It stars Mark Letheren as historian Dr. Fanshawe, who visits the residence of Squire Richards (Pip Torrens) in order to catalogue and value an archaeological collection.

He is lent a pair of binoculars which appear to show the ruins of a nearby abbey as they were when they were whole, and he soon discovers they belonged to a watchmaker named Baxter (Simon Linnell) who experimented with the bones of men hanged at a local gallows hill.

"A View from a Hill"" is the first episode of the 21st century revival, returning to the tradition of adapting James, and was the first instalment which didn't originally air on BBC One.

[1] The film opens with Dr Fanshawe, an historian, waiting at a railway station for a car to arrive to take him to the house of Squire Richards, where he is to catalogue and value an archaeological collection which is to be sold.

At dinner that evening Richards's butler, Patten, explains to Fanshawe how a local clockmaker called Baxter became obsessed with the old abbey and began going out at night to dig up the bones of the hanged men.

Hearing the water in the bathtub stop dripping, Fanshawe turns round, to be terrified by a shadowy figure lurking in the darkness wearing a skull mask.

Looking through the binoculars at the details of the abbey, he spots a figure lurking by one of the pillars, hears rustling and is knocked unconscious by an unseen attacker.

[4] "A View from a Hill" was first released on DVD in Australia in 2011 by Shock Entertainment as part of the box set The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R.

[6][7] In 2023 it was released on Blu-ray by the BFI alongside "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" (1974) "The Ash Tree" (1975), "The Signalman" (1976), "Stigma" (1977), "The Ice House" (1978), and "Number 13" as Ghost Stories for Christmas - Volume 2.