Norman Carpenter Up Ladder, one of 70 wire-mesh ghost sculptures featured in Ghosts After Dark in York Museum Gardens. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
YORK’s ghosts are gathering in York Museum Gardens this week for five nights of captivating storytelling and after-dark adventure, orchestrated by York BID and York Museums Trust.
Running from last night to Sunday, Ghosts After Dark sees all 70 wire-mesh sculptures from York BID’s city-wide 2026 Ghosts In The Gardens trail being assembled in one setting, giving visitors the chance to see the ghosts and the gardens in a “completely different light”.
Ghosts After Dark first came to York Museum Gardens in 2024, bringing together 46 sculptures. Two years on, the event has expanded beyond the main Museum Gardens into historic spaces, not only King’s Manor courtyard and Library Lawn, but also taking in the Anglian Tower, Edible Wood, Artists’ Garden, St Olave’s Churchyard and the area beside York Art Gallery.
Lit atmospherically among the trees, ruins and hidden corners of the gardens, more ghost sculptures than ever are being joined by as many as eight live storytellers, telling stories every 15 minutes to the accompaniment of sound and smoke.
Victorian Penny Farthing Rider in Ghosts After Dark. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Among them are Mad Alice, from the Bloody Tour of York, with her stories of the Executioner, Judge, Tudor Lady and Saxon Monk at the Abbot’s House, King’s Manor, and Dr Dorian and Davina Deathly, from Deathly Dark Tours, uncovering the haunted history behind the Stone Mason, Saxon Monk, Nun and Butcher in front of St Mary’s Abbey ruins.
Meet Guy Fawkes, from York Dungeon, on his trailer at The Plot; the Doomsayer, from York Dungeon too, with her tales of the plague-infested streets of 1551 York, in the Undercroft, and the Wild Man of The Woods, exploring the lore of the Fox, Falcon, Cat and Bear in Beast’s Corner.
Step into Viking York for Norse storytellers from Jorvik Viking Centre to share sagas of fearless warriors, mighty gods and epic voyages in the Gloomy Woods setting.
In addition to 24 ghost sculptures new to Ghosts After Dark (including ten new to this year’s Ghosts In The Gardens) and two gardens new to the event, an immersive Witch Encounter has been introduced too that “may include jump scares”.
Bear in the wood at Ghosts After Dark. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
In The Cell, you will find the restless Isabella Billington, York’s most infamous Witch, from York Dungeon, on her last night before her execution for murder. Official records state that she and her husband crucified her mother in Pocklington, duly offering a calf and cockerel as a burnt sacrifice.
The event brochure forewarns: “Please be aware: all the stories you will hear tonight are based on real history. Some may be exaggerated, embellished, or quite gruesome. Not all talks are suitable for young children – if in doubt, please ask the storyteller.”
Look out too for the event’s first night market, featuring suitably themed pop-up stalls around the gardens and outside the Yorkshire Museum, including Isla Coole‘s Horrifically Good Books (newly opened in Goodramgate) and, more tenuously, Socktopus’s sock store (which seemed to be stretching things a tad)!
The Potions Cauldron, Villains Rum, Poetry Pharmacy and Braithwaite Gallery are taking part too, along with Ye Olde York Dungeon Spook Shop at The Cell, Mad Alice’s Curiosity Shop at King’s Manor and the Jorvik stall at Midgard. Oh, and what’s that queue at the Observatory? Ah, yes, the ever-busy York Ghost Merchants are selling exclusive ghosts anew.
Edwardian Builder With Lunch at Ghosts After Dark. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
York BID’s operations manager, Carl Alsop, says:“There’s something really special about experiencing York Museum Gardens after dark and this year, visitors will have more to discover than ever.
“We’ve taken everything people loved about the first Ghosts After Dark and made it bigger. All 70 ghosts will be gathered together across an expanded route, with atmospheric lighting, fog, live storytelling, interactive artwork and plenty of surprises hiding in the darkness.
“The event brings this year’s free Ghosts In The Gardens trail to a brilliant crescendo, giving people the chance to see the sculptures all together in some of York’s most historic spaces. We want people to make an evening of it: explore the ghosts, visit the night market and enjoy the city’s shops, restaurants, cafés and bars while they’re here.”
Jocelyn Palmer, senior events manager at York Museums Trust, says: “We are delighted to be working with York BID to bring back Ghosts After Dark to York Museums Gardens. The ghosts are a well-loved part of the city’s autumnal calendar, and we’re delighted to be hosting them all together again for this series of evening events.
“It is wonderful to have a rich seasonal programme across York, and particularly in the Museum Gardens, to bring a little light, and perhaps some spooky sights, to the autumn evenings.”
Elizabethan School Boy With Catapult at Ghosts After Dark. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
Ghosts After Dark runs from 5.30pm to 9.30pm each evening, with timed entry slots available for every 20 minutes until last admission at 8pm. Visitors should allow approximately 90 minutes to uncover the full experience.
AMONG the 70 sculptures are: Edwardian Rail Signaller; Norman Carpenter Up Ladder; Victorian Lamplighter; Bear; Long Duck; Musician With Fiddle; Victorian Newsboy With Newspaper; Stuart Nurse With Syringe; Mouse; Cat Sleeping; Bat Sleeping; Victorian Beekeeper; Tudor Executioner; Victorian Penny Farthing Rider; Edwardian Builder With Lunch; Georgian Butcher Emptying Slop Bucket; Fox; Squirrel and Saxon Monk Praying.
Did you know?
THE translucent, narrow-gauge wire-mesh ghost sculptures for Ghosts In The Gardens and Ghosts After Dark are crafted by York creative agency Unconventional Design.
St Mary’s Abbey ruins bathed in light for Ghosts After Dark. In the foreground is one of the robin bird boxes on show in York Museum Gardens. Picture: Celestine Dubruel
York drag diva Velma Celli adding vocal oomph to oompah band The Bavarian Strollers in Yorktoberfest’s big top at York Racecourse
FROM a new female spin on ‘Curious Incident’ to Yorktoberfest in a circus big top, Halloween shows to Leo Sayer’s last tour, Charles Hutchinson finds ways to brighten up darker nights.
