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Sunday 30 June 2019

The Daedalus Equations

The Daedalus Equations, The Mind Beyond
'The Mind Beyond' was a six episode series that screened between September and November 1976 as part of the long running Playhouse series.  We've featured a couple of other episodes from the series here in the past, the excellent 'Stones' and the odd 'The Man with the Power'. 

This time out we meet Hans Deadalus (George Coulouris) a defected East German physicist whose death prompts a local psychic (Megs Jenkins) to begin receiving equations that she passes on to the dead man's colleagues.  The arrival of these equations trigger scepticism, confusion and accusations amongst those who worked with (Michael Bryant, Estelle Kohler & Richard Hurndall) and those who watched over (secret service operative Peter Sallis) Daedalus.

What we get is an intriguing stew that doesn't really have a clear idea of what it is, too much is thrown in the pot and it all starts to lose focus as it unfolds.  My guess is that it's trying for an intriguing ambiguity but doesn't quite manage it by being a little heavy handed particularly in the last third but it does manage to avoid coming to too firm a conclusion which is definitely in it's favour.



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Monday 3 June 2019

Wychwood / Hallowdene

George Mann
Titan Books

I first read some of Mann's work with his 'Newbury and Hobbes' steampunk series beginning with 'The Affinity Bridge'.  They were a pretty enjoyable romp through a Britain where Queen Victoria had been mechanised and, very underused, revenants stalked the streets.  After this I read his 'Ghost' pulp hero books and his War Doctor novel, the former was a big silly romp and the latter an entertaining Doctor Who tale that never really captured the spirit of the John Hurt character.

I guess what I'm saying here is that while I've enjoyed most everything of his I've read there's usually been some niggly little thing that's, certainly not spoilt, but bugged me about them; these books are no different.

Wychwood (buy it here) is the story of Elspeth Reeves a journalist returning to the small town she grew up in following the break down of both her relationship and her career in that there London.  Immediately on arrival she is drawn into a murder case being investigated by her childhood friend, Peter Shaw.

The murder, it transpires, is part of a series with an overtly magical purpose based on a local myth and it's around the magic that the story stumbles.  What we get is a story that seems stuck between two places; neither crime nor fantasy.  I like that for the protagonists that magic is hidden, alien, unlikely, absurd even but for the perpetrator it's ridiculously easy yet that he seems to only use it against women is a niggling annoyance that wasn't addressed and I really do think should have been.

Hallowdene (buy it here) continues where the previous left off with Elspeth now more settled and ensconced in a relationship with Peter.  Like the first book here we have an odd mix of cop and horror tropes as an archaeological dig to exhume the remains of legendary local witch Agnes Levett coincides with a spate of murders in a small village.

Also, as with the previous volume, it's all a little frothy.  What you get in these books is a sort of daytime TV cop show version of a horror story, 'The Midsommar Murders' or 'Rosemary's Baby and Thyme' perhaps.  The stories are lively but there's not much here to chew on and the magic / horror elements feel just a little bit tacked on which is a shame. 

Now, you may have noticed that I try and avoid writing negative reviews here on Wyrd Britain and I don't really want you to think that this is one.  As I said I generally quite like Mann's writing, he's writing is sprightly and very readable with a love of the pulps - here as much as ever - but this particular series, despite being on the surface right up my particular street is proving to be a bit of a cul de sac and personally I think I'm done but I also think that there's a lot going on here that many of you guys with a fondness for folk horror will really dig.

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Sunday 2 June 2019

Neverwhere

London Below is a place for those who have slipped through the cracks.  It exists alongside our own London Above and is populated by people who are invisible or inconsequential to those above.
Filled with places and people named in puntastic fashion after recognisable London landmarks such as Night's Bridge, The Earl's Court (Freddie Jones), The Angel Islington (Peter Capaldi) and The Black Friars and where the population live in magical fiefdoms where rats speak, Roman Centurions roam and vampires lurk.

Our introduction to this world comes when businessman Richard Mayhew (Gary Bakewell) helps an injured girl named Door (Laura Fraser) escape from the murderous attentions of Mr Croup (Hywel Bennett) and Mr Vandemar (Clive Russell) and as a result of this act of kindness finds himself cast into London Below.

Created by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry the six part series aired in 1996 to a less than glowing reception and the cheap and nasty looking video it was filmed on has remained cheap and nasty looking but that very quality has perhaps aided it's longevity.  The locations though are fabulous, this really is London as seen through other eyes, it's cast are, mostly, excellent - Bennett, Russell and Paterson Joseph (as the Marquis de Carabas) are especially good and there's some lovely and appropriately otherworldy music from Brian Eno.

This is Gaiman's baby though and it is quintessentially him.  The world he has created here is very much a sister to the the ones he has created since in novels such as American Gods and The Graveyard Book. As an early attempt it is in many ways that and one that he has returned to and tinkered with on several occasions since through various versions of the novel (with a sequel just announced) and a 2013 radio play and, I'm sure he will again, in a no doubt fairly imminent and finally to be realised remake but in the meantime this is an entertainingly lo-fi version that is an enjoyable artifact of it's time.

Buy it here - Neverwhere: The Complete BBC Series [DVD] [1996] - or watch it 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