The Poor Ghost

‘Oh whence do you come, my dear friend, to me,
With your golden hair all fallen below your knee,
And your face as white as snowdrops on the lea,
And your voice as hollow as the hollow sea?’

‘From the other world I come back to you:
My locks are uncurled with dripping drenching dew,
You know the old, whilst I know the new:
But to-morrow you shall know this too.’

‘Oh not to-morrow into the dark, I pray;
Oh not to-morrow, too soon to go away:
Here I feel warm and well-content and gay:
Give me another year, another day.’

‘Am I so changed in a day and a night
That mine own only love shrinks from me with fright,
Is fain to turn away to left or right
And cover up his eyes from the sight?’

‘Indeed I loved you, my chosen friend,
I loved you for life, but life has an end;
Through sickness I was ready to tend:
But death mars all, which we cannot mend.

‘Indeed I loved you; I love you yet,
If you will stay where your bed is set,
Where I have planted a violet,
Which the wind waves, which the dew makes wet.’

Christina Rossetti

‘Life is gone, then love too is gone,
It was a reed that I leant upon:
Never doubt I will leave you alone
And not wake you rattling bone with bone.

‘I go home alone to my bed,
Dug deep at the foot and deep at the head,
Roofed in with a load of lead,
Warm enough for the forgotten dead.

‘But why did your tears soak through the clay,
And why did your sobs wake me where I lay?
I was away, far enough away:
Let me sleep now till the Judgment Day.’

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The Landlady (audio drama)

Originally published in the New Yorker magazine and then reprinted in 'Kiss Kiss', Roald Dahl's third short story collection published in 1960.  Adapated both for 'Tales of the Unexpected' (Series 1, Episode 5) and in this instance for a BBC Radio 4 series of Dahl adaptations from the aforementioned collection.

Narrator Charles Dance introduces the tale of Billy Weaver (James Joyce) who after arriving in Bath to start a new job takes lodgings at a guest house where the two other names listed in the guest book seem oddly familiar but first it's time to take tea with the eccentric Landlady (Doreen Mantle - 'Dirk Gently').

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NEWS: Sarob Press to publish 'Ghostly Quarters' by C.E. Ward

Coming in late May / early June from Sarob Press is a new collection of ghost stories by C.E. Ward.  This, his sixth collection published by Sarob, features four previously unpublished stories - 'Promenade Walk', 'Some Episodes of a Family History', 'Where His Feet Pass', & 'Warlock’s End' -

From the publisher's blog...

Sarob Press is spookily delighted to present a new volume of ghost stories by C.E. Ward. Stories of dark deeds, supernatural evils, weird black magic and of terrible and dread-filled ghostly vengeance. C.E. Ward is, possibly, one of the most Jamesian of authors writing today (he is a life-long admirer of M.R. James and of all things darkly supernatural and ghostly), and his stories are replete with well researched historical detail and a brooding, chilling and (dare I say again) ghostly atmosphere… so here are four wholly original and all new lengthy tales (the four ‘quarters’) to best enjoy, perhaps, late at night (preferably, if one’s eyes allow, by candlelight, before a roaring log fire and with a glass of something rather particular to hand).

Ordering details can be found on the publishers site via the link given above.

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NEWS: Zagava to issue David Tibet (Current 93) 'The Night Is Eating Us All' stamps and postcards

Publishing house Zagava are set to issue a sheet of stamps and a set of postcards featuring David Tibet's 'The Night Is Eating Us All' artwork.

Musician and artist David Tibet is a key figure in the UK post-industrial music scene with links to musicians such as Psychic TV, Nurse With Wound, and Coil. Over the past 40 years he has formed and run various record labels and publishing houses such as Durtro, Jnana, and Ghost Story Press through which he has released his own work - mostly under the Current 93 guise - as well as music and writings by, amongst others, Antony and the Johnsons, Tiny Tim, Sand, Robert Aickman, Count Eric Stenbock, Ron Weighell and Thomas Ligotti.

The 15 stamps are presented on a single 24x18cm perforated sheet of stamp paper.

The 13 16x11cm postcards will be printed on finest card stock and presented in a semi-transparent envelope.

