Ghosts didn't quite go bump in the night

FACT or fiction, real or unreal - that uneasy fear of the unknown is of the very essence, sited as it is, at the core of Henry James’ ghost story.

Adapted on numerous occasions for both stage and screen this 1898 novella is a psychological thriller of mind games meant to grip and thrill by ratcheting up the tension and atmosphere with each turn of the screw as the past is confronted, confessions follow and strange events occur.

Unfortunately the fear factor in Tim Luscombe’s adaptation is considerably subdued and although the cast of just four work their socks off director Daniel Buckroyd’s efforts fail to bring it all steamily to the boil.

The set is passable, presenting the remote country house of Bly as a residence with its best days behind it - a gloomy gaslit room of dark drapes, shadows and cobwebs, and spectral visitations.

The opening moments of a solitary, creaky rocking horse offered the possibility of memorable nerve jangling times to come. But the promise didn’t really hold water with some of the haunting sequences hardly better than what is often offered by a village dramatic society.

Nothing that spooky about a woman in black who glides on and off with hardly a shred of menace, although figures at windows did provide a far greater eeriness together with crashing music and flashes of lightning.

Annabel Smith is full of energy as the orphan Flora, flitting her way through childhood fantasies and then exploring her scepticism of events of the real and other world as Mrs Conray, as she interrogates the governess she had previously taunted as a teenage terror.

Michael Hanratty as the haunting image of the Man, and Flora’s equally manipulative young brother, sets out to achieve getting under your skin, and that of his governess, and does so with considerable aplomb.

The finger of suspicion points towards both young, innocent minds being slowly corrupted by ghostly visitations. Or is it all in the mind?

Carli Norris is the guilt-wracked governess, a guardian attempting, even forced, to set the record straight for sinister errors in earlier, inexperienced years. Throwing out the question of whether it was she or the ‘hauntings’ that were guilty of taking over the minds of the children Meanwhile there is excellent support from Maggie McCarthy as Bly’s long serving below-stairs housekeeper, Mrs Grose, a character integral to the developing years of her young charges.

The pair are equally excellent in their support of each other in both instances.

There are many contradictions thoughout but the revelations from each character didn’t quite tighten the tension as might be expected with every turn of the screw, quite surprising considering the original story and given Luscombe’s track record of adaptations.

It was unfortunately tame, even bordering on twee - altogether a thread which steadily shredded.