stratus_phere Shows like this are hard to find. When we do find them they are too often cheesy and ridiculous. The Secret of Crickley Hall is anything but. This was a wonderful show about an old house in the north of England. It takes place both in modern times and in 1943.After having their son go missing, a family moves to this old estate for a few months hoping to deal with their loss. Unfortunately, the house has a lot of secrets of its own...secrets that need to come out.Shows like this should be made more often. This was atmospheric - especially the first episode - it was tragic and haunting, and it was emotional. Anytime you have ghostly goings-on in an large, old, creepy house in England, you know you're heading in the right direction.This is an actual ghost story, but it's very well done. It's not cheesy, it's not hokey. It allows you to meld into the story, you feel their pain and frustration as well as their emotional rollercoaster dealing not only with their missing son but the tragedies of the past that they begin to uncover.I wish there were more shows like this. Ignore the bad reviews, they probably come from people who read the book and think this isn't a perfect representation. Fortunately, I haven't yet read the book so my viewpoint isn't tainted.

Michael Ledo This is a BBC made for TV mini series. It is a heart felt ghost story. Cam (Elliot Kerley) and his mom Eve (Suranne Jones) have a special relationship in that they share dreams and sometimes thoughts. Eleven months after Cam goes missing the family goes on a retreat to remote Crickley Hall, an old large home that was used as an orphanage for London orphans during WWII.The house if filled with the ghosts of children and the graveyard shows us many died in 1943. The film smartly moves between a plot and subplot that takes place in 1943. It is a slow burner, but keeps you engaged. It is not a scary ghost story. No real horror

Carole Wahlers I have not read the book, but did see in reviews that the little daughter is named Callie. The family name is Caleigh. Is there a reason for that repeated name?I liked the series, but I also thought it was a bit improbable--maybe that's what the genre calls for. I did appreciate that the parents were supportive of each other after losing a child. Also, why did they show the little boy being carried off and, at the conclusion, learn that he drowned. There was no real resolution that he was abducted and who did this. While I am complaining, the rescue scene with the father running all over the place did create tension, but it was quite over the top, I thought.

HallmarkMovieBuff The Secret of Crickley HallThis ghost story from beyond the pond toggles regularly and frequently, without notice, across the pale between Then and Now. (Mixed idioms are intentional.) Then is at a private orphanage in 1943 Devon, at a time when children were bused from London to escape The Blitz. Primeval's Douglas Henshall plays the evil headmaster. We start out, however, in the Now. Mother ("Eve Caleigh", played by Suranne Jones) and her five-year old Son have a special, even psychic, connection. Son disappears from the playground when Mother falls momentarily asleep. Mother is disconsolate for months thereafter. Approaching the one-year anniversary of Son's disappearance, Father ("Gabe Caleigh", played by Tom Ellis) gets a job out west (in the aforementioned Devon of the novel), and the family takes the opportunity to move, in hopes of escaping the sad memories at home. The house they choose is the now-abandoned orphanage of Then; and Now, of course, it's haunted…by ghosts of children and staff who died in a long-ago "flood". (The couple have two other children, both girls, one preschool; and the school bus which collects the older one for classes is labeled, "Manchester", per the location of filming.) Once ensconced in the haunted house, Mother finds and reassembles a screw-driven toy top – like one I had as a child, but mine was less fancy than the one used here – and she uses it to reconnect psychically with her lost son, believing him to be still alive. From here, she employs extraordinary means to find him, beset all the while by Henshall's haunting. This U.K. miniseries is an enjoyable Halloween treat, and I was happy to be able to watch the entire thing as a three-hour TV movie on BBC America the day before its scheduled U.K. broadcast. (Note: This review is dated October 29 in my files, indicating the original scheduled airing in the U.K. It was not yet available for voting on IMDb then, hence my tardiness in submitting this review. December dates on previous reviews suggest that the U.K. presentation may have been delayed a month beyond the original scheduling.)