Wyrd Britain

Sunday 10 December 2023

Someone at the Top of the Stairs

'Thriller' ran for six series on ITV between 1973 and 1976. The title of the series is pretty self-explanatory but amongst it's 43 episodes there was one with a supernatural aspect, 'Someone at the Top of the Stairs'.

When Chrissie Morton (Donna Mills) and Gillian Pemberton (Judy Crane) rent a room in an old and dilapidated boarding house filled with initially kindly but increasingly odd residents which include a prepubescent peeping tom (Alan Roberto), an underwear stealing Colonel (Peter Cellier) and a mysterious man in the attic (David de Keyser).

Writer Brian Clemens - who has a Wyrd Britain pedigree like no other having written movies ('Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde', 'Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter' 'And Soon the Darkness') and TV shows ('Danger Man', 'The Avengers', 'The Professionals') for the likes of Hammer, ITC and very many others - digs deep into the gothic bag of tricks to confront us with a smorgasbord of occult hi-jinks and it works, it works well, all the way to the big reveal where it unfortunately falls a little flat. Until that point the show develops at a perfect pace and I cant shake the feeling that had this been a movie script the extra half hour would have allowed them to make good on the suspense, fill in some of the plot holes, allow Donna's character to develop completely and to have developed that ending into the one it should have been but it is what it is and what it is is a fun, minor, occult oddity but it could, and maybe should, have been marvellous.

Thursday 7 December 2023

Short Story: The Tomb of Pan

Wyrd Britain presents 'The Tomb of Pan' by Lord Dunsany.

"Seeing," they said, "that old-time Pan is dead, let us now make a tomb for him and a monument, that the dreadful worship of long ago may be remembered and avoided by all."

So said the people of the enlightened lands. And they built a white and mighty tomb of marble. Slowly it rose under the hands of the builders and longer every evening after sunset it gleamed with rays of the departed sun.

And many mourned for Pan while the builders built; many reviled him. Some called the builders to cease and to weep for Pan and others called them to leave no memorial at all of so infamous a god. But the builders built on steadily.

And one day all was finished, and the tomb stood there like a steep sea-cliff. And Pan was carved thereon with humbled head and the feet of angels pressed upon his neck. And when the tomb was finished the sun had already set, but the afterglow was rosy on the huge bulk of Pan.

And presently all the enlightened people came, and saw the tomb and remembered Pan who was dead, and all deplored him and his wicked age. But a few wept apart because of the death of Pan.

But at evening as he stole out of the forest, and slipped like a shadow softly along the hills, Pan saw the tomb and laughed.

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Lord Dunsany
from 'Fifty-One Tales', 1915

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Sunday 3 December 2023

The Chrysalids (radio play)

Wyrd Britain reviews the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation of ' The Chrysalids' by John Wyndham.

'The Chrysalids' was the third of the 'John Wyndham' novels published in the 1950s after 'The Day of the Triffids' and 'The Kraken Wakes'. It's the story of a group of telepathic children living in a post-nuclear Canada in a fundamentalist Christian society that practices an extreme doctrine of genetic purity following the 'Tribulation', a nuclear war that has left much of the world devastated and the remnants subjected to the vicissitudes of the fallout. Eventually forced to flee their home the telepathic teens are introduced to a wider world potentially every bit as extreme as the one they are running from.

This version was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 1981 by Barbara Clegg - later to become the first woman to write a 'Doctor Who' serial, 'Enlightenment' - and stars, amongst others, Stephen Garlick ('The Dark Crystal'), Spencer Banks ('Timeslip' & 'Penda's Fen') and Michael Spice ('The Brain of Morbius' & 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang'). It's an obvious labour of love that has been assembled with a real care for the source material. There is an argument to be had over the use of adults voicing the children's parts but that's a quibble with what is otherwise an excellent adaptation.

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Thursday 30 November 2023

The Red Room

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and others and in this instance H. G. Wells, read by Freddie Jones.

First published in The Idler magazine in 1896, 'The Red Room' is the story of an overconfident man who decides to spend the night in the haunted red room of Lorraine Castle where he fights a losing battle with the candles, the furniture and his own fear.

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Sunday 26 November 2023

After School

This the second episode of the first series of the 1975 ITV series of spooky stories for children, 'Shadows', was written by Ewart Alexander - who wrote an episode for each of the three series - and directed by Audrey Starrett, 'After School' is the story of two Welsh schoolboys Poodle and Seth (Rhys Powys and Lyn Jones) trapped after school in their PE teacher's (Gareth Thomas) office after school who experience a number of ghostly events all relating to the town's coal mining history.

