Ghosts at the BBC (Part I of II)

THE GHOST HUNTERS (1975)

A key Haunted Generation entry, THE GHOST HUNTERS reaches for the tweed jacket and enough clunky equipment to shake a spirit at.

THE GHOST HUNTERS is a fifty-minute BBC documentary described in the Radio Times as thus: "Ghosts abound in Britain. Thousands of people have seen and heard what they believe to be phantom footsteps, abnormal phenomena, and ghosts of all shapes and sizes. In tonight's documentary, Hugh Burnett visits some of the people who have tried to track them down, or heard and seen things they cannot explain. The film ranges from a haunted house, a haunted inn, even a theatre haunted by a butterfly - to Borley Church." The most memorable sequence is kept to last, as a tape recorder is left inside overnight at Borley; it captures a creaking door and an otherworldly, melancholic sigh.

The amount of scientific babble rivals the pseudo-extravagance of American documentaries of the time. We open with Benson Herbert - the father of electrical-based spookiness - investigating a Wiltshire pub, where he surmises that unconscious energy of some people can influence the attachment and movement of ghosts. He is aided by faithful assistants Vicki and Reg, who help set up such nonsensical aids as an anti-fatigue "negative ion pistol," and an infrared device which can "detect a candle a quarter of a mile away." More hardware is on show when John Cutton, a retired Naval commander, plugs in some apparatus which has a "vibrator" and a wind vane to detect draughts of air. This will set off cameras to snap the apparitions, though ultimately this particular ghost hunter believes manifestations are created in the mind anyway.

Chair of the Ghost Club, interviewee Peter Underwood also penned Ghosts of Borley, Borley Postscript and The Borley Rectory Companion. 

Burnett tries to remain grounded, but rightfully questions the endlessly archaic theories. Andrew Green - the media labelled "Spectre Inspector" and author of Ghost Hunting: A Practical Guide - states that telepathy and electromagnetic rays can contact events of the past, then draws on a survey that states that 61% of ghost sightings in this country are of living people. This figure comes from The Census for Hallucinations, a survey conducted from 1889 to 1892 that sought to determine the frequency with which people were experiencing auditory or visual illusions. It is interesting that Green is quoting this almost a century on, and even more interesting in how it illustrates the shift in how we now perceive ghosts.

After our visit at the home of Green - which includes an alleged impromptu visit from three boys - we are treated to a tour of Bath by "ghost collector" Mrs Royal, then a vicar stating that entities are guiding, heavenly bodies; the presenter wonders why then, that ghosts usually appear specifically clothed. Unsurprisingly this bamboozles the Man of God, who you feel wants to swiftly retreat to his less-demanding brethren. As the Borley Church segment closes the programme, Peter Underwood - the prolific author who began the trend for regional haunted books - reinforces a more ethereal explanation, that we are being recorded on some eternal tape. The documentary certainly packs a lot in, and acts as a fascinating para-historical snapshot, but plays more as an examination of the human brain than anything paranormal.

Werewolf at the BBC

NATIONWIDE: THE HEXHAM HEADS (1976)

Fifteen years after its release, Oliver Reed's first starring role in Hammer's CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF was still haunting audiences. Or, more specifically, fleetingly glimpsed on a current affairs programme.

IF you wanted to get started on the trail of UFOs, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, or delve into the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, the 1970s was the time for you. Part of the reason why the selling of the paranormal was so resolute in this decade is that a large majority of the stories purported to be based on real events, murder cases or ancient texts and artefacts. However perplexing the case of the Hexham Heads is, it resonates because we are looking at mundane settings, with dark, ancient powers creeping into the modern world. 