Festival of the week: Jamboree Entertainment presents Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, today, 1pm to 5pm & 7pm to 11pm
FOR the first time, James Cundall’s Jamboree Entertainment is staging Yorktoberfest, York’s traditional Bavarian beer festival, inside a Big Top, launched last weekend by aerial artist Zoe Kulyk twisting and tumbling from the rooftop.
Look out today for outrageous York drag diva Velma Celli’s powerhouse singing and quick-fire critique of the costumes on display, complemented by oompah band The Bavarian Strollers’ traditional drinking songs and disco classics. Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest and at the entrance, subject to availability.
Ghost event of the week: The York Ghost Merchants present Mischief Night Ghost Week Trail, York Mansion House, York, today to November 1, 10.30am to 5pm, last entry 4pm
GROWING up in York, the young Guy Fawkes was a mischief-maker who caused no end of havoc for his school masters, long before he set his sights on a more famous prize. Join ghostly headmaster John Pulleyn, who needs your help to keep the peace, before Guy forks out more misrule than the city can handle!
Follow the trail around York Mansion House, solving puzzles and clues as you go. Everyone who completes the trail puzzle book successfully will be entered into a draw to win a unique ghost designed by the Ghost Merchants and inspired by the Mansion House building. Tickets: Available on the door on the day of visit (no online sales).
Troy Hawke: “Navigating conversational minefields” at York Barbican tonight
Comedy gig of the week: Troy Hawke, Never Stop, Never Change!, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
TROY Hawke is the internet sensation creation of Michael Patrick “Milo” McCabe, the British television presenter, actor and stand-up character comedian. In Never Stop, Never Change!, angry security guards, barked compliments and crossed wires abound as Hawke navigates various conversational minefields, both online and in real life. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Freedom versus control : Sarah Belcher’s Deborah and Phil Corbitt’s Colin in the shifting sands of Alison Carr’s All At Sea at the SJT
Claustrophobiccouple of the week: Stephen Joseph Theatre and Live Theatre, Newcastle, present All At Sea, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until October 31
MARIA Crocker directs Phil Corbitt and Sarah Belcher in All At Sea, Alison Carr’s new play inspired by the escapades of John and Anne Darwin in the early 2000s. Colin and Deborah are a couple with spiralling debt, a sky-high mortgage and seemingly nowhere to turn. Then Colin comes up with the idea of faking his own death in a canoeing accident in the North Sea for an insurance payout. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Alex Keenan’s Chris Boone and her dad, Joe McFadden’s Ed, in Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. Picture: Johan Persson
Reboot of the week: Melting Pot and Birmingham Rep present The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Grand Opera House, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees
MELTING Pot and Birmingham Rep are touring a gender-swap reboot of Simon Stephens’s inventive adaptation of Mark Haddon’s compassionate novel, in which neurodivergent 15-year-old Chris Boone is now a female role, played by Alex Keenan and matinee alternate Imi Price.
Ned Bennett’s cast features Joe McFadden as dad Ed and Charlie Brooks as absentee mum Judy in the story of Chris becoming both detective and suspect when a neighbour’s dog is discovered killed, drawing her into a mystery that grows darker and more complex with every clue uncovered. Box office: atgtickets.co.uk/york.
Book talk of the week: A Way With Media presents John Lydon: I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right, Harrogate Theatre, October 27, 7.30pm
JOHN Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten – is a legend, an iconoclast, a revolutionary and a punk immortal, who changed the face of music, causing a political earthquake as frontman and lyricist of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd (PiL).
To coincide with A Way With Media’s special-edition boxed Flexi Bind Version of his I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right collection of random thoughts, life philosophies and personal anecdotes, Lydon, now 70, is undertaking a pyrotechnic, one-off tour to discuss how he sees life and to reflect on his extraordinary career, taking audience questions too. Sharing his thoughts, he could be wrong, he could be right. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Playing by the ghouls: Halloween In Concert at York Barbican
Graveyard smash of the week: Halloween In Concert, York Barbican, October 27, 7.30pm
IN a frighteningly good night of raves from beyond the grave, Halloween In Concert’s cast and band unleash a thrilling crescendo of all things Halloween. Expect big vocals and killer moves as the greatest spooky hits are resurrected, from Monster Mash, Highway To Hell, The Time Warp and Running Up That Hill to Hungry Like The Wolf, Maneater, Bat Out of Hell, She Wolf and Thriller. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Addams family in Wharfemede Productions’ The Addams Family Musical at Theatre@41, Monkgate. Picture: Simon Trow
Halloween family entertainment of the week: Wharfemede Productions in The Addams Family Musical, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, October 27 to 31, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
COMPANY co-founder Helen Spencer directs North Yorkshire company Wharfemede Productions in Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s devilishly funny, deeply kooky comedy The Addams Family Musical.
When Wednesday Addams falls in love with a “normal” young man and invites his respectable parents to dinner, chaos, secrets and macabre mayhem ensue in this spooky celebration of family, love and embracing the wonderfully weird, replete with sharp comedy, dazzling dance numbers, a witty score and a nine-piece band. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Scrum down for former England prop forward Joe Marler’s probing questions at York Barbican on Wednesday
Live podcast tour of the week: Joe Marler Will See You Live, York Barbican, October 28, 8pm
SINCE retiring from Rugby Union in 2024, England prop forward Joe Marler has been pushed into the mainstream by his “Big Dog” theory, people-reading prowess and relentless Traitor hunting in the 2025 debut series of The Celebrity Traitors.
