Landscape, season and identity in Ghost Story for Christmas

The BBC Ghost Story for Christmas used the English landscape in which it was set to engage with a series of associations of national identity, as well as to enhance the feeling of isolation experienced by the protagonists. This was further enhanced by the representation of the seasons within these productions, which typically emphasised an autumnal landscape. This suggested a liminal period, neither summer nor winter, and one which presented environments of rustling vegetation and trees through which supernatural figures may be glimpsed or heard approaching. While the Ghost Story for Christmas is by no means alone in using these environments and associations, the importance of their presentation of landscape to their identity has been recognised by reviewers, with the presentation itself emphasising the narratives’ disruption of any sense of naturalness and certainty to narratives of human, English history and so identity.