Old house has ghost

Press, 14 March 1984, Page 14

Old house has ghost

Edward and Mary Boyne, two wealthy Americans, are eager to buy an old house in England — a house that has a ghost. But they reckon without a strange power that pursues them. Michael J. Shannon and Kate Harper star as Mr and Mrs Boyne in “Afterward,” the fourth episode of “Shades of Darkness,” screening on Two at 10 o’clock tonight. “Afterward,” a story by Edith Wharton, has been dramatised for television by Alfred Shaughnessy. The story is set in the Cotswolds in 1909. The Boynes are being shown around an empty Jacobean manor house. Edward Boyne has made a killing with some mining shares and wants to emigrate to England. He thinks the house would be a perfect place to write the book he is planning. “Is there a ghost at Lyng,” he asks? “Yes,” says Alida Stair, a mutual friend of the owner and Mary Boyne. “The people round here say there is a ghost but you’ll never know you’ve seen it until a long time afterward ... one just has to wait.” Far from putting them off, the answer makes the Boynes eager to buy.