The 13th Tale

The photography, atmosphere and acting were great, but I agree with merlot - the plotline was silly.

I'm as confused as jingle with this! Both Adeline and Emmeline died in the fire didn't they? Someone please tell me where the third child came from.
But - having failed with the book a while ago, I did stick it out till the end, so I'm quite pleased with myself!

The third child was the brother's child by a woman he took up with when his sister Wasn't there. So she was a half sister to the other two.

HTH.

OK, I'll give it a go:

Adeline and Emmeline were twins - the result of an incestuous relationship between a brother and sister.

Adeline was nasty and Emmeline was nice but dim.

We assumed Venessa Redgrave was Adeline

Adeline liked to murder people and gets carted off to live with the mad doctor who is having an affair with the nanny/governess.

Emmeline had a baby. I can't remember who the father was.

The baby turned up as an adult with long hair and said something about liking the house. Didn't have a clue what that was all about but Olivia Coleman's character had a lightbulb moment and realised there must have been three children after all.

The third child who was also the product of the incestuous relationship suddenly appeared (in flashback) out of a garden shed.

Everybody, apart from the twins and younger sister end up dead.

Adeline tries to set fire to Emmeline's baby but the third sister who is really Vanessa Redgrave makes sure that Adeline goes up in flames instead.

Bones are found and dug up many years later so presumably they are the mad Adeline.

Emmeline dies of dementia.

Adeline dies of caner

Olivia Coleman goes home.

Work that out then!

I mean - thanks Merlot.

I think the dug-up bones were the mad uncle/father who 'went to Peru'. Mad homicidal Adeline died in the fire she started to kill Emmeline's baby. The younger girl (did we ever know her name?) who nobody knew about except the twins, the by then deceased Missus and the deceased gardener was mistaken for Adeline. I don't know who they thought the human remains in the fire were. The father of Emmeline's baby was the young gardener who popped up from nowhere and disappeared at some point. What happened to the doctor and the governess? What happened to the twins' mother? How many people did Adeline dispose of? I hope that's clearer to you than it is to me!

The twins' mother had been committed to an asylum when they were very young. But I still don't know what happened to Emmeline...

Wasn't the mad uncle their father and his body was found in the woods?

I think I've lost forgotten the plot already.

It seemed very cliche'd to me - the staring eyes, the red hair, the music, the spooky children. Yawn!

Just reading the autobiography of David Mitchell (comedian not writer) and he knew Olivia Coleman very well as they were in Footlights together. He tells how her acting talent stood out even then. They all called her "Collie." There is hilarious scene where they are playing a gig at a posh girls' school and they get the giggles to the point where Collie wets herself and the wee trickles down the stage and over the edge - it is very funny.

Yes. To merlot.

!!!! to Mishap.

Lilygran the doc and governess went away together after the doc's wife caught them kissing.

I think I'm getting it now.

THE most 'stand-out' programme on TV over Christmas for me. Love the combination of Olivia Coleman and Vanessa Redgrave it doesn't get better than that. Story was rivetting with the twist of the third child, it changed my view of the main character totally. I like dramas that are not predictable.

Thanks to jingle merlot and lilygran, it's all crystal clear now

Wasn't it Vanessa Redgrave's daughter who was killed in a skiing accident similar to Michael Schumacher's accident?

Re the accident, yes, we were thinking that.

Ps. I still don't know which one was scrabbling in the garden on her hands and knees, and why.

I think that it was Emmeline scrabbling in the Earth looking for her baby

BTW - what happened to the baby?

They gave it to a deserving, kind local woman - left it on her doorstep!

The baby grew up into that bloke with the long hair who said he liked living in the derelict house and would you believe it? Olivia Coleman knew exactly who he was.

I thought the baby was a girl...

Tegan the one in the library was The Tractate Middoth (is that the one you mean?) I was frightened and watched through fingers although I know it is nonsense as a "ghost story".

That's the one. I was ok with that one.

I watched The 13th Tale, the night after watching my recording of a ghost film called The Awakening I have rather confused the two of them.

Merlot you're right, the long-haired chap was Emmeline's baby - I was mistaken.

But I think Emmeline was the one who died in the fire - if she'd survived, surely she'd have wanted her baby? She was the more 'normal' twin after all...