Lot No. 249: Kit Harington to star in Mark Gattis’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation

Telling ghost stories was a Christmas tradition in Victorian England, and in recent years author / actor / playwright Mark Gatiss – who has been a Doctor Who writer and co-created Sherlock with Steven Moffat – has been paying tribute to that tradition by directing ghost stories for the BBC to air at Christmastime. This year is no different, as The Hollywood Reporter breaks the news that Kit Harington of Game of Thrones and Eternals has signed on to star in Gatiss’s latest Christmas chiller, the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation Lot No. 249.

Freddie Fox (The Great) joins Harington in Lot No. 249, which centers on a group of Oxford students, one of whom undertakes research into the secrets of Ancient Egypt which become the talk of the college. Can these experiments truly breathe life to the horrifying bag of bones which is the mysterious Lot. No 249?

Gatiss provided the following statement: “It’s a serious delight for me to delve once again into the brilliant work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this time for the Christmas Ghost story. Lot No.249 is personal favourite and is the grand-daddy (or should that be Mummy?) of a particular kind of end of Empire chiller: a ripping yarn packed with ghastly scares and who-knows-what lurking in the Victorian closet…“

Horror fans have previously seen Lot No. 249 brought to the screen in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie. John Harrison directed that version of the story, scripted by Michael McDowell. It starred Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and Christian Slater.

Gatiss’s Lot No. 249 is being produced by Adorable Media for BBC Arts and will air on BBC Two this Christmas. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, “A U.S. distributor has not yet been named.”

I like the idea of having a sort of “second Halloween” by telling ghost stories at Christmas, and Lot No. 249 is fine, creepy story to bring to the screen for the occasion. I enjoyed the version of the story that was told in the Tales from the Darkside movie, and I look forward to seeing how this one is going to turn out.

Are you a fan of anyone attached to this project (Mark Gatiss, Kit Harington, Freddie Fox)? Would you be interested in watching a TV adaptation of Lot No. 249 at Christmastime? Let us know by leaving a comment below.