When two small stone heads were dug up in a Hexham back garden in 1971, who knew what shenanigans would endure. The pieces would move on their own, create poltergeist activity, and even manifest a "half-man, half sheep" creature (the latter may actually have been a prank with a drunk staggering around with a carcass on his back). When the heads were transferred to the Southampton home of Dr Ann Ross, an expert in Celtic finds, the sightings of a strange beast continued. On Halloween morning 2024, the BBC made available the infamous teatime NATIONWIDE coverage. Long considered lost, this amazing ten-minute snippet of the supernatural only has audio for the latter stages, but includes a couple of spiked heads and - to illustrate the alleged monster - a clip of Oliver Reed attacking the camera from CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF. 

NATIONWIDE's Luke Casey amongst some stone heads. Celts believed that the head contains the human soul, and was capable of living independently after death, possessing powers of prophecy and fertility. There are many tales in which "living heads" preside over Celtic feasts.

Broadcast on a cold February evening, the following night presenter Sue Lawley had to issue an apology, after phone complaints from angry parents on behalf of their traumatised children (although a trigger warning was apparently given). This has long been considered the holy grail of lost British paranormal media, yet the story of the Hexham Heads is a convoluted fortean yarn. The beginning of wolf-based creatures being associated with the Northumbrian market town of Hexham and nearby Allendale can be traced to brutal cattle slayings of 1904. And NATIONWIDE could only provide a snapshot of the sheer breadth of strangeness.

The fragments were found at the 3 Rede Avenue residence of the Robsons, but the weirdness soon spread to neighbours the Dodd family and consequently to the Ross abode. Although the families allegedly never communicated about specifics, the man beast became a mainstay, which no doubt pleased subscribers to the Stone Tape Theory. Mentioned by reporter Luke Casey in the segment, this pseudoscience was developed by intellectuals and psychic researchers and popularised by Nigel Kneale's BBC drama THE STONE TAPE. It states that historical information can be released and replayed from rock and other material. Had the heads unleashed traumatic events of yesteryear in the shape of a werewolf? Not according to Des Craigie, the previous resident of 3 Rede Avenue, who in 1972 claimed he had carved the stones as a toy for his daughter.

Dr Ann Ross wrote and collaborated on numerous publications detailing Celtic Britain. She remained open to the possibility that the Hexam stone heads could be modern, and crafted in the Pagan Celtic style.

Southampton University could not date the heads, though they identified solid rock rather than a composite. Actually a grey sandstone with a high degree of quartz, this material is in keeping with formations in the Hexham area. With such a nondescript conclusion, the heads were acquired in 1977 by chemist and earth scientist Don Robins, who believed in the relationship between stone and the human nervous system. Keeping the heads in his shed and around the house, he never saw a werewolf, but constantly had a sense of unease when around them. Lending them for "dowsing experiments" to alleged engineer and paranormal researcher Frank Hyde, Robins writes in his book The Secret Language of Stone, Hyde "seemed to have vanished as completely as if he had walked into a fairy hill in a folk tale." The location of the stones is still unknown.

King of Outer Space (Part II of II)

OUT OF THIS WORLD (1977)

JON RONSON'S FOR THE LOVE OF FAITH: AETHERIUS SOCIETY (1998)

SHAUN RYDER ON UFOS: WORSHIP AND ABDUCTION (2013)

In OUT OF THIS WORLD, George King is on Prayer Power Battery duty. The self-appointed cosmic guru also shows off his George Adamski-inspired UFO model, the go-to piece for The Aetherius Society. This was also used by "Mr Roberts" in an episode of ONE PAIR OF EYES.

MANKIND'S hard-wired religious instincts, and innate yearning to look to the sky for answers, is addressed in the BBC's OUT OF THIS WORLD, a documentary that nicely sits amongst the pseudo-fortean output of the 1970s. Segments include George King on Holdstone Down recounting his contact with Jesus, former diplomat Gordon Creighton theorising on parallel realities and humanity being the result of "superior engineering," and House of Lords member William Francis Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, conveniently mentioning his book Secret of the Ages: UFOs from Inside the Earth. Trench would also state in The Sky People that Adam and Eve, Noah and many others from The Bible originally lived on Mars, and that he knew a former U.S. test pilot who was present at a meeting between President Eisenhower and a group of aliens.

