What Do We Know About Joanna Lumley & Tobias Menzies’ Christmas Ghost Story?
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4 weeks ago
The Room in the Tower is based on E.F. Benson's tale from 1912
Though the franchise dates back to the 1970s, A Ghost Story for Christmas is becoming synonymous with actor and increasingly prolific writer Mark Gatiss. Penning and directing his first Ghost Story for Christmas 2013, Gatiss has worked on seven stories in total, with his terrifying tales becoming a staple of Christmas telly annually since 2021. And 2025 will be no different: Gatiss has mined the early 20th century for inspiration for his eighth Ghost Story for Christmas, based on a short story by EF Benson titled A Room in the Tower (1912). Here’s everything we know so far, plus when we will get to see it.
Joanna Lumley, Tobias Menzies and supporting cast in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower. (© Adorable Media/BBC/Joe Duggan)
BBC’s 2025 Ghost Story for Christmas: What We Know
We have a star-studded Christmas to count down the days to: Mark Gatiss’ eighth Ghost Story for Christmas will star Joanna Lumley and Tobias Menzies, set in the inter-war years and based on EF Benson’s tale, A Room in the Tower (1912).
Also starring Nancy Carroll, Ben Mansfield and Polly Walker, we’re told to expect an ‘atmospheric treat where dream meets terrifying reality,’ according to BBC commissioning editor Mark Bell.
Mrs Stone (JOANNA LUMLEY) & Roger (TOBIAS MENZIES) in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower. (© BBC/Adorable Media/Joe Duggan)
What Will Happen?
The action of the next Ghost Story for Christmas, A Room in the Tower, centres on Roger Winstanley (Menzies), who for 15 years has been haunted by a recurring nightly nightmare: he is invited to spend the night in an friend’s house, and is assigned a room in the tower – a space that fills him with dread though he isn’t sure why.
Roger finds his fellow guests quiet and grim, and while the dream varies every night, the cast of characters stays the same – though they seem to grow older and stranger with each instalment.
In his waking life, Roger is invited to his friend’s country house, which bares a striking resemblance to the house of his dreams. Nightmare and reality collide when Roger is invited to stay the night in the room in the tower.
Roger (TOBIAS MENZIES) in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower. (© BBC/Adorable Media/Joe Duggan)
‘I’ve always wanted to adapt the great EF Benson’s ghost stories and this is one of his chilling best,’ says writer and director Gatiss, who typically bases his Ghost Story films on spooky short stories of days of yore. His muse of many films is M. R. James, with Gatiss’ The Tractate Middoth (2013), Martin’s Close (2019), The Mezzotint (2021) and Count Magnus (2022) all based on the famous ghost story writer’s work. That said most of the BBC’s Ghost Story instalments were based on James’ work before Gatiss came aboard, including five films in the ’70s and films in 2005, 2006 and 2010. But in 2023 Gatiss bucked the trend, adapting Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lot No. 249 instead, and following suit with Edith Nesbit’s Man Sized Marble in 2024.
Summarising 2025’s tale for the BBC, Gatiss says: ‘A nameless man tells the story of a dream which has recurred to him since childhood. He finds himself at the door of a strange house, presided over by a terrifying matriarch, Mrs Stone, and the dream always ends with her words, “Jack will show you your room. I have given you the room in the tower”. But the dream doesn’t stay a dream!
‘I’ve always loved EF Benson’s spook stories and this is one of my favourites as well as being perhaps his most famous,’ Gatiss adds.
Mark Gatiss on set with Tobias Menzies at Cobham Hall, Kent. (© BBC/Adorable Media/Joe Duggan)
Where Was It Filmed?
A Ghost Story for Christmas: A Room in the Tower was filmed at Cobham Hall in Kent earlier this year – which Gatiss recently revealed was almost the filming location for 2023’s Ghost Story starring Kit Harrington. ‘When I looked at the location photos again it was just perfect,’ Gatiss tells the BBC. ‘The Hall actually has four towers but we were able to make it look like just one very sinister tower containing Roger’s room. The towers themselves are unsafe, so the amazing Choi Ho Man, our production designer, had to use a lot of clever design to make it look like we were actually going up those fatal stairs.’
‘Cobham Hall proved to be a great location to shoot this story,’ star Menzies adds. ‘But it required a lot of dexterity and skill from the production design team and the hair and make-up team. It was a real team effort, there was a lot of sticking on of moustaches!’
Unfortunately for any set-jetting fanatics, Cobham Hall is a private day and boarding school so you sadly cannot visit to stay the night for yourself. Our comiserations to the child who lives in the room in the tower.
That said the school occasionally opens the historic house’s doors to visitors. Find upcoming dates here.
Roger (TOBIAS MENZIES) & John Clinton (BEN MANSFIELD) in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower. (© BBC/Adorable Media/Joe Duggan)
The Cast
Gatiss’ annual Ghost Story films have attracted stellar acting talent in recent years: last year Celia Imrie and Monica Dolan led Man Sized Marble, while the year before Gatiss attracted Kit Harington and Freddie Fox to his Christmas project.
And this year is no different: ‘The Room in the Tower has been prepared for you – and with Tobias Menzies and the legendary Dame Joanna Lumley to boot!’ Gatiss says.
‘I’ve met and worked with Jo a couple of times and she’s always been everything you’d hope for,’ the writer adds, referring to the beloved Dame. ‘Generous, hysterically funny, self-deprecating and kind. She said yes immediately and was a total trouper enduring the rigours of the prosthetics and punishing shooting schedule. I asked her if this was her first horror since Hammer’s The Satanic Rites of Dracula in 1973. She pondered and finally said “You know darling I think it is. Almost too late!”.’
She’s joined on screen by Tobias Menzies, who Gatiss equally describes as ‘a marvellously committed and sensitive actor’. ‘I knew he’d be perfect for the haunted Roger,’ Gatiss adds.
The cast we know is as follows:
- Joanna Lumley as Julia Stone
- Tobias Menzies as Roger Winstanley
- Nancy Carroll as Verity
- Polly Walker as Mrs Clinton
- Ben Mansfield as John Clinton
Roger (TOBIAS MENZIES) in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Room in the Tower. (© BBC/Adorable Media/Joe Duggan)
Release Date
A Ghost Story for Christmas: A Room in the Tower will air at 10pm on Christmas Eve on BBC Two and iPlayer.
