Warning: contains spoilers for A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone.Each of the five short stories adapted by Mark Gatiss so far for the BBCs revived A Ghost Story for Christmas strand (M.R. James The Tractate Middoth, The Dead Room, Martins Close, The Mezzotint and Count Magnus, plus Arthur Conan Doyles Lot No. 249) retained their original titles on screen. This years doesnt. Gatiss has reshaped Edith Nesbits 1887 tale Man-Size in Marble under the new name Woman of Stone.Woman of stone? Nesbits ghost story famously features two men of stone marble effigies of medieval knights flanking the altar of the church in the village where Victorian newlyweds Jack and Lucy Lorimer (anna Hardwicke and Phoebe Horn) have recently taken a cottage. Once a year, as the Lorimers housekeeper relays, the knights are rumoured to rise from their slabs and walk to their former home, which once stood on the same site as the Lorimer cottage, and where many years ago, according to Mrs Dorman, there was many a deeds done.The only women in the story are flesh-and-blood Lucy and Mrs Dorman plus, in Gatiss reworking, Edith Nesbit herself. Played by Celia Imrie, two scenes show Nesbit on her deathbed in 1924 telling the grim tale to her doctor (Mawaan Rizwan). Who then, is the woman of stone? And what other changes did Gatiss make to Nesbits source material?Swapping Halloween for ChristmasIn the original tale, the marble knights rise from their church slabs at 11 o clock on All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. In Gatiss version, to fit the A Ghost Story for Christmas strand, the fearsome effigies go walkabout on the night of December 24 instead.Changing the Doctors NationalityIn Nesbits story, the doctor is an outsider in the small English village because hes an Irishman; in Gatiss version, the role is played by actor, writer and comic Mawaan Rizwan, whose British-Pakistani heritage confers his outsider status in the period setting.A Different Narrative PerspectiveAspiring artist and new husband Jack Lorimer is the first-person narrator of Nesbits story. He prefaces the tale with the declaration that while his story is as true as despair, he doesnt expect people to believe it, and that most people who hear it take the rational view that it never happened and he and his wife were under a delusion.He then describes leaving his nervous wife at home alone on Halloween, and going out for a night-time walk which takes him to the church. There, he sees the marble knights empty slabs, and starts to rush home when he meets the local doctor, who convinces him to return to the church. This time, the knights are in back place but one is missing a finger. Arriving back at home, Jack and the doctor find Laura killed, and the doctor discovers a grey marble finger in her hand.Gatiss version takes the story out of Jacks mouth and puts it into Nesbits third-person account, which removes the guessing-game of how much of Jacks narration is reliable. The short story tantalises readers with the idea that Jack is using a supernatural excuse to cover up his wifes murder (would a new husband really leave his spooked wife alone with the door unlatched?). Perhaps under a delusion is right and Jacks version of events isnt to be trusted.In Gatiss film though, we dont see things through Jacks perspective. We take an immediate dislike to his patronising language and the way he undermines Lauras writing, despite it being the only thing paying their bills. Were led to be wary of his jealous temper around other men like the doctor, and to fear for Lauras safety. Were also led to draw parallels between Laura and Nesbit, whose own husband was adulterous, deceptive and bullying, as Celia Imries scenes suggest.Nesbits character may tease her doctor with slippery evasion (lovely work, as ever, from Imrie), but in the film version, the viewer sees the truth with their own eyes: the marble slabs are empty. The finger is really there in Lauras dead hand. We know that Lauras death was supernatural and that Jack didnt kill her a crime hes accused of by the doctor and eventually hanged for. But we also know that Jack is jealous, violent and abusive to Laura. And so does Mrs Dorman.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!The Real Woman of Stone?As well you might when you have an actor as good as Monica Dolan in your cast, Gatiss expands the role of Mrs Dorman in his adaptation. Instead of simply being there to pass on local superstitions, she becomes an ally to Laura and a confidant who spots the signs of domestic violence on Laura and empathises with her plight.In the BBC version, instead of the doctor being the one to open Lauras dead hand and find the marble finger, Mrs Dorman does it. And when she finds the finger, she makes the choice to conceal it and not to speak up for Jacks innocence but to watch him hang. To Mrs Dorman, who, its suggested, has her own history of being abused by a husband, Jack deserves to die and so she lets him hang. Talk about a woman of stone. Woman of Stone is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer in the UK.