The JON RONSON'S FOR THE LOVE OF FAITH episode on The Aetherius Society features five acolytes waxing lyrical on the Cosmic Masters manifesting as wisdom. Apparently it has been no coincidence that the voices from space started during the Atomic age, and that our extraterrestrial councillors have been fundamental in the safeguarding of the human race at such a dangerous time (their craft have also closely monitored our space travel). Everything exists in spiritual planes, the guests explain, which can conveniently dilute any kind of scientific fact: even though the planets in our solar system are all inhospitable, the Cosmic Masters can simply appear and disappear at whim due to this metaphysical existence. Since his passing in 1997, the members also announce that they don't actually know where King is, but that he has certainly become an "Avatar," a suitably abstract labelling.

Shaun Ryder has been obsessed with UFOs since he saw a zig-zagging ball of light at a bus stop aged fifteen. In SHAUN RYDER ON UFOS, he states that he "wouldn't mind having a go at being abducted by aliens." This traumatic notion is scoffed at by The Aetherius Society, a phenomenon that is a clear inversion of their constructive, vision-driven teachings.

In this Channel 4 discussion, Ronson does not need to drive the conversation, rather reclines and prompts were necessary; he is respectful and asks what the guests constantly refer to as "good questions." The underlying theme of humanity needing to "wake up" is illustrated by notions that "famine is a crime" and unstable weather patterns are what "our Karma deserves." Despite the goofiness, a need for a balance between nature and humanity is a prophetic one, a cause which is more evident with every passing year. However, it does not seem that the teachings from "Mars Sector Six" and the visiting "Third Satellite" - an orbiting craft which injects humanity with enhanced spirituality - are really working.

Shown on the History Channel, SHAUN RYDER ON UFOS is a four-part investigation fronted by the always entertaining Happy Mondays and Black Grape kingpin. Shaun’s quest for the truth leads through the USA, Mayan ruins, and the aboriginal cave paintings of Australia. In the third episode - WORSHIP AND ABDUCTION - the presenter interviews Nick Pope in a tearoom, and attends an underwhelming meeting of The UFO Academy in Watford. Ryder's visit to the London offices of The Aetherius Society sees him greeted by Richard Lawrence, an executive secretary of the European division. Lawrence is much more congenial compared to the Mr Roberts encountered by Patrick Moore in CAN YOU TALK VENUSIAN?, inviting Shaun to witness a red-robed prayer session conveniently featuring a stunningly beautiful young woman. Although clearly still processing this more spiritual approach to Ufology, Shaun sees little difference in what is happening in Church congregations throughout the land.

King of Outer Space (Part I of II)

LIFELINE: MARS AND VENUS SPEAK TO EARTH (1959)

ONE PAIR OF EYES: CAN YOU SPEAK VENUSIAN? (1969)

"Service is the jewel in the rock of attainment;" George King is possessed by a Venusian Cosmic God on LIFELINE. According to his Aetherius Society, Mother Earth is a living Goddess who is sacrificing her own evolution to provide for humankind, "a backward and often barbaric race." By using Karma Yoga and Dynamic Prayer, followers bring positive change through the development of intuition and psychic ability. 

NOT to be confused with the celebrity-based appeal, LIFELINE was also a BBC discussion show. In a May 1959 edition, former fireman and taxi driver George King claims that in 1954 he was spoken to by Saturn's Interplanetary Parliament one Saturday morning, while doing the dishes. Becoming a conduit for aliens from a variety of planets, his new-found friends called him their "Mental Channel Number One." George finishes his contribution to the programme by donning transmission goggles and entering a trance, so that the Venusian Aetherius can give a religious-heavy warning about mankind's future. It's an unintentionally hilarious half-hour, made even more outlandish by the sheer politeness of the participants; even though King introduces the notion of organic metal and that UFOs can travel from Venus to Earth in 2.5 seconds, the resident astronomer and psychiatrists remain constructively dismissive.

