'Stop jantsing my jorts!' by Kara
Saturday, September 5, 2015 at 10:57 AM

So a couple months ago, my friend Matthew (whose previous works include a bit of Doctor Who and that Life on Mars show that got a couple viewers) told me he'd be writing a radio adaptation of the 1972 BBC teleplay The Stone Tape and that it'll be airing at Christmas this year. Well I'm all about spooky and I like keeping up with my friends' work, so a few of us gave the original a watch last night.

... yeeeeeeh wow.

I mean, you say '1970s BBC horror' and we (as Americans who do not have this style of television etched in our bones) all come equipped to expect and forgive a certain degree of synth stings and camera effects. Was that synth there? Yes. Was it 1970s television-tier effects? Yes.

But oh God, it was used to amazing effect. I think literally the only 'outside laughs' were got were over the uncomfortable realisation that the least realistic thing about this whole piece was the idea of a team of men taking a female computer programmer seriously.

Basic plot: a team of engineers are trying to develop a new audio recording method to one-up the Japanese. Their computer programmer, Jill, discovers the ghost of a parlourmaid in one room of the building they've turned into their offices, and the rest start to hear her, too. A bit of analysis and experimentation leads the team to believe that it's not a ghost they're hearing, but a 'recording' of the moment of her death projected directly into their minds by the stone of the building. The team decides this -- a 'stone tape' method -- is how they can finally 'put the boot up auld Nippon' (to quote the show), while Jill splits off to explore what exactly is going on in the room. With all the consequences you'd expect.

We weren't entirely sure what to expect at first, as the first handful of minutes is very surreal and detached and lacking in context. But when the dialogue kicks in, the whole show is extremely solid. A product of its time, to be sure (there was a smattering of Looney Tunes racism), but genuinely strong stuff. It carried itself so well that the quality of the effects was immaterial: they could probably have replaced the parlourmaid's 'recording' with a bedsheet on a string and I'd still be down.

A lot of the eeriness of the piece was in the implications. They didn't tell us everything, but they certainly dangled a lot in front of us. To the point that I'm still musing about a few of the points presented and what they could mean. I won't spoil the big reveal (even though we've got 40+ years of leeway, there is the radio play coming), but you will probably be shouting the same name I was at a certain point.

It probably bears mentioning that this was penned by Nigel Kneale, who also wrote Quatermass. So the quality is unsurprising given the source, even when taking into account the era in which is was made.

I truly can't wait to hear what Matthew makes of this, and as much as I loved seeing the show, I'm intrigued by the idea of sinking it into the medium (audio) that makes up so much of the motivation for the storyline itself. Also, turns out that Dean Andrews (who played Ray Carling in Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes) has a role, so I'm extremely excited to hear.

Hopefully it'll be internationally available on their site when it airs and I can link it 'round to you. In the meantime, if you can dig up a copy of the original, please watch it. It's good good stuff.

If you have been, sleep tight.