Whistle and I'll Come to You (2010 film)

Whistle and I'll Come to You is a short film which is part of the British supernatural anthology series A Ghost Story for Christmas. Written by Neil Cross, produced by Claire Armspach, and directed by Andy De Emmony, it is based on the ghost story of the same name by M. R. James, first published in the collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), and first aired on BBC Two on 24 December 2010. At 52 minutes it is the longest entry in the series' history.

It stars John Hurt as James Parkin, an introverted academic who goes on a respite holiday after leaving his wife Alice (Gemma Jones), who is in the advanced stages of dementia, in a care home. When he finds a wedding ring on a beach, he starts to be haunted by a mysterious spectre.

It is the second major adaptation of James' story, following the 1968 version directed by Jonathan Miller for the BBC documentary strand Omnibus, which directly inspired Lawrence Gordon Clark to create A Ghost Story for Christmas in 1971. This version significantly changes the story of both the short story and the earlier film, replacing the whistle found in a Knights Templar cemetery on the East Anglian coast with a wedding ring, but hints at Robert Burns' original Scottish folk song "Oh, whistle and I'll come to you, my lad", which Hurt's character recites at the beginning of the story to his wife and is played over the end credits.

It received mixed reviews from critics and audiences for the deviations from earlier versions of the story, though John Hurt's performance was widely praised.