• James makes his first foray into Doctor Who with his role as Anthony Poole in the Big Finish audio drama Zygon Century: Transformation. It's due for release in April.
  
  
• James gave sixty-two Dickens performances in the last few months of 2025 - an advance of ten on the year before! His sell-out renditions of A Christmas Carol, The Haunted Man and The Signal-Man & The Trial for Murder received coverage in The New York Times, by whom James was interviewed and photographed. In addition, legendary horror author Ramsey Campbell described the shows as 'an unforgettable experience' and James as 'a prodigious and extraordinary talent'.
  
  
• After a lengthy festival run, horror short Stop Dead - in which James plays the Still Man - has been made available to view on ALTER. A feature version is currently in development.
  
  
• James was a guest at Manchester's Festival of Fantastic Films in October 2025. Whilst there, he gave a wide-ranging career interview, performed The Signal-Man & The Trial for Murder and appeared on a panel about Hammer Films. Further information can be found on the festival's website.
  
  
• James recently sported a recreation of Christopher Lee's Creature make-up from The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - applied by the Oscar-winning Dave Elsey - in aid of a documentary on Hammer's new 4K and Blu-ray releases. It's now available to buy. James also turned up in full costume and make-up for the restoration's Leicester Square premiere, where he stalked the red carpet with Melvyn Hayes, the film's young Baron Frankenstein!
  
  
• The artful short film The Fairy Moon - in which James plays a leading role - had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. Critical word has been extremely positive, with James variously heralded as 'well-dressed if peculiar' and 'the archetypal strange bloke' - and many more festivals have followed since.
  
  
• James made three appearances on The Evolution of Horror in 2025, variously discussing Frankenstein (1931), then Bride of Frankenstein (1935), then, as a double bill, Murders in the Rue Morgue and Island of Lost Souls (both 1932). For a bit of variety, James also guested on Once Upon a VHS to give his thoughts on The Black Cauldron (1985), that horror-adjacent Disney animation.
  
  
• James contributed a talking-head interview piece to the Charles Dickens Museum's 2025 exhibition Showtime! (which focuses on Dickens adaptations on stage and screen). It's now available to view online. James also gave four performances of Killing Dickens, an intimate one-man performance that brought together fragments of letters, Public Readings and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, as well as all of The Signal-Man. This was James's tenth Dickens show since 2010.
  
  
• James wrote and presented a new featurette on actor Richard Wordsworth - his distinguished predecessor as Victor Carroon - for Hammer's deluxe release of The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) on 4K and Blu-ray. Pre-orders open on 25th April.
  
  
• On 2nd February, James appeared at the Hyde Park Picture House in Leeds for a post-screening panel on The Night of the Hunter (1955), his favourite film of all time. He was joined by Jeremy Dyson (Ghost Stories, The League of Gentlemen), Becky Darke and Mike Muncer of The Evolution of Horror. Their discussion can be listened to on Patreon.
  
  
• James gave fifty-two one-man Dickens performances in the last few months of 2024: The Signal-Man and The Trial for Murder for Halloween and then A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Haunted Man for Christmas. Roger Clarke, author of A Natural History of Ghosts, stated that 'James is the best interpreter of Charles Dickens's ghost stories alive'. Be that as it may, he is once again unemployed, so do please get in touch.

• James won the Dracula Society's Hamilton Deane Award for three performances: Victor Carroon in The Quatermass Experiment at Alexandra Palace, his one-man ghost stories (particularly The Haunted Man) at London's Charles Dickens Museum and the Mummy in Lot No. 249, the BBC Ghost Story for Christmas. He joins such former recipients as Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen and Guillermo del Toro, as well as recent collaborators Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. Click here to survey a rogue's gallery of prior claimants.
  
  
• To Fire You Come at Last, in which James has a substantial speaking part, is now available to view on Shudder as part of its new annual strand The Haunted Season. The film also headlines the second volume of Severin's sprawling folk-horror box set All the Haunts Be Ours. James gave a wide-ranging interview that explored five influences on his performance.
  
  
• James discussed MGM's very strange 1938 film of A Christmas Carol with Ryan Bijan for Cowtown Movie Classics. Watch their chat here.
  
  
• Many of James's recent horror films are now available for streaming or purchase on physical media. Look out for such titles as Apartment 7A, Tarot, The First Omen and Stopmotion to get your fill of Swantonian grotesques. James's spirits in both Inside No. 9 and Lot No. 249 can be viewed on BBC iPlayer.
  
  
• James took to the stage at Exeter's Hell Tor for two events: 'Lords of Darkness', an overview of twentieth-century Dracula actors with Jonathan Rigby, and 'Grim and Grisly Ranks of the Undead: The Shearsmith-Rigby-Swanton Vampire Classics', where they were joined by Reece Shearsmith. This followed on from James's post-film discussions at the Regent Street Cinema in 2023 - first on Häxan (1922) with Kim Newman and Reece Shearsmith, then on The Phantom of the Opera (1925) with Becky Darke and Kevin Lyons. Both conversations can be listened to for free on the Evolution of Horror Patreon.
  
  
• James discussed F. W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise (1927) with Tim Coleman on his podcast The Top 100. Listen to their conversation here.
  
  
• James gave an unabridged reading of 'The Masque of the Red Death' for Threedumb Theatre's Edgar Allan Poe marathon. Watch it here.
  
  
• James's latest appearance on The Evolution of Horror was to dissect the 1933 version of King Kong (have a listen here). He also took part in Mike Muncer's 24-hour charity livestream; their segment 'Playing the Monster' explored the tricky art of horror acting, together with insights from James's career. The discussion kicks off around the five-minute mark.
  
  
• James was profiled by The Telegraph in the run-up to Lot No. 249's transmission: 'When things go bump in the night, in British theatre and film, those things not infrequently turn out to be James Swanton. Just 32, but with the air of someone at least a century older, the actor has ploughed an award-winning furrow as all manner of ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties...' Click here to read the full interview.
  
  
• James guested on Dominic Gerrard's podcast Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! for an episode entitled 'The Haunted Actor'. Their wide-reaching discussion took in theatrical roots, Dickens's Christmas ghost stories, Sikes & Nancy and Henry Irving. Listen to the conversation here.