The Aetherius Society - which King founded in 1955 - claims that we all have a debt to The Divine Source. As their website claims, "it exists everywhere - and it is everything. In fact, it is more even than that." They explain that science has not detected these civilisations because they exist at higher frequencies of vibration, Cosmic Masters who have in the past been born among us in order to give essential assistance: The Master Jesus, the Lord Buddha, Sri Krishna, Confucius et al. In explaining why these beings don't just come to Earth and sort us out, "due to the wrong thought and action of humankind for millennia, the balance of world karma at present is not good. This prevents more direct intervention from the Cosmic Masters, such as an open landing in a major city."

According to The Aetherius Society spokesman in a broadcast of ONE PAIR OF EYES, although there is no fixed description of Aetherius's appearance, typically Venusian's take on a very tall humanoid visage, with no pupils but with small feet. He adds that Saturn inhabitants have evolved into forty-foot ovoids, the same development that will bestow man.

One of The Society's "Holy Mountains" - a storing of collective positive energy through prayer - is located at Holdstone Down, on the edge of Exmoor near Combe Martin. King's mother once claimed to have been abducted by aliens on the open moorland, thereby enhancing its importance to the cause. In 1958 King claims to have encountered the arrival of a returning Jesus on a spaceship while at the Down. As George stated, "although he didn't tell me, I knew that he was Jesus and that he had come from the planet Venus - I didn't have to be told, I just knew this." A 1963 gathering was particularly important, as the founder had informed his brethren of an impending "large scale disease," and unless enough goodwill has been accumulated in the Holy Mountain the outcome could be catastrophic.

Patrick Moore has a show-stopping visit to The Aetherius Society during an episode of the BBC documentary strand ONE PAIR OF EYES, called CAN YOU SPEAK VENUSIAN? Moore's stance was to look at "independent" thinkers within an increasingly conventional world, though a more realistic label would be "delusional." One interviewee was a vicar who states that the Sun is not hot, while another claims to write and speak three interplanetary languages (which sound like extra-exciting conclusions to a horse racing commentary). When Patrick visits The Society's offices on the Fulham Road he is greeted by "Mr Roberts," who denounces mankind for the "materialistic trap" it built for itself. He explains that through this subscription to "material science" the human race once inhabited a planet which it blew up (which consequently formed the asteroid belt). Mr Roberts also sheds light on when Mars helped us out by destroying an invasion force of Fish-men, eager to take over Earth for its water content.

Highgate Horror (Part II of II)

TULPA (2013)

The sigil of Tulpas, a sentient mental companion. Reported to help with depression and social anxiety, Tulpas ease pressure through detached perspective.

THIS short documentary about David Farrant takes its name from a Tibetan Buddhism concept, that a thought-form can be created through spiritual practice and intense concentration. Modern practitioners, Tulpamancers, formulate imaginary friends through hallucinations that enable them to see, hear and touch their creation. Research has shown that respondents were higher in rates of neurodivergence (including autism and ADHD), leading to speculation that such individuals use the medium to combat loneliness and ease mental tensions, a self-hypnosis to escape reality and retreat into their specifically desired fantasy world.

As described in THE MINDSCAPE OF ALAN MOORE, earliest forms of magic were referred to as "the art." Purely, magic is the science of words and images, rather than conjuring a rabbit out of a hat. The world has now degenerated into such a state of artistic banality that today's shaman are advertisers and influencers, manipulating thought through slogans, jingles and technology. As Moore states, "artists and writers have allowed themselves to be sold down the river. They have accepted the prevailing belief that art, that writing, are merely forms of entertainment. They are not seen as trans-formative forces that can change a human being, that can change a society, they are seen as simple entertainment, things with which we can fill half an hour while we're waiting to die."