Pre-orders are being accepted now at the Zagava website here.

You can find a short documentary on Tibet and his artwork here.

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Waiting for Gorgo

A good pun should never go to waste.

Deep in the bowels of the Ministry of Defence lies a secretive government department identified only as the "DMOA". Just what the DMOA does has been lost in the annals of time - all that is known is that it's the last line of defence protecting London from total destruction.

Written by M.J. Simpson, directed by Benjamin Craig and starring Geoffrey Davies (Vault of Horror), Kelly Eastwood and Nicholas Amer it's an affectionate and award winning short film paying homage to the classic British monster movie from 1961, Gorgo. 

Visit the website here - www.waitingforgorgo.com/

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NEWS: Egaeus Press publishes 'A Mythology of Masks' by Stephen J Clark

Out now from Egaeus Press is the new collection of stories from Stephen J. Clark. This collection, illustrated by the author, includes eleven stories, ten uncollected and one previously unpublished.

From the publisher...

[These] stories present a familiar world beneath which flow relentless, malevolent and unknowable forces. Souls desirous or foolhardy enough to scratch at the surface are liable to be lured into ritualistic games, or confronted by ancient conspiracies and treacherous cabals. Myths lie hidden behind many masks.

Stephen J Clark is an artist and author whose striking artwork has appeared in numerous journals and, notably for us here, graced the Tartarus Press complete collection of Robert Aickman’s strange tales.  'A Mythology of Masks' is Clark's fifth book following three novels - 'In Delirium’s Circle' (Egaeus Press, 2012), 'The Feathered Bough' (Zagava, 2018) & 'The Mirror Remembers' (Zagava, 2024) - and a collection of novellas -  'The Satyr and Other Tales' (Swan River Press, 2015).

Ordering information for the new collection can be found here.

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Troll Bridge

Adapted from the 1991 short story of the same name written by Terry Pratchett for 'After the King: Stories In Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien' - published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tolkien's birth - this short film made by Snowgum Films finds Cohen the Barbarian (Don Bridges) and his talking horse (Glenn Van Oosterom) heading off to battle a bridge troll.  However, instead of fighting the two fall into reminiscing about the changes in the land and their dissatisfaction with this new (disc)world they find themselves in.

The film-makers make good use of their crowdfunded budget and the scenery is suitably epic and Cohen is suitably decrepit. The animation of the trolls is understandably limited but not to the extent that it mars what is a sympathetic and enjoyable glimpse of the Discworld.

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Gorgo

Eight years before directing 'Gorgo' in 1961, Eugène Lourié made 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' and arguably launched the whole giant atomic monster, kaiju subgenre. After 'Gorgo', and with two other giant creature movies under his belt that left him feeling himself typecast, he retrired from directing forging a successful career in other off camera roles including an Academy Award nomination for the visual effects on 'Krakatoa, East of Java'. Of those four movies that led rto him relinquishing the director's chair though the first and last remain central to the genre.

Following a volcanic eruption off the coast of an Irish island the crew of a salvage vessel capture a giant monster with bright red eyes and wiggly ears.  Ignoring the claims of the Irish scientists they take the creature, 'Gorgo', to London where it is put on display for the gawking masses until it's 200 foot tall mother, 'Ogra', turns up and rampages across the city.

Beyond the obvious stompy bloke in a rubber suit limitations of the movie and an over-reliance on stock footage there's some striking effects work here as 'Ogra' eats everything in her path in her desperate search for Chewits her lost baby. With barely a female in sight - beyond the 200ft tall one - this is a remarkably male-centred movie even for the time and in their absence Lourié puts the emotional heart of the movie in the hands of the young orphan, Sean (Vincent Winter), and the two kaijus and firmly establishing, through their greed and their voyeurism, the humans as the actual monsters.

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Poor Girl

Adapted from the short story by Elizabeth Taylor (the author not the actor) by Robin Chapman, who also transposed M.R. James' 'Lost Hearts' for the BBC, 'Poor Girl' is the story of Florence Chastity (Lynne Miller) hired as governess to the odd and precocious Hilary Wilson (Matthew Pollock) who finds herself beset by visions of lipstick marks, necklaces and a young couple in incongruous clothing whilst trapped in an unloving and strange haunted manor house.