This sparked his show format for Joe Marler Will See You Now, wherein Marler and his co-host and research assistant, comedian Jake Bhardwaj, apply acute observational skills to delve inside the mind of a celebrity guest with probing questions and unusual mind games. Who will be their guest in York? Find out on Wednesday night. Cue “ludicrous set-pieces and immersive audience participation”. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Christopher Leslie in his haunting one-man adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound at York Medical Society
Halloween solo show of the week: Christopher Leslie in Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 27 to 30, 7.30pm
YORK writer, performer and Pop Yer Clogs Theatre company member Christopher Leslie presents his haunting one-man adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “bogey tale”, here re-titled Jekyll & Hyde: Unbound.
Lawyer Gabriel John Utterson, now living a sheltered, haunted life, invites you into the Soho house once occupied by his former client, Doctor Henry Jekyll. Tonight, Utterson will speak at last, looking into the darkness of the human psyche and asking are we really who we appear to be? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Victoria Delaney’s Kat, left, Beryl Nain’s Ma and Clare Halliday’s Maudie in York Actors Collective’s The Strongbox
York premiere of the week: York Actors Collective in The Strongbox, York Theatre Royal Studio, October 29, 2.30pm & 7.45pm, October 30, 7.45pm, and October 31, 2pm
YORK Actors Collective presents Stephanie Jacob’s study of freedom and control The Strongbox, in which a mother (Beryl Nairn’s Ma) and her daughter (Victoria Delaney’s Kat) keep a homeless woman (Clare Halliday’s Maudie) as a slave in their London home. Power shifts, however, when the daughter becomes distracted by business and the mother falls ill.
“Three women learn how to live and survive by making their own rules, but at what cost?” asks director Angie Millard. “As Ma says, ‘ If you do and do and do and do to someone, can it be undone?’ That’s the question the play explores with honesty and some humour.” Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” says Leo Sayer
The show must go on…for one last tour: Leo Sayer, Can’t Stop Loving You, York Barbican, October 30, 7.30pm
AFTER almost 60 years on the road, Leo Sayer, now 78, returns to the UK stage for “what could well be his final full UK tour”. “I love performing for my fans and look forward to doing so for many more years, but this will be the last time I play so many dates across the country. I am not retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little,” clarifies Sayer, in a year when he is releasing his autobiography and a career-spanning box set.
Cue The Show Must Go On, Thunder In My Heart, Moonlighting, One Man Band, When I Need You, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing et al. Meanwhile, Brighton folk-rockers Levellers have sold out October 29’s York Barbican gig. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Dickensian storyteller James Swanton, switching to the lecture hall at York Medical Society
AFTER another sell-out season in 2023, gothic York actor James Swanton is reviving his Dickensian Ghost Stories for Christmas at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, from tonight to December 5.
Made up of James’s absorbing solo renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, they will play eight dates in York before transferring to London’s Charles Dickens Museum in the run-up to Christmas.
James is following up his October 24 to 30 run of Dickens’s The Signal-Man at York Medical Society – a partner event with the York Ghost Merchants – that sold out a month in advance. His other Dickensian theatre work prompted Simon Callow to describe Swanton’s West End play Sikes & Nancy as “fantastical, startling and enthralling” and fellow Dickens enthusiast Miriam Margolyes to call his performances at the Dickens Museum “extraordinary”, “superb” and “vivid”.
“I’ve had to skew my York shows early because of the exceptional demand down south,” says James. ‘Indeed, we’ve already sold out all 18 performances of A Christmas Carol in London!
‘But being a northerner, York is where I feel most at home – and there’s no better setting for Dickens than York Medical Society. We’ve moved to their largest space to accommodate more guests, but we’ve kept the vital period atmosphere. It’s a properly immersive experience: all gilt- framed portraits and heavy curtains and dim lighting.
‘I’ll be giving six performances of A Christmas Carol here in York. There’ll also be one showing apiece of The Chimes and The Haunted Man, its lesser-known but fascinating follow-ups, which have both sold out already.”
James is keen to emphasise the merits of all three stories. “Each of them brims with Dickens’s genius for the weird, which ranges from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms. Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and in this age of rising austerity and fascism, we’re feeling the bite more than ever,” he says.
“Beyond anything, these stories are masterful exercises in theatrical storytelling, with a real sense of joy emerging from the Victorian gloom.”
Kit Harrington and James Swanton in Lot No. 249. Picture: Kieran McGuigan
Since last December’s run of Ghost Stories for Christmas, James has spent the year as various terrors on screen. “This time last year, I was terribly excited to be playing the Mummy in Lot No. 249, Mark Gatiss’s BBC Ghost Story for Christmas, in which I was unpardonably nasty to Kit Harington,” he recalls.
“I couldn’t have guessed I’d be filming as another BBC spook in January, when the wonderful Reece Shearsmith asked me to play the Curse of the Ninth Symphony in the last series of Inside No. 9.
Both programmes are available on BBC iPlayer, and James advises that they make for “perfect Gothic viewing in the run-up to Christmas: two very classic ghost stories”.
They have been far from James’s only sinister appearances in recent times, however. “Every few weeks in 2024, I seem to have loomed up as some new monstrous entity,” James notes. “I played a couple of occult apparitions, the Hermit and the Magician, in a pleasingly ludicrous film called Tarot.
“My late grandad, Professor Walter Swanton, was a magician as well as a Punch-and-Judy man, so I’m sure he’d have been amused to see me sawing people in half!
‘I’ve also fathered the Antichrist in two big horror prequels. I was the Jackal in The First Omen, bringing little Damien into the world, and then Satan himself in the Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A. I was astonished to see myself next to Julia Garner on the poster for that one! Given I’ve played Lucifer in the York Mystery Plays, that felt like a full- circle moment.”
As usual, the York run of Ghost Stories for Christmas is selling quickly, so James has strategic advice for securing tickets. “The best availability comes at the start of the run in late-November,” he says. “You can still secure a place for A Christmas Carol then. With tickets being only £16 each, this could be the perfect way to kick off your festive celebrations.
“I greatly look forward to gathering people together for some heart- warming storytelling. And I promise I won’t dress up as Satan!”
