Crooked House

Season

2008

UK

6.8

A ghost story about a cursed house. The cursed house - Geap Manor - weaves together three ghost stories set during Georgian times, the 1920s and the present day.

Episode List

S1 • E1

The Wainscoting

Ben, a young teacher, finds an antique door-knocker in his garden and takes it to the local museum, whose curator explains that it is from a Tudor mansion, now demolished, called Geap Manor, whose original owner, Sir Roger Widdowson, was accused of Satanism in his efforts to produce an heir but died childless. In the eighteenth century the house is bought by a greedy parvenu called Bloxham, who has made his money at the expense of others and is accused by his late business partner's widow of driving her husband to his death. Bloxham hears noises in the wainscoting of the house and believes that they are made by mice but the wood is, in fact, the same wood that was used to build the gallows at Tyburn in London, where criminals were hung, and Bloxham's actions have been criminal, and he will be made to pay for them.

S1 • E2

Something Old

The curator continues to tell Ben the history of Geap Manor. In 1927 Lady Constance de Momery attends the engagement party in the house of her grandson Felix to his lower class fiancee Ruth. Felix's former girl-friend Katherine is disapproving of Ruth, who believes that Katherine is the woman in a bridal gown who she sees kissing Felix. However, Lady Constance tells her that she is the ghost of a bride who committed suicide fifty years earlier, having found out that she had been betrayed by her groom and his lover. As a result she laid a curse on all weddings conducted at the manor, a curse that only Lady Constance can lift at great peril to herself.

S1 • E3

The Knocker

When the curator declines his gift of the knocker to the museum, Ben screws it to his own front door. Consequently he is woken in the night to find that he is, momentarily, in Geap Manor, witnessing Widdowson's rites, and realizes that his house is built on the site of the manor. He gets rid of the knocker and returns to the museum to find that it has been closed for some time and no-one has heard of the curator. The next night the knocker mysteriously re-appears, placing Ben and his pregnant girl-friend at the mercy of the ghost of the childless Widdowson.

S1 • E4

Omnibus

Ben Morris, a young teacher, finds an antique door-knocker in his garden and takes it to the local museum, where the curator tells him it belonged to Geap Manor, a Tudor mansion, now demolished, and whose original owner, Sir Roger Widdowson, was accused of Satanism in order to produce an heir, but still died childless. In 1786 the manor is bought by Joseph Bloxham, a greedy parvenu who has made his money at the expense of others and is accused by the widow of his late business partner of causing her husband's death. Bloxham believes that the noises he hears in the wainscoting of the rooms is made by mice and ignores his colleagues' warnings that he could be in danger. In fact the wainscoting is made from the same wood as the gallows at Tyburn, where criminals were hung, and Bloxham's actions have marked him as a criminal who must pay for his sins. In 1927 Lady Constance De Momery attends the engagement party at Geap Manor of her grand-son Felix to his lower-born fiancée Ruth. Felix's former sweetheart, Katherine, is also present and Ruth believes she is the girl in a bridal gown whom she sees kissing Felix. However it is the ghost of a bride from fifty years earlier who committed suicide after being betrayed by her groom and his lover and who laid a curse on all future weddings at the house, a curse only Lady Constance can remove. Having heard both stories Ben offers to donate the knocker to the museum but when the curator declines he screws it to his own front door. As a result he wakes in the night and witnesses Widdowson's rites and realizes that his house is built on Geap Manor. He gets rid of the knocker and returns to the museum to find that it has been closed for some weeks and that no-one has heard of the curator. Then, the knocker mysteriously re-appears, placing Ben and his pregnant girl-friend at the mercy of the ghost of the childless Widdowson.