Benjamin Britten the apex of his reputation: it was almost universally hailed as a masterpiece." Shostakovich told Rostropovich that he believed it to be "the greatest work of the twentieth century". In 1967 the BBC commissioned Britten to write an opera specially for television. "Owen Wingrave" was based, like "The Turn of the Screw", on a ghost story by Henry James. By the 1960s Britten found composition much slower than in his prolific youth; he told the 28-year-old composer Nicholas Maw, "Get as much done now as you can, because it gets much, much more difficult as you grow older." He did
The Turn of the Screw (2009 film) America. The BBC had previously adapted several horror stories as Christmas films, with their series "A Ghost Story for Christmas" including adaptations of the M. R. James stories "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" (filmed as "The Stalls of Barchester"), "A Warning to the Curious", "Lost Hearts", "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" and "The Ash Tree". "The Turn of the Screw" fits into this "mini-genre" of the Christmas horror film. The BBC executive and drama commissioner Ben Stephenson, discussing "The Turn of the Screw", said that "Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a ghost story for the adults to watch in front