Black Carrion

Right, before we start, let me just say upfront this show is bad, really bad, and not in a so bad it's good kind of way but in a so bad it's bloody awful kind of way.  It is, in so many ways, terrible; irredeemably, eyewateringly terrible. But I like it even though it is, and I can't stress this enough, crap!

'Black Carrion' was the eighth episode of Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, the venerable company's second TV series made in conjunction with 20th Century Fox Television whose input allowed for longer run times, some 'name' actors and access to the US TV market.

Telling the story of the search for the 'Verne Brothers' (Alan Love and Julian Littman) a long disappeared early 60s pop duo whose contribution to music seems to have been doing covers of Chuck Berry and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates songs with horrible 80s saxophone parping over the top whilst wearing, for no particular reason, white leather jackets with a bird motif on the back.

Written by Don Houghton (Sapphire and Steel, Ace of Wands) there's much spooky promise here with a fun premise and some nice sets but he just doesn't seem to know what to do with it and squanders every opportunity.  The script suffers from more flashbacks than Jerry Garcia, meanders aimessly for much of the time, features teenage hoodlums who aren't, investigating reporters who don't and a grand finale that isn't.  

The first time I watched this, I almost shouted at the TV in disbelief at how idiotic the ending is, but over the years, I've come to kind of love it for all it's very, very, many faults.

And The Wall Came Tumbling Down

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense was a joint mid 80s production between the erstwhile studio of the title and 20th Century Fox in the US a collaboration which explains budget, the slightly longer than normal run time and the plethora of relatively big name US stars of the era like David Carradine, Dean Stockwell, David McCallum and Dirk Benedict who show up through the various episodes as well as the various stalwarts of British TV of the time like Gareth Hunt and Peter Wyngarde both of whom feature in this episode alongside playboy model Barbi Benton.

This, the penultimate, episode of the series was written by the great Dennis Spooner the writer behind numerous Gerry Anderson serials such as Stingray and Thunderbirds, script editor for the 1st Doctor era and the co-creator of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Champions, Department S and Jason King for ITC and then later The New Avengers.  His story here reunites him with two of the stars of those series in the forms of Wyngarde and Hunt and tells a story of a church, scheduled for demolition but the scene of several unexplained deaths.

Mixing your typically Hammer satanic, gothic trappings of a spooky old desecrated church with a more modern vision of the apocalypse Spooner has produced a fun, schlocky romp.  The whole thing looks quite nice and races along but few of the actors involved are exerting themselves; Benton is way out of her light comedy comfort zone and Hunt was always more convincing shaking a fistful of coffee beans than as a leading man and Wyngarde has little to do except look spooky and malevolent (and always effortlessly cool) but it is an undeniably fun watch

Buy it here - Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense - Vol. 2 [DVD] - or watch it below.

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Child's Play

'Child's Play' was the third episode of the short lived series Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense screened in the UK in late 1984 and jointly made by Hammer Studios and 20th Century Fox Television.  Ann (Mary Crosby), Michael (Nicholas Clay) and their daughter Sarah wake early one morning to discover their house has been completely encased in a solid metal shell.  As the family strive to escape, the temperature rises, tempers fray, memories slip, a mysterious symbol starts appearing around the house and a strange green goo pours down the chimney.

Stereotypical TV gender roles abound with Clay remaining steadfast and plucky and channelling his inner A-Team by making an improvised bomb in his own kitchen whilst Crosby is all brittle emotions and desperation.  Little can salvage the ending when it arrives in the shape of a pretty desperate twist in the tail but director Val Guest (The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2, Space: 1999) imbues the episode with a sweaty claustrophobia that disguises the paucity of the story.

Buy it here - Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense - Vol. 2 [DVD] - 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 appreciate a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain