Mark Gatiss’s newest Christmas ghost story, ‘The Room in the Tower,’ adapts a short story by EF Benson about a man plagued by a repeating nightmare.
In this disturbing retelling, Roger Winstanley (played by Tobias Menzies) is haunted by visions of a grand country house and a sinister presence hidden within its tower.
The 30-minute drama was filmed entirely at Cobham Hall, a beautiful country house in Kent, England. This location has also appeared in the movie Wild Child with Emma Roberts, and the children’s TV show Hetty Feather.
You know, we were scouting locations, and this one was incredible. We actually considered it for last year’s ‘Ghost Story for Christmas‘, ‘Lot No. 249’, but it just didn’t feel right at the time. Then, completely out of the blue, it came up again, and it was perfect! I was saying this at the screening of ‘The Room in the Tower’ at the BFI Southbank – it was a real stroke of luck.
As a huge fan, I always found Roger’s dream tower so visually interesting! It turns out that amazing spiral staircase he keeps climbing wasn’t filmed in one place. The filmmakers actually pieced together shots from different sections of Cobham Hall to create that incredible journey to the room at the top. It’s cool to know how they built that iconic scene!
The building has four towers, none of which are structurally sound. The staircase is located in a separate section, and the room in question is actually on the ground floor. Gatiss described the whole setup as a clever illusion.
The TV version of Benson’s story, originally published in 1912, is set in 1944 and uses a new opening scene. In this version, the character Roger shares his anxieties with a woman named Nancy Carroll after they meet while sheltering from an air raid.
Gatiss expressed his fascination with the war era and its immediate consequences, pointing out that his detective series, Bookish, is also set during this time. He was inspired by London’s Underground system and wondered what it would be like to base the story’s structure around it, during the Blitz.
The story is told from the perspective of a narrator who speaks directly to the reader, and realizing that helped everything fall into place.
“The tube is the basement [of Cobham Hall] – it’s just like The Web of Fear, isn’t it?”
Similar to the Doctor Who story ‘The Room in the Tower,’ the classic serial ‘The Web of Fear’ also featured a recreation of the London Underground. When filming wasn’t possible in the actual tunnels, designer David Myerscough-Jones constructed a convincing set inside the BBC studios.
I was reading an interview with Mark Gatiss from last year – he was talking about his latest Christmas ghost story – and he touched on the possibility of coming back to Doctor Who. It got me thinking, because he’s done some fantastic work on the show, both writing and acting, all the way back from 2005 to 2017. It’s cool to see he’s still open to it!
He admitted he hadn’t been asked to continue. He felt he’d had a great run, having worked on nine stories plus the special, ‘An Adventure in Space and Time,’ which he considered the perfect way to end his involvement with Doctor Who.
The very last thing I worked on was a Doctor Who regeneration episode with Peter Capaldi. David Bradley, who I’d previously cast as the First Doctor, was also in it, and I played the Brigadier’s grandfather. I remember thinking at the time that it was a perfect note to end on, because things couldn’t possibly get any better than that.
Tune in to BBC Two this Christmas Eve (December 24th) at 10pm for “A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower.” Want to stay up-to-date on what to watch? Download the TopMob: What to Watch app for daily TV suggestions and features!
Authors
Morgan Jeffery leads the editorial content for TopMob across all its digital platforms as the Digital Editor. Before joining TopMob, he worked as a TV Editor at Digital Spy and has appeared as a television expert on programs like BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live, and Sky Atlantic.
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2025-12-19 14:06