David Farrant became as closely linked to Highgate as that of its "vampire." TULPA is a shallow documentary that portrays a life in fast-forward, against a backdrop of Mastrodon's instrumental track 'Joseph Merrick'.

The paranormal experiences of Farrant - particularly his association with the Highgate Vampire - exist in a netherworld of rituals, investigations, confrontations and press hyperbole. He was a man yearning for an old order, reaching out to wider abilities. With the very use of the word TULPA to pigeon hole his time on Earth, Farrant can relate to a process of willing their needs onto some kind of canvas; 1970s Britain was certainly a grim place to be, but there was still an appreciation of the arts and all its possibilities.

Unfortunately, TULPA is sparse and disappointing. Made by identical twin brothers Max and Bart Sycamore, the twenty-three minute effort is a blur of spliced footage, pulled together to form some sort of time frame. Narratives are constructed from a variety of means, often to form singular points (anything from interview segments, bookshop appearances and dramatisations). We learn that the loss of a spiritual mother at a formative age leads to David's rebellious nature against formal education, yet this is sketched over to move on to the next sub topic. Popular culture is also thrown against the wall to see what sticks, with a glacial reference to The Enfield Poltergeist, and clips from NOSFERATU and DRACULA, A.D. 1972.

Highgate Horror (Part I of II)

IN SEARCH OF THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE (1997)

The Pond Squire Ghost Chicken

Opened in 1839, Highgate Cemetery stands on redeveloped grounds from the manor and estate of Sir William Ashurst, Lord Mayor of London and director of the Bank of England. Renowned for its Romantic-Gothic architecture and Egyptian-style catacombs, the location was utilised by Hammer (TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL) and Amicus (as opening credits for TALES FROM THE CRYPT and FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE).  

VAMPIRE myths are thick in Slavic lore, yet British bloodsuckers are more anaemic. The most notable homegrown example is the vampire of Highgate Cemetery in Swain's Lane, North London. Sightings of a tall, dark, leyline-loving figure in the Borough of Camden have been reported since the Victorian era, but came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the press proclaimed the culprit as undead, after reports of a floating, black-cloaked entity with hypnotic red eyes. And as we entered the Satanic Seventies, rumours circulated of witchcraft ceremonies within the cemetery grounds, and dead foxes drained of blood. 

Paranormal investigator and President of the British Psychic and Occult Society (BPOS), David Farrant, was a leading protagonist amongst the tombstones. IN SEARCH OF THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE - its title clearly riffing on the pseudo-American documentaries and television series of the 1970s - was produced and directed by BPOS stalwart Dave Milner, under his Darkhouse Productions banner. This thirty-six minute video documentary is infused with a camp Goth aesthetic, and presented by Farrant himself. Seated throughout, he delivers his account laboriously and without any real insight, although there is a theory that the black magic rituals reinvigorated the legend into something much darker. Purely a BPOS puff piece, it does not mention Farrant's prison sentences for grave desecration and sending voodoo effigies to the police. A typically stilted conclusion is laughably nondescript: "as to the question of whether a vampire still exists at Highgate Cemetery, well, I can only say, yes."

David Farrant helped The Highgate Vampire to become one of London's most enigmatic urban legends, which has been exaggerated by collective hysteria, misidentification and hoax. Highgate Cemetery is also said to be haunted by a spectral cyclist, a faceless man and a floating nun.

Despite his reputation, Farrant comes across as shy, effeminate, and somewhat ethereal. Without naming names, he dismisses the involvement of another investigator, who is undoubtedly Sean Manchester. A Bishop of the Old Catholic Church, Exorcist and general defender of the faith, Manchester stated that the vampire was a Romanian nobleman, of whom he eventually banished in 1973 in another location altogether, in Crouch End. Most infamously, The Bishop declared he would hold an exorcism at Highgate on Friday 13th March 1970, which was covered on Thames television. Soon the grounds were overrun with makeshift vampire hunters, despite the best efforts of the police.