The second and final episode of ITVs 'Haunted' thread, following 'The Ferryman' starring Jeremy Brett, was shown on December 30th 1974 and unlike Brett's episode opts for a period - late Victorian / early Edwardian - setting in keeping with the ghostly tradition of the BBC's more established annual spooky Christmas fare that it was shown in oppostion to.

There are distinct shades of Henry James' 'Turn of the Screw' / 'The Innocents' here as the reserve and the resolve of the adults begins to crumble and the libidinous pull starts to take hold but Taylor's story has an altogether different aim as the spectres of two different types of masculinity fight for dominance within the house, of the vainglorious, lascivious father or of the gentler, loving son and the man he'll grow to be.  It's all a little slow and tentative but with a strong performance by Pollock as the odd and old beyond his years child and it's slowly unfolding narrative it makes for a gently satisfying watch.

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NEWS: The Quatermass Xperiment Ltd Collector's Edition

Nigel Kneale's magnificent science fiction classic 'The Quatermass Xperiment' is available for the first time in 4K UHD and Blu-ray on June 9th with pre-orders from 25th April from Hammer Films.

According to the website (and subject to possible change) the release includes...

• Five discs, including two UHD and three Blu-ray, with the Hammer content duplicated across both formats. English, French, Italian, Spanish, German subtitles on all versions of the film.
• The existing episodes from the original BBC television series. 
• Three iterations of The Quatermass Xperiment: the widescreen 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Version, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version re-titled The Creeping Unknown.
• A rigid inner box featuring new artwork by cult favourite artist Graham Humphreys. 
• A double sided poster of original one-sheets
• Eight act cards featuring facsimiles of the original UK cinema lobby cards.
• 180 page booklet featuring new and reprint articles and reproductions of original publicity. 
• 56-page comic featuring a reprint of the comic strip from legendary 1970s magazine The House of Hammer.

The discs feature:

• New commentary with actor and comedian Toby Hadoke, Nigel Kneale’s biographer Andy Murray and Wayne Kinsey, writer of numerous books on Hammer. Stephen R. Bissette, artist and film historian, filmmaker and Hammer expert Constantine Nasr and writer/producer Dr Steve Haberman plus archive 2003 commentary with director Val Guest and Hammer expert Marcus Hearn.
• The Legend of Nigel Kneale: The Creeping Unknown. Who was Nigel Kneale? Toby Hadoke investigates the man and his influence in part one of a brand-new two-part documentary.
• Unstoppable: Unleashing The Quatermass Xperiment. A close look at the making of The Quatermass Xperiment, with contributions from Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk.
• Patient Zero. Award-winning actor and writer James Swanton, who played Carroon in the live, 70th anniversary production of The Quatermass Experiment, examines the life and career of Richard Wordsworth.
• Monstrous! Stephen R. Bissette talks briefly about Phil Leakey and the make-up effects used in the film, for a section trimmed from the audio commentary.
• The Eric Winstone Bandshow. A musical short from Hammer that played alongside The Quatermass Xperiment at the August 1955 UK premiere.
• The Kneale Tapes. A 2003 BBC documentary that explores the career of Nigel Kneale, arguably one of the most significant writers of the post-war generation.
• Cartier and Kneale in Conversation. From the 2005 BBC DVD. Writer Nigel Kneale and producer Rudolph Cartier reminisce about their work on the seminal Quatermass series.
• Making Demons. From the 2005 BBC DVD. An interview with Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie, visual effects pioneers at the BBC.
• Val Guest 2000 interview from the Festival of Fantastic Films archive.
• Val Guest 2003 interview from original UK DVD release of The Quatermass Xperiment.
• Exhuming The Quatermass Xperiment. A look behind-the-scenes at how the new 4K restoration of The Quatermass Xperiment was made.
• Original trailers, foreign titles, Super 8 cut-down versions and the original BBFC censor cards for both The Quatermass Xperiment and The Eric Winstone Bandshow.
• Extensive image gallery of stills and publicity material, alongside tracks from James Bernard’s score.
• Quatermass and the Pit Omnibus Titles. From the 2005 BBC DVD. The bespoke titles used for the omnibus repeat edition of the third Quatermass TV series.
• TV Series Photo Gallery. From the 2005 BBC DVD. Rare photos of the original BBC productions.

