The Canterville Ghost

The first thing the American family see when they step into their new British mansion is the bloodstain in the sitting room. As it turns out, they have moved into an already occupied house, and their new roommate is a proud ghost determined to terrify them to death. But things do not go as planned for the poor ghost. The more he tries to scare the Otis family, the more they make fun of and ignore him. Clever from start to finish, Oscar Wilde's `The Canterville Ghost' (1887) is charming and engaging. It has been adapted to the screen many times, and 1996 saw Patrick Stewart as the ghost Sir Simon de Canterville.