute delight - the very essence, indeed, of an Englishness which it would seem remains ever elusive to our hapless repatriate!

Now, it's off out in search of Ben Shaw's Dandelion & Burdock - and maybe a can of CS on CS's recommendation...