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Happy Birthday Spike.

Happy birthday to Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan, comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor.

Spike was born in Ahilya Nagar, India on April 16, 1918 and died at his home on the remarkably named Dumb Woman's Lane in Rye, Sussex on February 27, 2002.
He'd told us he was ill.

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Onos.
We have cracked the midnight glass
And loosed the racketing star-crazed night into the room.
The blind harp sings in the late fire-light
Your hand is decked with white promises.
What wine is this?
There are squirrels chasing in my glass,
Good God! I'm pissed!

(From 'Small Dreams of a Scorpion')

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NEWS: Two new wyrd releases from the British Library.

April brings two new releases of interest to us here at Wyrd Britain from The British Library. 

The first is the latest addition to their 'Tales of the Weird' imprint with the cosmic horror of, 'Medusa: a Novel of Mystery, Ecstasy and Strange Horror' by E.H. Visiak.  First published in 1929 it's the story of a mariner’s search for his missing son, a search that soon finds his ship in very strange waters. 

Visiak (Edward Harold Physick) was a critic, poet and author, an authority on John Milton and a friend and champion of David Lindsay, writing the introductory note for that author's metaphysical science fiction masterpiece, 'A Voyage to Arcturus'. 

Also publishing this month is the latest of their hardback 'Gilded Nightmares' imprint, 'The Dead of Summer: Strange Tales of May Eve and Midsummer', edited by Johnny Mains who's previously edited the 'Celtic Weird' book for the same series.  Here he guides us through a selection of stories that reveal the wyrder side of the sunnier parts of the ritual year with stories from the likes of E. F. Benson, Joan Aiken and a host of others.

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Pan: The Great God's Modern Return

Paul Robichaud
Reaktion Books

Part-goat, part-man, Pan bridges the divide between the human and animal worlds. In exquisite prose, Paul Robichaud explores how Pan has been imagined in mythology, art, literature, music, spirituality, and popular culture through the centuries. At times, Pan is a dangerous, destabilizing force; at others, a source of fertility and renewal. His portrayals reveal shifting anxieties about our own animal impulses and our relationship to nature. Always the outsider, he has been the god of choice for gay writers, occult practitioners, and New Age mystics. Though ancient sources announced his death, he has lived on through the work of Arthur Machen, Gustav Mahler, Kenneth Grahame, D. H. Lawrence and countless others. Pan: The Great God’s Modern Return traces his intoxicating dance.

I've long had a quiet obsession with all things Pan, fed, over the years, by occasionally stumbling over another Pan based story or fleeting reference hidden in the pages of a supernatural anthology.  Of late though I've been spoiled by a couple of exemplary books focussed on the goat-footed God, Michael Wheatley's excellent collection for the British Library's Tales of the Weird imprint, 'The Horned God: Weird Tales of the Great God Pan' and now this fascinating study of the history and the many reinventions of Pan in art, literature, music and magic.

It's hugely recommended for anyone with even a passing interest and while I have to admit to skimming through a couple of parts that I wasn't particularly interested in - the section on Depth Psychology for instance - I poured over others filling several pages in my notebook with new treasures to seek out.  

Here, Robichaud explores Pan's origins and development, his place in history, and, of most interest to me, his roles in the literary works of Lord Dunsany, D.H. Lawrence, Kenneth Grahame, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Arthur Machen, Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, and many others.  Robichaud has produced a wonderfully readable overview of the many masks worn by this most mutable of gods as his very nature has been reinterpreted to suit various ends, be he devil or benefactor,  avenging nature spirit or welcoming protector of the wild, coded expression of hidden sexualities or lusty old nymph chaser careening across the Arcadian landscape.  

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NEWS: Two Lost tales by Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker

Over the last few years Withnail Books of Penrith have released a mouth watering selection of limited edition chapbooks, several  of which I've been lucky enough to get copies of, including, 'The Slave Race', Philip K Dick's first published SF story and F. Scott Fitzgerald's story of a Lovecraftian witch cult, "Gods of Darkness'.

