In 'Baby', the standout episode from Nigel Kneale's 1976 series of bestial horror, 'Beasts', we find newly relocated and expectant couple, Josephine (Jane Wymark) and Peter Gilkes (Simon MacCorkindale) unearthing a jar containing the desiccated remains of some strange creature that had been hidden in the wall of their cottage. Both Josephine and her cat Muddy - and anyone with an ounce of sense - can feel something wrong with the whole set up but her abusive, selfish and distracted husband, too enamoured with his new life as a country vet to pay any attention to his wife's worry, is disdainful and careless of the whole thing.
We love everything Kneale here at Wyrd Britain and this is no exception. All the classic Kneale tropes are in play in a story where, once more, urban science and rural supernatural find themselves at odds as poor Josephine, caught in the middle, slowly gets subsumed by her fears for herself and her baby and the strange events that surround her. Kneale's script and John Nelson Burton's direction build the tension beautifully but the final reveal when it comes shows far too much and as a result is a bit of an anticlimax but like with many things it's the journey that makes the experience worthwhile.
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