Even though he makes only a short appearance it's fun to see Thomas - seen here a year before heading off to the village of 'Milbury' to look at some stones - giving his original accent free reign and his portrayal of the PE teacher brought back some unwelcome memories of my own Welsh valley school teachers although they would have laughed at his football obsession as they brutalised generations of children on a poorly maintained rugby pitch. The two young lads who carry the majority of the episode are solid enough and make the best of what they have with a script that requires them to continuously over-emote. Written and aired in the long shadow cast by the Aberfan disaster Alexander's script touches on some delicate areas but the 30 minute runtime means any commentary is fleeting and whilst it has some nice touches, such as the 'mine collapse', the film never really amounts to anything more than a curio.

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Friday 24 November 2023

All Hallows

Written by Walter De La Mare and first published in 1926 in 'The Connoisseur and Other Stories', 'All Hallows' tells the story of a traveller's visit to a remote cathedral and his meeting with the verger who tells him of the strange goings on within building.

De La Mare's tale is a masterclass of atmosphere and suggestion. Any and all sense of the uncanny is literally in the telling, both De La Mare's and the Verger's (and indeed in Richard E Grant's sympathetic reading), and in our and the traveller's imaginations as, potentially, nothing actually uncanny happens beyond a tour of the cathedral at dusk in the company of a companion spinning a yarn of disappearance, death and devilry. The story ends on a positive note for the future, but we are left guessing as to the veracity of the Verger's tale of diabolic renovations but captivated by the story he's spun.

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Tuesday 21 November 2023

Who Goes Here? (radio play)

Wyrd Britain reviews the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of 'Who Goes Here?' by Bob Shaw.

In the 24th century guilty men join the Space Legion to, quite literally, forget as the offending memory is electronically erased upon induction but when new recruit Warren Peace awakens from the procedure with his entire memory is gone he absolutely needs to find out just how much of a monster he must have been?

From the novel written by Bob Shaw, dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in September 1991 and starring Douglas Hodge as Warren Peace, it's a quick and light-footed adaptation of Shaw's equally quick novel. With it's feet firmly planted in the same territory as 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' this is a fabulously daft story that takes Warren across the galaxy and back again in his quest to find out what it was exactly that he did and who exactly he is.

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Sunday 19 November 2023

Lost Property

'Unnatural Causes' was a seven episode ITV series broadcast in 1986 that featured stories of unusual deaths written by such luminaries as Nigel Kneale, Beryl Bainbridge, Lynda La Plante and in this case 'Sapphire and Steel' creator Peter J Hammond whose, 'Lost Property', is the only episode of the series with a supernatural element.

Anne Forrest (Miranda Richardson) along with her husband John (John Duttine), is living in an old school where she has partially reverted to a fantasy innocence, playing at being a teacher, retreating from ast and her present. John, on the verge of leaving, is a tightly wound ball of frustration unable to understand why his wife is behaving as she is and into this volatile situation appears a young girl, Marian Price (Louise Hellicar), an ex pupil at the school who claims a deep affection for the previous headmistress and for her own schooldesk.

Director Alan Dossor keeps everything tight and claustrophobic meaning the tension in Anne and John's relationship fills the screen and P. J. Hammond's slow moving script gives plenty of room for the two leads to explore their characters. The conclusion manages to be both predicable and surprising and also satisfyingly enigmatic grown out of seeds sewn earlier in the episode but leaving us with plenty of questions relating to the events and the nature of, at least one of, the characters.

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Saturday 18 November 2023

"We Need More Ghosts" - Alan Moore in conversation with Robin Ince

Wyrd Britain presents Alan Moore in conversation with Robin Ince.

"I don't want to be bound together in one belief with a lot of people who worship a sock puppet. That would be mental!"

Today, 18th November 2023, marks the 70th birthday of Northampton's waywardest son (but probably it's truest champion), Alan Moore.

"We need more ghosts, I don't know what all these exorcists are thinking!"

With a several decades long career in comics now behind him Moore has recently released a collection of short stories, 'Illuminations', and is embarking on a series of novels called 'Long London'. Here, in conversation with Robin Ince, he discusses writing, magic, the collaborative process, lost histories, AI and more.

"If everybody else is having their livelihoods threatened by automation, why not politicians?"

I've been a fan since first picking up 2000AD as a young lad and noticing that so many of my favourites were written by the same person and his work has been central to my reading habits ever since. So, happy birthday Mr. Moore, we probably wouldn't be here without you and all stellar work you put into warping our minds so, here's to many birthdays to come and to all the ideas that have yet to bump into each other.

"As humans we need, I think, on a fairly regular basis to transcend those sort of boundaries. Whether it's sort of, uh, you know, by mysticism, by poetry or by reading a lot of books about giant killer crabs".

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Tuesday 14 November 2023

Markheim

Originally appearing alongside - amongst others - F. Marion Crawford's '‘The Upper Berth’ in 1885 in the pages of 'The Broken Shaft: Tales of Mid-Ocean' that year's Unwin's Christmas Annual, Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Markheim' is the story of a murder and of the consequences of such as the titular character comes face to face with, in his reckoning, The Devil who confronts him with his dissolute and degenerating nature and presents him with the opportunity to continue, successfully, along his current path.