This weekend they announced their latest publications, two lost tales by Mary Shelley, 'The Ghost of the Private Theatricals' and Bram Stoker, 'Gibbet Hill'.  

Limited to just 250 sets, more information and ordering details can be found here. 

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NEWS: Tartarus Press to publish Charlotte Brontë's 'Book Of Ryhmes'.

In 2022 a tiny little 15 page book of 10 poems written in 1829 by a 13 year old Charlotte Brontë went on display at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire.  The book returned to its former home after being purchased from a New York bookseller, for £973,000, by the charity Friends of the Nation's Libraries.

Now, on 21st April 2025, "A Book Of Ryhmes By Charlotte Bronte, Sold By Nobody, And Printed By Herself', is finally being sold and printed by somebody else.  Tartarus Press have taken on the task of reproducing Bronte's book in both hardback and jacketed paperback editions for which pre-orders are now open here.  Both editions feature reproductions of the original pages presented alongside transcriptions of the poems and include an Introduction by singer, poet and book collector Patti Smith as well as essays by rare books specialist Barbara Heritage and author and antiquarian bookseller Henry Wessells.

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The Corpse Can’t Play

The 1968 BBC series 'Late Night Horror', was the first horror show made in colour on the channel and featured stories by such luminaries as Robert Aickman (an adaptation of 'Ringing the Changes'), Arthur Conan Doyle, Richard Mattheson, Roald Dahl, H Russell Wakefield and John Burke.  Lasting only six episodes before being cancelled due to complaints and subsequently wiped, only the Burke episode remains in the form of a black and white telerecording (subsequently re-released in a colourised version)

In 'The Corpse Can't Play' the thoroughly unpleasant Ronnie (Frank Berry) is ruling the roost at his birthday party when another boy, the unpopular, but impeccably dressed, Simon (Michael Newport), arrives unannounced and immediately becomes the target of Ronnie's spite whilst, hovering in the background, are three entirely ineffectual adults, one of whom has just brought home several new gardening tools, including an axe.

Featuring some solid performances from the two main kids it's a quick and effective little shocker ably directed by Paddy Russell, one of the first female directors employed by the BBC, who had an almost peerless Wyrd Britain pedigree having worked on the 'Quatermass' TV serials before directing episodes of 'Doctor Who' - including 'Pyramids of Mars' and 'Horror of Fang Rock' - as well as 'Out of the Unknown' and 'The Omega Factor'.

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The Nemesis Of Fire (audio drama)

The occult detective Dr John Silence featured in six of Algernon Blackwood's short stories.  Silence is an independently wealthy physician who chooses to use his skills both physical and metaphysical to help those he thinks need them the most and over the six stories we see him tackle all manner of dark and strange menaces.

In 'The Nemesis Of Fire', Dr Silence is invited by an obviously anxious military gentleman to visit his country house where he discovers a household held hostage by mysterious and murderous fires.

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1974 as one of a series of dramatisations starring Malcolm Hayes as Dr. John Silence and Fraser Kerr as his Watson, Stephen Hubbard. 'The Nemesis...' is one of the pulpiest of the Silence stories, quite Holmesian in it's set up with the action kept at an breathlessly brisk pace throughout as the good Doctor races to isolate the cause.

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Don’t Knock Yourself Out: The Making of the Prisoner

From 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968 ITV bewildered their audience with 17 episodes of Kafkaesque sci-fi brilliance in the form of 'The Prisoner'.  Created by actor Patrick McGoohan following his exit from the successful spy drama 'Danger Man', that he'd starred in for four series, 'The Prisoner' is the story of 'Number Six' a former spy, who, following his resignation, is drugged and imprisoned in 'The Village', a surreal, seaside holiday camp from which he cannot escape and where he's subjected to repeated psychedelic, surgical and psychological manipulation in the pursuit of information.

Made by the folks at Century 21 Films with not a marionette - super or otherwise - in sight it offers a comprehensive and fascinating, if slightly dry, overview of the making of this most enigmatic of TV shows featuring contributions, both archive and new, from the likes of Peter Wyngarde, Fennella Fielding, Darren Nesbitt, Leo McKern and, of course, McGoohan alongside various members of the production team including ITC head Lew Grade, producer David Tomblin, script editor (and possible series co-creator) George Markstein and writers Vincent Tilsley and Roger Parkes.

