The BBC has announced that Happy Valley star Joe Armstrong will appear in its latest Ghost Story for Christmas, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Brides Chamber. He joins Martin Freeman and Jim Broadbent in the festive special, which is written by Mark Gatiss.
A dark Dickens tale set in 1858
The story, described as one of Dickens' darkest, is set in 1858 and follows a peculiar landlord of an unnamed inn and a solitary traveller with an oddly recognisable appearance. When the traveller retires to his room for the evening, he receives a visit from an eerie figure dressed in black, who has a tale to share.
Initial images released by the BBC show Martin Freeman almost entirely transformed, sporting unruly grey locks and a matching lengthy beard. The images were shared on the BBC's Instagram, where viewers expressed their excitement. One person wrote: "NO WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! I'm so excited." Another commented: "I look forward to these every year."
Cast and synopsis
Someone else said: "Cannot wait - a highlight of my year!" While a fourth added: "I bloomin love these and look forward to them every Christmas." As another said: "A Charles Dickens ghost story. I'm in."
Alongside Joe, Martin and Jim, the cast includes Adrian Scarborough, India Fowler and Lewis Shepherd. The synopsis for the festive special teases a tale of a 'vengeful' suitor who manipulates a young woman into marrying him to claim her fortune, but things take a turn when his murderous plans create his own purgatory.
More Dickens on the BBC
The Brides Chamber is the most recent supernatural short story adapted by Mark Gatiss, who previously delivered the 2025 special The Room in the Tower, Woman of Stone in 2024 and Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot No. 249 in 2023.
This is not the only Dickens-themed offering for BBC viewers. There is also a three-part documentary exploring how the writer found creative inspiration wandering the streets of Victorian London after nightfall, and a fresh four-part dramatisation of his classic novel, A Tale Of Two Cities, featuring Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington.
The synopsis for A Tale Of Two Cities reads: "London, 1782. Tensions run high in the war between France and Britain. A young woman, Lucie Manette (Mirren Mack) has her life upended when she receives a message from Paris - her father, assumed dead for almost 20 years, may be alive. The messenger - idealistic French emigré, Charles Darnay (François Civil) - is arrested and charged with treason."
It continues: "Lucie enlists the help of a brilliant but erratic young lawyer, Sydney Carton (Kit Harington), to free Darnay in the hope he will lead her to Paris to track down her father. Lucie's collision with Darnay and Carton unleashes a powerful and complex love triangle. Both men fight to be worthy of her love, and Lucie is torn over which one to choose."
"Yet neither man - physically so alike, spiritually poles apart - can escape the other. Instead, they find themselves bound together in life and death, through triumphs, tragedies, marriage, and murder."
The Brides Chamber is set to air on the BBC later this year.