“The emotional power of Dickens’s prose strikes differently with each return of Ghost Stories for Christmas,” says James Swanton. Picture: Jtu Photography
Here James Swanton discusses his latest York and London runs of Ghost Stories for Christmas, his work with Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith and his Hollywood roles with CharlesHutchPress.
What draws you back to Dickens’s Christmas ghost stories each year and does each year bring new revelations and nuances to you?
“These annual performances remind me why I persist with acting at all. It’s restorative (and very rare) to feel you’re using every bit of yourself as an actor: full application of body and voice andmind and heart, with all the attendant fatigue. When you tether that to stories that people insist on hearing to the end, little proves more rewarding.
“And yes, the emotional power of Dickens’s prose strikes differently with each return. I’ve tinkered with my version of A Christmas Carol to include an episode that some audience members have told me they’ve missed in previous years. There’s one sentence there that brings a lump to my throat.
What makes York Medical Society such a suitable setting? Describe the bigger performance space this time…
“It’s the lecture hall, in which I premiered Irving Undead (my one-man resurrection of Victorian thespian Henry Irving) back in 2019. What we lose of the wood- panelled room’s sequestered gloom, we gain in 19th-century opulence.
“The hall has a raised stage, a very responsive acoustic and appropriately theatrical curtains. There’s also a portrait of Henry Belcombe, a former York Medical Society president, who actually knew Charles Dickens. He’ll be interested in watching what’s going on, I’m sure.”
What will be the dates of your run at the Dickens Museum next month? Eighteen sell-outs already. You must be chuffed…
“Chuffed if not a little daunted! I’m there from December 10 to 23, in which time I’ll be giving 26 performances: a panto schedule! In total, I’m doing 40 live shows this Christmas season. Pray for me.
“What makes the enterprise sustainable at the Dickens Museum is the intimacy of the space – 30 people maximum – and the galvanising thrill of occupying a room in Dickens’s house. We share our back wall with Dickens’s front parlour. This makes me rather nervous of touching it mid-show.”
“In general, I think that ghosts serve as a form of collective wish fulfilment,” says James Swanton
The Signal-Man run sold out well in advance. How did it go? You are keen to do it again. When might you make that decision?
“I’ve got the York Ghost Merchants to thank for the sell-out, as they listed The Signal-Man (which I paired with The Trial For Murder) as a partner event for Ghost Week. Basking in their reflected light meant a shockingly high demand for tickets!
“In truth, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy performing those texts at all: they were hellish to memorise and maddeningly elusive in rehearsal; all variegated shades of grey rather than Dickens’s usual glorious Technicolor. But the paradox is that you agonise in private so you can fly in public. They turned out to be deeply stimulating narratives to relate and audiences were wonderfully attentive.
“I haven’t decided when to revive them, but I’m not restricted to one set time of year as I am with these Christmas ghost stories. This gives me greater flexibility, though they do suit the darker months…”
Do supernatural tales serve a broader purpose in understanding life?
“In general, I think that ghosts serve as a form of collective wish fulfilment: the idea that we can beat back death and go on persisting, in no matter how limited a form.
“Where Dickens’s Christmas ghost stories are concerned, spirits serve a more didactic purpose. They’re generally there to teach an important human lesson – and, in classic Victorian fashion, they do so by being completely bloody terrifying. Marley’s Ghost might be the purest such example.”
The devil’s work: James Swanton as Lucifer in The Mysteries After Dark in Shambles Market, York, in September 2018
You have played Lucifer in the York Mystery Plays in Shambles Market and now two Hollywood roles where you “father the Antichrist”. How do you sleep at night?!
“To misquote Shakespeare: ‘Hell is empty and all the devils are me’. I’ve never lost a wink of sleep over any of this stuff. Hard to feel threatened when you’re repeatedly the source of the threat!”
Where did you film your two Hollywood movies? Do you enjoy the film-making process? You must spend many hours in the make-up/wardrobe department!
“Despite being set in New York, Apartment 7A was shot entirely at London studios and locations, though I did have to lurch off to the Netherlands for a couple of make-up fittings.
“The First Omen was meanwhile shot in Rome – my hotel room was just a few streets from the Vatican! – but on that occasion, my make-up prep involved a 48-hour round-trip to Hollywood. It’s a realm quite as unreal as Billy Wilder and David Lynch warned us.
“I was there so fleetingly that I saw practically nothing: no HOLLYWOOD sign, no Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, no Universal Studios. Was I ever there at all? It was such an artificial dreamscape that I sometimes question it.
“Both were marathon make-up ordeals. It one day took them 12 hours to apply the full regalia for Apartment 7A, admittedly with a few pauses thrown in. On The First Omen, we averaged between seven and eight hours – about the time it takes to fly to Hollywood, now I think about it. My forty Dickens shows will be a breeze by comparison.”
James Swanton and Julia Garner in the poster for Apartment 7A. Picture: Paramount
When were The First Omen and Apartment 7A released? What did critics say of your performances?
“The First Omen showed in cinemas worldwide in April. It’s now up on Disney +. Apartment 7A came to Paramount Plus for Halloween. Being one small cog in a very big machine, I’m not sure that critics had much of anything to say about me. I don’t seek out their probabledisapproval!”
Inside No. 9 was very well received. How did your involvement – working with Reece Shearsmith – come about? Might there be opportunities for you to do so again or indeed with Mark Gatiss?
“I’d met Reece towards the end of 2023 when we both guested on a panel about the silent horror film Häxan at the Regent Street Cinema in London. Given his decades-long friendship with Mark, Reece had also been aware of my work on the BBC’s Lot No. 249.
“I first got wind of the Inside No. 9 job when I got a text message from Michael Patrick, an extraordinary actor – he’s just played Richard III at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast – was was also shadowing on that final series.
“Reece had mentioned that he wanted me to play the Curse of the Ninth Symphony – and, in one of those strange coincidences, Michael knew me from our university days! A few weeks later, I was billowing about a country house in Victorian dress and picking off my more illustrious co-stars. Business as usual.