The feud between Farrant and Manchester lasted until David's death in 2019. This was not just a war of words, metaphysical confrontations were also planned (branded occult "duels to the death" or "psychic combats") though never realised. Essentially IN SEARCH OF THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE is as shallow as the facts of the case, barely touching on the real meat of the matter: that of two individuals who were unable to accommodate the same consecrated ground.

Just when you thought Highgate has enough paranormal activity, consider the case of Sir Francis Bacon's otherworldly frozen chicken. This oddity sets up a variety of humourous tags, such as poultrygeist, chilling ghost and phantom foul. The chicken appears to run in wild circles before disappearing into the ether or, on one occasion, through a wall. The above is an illustration from The Evening News of December 10th, 1957.

The vampire flap seemed to have quashed the appearance of the area's other leading phantom, the frozen chicken of Pond Squire on Highgate Hill. In 1626, philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon's notion of preserving food through freezing was indeed correct, but resulted in his premature demise and the creation of the apparition. Bacon acquired a plucked and gutted chicken then stuffed it with snow, but caught pneumonia and died soon after. Over the years there have been sightings of the distressed bird running around and maniacally flapping its wings, sometimes shrieking, sometimes silent. One of the last encounters was in 1970, when a courting couple's amorous actions were interrupted, the ghost chicken dropping from a tree branch onto their bench.

The Hammer Vampire and Batman

Detective Comics - Heart of a Vampire (1976)

The undead and Gotham City's favourite son: The Dark Knight depicted by Gene Colan for the splash page of Batman #351 (September 1982).

IN 1970, artist and historian Jim Steranko wrote in The Steranko History of Comics: "Heavily steeped in Teutonic atmosphere, Batman conjured up visions of vampires with his black cloak, grim visage and white slit eyes. He moved through cubist backgrounds of warped perspectives and paranoiac tilt shots, of shadows and silhouettes that gave credence to the thought that he was more bat than man."

There is undoubtedly a subliminal connection between the vampire myth and the original specification of Batman. In an attempt to strike fear into the hearts of criminals and become a creature of the night, one of The Caped Crusader's inspirations was Bela Lugosi in Universal's 1931 DRACULA. Indeed, an initial foe was The Monk - a red suited vampire and hypnotist - that shows even during the early years the notion was firmly in play. Similarly Neal Adams - whose dynamic style restored Batman to his dark roots - cited Christopher Lee and the use of his cape as a major influence. In 1968, when the artist began his approach to the character, Lee was making his third appearance as The Count for Hammer with DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE.

In the Detective Comics story Heart of a Vampire, after being dismissed from medical school, Gustav DeCobra continued his unorthodox experiments by robbing graves, which unfortunately included the resting place of a bloodsucker. 

The most literal merging of these two pop culture icons occurred in Detective Comics #455 (January 1976). Heart of a Vampire - written by Elliot S. Maggin and illustrated by Mike Grell (from uncredited thumbnails by Bernie Wrightson) - begins with Alfred and Bruce Wayne's car overheating miles outside of Gotham. When they enter a boarded-up house to find water for the radiator, they discover a coffin and vampire Gustav DeCobra. Batman puts a wooden stake through Gustav's chest, but hasn't penetrated the heart. A former doctor, DeCobra's research was in heart transplants, and Batman realises that he may have surgically moved his organ elsewhere. To find it, Bruce fights Gustav vigorously and listens for a rapid heartbeat; Batman notices that the grandfather clock gets louder as the confrontation progresses and grabs a wooden bow and arrow. Shooting the clock where the vampire had placed his heart, DeCobra dies as his corpse turns to a skeleton at the break of dawn.

Using photographic reference, Grell draws DeCobra as Christopher Lee, though the artist reluctantly changed the hair style and nose (and added a scar) at the insistence of editor Julie Schwartz. In addition, Heart of a Vampire references Hammer design and narrative: the house interior resembles the 1958 DRACULA (the tale also mimics the climactic battle), and a closeup of the coffin's padlock - dropping onto the floor without opening - is a direct lift from the non-Lee BRIDES OF DRACULA. 