The version presented below was made for and aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1971 with Tom Watson as Markheim, Malcolm Hayes as The Stranger and Martin Heller as The Dealer. Adapted from the original by Tom Wright (who returned to the story three years later for a TV adaptation starring Derek Jacobi and Julian Glover and who would later contribute a script to the 'The Omega Factor') it's a rather fine and sensitively performed interpretation although it does omit one telling moment near the end that hints strongly at the true nature and intent of the Stranger.

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Sunday 12 November 2023

Jack Be Nimble

Made in 1980 for the third series of BBC2's 'Leap in the Dark' and written by poet Peter Redgrove 'Jack Be Nimble' is a curious story of witchcraft and female empowerment.

Jackie - played by future 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' cast member, Lisa Vanderpump - is the latest in a line of empowered women and is coming into her abilties much to the fear of her family and friends as her growing abilities to predict such diverse things as maths, menstruation and motorbike crashes are increasingly alienating her from all those around her. Fortunately she has Grannie (sympathetically portrayed Audrey Noble) on her side who has a heartbreaking insight into what's going and can guide her to a resolution.

It is in parts a little incoherent and towards the end it trends towards amateurish pretensions, as does some of the acting, but it makes a valiant stab at highlighting the changing times for women and acknowledging the distance still to travel couched in a tale of witchcraft and magic that avoids many of the cliches of the genre and at it's end finds it's way to an open ended conclusion on the nature and use of Jackie's abilities.

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Wednesday 8 November 2023

The Unsettled Dust - The Strange Stories of Robert Aickman

Jeremy Dyson, the off camera 'League of Gentleman' member, has long been known in these pages as a devotee of author and conservationist Robert Aickman being responsible for both a short film, 'The Cicerones', and a radio play, 'Ringing the Changes', based on Aickman's stories.

Aickman was the author of, to use his term, "strange stories", stories that often defy easy categorisation or even easy reading and here Dyson presents a light hearted and engaging exploration of the appeal of the man's literary endeavours, with help from author Ramsey Campbell, TVs Mark Gatiss, Tartarus Press' Ray Russell and others, and makes the case for the man to be given his place among the first rank of writers of the weird and the supernatural.

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

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Sunday 5 November 2023

Judge Dredd: Superfiend

It's been 10 years since the release of the 'Dredd' movie and with no sequel and no news on the purported Mega City One TV series we're left with just the two official screen adventures of everyone's favourite fascist, future cop, the Stallone movie which looked right but did everything else wrong and the aforementioned Karl Urban movie which got most everything right except sharing a name with that previous pile of crap and releasing in the wake of The Raid, but we do have a couple of unofficial releases that we're going to explore beginning with the the Adi Shankar cartoon series, "Judge Dredd: Superfiend'.

JD:S is a six episode series made in the hyper-frenetic 90s MTV style of animation. I wasn't really watching cartoons then so the only visual reference I have for you would be 'Ren and Stimpy'. The story loosely follows the established Judge Death backstory of Sydney De'Ath, the son of a homicidal dentist who grows up to become a Judge before deciding that as all crime is committed by the living then life itself must be a crime, gets himself all corpsey looking and goes on a rampage but that's pretty much the end of the similarities. Here Deadworld and Dredd's world are one and the same, Rico has only just escaped from Titan and is trying to bond with his daughter, Vienna, and the Angel Gang are selling Stookie in a Cursed Earth disco crater.

The story just about holds up and has some fun moments and dialogue - "Dredd to control. I'm up to my ankles in entrails here, what do you want?" - but the frenetic nature and lack of any sort of depth soon wear away at you but you can entertain yourself by easter egg hunting - my favourite was the brief appearance of Fergee.

If you'd prefer to watch the six episodes separately you can do so here or you can watch them edited into a handy continuous story, without all those pesky credit sequences, in the player below.

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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain

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Saturday 4 November 2023

The Diary of Mr Poynter

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, H.G. Wells, John Wyndham and in this instance M. R. James, read by Michael Bryant.

Originally published in James' third collection of stories, 'A Thin Ghost and Others' in 1919, it tells the story of a diary, some curtains and a hairy visitor.

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Friday 3 November 2023

The Devil's Ape

Taken from the 1980 BBC1 Jackanory spinoff 'Spine Chillers' that featured abridged readings of classic spooky stories by the likes of Saki, M.R. James, John Wyndham and in this instance Barnard Stacey, read by John Woodvine.

Originally published in 1933 in The Evening Standard it's the story of three chums who upon aquiring a spell book decide it would be a wizard wheeze to use it to transfer the soul of their grumpy neighbour into a lay figure.

With it's satanic undertones this is without doubt the most enjoyably and luridly pulpy of the Spine Chillers episodes I've seen and benefits immensely from a suitably urgent and dynamic reading from Woodvine.

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