TV PARTY: THE BOX OF DELIGHTS

THE BOX OF DELIGHTS is a glorious outbreak of occult Christmas delirium from the era when British children’s television took seriously its responsibility to make you see things you could never explain to another person. A schoolboy heads home for the holidays, accepts a magical box from Patrick Troughton, and tumbles into a conspiracy involving werewolf clergymen and a sorcerer whose approach to Christmas includes mass kidnapping. There are rat people. There is a talking mechanical head. Somewhere in this escalating supernatural emergency, a little girl remains admirably committed to firearms.

Adapted from John Masefield’s novel, this six-part BBC marvel puts the full resources of public broadcasting at the disposal of a profoundly ungovernable imagination. Actors step into paintings. Pagan gods roam the woods. Video effects tear holes in the English countryside while Robert Stephens, as the diabolical Abner Brown, delivers every threat with enough venom to poison the village water supply. And somehow, through all this magnificent derangement, it remains almost unbearably cozy. The snowy landscapes are enchanting; the music could make you nostalgic for a childhood you never had. It understands that the best Christmas magic is a little dangerous, and that a door into another world should actually take you somewhere strange. Come spend the holidays where the carols are beautiful and the enormous mouse has gone ice-skating.