Lost Hearts

Lost Hearts is a British television drama. It was shown in 1973 as the third episode of the A Ghost Story for Christmas tradition. It is adapted from the M. R. James novel Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. It stars Simon Gipps-Kent as a young, preteen orphan who is sent to live with his immortality-obsessed cousin.

Plot

The plot begins on a foggy day with young, preteen orphan Stephen in a carriage to go and live with his elderly cousin, Mr Abney. When there, he is greeted by his kindly, elderly housekeeper Mrs Bunch and his grouchy servant Parkes. While there, Stephen is followed by two mysterious children and snake-like hissing noises.

During his stay with Mr Abney, Stephen is haunted by the two ghostly children until one day when Parkes finds several scratch marks scarred into the wall and automatically accuses Stephen. However, Mr Abney knows full well that it was the two ghost children who did it. Mrs Bunch explains to Stephen the disappearance of the previous two children Mr Abney had taken into his home. The first being a girl who Mr Abney had met on the open road selling flowers. He called her "Phoebe" and adopted her. However, Phoebe soon disappeared without a trace. Mrs Bunch secretly suspects she had been abducted by gypsies since they were dancing around the house and laughing on the night of her disappearing day. The next being an Italian boy called Giavani with a hurdy-gurdy which he always used to play. The two children both just disappeared mysteriously with no trace and no evidence.

That night, the two ghost children sneak into the house. The boy plays his hurdy-gurdy, causing Stephen to sleepwalking into the kitchen where he wakes up and witnesses the girl sitting in the bathtub and the boy standing by the fireplace with the hurdy-gurdy playing on its own and the children covering their chests with their arms. However, when they move their arms away, they reveal they each have large, bloody, gashes in their chests with their ribcage showing. Stephen screams and Mrs Bunch and Mr Abney come rushing to the scene. Stephen shakingly tells them that they had no hearts but no one believes him. Mr Abney burns the hurdy-gurdy.

Several days later is Stephen's 12th birthday (on October 31/Halloween) and takes a piece of his birthday cake to Mr Abney. When down in the basement fetching wine, Parkes claims to have heard the ghostly hissing noises and reports to Mr Abney that there may be rats down there. Mr Abney meanwhile, claims to Stephen to be clairvoyant and offers to tell him his fortune at midnight.

At midnight, Mr Abney forces Stephen to drink a wine causing him to fall unconscious. It is then revealed that the immortality-obsessed Mr Abney killed the two children and stole their hearts and burned them to use the ashes in a potion that makes the drinker immortal and he plans to do the same to Stephen. However, just as he gets his knife ready, the two ghost children appear and grab the knife from him and knock him over, stabbing him in his own heart, finally taking revenge for killing them and preventing him from claiming a third victim.

The next day, Stephen, Mrs Bunch and Parkes attend Mr Abney's funeral at the churchyard. Outside the churchyard, Stephen sees the two ghost children waving to him and dancing away to the boy's hurdy-gurdy music, finally moving on to the afterlife.

Cast

Simon Gipps-Kent - Stephen

Joseph O'Conor - Mr Abney

James Mellor - Parkes

Susan Richards - Mrs Bunch

Christopher Davis - Boy/Giavani

Michelle Foster - Girl/Phoebe

Roger Milner - Vicar

Notes

Roger Milner, who played the vicar, previously played the antique shop owner in the previous A Ghost Story for Christmas episode "A Warning to the Curious".

Susan Richards, who played Mrs Bunch, was born on August 6 1898 and is currently 111 years old (she will turn 112 in August 2010). Simon Gipps-Kent, however, died in 1987 one month short of his 29th birthday.

The boy's hurdy-gurdy music is used as audio music for the entire film.