Prince of the Air

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS - COUNT MAGNUS (2022)

Grave concerns for Jason Watkins as Mr Wraxhall.

IN 1863, British travelogue writer Mr Wraxhall (Jason Watkins) visits Råbäck Manor in Sweden, which was built by Count Magnus de la Gardie. Now occupied by Froken de la Gardie (MyAnna Buring), servant Gustav (Jamal Ajala) and a set of ancestral portraits, Wraxhall declines Froken's invitation to stay and boards at the local inn. Here he learns more about The Count from innkeeper Herr Nielsen (Max Bremer): Magnus was a merciless landowner who was also notorious for his Black Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, bringing something - or someone - back with him. Nielsen also recounts the tale of poachers on The Count’s lands, which resulted in one going mad and the other having the skin sucked from his face. Obsessed with this uncovering sinister world, Wraxhall visits Magnus's mausoleum, which is sealed by chains and padlocks. 

Faithfully adapted from the 1904 M.R. James story by Mark Gatiss, COUNT MAGNUS adds more layers of alchemy for its conclusion. Gatiss stands by James' ending to a point, as both feature the violent death of Wraxall, whose demise is ruled by jury to be caused "by visitation of God." In the original, the storyteller is revealed to be the man who acquired Wraxall's house, forced to demolish the property since nobody is willing to stay there. But here the narrator is revealed to be Magnus himself, his life prolonged by a deal with the devil, processing the tale from within his tomb. Before the credits we also see a modern-day young couple appear at the mausoleum, to illustrate that ages-old horror dictum, why don't you just leave such things alone ...

An illustration for Count Magnus by Rosemary Pardoe. Pardoe helmed the M.R. James related Ghosts & Scholars magazine for forty years.

Lawrence Gordon Clark originally intended Count Magnus to be the 1976 entry of the strand, before budgetary concerns and a consequent shift to THE SIGNALMAN. The soul of the text holds the half-hour together, and Watkins is perfect as the irritative researcher, suffering somewhat from an Englishman abroad syndrome (he acknowledges that the locale would be more akin to peasants, for example). It's a stoic entry in the series, with its festive notions of twisted family heritage and supernatural shenanigans, but there is too much daylight in this tale of darkness, and its locations never convince that we are anywhere near Scandinavia.

Tomorrow's Headlines Today

DOOM WATCH (1970 - 72)

DOOMWATCH (1972)

Cyberman creators Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis also spawned DOOM WATCH, a plausibly terrifying apocalyptic drama.

BETWEEN February 1970 and August 1972, the BBC broadcast three seasons of DOOM WATCH, a sobering set of cautionary tales created by DOCTOR WHO story editor Gerry Davis and medical scientist/author Kit Pedler. In the show, a Government sponsored organisation - led by Physicist Dr Spencer Quist (John Paul) - investigate ecological and technological dangers in stories influenced by contemporary cases. This "Department for the Observation and Measurement of Science" combated intelligent carnivorous rats, mind-destroying sound waves, toxic mutations and a plastic-eating virus, and a final episode - exploring permissiveness and its impact on human behaviour - was banned. This story, SEX AND VIOLENCE, courted controversy not for its subject matter but for a scene where the footage of a real-life African execution is shown. Even though the programme attempted to make the serious and valid point that watching genuine violence has a different effect on viewers than fantasy harm, the episode was nevertheless pulled by nervous executives.

DOOM WATCH was one of the first examples of environmentally conscious television, where its audience were forced to think about the consequences of unregulated commercial exploitation of Earth’s resources (it was also one of the first to kill off its star - young chemist Toby Wren (Robert Powell) - after its first season). Prescient on a number of topics, it also influenced alarmist science fiction in general, despite basic production values, gaudy fashions and typical 1970s attitudes towards women. At one point the British Government considered setting up a real-life equivalent, with Labour MP Ray Fletcher planning a Westminster committee to include Pedler among its members. DOOM WATCH itself disappointingly succumbed to that popular mantra "creative differences," after friction with producer Terence Dudley.