“I’d love to work with both Mark and Reece again, either together or separately! We horror-obsessed northerners should stick together.
“Actually, I’ve done another panel with Reece since: a breakdown of our favourite vampire films for Hell Tor in Exeter, accompanied by horror expert Jonathan Rigby.”
James Swanton and Mark Gatiss in rehearsal together
Your late grandfather, Professor Walter Swanton, was a magician and a Punch-and-Judy man. Did you see him perform and did his performance style in any way rub off on you?
“It took me a long time to grasp it, but I almost certainly contracted the one-man show gene from him. One-man theatre is exactly what Punch and Judy is in miniature! He would carve and paint the heads of the puppets whilst my Grandma would make the costumes – another pleasing link, as she made me an awful lot of costumes as a child, generally to play some ghost or vampire.
“Grandad passed away in 2008, but I’ve been able to revisit his act via old family videos. This almost never happens in life, but he was actually better than I’d remembered: such a warm and expressive voice, with not a little of the jovial zaniness of his comedy hero Ken Dodd.”
How is your book on your horror acting heroes progressing?
“The bulk of the text is written! Thirteen highly involved chapters on thirteen different actors. I’m biding my time a bit with the publication, my thinking being that the more notoriety I build up in my own horror work, the easier it’ll be to shift copies. But it will see the light!”
Any news on what’s coming up for you in 2025?
“Absolutely none, I’m afraid. I keep putting it out into the universe that I’m desperate to play Richard III – and given my Yorkshire roots, and my very real spinal kyphosis [a spinal deformity that causes an excessive curvature of the upper spine, making the back appear more rounded or hunched] , and my wraparound spookiness, I’d hope it would only be a matter of time. And wouldn’t the Minster make a great location? Let me dream!”
James Swanton’s Ghost Stories for Christmas run from November 25 to December 5 at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York. A Christmas Carol will be performed on November 25, 26 and 27 and December 2, 3 and 4; The Chimes on November 28; The Haunted Man on December 5. All performances start at 7pm and last approximately one hour. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
James Swanton: Ghost Stories for Christmas returns to York Medical Society
GOTHIC York York actor James Swanton is reviving his Dickensian Ghost Stories for Christmas trilogy at York Medical Society, Stonegate, from tomorrow.
Soon to appear in the BBC Christmas ghost story Lot No. 249 too, he will be presenting hour-long solo renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, before transferring to the Charles Dickens Museum, located at the author’s only London home to survive, 48 Doughty Street.
“I’m starting and finishing my run in York a little earlier than usual,” says James. “Mainly because there’s been such demand for the shows in London, 21 shows there from December 13 to 23, so the York run of ten feels fairly relaxed by comparison.
“York’s winding alleyways and tumbledown buildings are so beautifully suited to Dickens that it would have been inconceivable to strike it from my schedule. There really couldn’t be a more fitting venue than York Medical Society.
“Accordingly, I’ll be giving six performances of A Christmas Carol – you can never have too much of it, particularly with this year being its 180th anniversary – and two showings apiece of The Chimes and The Haunted Man, both lesser known but fascinating follow-ups.”
All three stories are richly rewarding, says James: “They brim with Dickens’s eye for capturing the weird, the strange and the odd, from human eccentricities to full-blown phantoms. Dickens’s anger at social injustice also aligns sharply with our own – and of course, there’s a lot to be angry about at the moment.
James Swanton in The Haunted Man. Picture: Alex Hyndman
“But beyond anything, these stories are masterful exercises in theatrical storytelling, with a real sense of joy emerging from the Victorian gloom.”
When did James first encounter A Christmas Carol? “I have a feeling that my first exposure was watching the rather exquisite Richard Williams animation from 1971, though I have no way of proving this. A particularly frightening Marley in that one,” he says. “The Muppet masterpiece won’t have been far behind. Two particularly musical Marleys in that one.”
Picking a favourite screen version of A Christmas Carol, James plumps for: “Alastair Sim’s Scrooge from 1951. The screenplay’s unusually sophisticated – and has the hubris to invent reams of credible Dickens! – but Sim himself is the reason it’s a cut above, because he was primarily a comic actor (and a comic actor of genius).
“It’s tempting to get an ageing Shakespearean titan to play Scrooge, but I think this misses the point of Scrooge, who’s hilarious even at his most wicked. He’s not King Lear – except to character actors!
“In more recent years, the one-man films starring Simon Callow and Jefferson Mays have thoroughly gripped me.”
Assessing why Dickens’s story still so popular after 180 Christmases, James says: “It’s that fool-proof structure that’s protected the material across constant (indeed, ongoing) reinterpretations. Provided you stick with the basic five acts – Past, Present and Yet To Come, as bordered by Scrooge’s before and after – you can play around with the details.
“York’s winding alleyways and tumbledown buildings are so beautifully suited to Dickens that it would have been inconceivable to strike it from my schedule,” says James Swanton. Picture: Jtu Photography
“For all their merits, both The Chimes and The Haunted Man lose their hold on the memory by this structure’s omission.”
Since last December’s run of Ghost Stories for Christmas, James has been hard at work on various filming jobs. “It’s been my year for Christmas ghost stories!” he says. “At the start of 2023, I made two short films, The Dead Of Winter and To Fire You Come At Last, that were indebted to the BBC’s legendary M. R. James adaptations from the 1970s.
“The Dead Of Winter was done in Farnham in January. I’m playing a rough sleeper who becomes a ghostly form of embodied conscience. To Fire You Come At Last was filmed in the wilds of Shropshire in March. I play an alcohol-ravaged wastrel who – along with three equally reluctant men – must carry the coffin of the Squire’s son down the corpse road to the graveyard.
“It’s in black and white and feels like something out of [Samuel] Beckett; the best part I’ve had in years. Both films have been doing the festival rounds, and I know that at least one of them will be getting a physical release before too long.”
A few months ago, League Of Gentlemen alumnus Mark Gatiss asked James to play the ghost in Lot No. 249, his retelling of an Arthur Conan Doyle short story, as part of a cast led by Kit Harington and Freddie Fox.
