The BBC unveiled a first look at Martin Freeman’s dramatic transformation for its annual Ghost Story for Christmas festive special. Freeman will team up with Jim Broadbent and Happy Valley’s Joe Armstrong for The Bride’s Chamber, which will be the ninth edition of the TV tradition.
Teasing what fans can expect from this year’s Christmas viewing, the BBC revealed that the story will take place in 1858 in “an inn with no name”, and feature “an eccentric landlord and a lone traveller with a strangely familiar appearance”. It continues: “As he settles into his room for the night, the traveller is visited by an uncanny man in black, with a story to tell…”
Expanding on what the special will entail, the BBC said: “The Bride’s Chamber tells the tale of a spurned and vengeful suitor who manipulates a young woman and marries her to claim her fortune. But his murderous plans create his own purgatory…”
Adorable Media/Joe Duggan//BBC
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Adapted by Bookish’s Mark Gatiss from Charles Dickens’ original 1858 short story, The Bride’s Chamber is considered one of the writer’s darkest tales.
“I’m once more thrilled and honoured to bring another Ghost Story for Christmas to BBC Two,” said Gatiss. “It’s unusual to find a Dickens rarity but this is it! A weird and nasty little treasure which lurks within a work co-written with the great Wilkie Collins. A lonely inn, an incognito traveller and a ghastly tale of warped obsession. Merry Christmas!”
Gatiss’ The Bride’s Chamber is the latest supernatural short story to be adapted following EF Benson’s The Room in the Tower in 2025, E Nesbit’s Woman of Stone in 2024 and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lot No. 249 in 2023.
“The Ghost Story for Christmas has become an essential dish on the festive TV menu, for audiences who love nothing more than settling in for a spine-tingling tale on a winter’s night,” said the BBC’s Commissioning Editor for BBC Arts, Mark Bell.
He added: “This year we’re delighted to bring you this spooky story by Charles Dickens brilliantly adapted and directed by Mark Gatiss, with a great cast, to coincide with a range of further Dickens-inspired programming set to air across the BBC in December as part of the National Year of Reading.”
The series also stars Adrian Scarborough (Gavin & Stacey), India Fowler (The Agency) and Lewis Shepherd (Dear England).
Ghost Story for Christmas: The Bride’s Chamber will air in December 2026 on BBC Two.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.