DOOM WATCH followed in the footsteps of QUATERMASS and DOCTOR WHO to the silver screen with a limp, despite great make-up by British legend Tom Smith.

Helmed by Peter Sasdy from a Clive Exton script, the Tigon movie version sidelines the TV regulars - Quist, Dr John Ridge (Simon Oates), computer expert Colin Bradley (Joby Blanshard) and Dr Fay Chantry (Jean Trend) - for new character Dr Del Shaw (Ian Bannen). Shaw travels to the Cornish island of Balfe (actually Polkerris) to investigate the effects of oil pollution, where only school teacher Victoria Brown (Judy Geeson) gives him any kind of welcome. It is discovered that the islanders are suffering from acromegaly, brought on from a diet of contaminated fish. This has been caused by the Navy - headed by a disinterested George Sanders - legitimately dumping radioactive material near Castle Rock, which has reacted with a failed hormone dumped by a ramshackle waste company.

DOOMWATCH adheres to its umbrella brief of shady failed science, and belongs to that subgenre of cinema - which includes THE CRAZIES and C.H.U.D. - where ordinary folk are transformed into monsters because of unorganised or callous corporations. Whereas the television programme often suffered from verbal diarrhea, in an era where the medium was still viewed in many ways as theatre rather than film, the actual DOOMWATCH movie wastes its cinematic scope and location by becoming a plodding horror. The performances are earnest, but it would have played out better as a reworked one-off TV special.

Black As Sin

POSSUM (2018)

Designed by Sydney-based Odd Studios, the titular creature is based on writer/director Matthew Holness' fear of spiders. After an original head had a more goblin-like design, found to be too emotive, a sculpture of lead actor Sean Harris lead to a blankness - similar to the Michael Myers visage - where viewers could project their own fears.

THE feature directorial debut of Matthew Holness, POSSUM is an expansion of his short story from The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease. Comma Press had the writers read Freud's theory of the uncanny, then asked them to choose a fear and provide a story (Holness combined two, doppelgängers and dummies). The film sees puppeteer Philip (Sean Harris) returning to his childhood home where his uncle Maurice (Alun Armstrong) has been living for some time, who raised him after the death of his parents. The haunted Philip revisits places significant to his formative years, as he attempts to understand the past and rid himself of his unnerving puppet, a spider with a human head and a thousand yard stare.

POSSUM draws on silent expressionist horror and English Gothic, especially THE INNOCENTS. Jack Clayton's adaptation of The Turn of the Screw shares a lot of POSSUM's foundation, namely an inherent sadness through problematic sexual awakening. This examination of trauma is expertly brought to live by performance and fractured narrative, and even the surrounding forest - with its warped branches - symbolise spindly spider legs (when Maurice attacks at the climax, he puts his fingers into Philip's mouth, providing a further nod to arachnid digits). Another plus is the score by The Radiophonic Workshop, marking the studio's first soundtrack purposely constructed for a feature film. Actually more a sound design for mental anguish, pieces include unreleased material by Delia Derbyshire.

The muted hues of POSSUM mirror the houses and surroundings of the grimmist 1970s Public Information Films. Here, Philip's visit to a school manifests into the "Stranger Danger" aesthetic.

Philip has never recovered from a corrupted innocence, with his monosyllabic speech and movement reminiscent of childlike mannerisms and anxieties. Even the rhyme, "Mother, Father, what’s afoot? Only Possum, black as soot et al," lovingly illustrated in a sketchbook, bridges the simplicity of youth to his adult existence. Harris would remain in character throughout the shoot to the point where Holness felt that he was working with Philip rather than Harris. Both lead actors only interacted with each other while filming scenes together, further enhancing the feeling of separation and tension.