Television viewers will see James as what the BBC press release calls a “horrifying bag of bones”. Although the precise broadcast time is still to be announced, “this BBC Ghost Story for Christmas coincides very nicely with my ongoing commitment to Dickens’s slightly earlier Victorian Gothic,” says James. “Based on the past few years, I suspect it’ll go out on either December 23 or Christmas Eve itself.
James Swanton, left, and Mark Gattis rehearsing The Quatermass Experiment. Picture: Sonia Sanchez Lopez
“Obsessed with the Gothic as I am, it was a dream fulfilled to become a part of this great tradition. I’d just performed with Gatiss in a stage production of The Quatermass Experiment. He’s steeped in Conan Doyle, and his adaptation is at once gratifyingly faithful and wickedly surprising.
“I’m encased in particularly ghoulish make-up by Dave Elsey, who won the Oscar for The Wolfman. And I do the most dreadful things to Kit Harington! I’m tremendously excited about it all.”
James points out further opportunities to see him at work this Christmas. “As well as Lot No. 249, my one-man film of The Haunted Man will be streamed by the Dickens Museum again on December 11,” he says. “And my on-and-off colleagues, the York Ghost Merchants, in Shambles, might have a few announcements of their own to come.”
More immediately, James has strategic advice for securing tickets for Ghost Stories for Christmas. “Early on is best. Most of my A Christmas Carol showings are crammed into the first week, and there are seats left for all of them,” he says.
“For reasons that remain unclear, November 30 has been a conspicuously slow seller, so I’ll be gladdened if people book for that! The second performances of both The Chimes and The Haunted Man have all but sold out (as of this moment, a single seat remains for each), but tickets can be procured for their first outings.
“With tickets being only £15 each, this could be the perfect way to kick off your festive celebrations. In any case, I look forward to gathering people together for some heart-warming storytelling: traditional to the bones, but speaking to us just as powerfully as it did 180 years ago.”
What’s coming up for James in 2024? “So far, absolutely nothing!” he says. “My tendency has always been to develop pre-show rather than post-show blues, though, so I don’t find this too daunting. I’ll be glad of a slight rest, and perhaps a chance to read Victorian literature instead of act it.”
James Swanton presents Ghost Stories for Christmas at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York: A Christmas Carol, November 27, 28 and 30, then December 1, 5 and 6; The Haunted Man, November 29 and December 7; The Chimes, December 4 and 11. All performances start at 7pm and last approximately one hour. Box office: 01904 623568 or www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
James Swanton: “Old-fashioned storytelling in a suitably atmospheric space”. Picture: Jtu Photography
AFTER the silent nights of last December, York gothic actor supreme James Swanton is gleefully reviving his Ghost Stories For Christmas trilogy at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York.
“What an enormous relief it is to return to live theatre,” says this former winner of the Outstanding Performing Artist prize in the now dormant York Culture Awards as he prepares for his Dickensian yarn-spinning residency on various dates from December 2 to 13.
Once more, he will be the black-clad, spindle-fingered gatekeeper for all manner of supernatural terrors after memorising three hours of wintery material for his “seasonal roulette of three Dickensian tales”.
Ghost Stories For Christmas comprises James’s solo renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, returning to life anew in York before transferring to the Charles Dickens Museum, in Doughty Street, London, in the run-up to Christmas.
James’s past Dickensian theatre work has met with the approval of notable fellow thesps Simon Callow and Miriam Margolyes, the former describing his West End show Sikes & Nancy as “startling and enthralling”; the latter finding his 2017 performances at the Dickens Museum “extraordinary”, “superb” and “pictorially vivid”.
‘I’m delighted to finally be getting back to live theatre in my home city of York, where it’s hard to imagine a more authentically Dickensian location than the York Medical Society on Stonegate,” says James.
“This year, I’ve scheduled extra performances of A Christmas Carol: the perfect cheering antidote, I feel, to the misery we’ve all been through over the past few years.
“But the two lesser-known stories, The Chimes and The Haunted Man, are also very relevant to our times. The Chimes is absolutely hilarious, but also overbrims with anger at the injustices done to the most unfortunate in society. And The Haunted Man is not only a chilling supernatural tale, but a portrait of a man wrestling with his mental health. These subjects have been much on our minds through the pandemic.”
James judges A Christmas Carol to be “one of the greatest things ever written”. “I’ve found there’s nothing more satisfying to perform as an actor. And there’s no story that audiences are more eager to hear to the end,” he reasons.
As in 2018 and 2019, Ghost Stories For Christmas is selling quickly. “I was shocked 36 hours ago to find that we’d sold 80 per cent of the seats – I think because York Theatre Royal put us in their email newsletter – so I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re completely sold out in the next few days,” says James.
“I’m hoping – if I give the shows next year – to do them at fuller capacity over a longer period. We’re up to seven nights this year, but I wonder if we might build on even that when we get to (I hope) post-pandemic times. Perhaps a bigger venue is something to look into too.”
James Swanton presents Ghost Stories For Christmas, by Charles Dickens, at York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, December 2 to 13. A Christmas Carol: December 2, 3, 6, 7 and 13. The Haunted Man: December 4. The Chimes, December 9. All performances start at 7pm and last approximately one hour. To book, make haste to the York Theatre Royal box office, ring 01904 623568 or head online to yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“It’s ironic that the Victorian Christmas has come to stand for a fairytale vision of an idyllic past,” says James Swanton. Picture: Jtu Phoography
Ahead of his Dickens of a theatrical task in York, James Swanton answers CharlesHutchPress’s questions.
What form do your three shows take: a reading or rather more than that in each one-man show?
“I’m happy to say that these are fully fledged dramatisations rather than Jackanory-style readings. It is quite the Labour of Hercules: 180 minutes of text to memorise to cover the three one-hour readings! But it’s worth it to ensure these pieces are truly alive. My abridgements are closely based on Dickens’s own performance scripts, so their faith to their sources is absolute.”
