The ghost story is Gatiss’ eight festive chiller for the BBC and stars Joanna Lumley and Tobias Menzies.

Mark Gatiss’ latest BBC Ghost Story for Christmas filmed on location at Cobham Hall in Kent.

A Ghost Story for Christmas – The Room in the Tower is adapted by Mark Gatiss from an E F Benson story and produced by Isibeal Ballance of Adorable Media for BBC Two. It is Gatiss’ eighth BBC ghost story.

Joanna Lumley and Tobias Menzies head the single film, with supporting cast including Nancy Carroll, Ben Mansfield and Polly Walker.

Set in the inter-war years, it centres on Roger Winstanley who, for 15 years, has been haunted by an unsettling, recurring dream: an invitation to spend the night in the house of an acquaintance, where an unseen terror lurks and the figures who populate the dream seem to age in real time. Nightmare and waking life seem to finally collide when an invitation to the dreaded “room in the tower” becomes all too real…

Filming took place earlier this year on location in Cobham Hall, Kent, an historic stately home that now houses a private day and boarding school. Previous productions to have utilised the location, which offers a ballroom, library, cobbled courtyards and formal gardens, include Mary and George in 2023 and The Crown (Series 1-6).

Gatiss said of the latest standalone festive instalment: “I’ve always wanted to adapt the great E.F. Benson’s ghost stories and this is one of his chilling best. I’m also very grateful to have been able to continue the most Christmassy of Christmas traditions. The Room in the Tower has been prepared for you – and with Tobias Menzies and the legendary Dame Joanna Lumley to boot!”

Image: Joanna Lumley, Tobias Menzies and supporting cast (Image: Adorable Media / BBC / Joe Duggan)