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Ringing the Changes (audio drama)

Originally published in 1955 in Lady Cynthia Asquith's anthology 'The Third Ghost Book' and subsequently housed in 'Dark Entries', the first of Robert Aickman's own collections, 'Ringing the Changes', is a quintessential example of his mastery of the strange tale.

Honeymooning couple Gerald and Phrynne Banstead visit the out of season seaside town of Holihaven only to have their senses assaulted by the constant ringing of the church bells and the stench they experience during an evening walk on a dark beach and despite the warning that the bells are "ringing to wake dead" the couple, foolishly, opt to stay.

This dramatisation for Radio 4 from 2000 by Jeremy Dyson and Mark Gatiss - who also collaborated on a short film adaptation of 'The Cicerones' - features the stellar cast of George Baker and Fiona Allen in the lead roles, ably supported by Michael Cochrane and Hammer legend Barbara Shelley.

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The Black Goddess

One of only two stories - the other being 'Superstitious Ignorance' - featured in both the book, 'Tales of Unease', and subsequent TV series, Jack Griffiths' tale is the story of a group of Welsh miners trapped deep underground after a pit collapse, one of whom has been having premonitions of disaster and visions of the dark spirit of the mine.

Featuring Ronald Lewis, David Lloyd Meredith and Talfryn Thomas (who would later play the loathsome Tom Price in 'Survivors') it tells a gentle story about a brutal topic which retains the original's deliciously ambiguous core.

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The Waxwork (audio drama)

A.M. (Alfred McLelland) Burrage first published 'The Waxwork' in 1931 and it has since become perhaps his most recognisable work, although it is far from his best.

It's the story of Raymond Hewson, a freelance journalist who concocts the idea of passing the night in 'Murderer's Den' at his local waxwork.  There he is confronted by the effigy of ' Dr. Bourdette', a French serial killer who, unlike the rest of those represented, is still at large.

This dramatisation made for the BBC Home Service in 1963 - with 'Hewson' played by William Bedle and 'Bourdette' by the Black Guardian himself, Valentine Dyall - took an already short story and made it even shorter losing much of the tension derived from the fracturing of Hewson's mind. But, as a quick listen it's still a fairly effective introduction to the work of an author that's been unfortunately sidelined.

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The Ferryman

ITV's extremely short lived 'Haunted' thread seem to have been an attempt to create their own 'A Ghost Story for Christmas' and this, the first of the two films they aired under that banner heading, screened the same day as the BBC's 'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas', the 23rd December 1974.

Based on a story by Kingsley Amis it stars Jeremy Brett as Sheridan Owen, the pompous and overbearing author of a hit "literary horror" novel, who, escaping with his wife Alex (Natasha Parry) from his promotional duties, finds himself seemingly trapped in the plot of his own novel.

The last time we met Brett on Wyrd Britain was with his dreadful scenery chewing performance in 'Mr Nightingale' but thankfully  he's notably more restrained here and reminds of the actor he was to become in his most famous role.  Parry, unfortunately has little to do but leads a strong supporting cast.  Director John Irvin, who four years later would direct Alec Guinness in the superb 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', shows a keen sense of pacing and a good eye for a gothic visual, despite everything being obviously shot in the daytime, and the story builds to a solid climax with a darkly cryptic coda. 

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Lolly Willowes (audio drama)

Sylvia Townsend Warner's debut novel, 'Lolly Willowes; or The Loving Huntsman', is the story of Laura Willowes, who, following the death of her father, is torn from her idyllic existence in the countryside she loves and subsumed into the restrictive, self-satisfied, humdrum town life of her oafish, domineering brother and his family, almost becoming lost in her new, imposed, identity as 'Aunt Lolly' until she finally manages to break away to a new life in the village of 'Great Mop' where she pledges herself to the Devil and becomes a witch.

'Lolly Willowes' is a comedy of manners that soon reveals it's true colours as a satirical meditation on life in the early twentieth century, particularly on the lives of women in a society that refuses to value them...