Will you use a similar performance style for each tale?
“This is old-fashioned storytelling in a suitably atmospheric space. I’m hoping to use every physical and vocal trick in my repertoire to make the audience see Dickens’s pictures as clearly as I do myself.”
What are the storylines in The Chimes and The Haunted Man?
“Just like A Christmas Carol, these lesser-known works hinge on disenchanted older men who must encounter the supernatural to change for the better. The Chimes is the exuberant tale of a lowly ticket-porter who finds goblins squatting in the bells of his local church.
“Meanwhile, The Haunted Man is a Gothic chiller about a chemist who hatches a bargain with his ghostly double to remove all of his sorrowful memories.”
What have you been up to since you were last to be spotted on a York stage pre-Covid’s grim clasp?
“Continuing my supernatural association, I’ve just been back on a southern stage, thanks to the London Horror Festival, with a very delayed revival of Irving Undead – a production that of course originated at York Medical Society.
“I’ve maintained the home connection by livestreaming M. R. James and Dickens ghost stories with the wonderful York Ghost Merchants throughout the pandemic, from their premises on Shambles to a global audience.
“People would tune in from the most astonishingly far-flung places: various different states in America, Canada, Australia! It was touching to know that people were coming together to share a moment in the middle of the pandemic.’
“And I’ve bashed out horror film after horror film, including the phenomenally popular Host, in which I make the cameo of the century – to absolutely nobody’s surprise – as the demonic spirit who crashes the Zoom call. Business as (un)usual.”
How did you make the Zoom-set Host under Covid conditions?
“The actors shot it at home on their mobile phones during the first lockdown. I struggle to think of any other feature film that’s been partly shot in Acomb – never mind one that went on to reach a global audience.
“Stephen King said he enjoyed it, which was a bit of a thrill, and it was heralded by many critics as the defining horror film of 2020.”
Does the miserable impact of Covid-19’s lockdowns and its refusal to die a death gracefully put the telling of ghost stories in a different light this Christmas?
“I’m sure it does. These tales are all rather death-obsessed beneath their jollier garnishings, though perhaps it’ll make us more inclined to go to these stories for escapism now.
“We only have a very, very little time to get life right; to leave this world fractionally better than when we entered it,” says James Swanton. Picture: Jtu Photography
“It’s ironic that the Victorian Christmas has come to stand for a fairytale vision of an idyllic past. Dickens was under no such illusions: The Chimes is especially furious – an unhinged rant in places – though A Christmas Carol isn’t far behind.”
How will the theatre-going experience at York Medical Society differ from the 2019 production? Masks on? Social distancing?
“To keep everyone safe in these uncertain times, it’s primarily been a matter of reducing capacity to give audiences that vital breathing space, so we’re on course for a sell-out much earlier than usual.
“The dividend is that this should guarantee an even more intimate and special experience for those who are able to secure a ticket. But they better rush!”
What makes York Medical Society such a good setting for your performances?
“It’s a building that feels properly immersive: travelling down that alley to the door with the knocker feels like an approach to Scrooge’s house on that fatal night when Jacob Marley’s face put in an appearance.
“I’ve also been pleased to discover that Henry Belcombe, the second president of York Medical Society, was a social acquaintance of Charles Dickens.”
Were you tempted to look at doing any new additions to your Dickens’ Christmas repertoire? Might that happen in future?
“I think the present three work rather well in concert, each one shedding light on the others. Dickens’s other Christmas books can be terribly twee; I did all five at the Dickens Museum in 2017, and Michael Slater (our foremost Dickens scholar) came to The Battle Of Life on the basis that he couldn’t believe anyone had been mad enough to attempt it.
“Of Dickens’s spookier stories, I last year had a crack at The Signal-Man with the York Ghost Merchants – but a less Christmassy tale can hardly be imagined!”
As a performer, what changes when you revisit material you have performed previously? Do you tweak the text at all?
“The material changes as I change; little details leap out or recede every year. For instance, I’ve this time been struck by how Scrooge, like almost all people who pride themselves on ice-cold rationality, turns out to be a being of emotion beyond anything. He bursts into tears at the drop of a hat throughout his story.
“More practically, the text of The Haunted Man has been in a state of flux from the word go. It’s the only one of the three that Dickens didn’t perform himself – he started preparing a script before abandoning it – so I’m determined to one day crack it.”
What can we learn as a modern society from social reformist Dickens’s ideal of a good Christmas?
“Focus on your family. The Christmas dinner served up by the Cratchits is impoverished indeed, but their delight in each other’s company makes it into a feast.
“But Dickens also means us to acknowledge the entire human family. We are all of us connected and we only have a very, very little time to get life right; to leave this world fractionally better than when we entered it.”
A teaser for a Word Map of York, the next project for O+M Snowhome and artist Alison Hardcastle, pending Kickstarter funding
MATT and Helen Harris are launching a new project tomorrow to create a Word Map of York at O+M Snowhome, Gillygate, York.
“Snowhome’s previous owner, Angus McArthur, developed the first Word Map – of the British Isles – ten years ago with Yorkshire artist Alison Hardcastle,” says Helen. “Ten years on, there’s been a Word Map of London and even one of the USA, but never one of York.
“Having spent a lot of time exploring the city over the past 18 months, we felt it was the right time to celebrate all the city has to offer with a Word Map of York. So, we’re setting up a £3,000 Kickstarter campaign from tomorrow (22/9/2021) to crowdfund to allow us to commission Alison to create the artwork and bring the maps to life.”
Independent design store Snowhome was founded in 2001 by artist and printmaker Angus McArthur, after he moved to York from London, and was transformed into O+M Snowhome by Matt and Helen in July 2020 once Angus decided to focus on York Ghost Merchants in Shambles.
“O+M Snowhome has a long tradition of creativity and collaboration and its popular Word Map series is a firm favourite among customers visiting the lifestyle store,” says Helen.
