About

Produced for the BBC in 1968, Jonathan Miller's adaptation of celebrated author M R James's short story 'Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad' is one of Britain's most iconic screen ghost stories. It is a haunting tale, shot with staggering innovation by Dick Bush (later cinematographer on William Friedkin's Sorcerer 1977) and featuring one of the most remarkable soundscapes in television film history. Almost never screened in cinemas, Miller's film is a hypnotic achievement whose success inspired annual productions of James's stories on the BBC for years to come.

An atrabilious old professor is vacationing by himself on the coast of England. As he wanders through a local graveyard by the beachside, he discovers an abandoned bone whistle that features an oblique inscription carved into it. Upon blowing the whistle, he sets off a mysterious chain of events that shake his faith in pure logic and reason.

M | Supernatural themes