"Women have such vivid imaginations, and lead such dull lives. Their pleasure in life is so soon over; they are so dependent upon others, and their dependence so soon becomes a nuisance."

... and on the appeal of a life lived beyond the confines of conventional social and religious mores, as offered here in the form of Satan and the lure of witchcraft.

"But you say: 'Come here, my bird! I will give you the dangerous black night to stretch your wings in, and poisonous berries to feed on, and a nest of bones and thorns, perched high up in danger where no one can climb to it.' That's why we become witches: to show our scorn of pretending life's a safe business, to satisfy our passion for adventure. It's not malice, or wickedness—well, perhaps it is wickedness, for most women love that—but certainly not malice, not wanting to ​plague cattle and make horrid children spout up pins and—what is it?—'blight the genial bed.' [...] One doesn't become a witch to run round being harmful, or to run round being helpful either, a district visitor on a broomstick. It's to escape all that—to have a life of one's own, not an existence doled out to you by others"

The version below featuring Louise Brealey as Laura and Sam Dale as Satan was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Halloween 2021, a choice no doubt inspired by it's subject matter but 'Lolly Willowes' is a story more interested in sharing it's message through humour than through horror a fact that playwright, Sarah Daniels emphasises in her joyous, deeply sympathetic and entirely lovely interpretation of this neglected classic.

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The Death Watcher

Shadows Of Fear was an early 70s anthology series of ten hour long thrillers and one thirty minute one revolving around notions of 'fear'.  Strangely for the time it was made and with such an apt core concept and such a supremely creepy animated opening sequence featuring Roger Webb's terrifying theme music only one of the eleven episodes had a supernatural theme, episode four, 'The Death Watcher'

Psychologist, Emily Erikson (Judy Parfitt), riding high on the publication of her book, accepts the invitation of a Dr Pickering (John Neville) to visit with him to observe his experiments. There she discovers his work is far further out there than she anticipated and finds herself held hostage by the deranged Doctor and his unwitting assistant Dawson (Victor Maddern) and destined to be not just an observer but his subject. 

Screened on January 26th 1971 there are shades of Nigel Kneale in the melding of science and the supernatural but Pickering always feels more bonkers than brilliant with his botched together death trap and half baked theories, reminiscing about ballroom dancing as he becomes increasingly deranged, leading to a chilling denouement. 

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The Judge's House (audio drama)

Nigel Havers stars in this quick and effective BBC Radio adaptation of what is perhaps Bram Stoker's second most famous story.  Originally publised on December 5th 1891 in Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News it's the story of a student who takes on an old house, previously the home of a sadistic judge, to study for an exam.  Unfortunately the "absurd prejudices" the locals hold regarding the house soon prove themselves true.

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The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb

Having located the lost tomb of Ra-Antef the team of archaeologists and Egyptologists (Jack Gwillim, Ronald Howard & Jeanne Roland) bring the plundered remains back to Britain where their brash American financier (Fred Clark) plans to exhibit the mummy as part of a touring show.  Unfortunately there is the inevitable curse and their journey home is dogged by murder, mayhem and an enigmatic stranger (Terence Morgan) all of which they seem to take entirely in their stride.

By the mid 60s Hammer Films were releasing around half a dozen movies a year so it's inevitable that there's some slippage in quality amongst them.  The studio's second mummy movie, bereft of Hammer's A-team of Cushing and Lee who've been replaced, for the most part, with a cast of unremarkable, jobbing actors, is a mess of cliches and contrivances that bumbles along entirely forgetting to unleash the Mummy until well over halfway through the film.  Indeed, 'The Curse...' is such a stinker that the absurdity of the revelation in the final act is entirely predictable and it almost never fails to make me laugh every tme I get to it but it has some nice set pieces and the finale in the sewers is effectively done offering an unusual grandeur and a much needed change of setting.  

Mummy movies are a tricky prosect to pull off - implacable, shuffling, encroaching murder monsters work so much better as a zombie hoard - and it takes some real filmic flair to pull it off which this movie has very little of as it's as slow, lumbering and wheezy as its monster but still, for all it's many faults, I like it and it's long been a rainy day movie at Wyrd Manor. 

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