“As the shop celebrates its 20th birthday, at a point in our lives when many of us have been staying at home more than we could have ever imagined, we’ve decided it’s time to celebrate the city with a Word Map of York.”
Matt says: “Like many people, we’ve spent much of the past 18 months exploring the place we call home. Those daily walks took us on new routes and found us making unexpected discoveries, creating a new-found appreciation and gratitude for the city we live in.
Mapped out: Alison Hardcastle at work creating her Word Map of London
“We were very aware of York’s rich history and well-known sites, but what we also discovered were the natural spaces, community links and little-known facts that, like so many places people call home, all combine to sum up the spirit of the city.”
After researching the city and gathering recommendations, Matt and Helen now have more than 200 possible entries to form the content for a new Word Map of York, created once again with Alison Hardcastle.
As with the others in the series, the map will comprise word entries hand-drawn by Alison to form the mapped shape of the city, creating a unique typographic artwork that celebrates the people, creations, events, culinary delights, fun facts and much more, all linked with the city.
“At a time when many of us are enjoying the chance to explore new places once again, we hope the map will serve to share York’s hidden gems with locals and visitors to the city alike,” says Helen.
Artist Alison is no less excited at the prospect of returning to the Word Map family. “Spending time hand-lettering the entries to form the artwork is always so therapeutic and I can’t wait to see how we can create a map that really celebrates the unique character of York,” she says.
Tomorrow’s launch of the Kickstarter campaign will seek to crowdfund the money to enable Matt and Helen to commission Alison to create the artwork exclusively for the shop and bring it to life in their next run of Word Map prints.
Like all Kickstarter campaigns, the project will need to raise its full funding goal to go ahead. To achieve their £3,000 target, the couple have created a range of options from single greetings cards to an opportunity to own the first copies of the map print.
Helen and Matt Harris in the doorway of O+M Snowhome, in Gillygate, York
“As a special thank-you to anyone able to help make the map a reality, backers to the campaign will be able to enjoy early bird offers on the finished art prints, access to an exclusive 20th birthday colourway, plus the chance to own one of ten unique screen-prints of the finished map, which will include a bespoke entry of the backer’s choice, each hand printed, signed and numbered by Alison in her studio,” says Matt.
As Matt and Helen want to share the benefits of the project, they look forward to continuing the long-standing relationships with Alison and printers Wood Richardson in bringing the maps to life.
“It’s been an economically tough time for many, so it’s especially important to us that if the project can go ahead, it helps to fire opportunities for other creatives and businesses,” says Matt.
“If the campaign is successful and the project can go ahead, the maps will all be ready for backers to receive in time for the Christmas gift season in December. The Kickstarter campaign launches on September 22 with some early bird offers until midnight on September 26. The campaign will end at midnight on October 7.”
To find out more about the Word Map of York Kickstarter campaign, go to snow-home.co.uk/awordmapofyork or visit their Kickstarter page at kickstarter.com/projects/wordmapofyork/york-word-map-a-city-celebration.
The story behind O+M
HUSBAND and wife team Matt and Helen Harris took over ownership of long-standing York contemporary design shop Snowhome in July 2020 from its founder Angus McArthur.
“O+M Snowhome was born as we brought the offer from own own homewares and lifestyle shop, Owl & Monkey, in Heslington Road, to Snowhome, bringing together the shared values of creativity, collaboration, innovation and inspiration, where quality, good design and fairness were at the heart of the range and independent retail experience,” they say.
THE York Ghost Merchants, at No. 6, Shambles, York, will
hold their inaugural storytelling evening on March 1, hosted by the ghoulish
James Swanton.
At 6pm (sold out), 7pm and 8pm, he will read M R James’s ghost story Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book, written in 1894 and published in his first collection, Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary Of 1904.
In James’s story, a scholar travels to a small French town for a kind of working vacation and there he discovers a small, rather dissolute old cathedral. On entering, he meets with the sacristan, who guides him around.
Eventually, they make their way to the church library where
the sacristan shows him all sorts of old and antiquarian books that peak the
scholar’s interest. One in particular, the sacristan seems especially eager to
show off.
The York Ghost Merchants: “the world’s first spook shop”, set up by David Bloodworth and Snowhome’s Angus McArthur
The scholar is captivated by the book, the personal scrapbook of one Canon Alberic, and duly offers to buy it. The sacristan sells it to him for a pittance and his desperation to release it from his possession is palpable.
On his way out, the scholar is given another gift, a
crucifix, by the sacristan’s daughter, who insists he takes it free of charge.
Later that same night, as the scholar is studying his new-found
treasure, he encounters a page with a disturbing illustration that is central
to the story’s suspenseful narrative.
Actor, writer and storyteller James Swanton was born in York, the ghost-infested city that informed his lifelong passion for the macabre. Winner of the 2018 York Culture Award for Outstanding Performing Artist, he has been described as “remarkable” by Simon Callow, as “extraordinary” by Miriam Margolyes and as a “horror star of the future” by Kim Newman.
Gateway to the ghoulish: James Swanton on the ghostly streets of York
Whether playing Dracula or Lucifer in The York Mystery Plays
in the Shambles Market or performing his one-man shows Irving Undead and Charles
Dickens’s winter stories at York Medical Society, Stonegate, he continues to
drive his critics to raid their Thesaurus. In times past, they have dismissed
him as “a tattily dressed raven”; “a young Boris Karloff”; “positively stunning
in his grotesqueness” and “lanky”.
The £25 ticket price includes the 45-minute storytelling session
and a limited-edition Canon Alberic ghost. Please note, these ghosts are
available only to those attending the event and not without the ticket.
“Use the word COLLECT at checkout if you would like to
collect your ghost and ticket, rather than having them posted to you,” says
Angus McArthur, of The York Ghost Merchants.
Tickets can be booked at yorkghostmerchants.com or on 01904 896545. Opening hours for The York Ghost Merchants, sited in the former Via Vecchia and Pinder and Scott’s bakery shop, are Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5.30pm-ish, and Sundays, 11am to 5pm-ish.
