The Keeper (1983)

'The Keeper', written by Alan Garner, was the final episode of the original 'Spooky' series of the long running Dramarama series, an anthology show for children.

Garner's story concerns 'Beacon Lodge' a dilapidated and long abandoned gamekeeper's lodge where two paranormal researchers - Peter (Tim Woodward) and Sally (Janet Maw) -  settle themselves in for the night.  We know right from the off that there is something already resident, and comfortably at home, in the house and it's not best pleased at the arrival of the interlopers. A game of scrabble and a poem set the scene for the conclusion as the secret of the house is revealed.

At the heart of the story is a typically Garner tale of the power that resides in the land, an animistic presence that holds sway over the patch of earth.  It's a short little tale that uses many well worn tricks to build suspense - eerie acoustic instruments, predominantly a dulcimer, and a restless camera that's constantly circling and hovering just behind Peter and, particularly, Janet - but it must be remembered this is a show made for kids for whom many of these tricks of the trade would be new and also they are well worn because they work.

A genuinely scary story from that golden age of kids television when film-makers had literally no qualms about utterly terrifying their young audience.



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Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance (1976)

'Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance' is a short story written by M.R. James that was included in his second anthology 'More Ghost Stories'. It's my understanding that it was written to bulk out that collection which would make sense as it really does pale in comparison to most of the other tales in that collection.

The gist of the tale is obvious from the title with the inheritance in question being a large house and it's accompanying maze; a maze it seems only Mr. Humphreys can easily navigate and which has at it's centre an enigmatic, inscribed globe.

This adaptation was made in 1976 as an ITV schools programme - for those not raised in the UK in the 1970s these were shows made and shown during the daytime with an educational bent that could be used by teachers to distract the kids as they had a sneaky tea and cigarette break - as part of a series called 'Music Scene' whose purpose was to highlight the importance of incidental music to a production which in this context puts modernist tootling over typically Jamesian imagery. It sometimes makes for an odd fit but, for me at least, made a nice change to the usual overblown, portentous, pseudo classical violin sawing that film-makers often smother everything in.

With a run time of only 17 minutes the makers have amalgamated many aspects of the source material and discarded others entirely but they've created an engaging little film that manages to conjure up some nicely claustrophobic sequences within the maze - the point where the incidental music is at it's most effective - and a nifty and creepy animation sequence that looks like the opening of a 1970s Doctor Who episode but with the Doctor replaced with Peter Pratt's melty face version of The Master.

The show is available as an extra here - Casting the Runes [1979] [DVD] - or you can watch it below.



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Mrs Amworth

Adapted from an E.F. Benson story of the same name 'Mrs Amworth' is a modern vampire tale that finds the titular lady - played with flamboyant aplomb by the fabulous Glynis Johns - both beguiling and terrorising a small English village but finding her match in retired professor  Francis Urcombe (John Phillips).

Apparently made as part of a series of 6 adaptations by the likes of L.P. Hartley, Robert Bloch, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence and Issac Asimov called 'Classics Dark and Dangerous' it seems to have only made it to screen here in the UK for one brief half hour back in 1975 although the various episodes were later amalgamated into two straight to video movies - in this case 'Three Dangerous Ladies'.
(My thanks to the good folks over at the 'Taliesin Meets the Vampires' blog for providing this info)

There're no real chills here but it's got some great music and it's tiny run time means not a second is wasted with a cast of rock solid character actors playing very much within type to produce an understated but fun little treat.

Buy it here - Rare Chills - The Fear Makers:Shadow Of Death & Supernatural:Mrs Amworth [DVD] - or watch it below.



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Witchfinder General

Witchfinder General was the third and final film by Director Michael Reeves before his death from a barbiturate overdose and stars his childhood friend Ian Ogilvy and is based on a fictionalised account of the life of self appointed 'Witchfinder General', Matthew Hopkins, played here with sleazy conviction by Vincent Price.

Following the witchcraft accusation and hanging of a priest, 'John Lowes' (Rupert Davies) and the rape of his niece (and Ogilvy's fiance) 'Sara' (Hilary Dwyer) by Hopkins and his brutal assistant John Stearne (Robert Russell) Ogilvy's roundhead officer 'Richard Marshall' sets out looking for revenge against the despicable duo.

Reeve's vision of Civil War era England is one adrift in political turmoil, rife with misogynist superstition and in the thrall of the charismatic Hopkins.  Both the world he conjured and the film he made are unrelentingly and unrepentantly brutal; with the exception of the short burst of hammering as a gallows is constructed the film opens and closes to the sound of screaming with little respite in between.  The fact that it is mostly shot, presumably for budgetary reasons, mostly in daylight and amidst the bucolic delights of the English countryside only adds to the intensity of the experience as every act of callous violence is thrown into stark relief.

Buy it here - Witchfinder General [DVD] - or watch it below.



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Mythago Wood

Robert Holdstock
Gollancz

Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged.
Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable... and stronger than time itself.
Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christian, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity.

A little while back I had a real hankering for something featuring trees; something where a wood was central to the story.  Not just as a location but as a character, a defining point within the story.  I bought a couple of things I saw around - 'The Vorrh' and 'Wychwood' - but neither delivered the fix I wanted but as luck would have it a 'What are you reading?' post on the Wyrd Britain Facebook page brought this one to my attention and I'm so glad it did.

The wood of the title is Ryhope Wood in Herefordshire a tiny woodland that you could walk around in a couple of hours but which could take you a more than a lifetime to walk through - a TARDIS wood if you will.

The wood is one of the last remaining pieces of the ancient woodland that once covered the country - it is the very heart and soul of Britain - and in it can be found all the myths and legends of the land in the form of 'Mythagos', defined by Holdstock as "myth imago, the image of the idealized form of a myth creature".  Myths and legends created from and filtered through the minds of those intruding upon its confines; if, for instance, the defining consensus of Robin Hood is as the tights wearing, acrobatic, chivalrous righter of wrongs then that's the 'mythago' that will be presented but as the consensus shifts to perceiving him as a sadistic, arrogant woodland terrorist then...

The novel tells of Stephen Huxley's reluctant return to his family home following his experiences fighting in Europe during WWII.  The home where his recently deceased father had based his obsessive research on Ryhope Wood and where Stephen's brother Christian seems to be following in his footsteps.  Once there, as Christian disappears into the depths of the wood, Stephen begins his own journey.

At it's heart the book is a rumination on the centrality of legend, of myth and of story in the British identity.  The Wood encapsulates the entirety of the British mythic identity and feeds it back to the observer.  The stories and their characters have a strength to them that enables them to both adapt and endure as can be seen through the actions of such mythagos as 'Guiwenneth' and 'Sorthalan' and in the way Stephen's own journey through the Wood, his quest for love and for revenge, acquires an increasing mythic resonance.

I also wonder if Holdstock was maybe making a more subtle point, an accusation of blame perhaps, as to the loss or lessening of the relevance of myths within British culture as it transpires that it's the arrival and actions of the 'outsider', (the) Christian, that's damaging the Wood and all it holds.

Mythago Wood proved to be that most rare of beasts a truly transformative novel.  One that took hold of me from the off and twisted and writhed and caressed and gnawed and stared and whispered and grinned and punched at me for the entire time I was reading and is still running riot around the back of my head several weeks later.

I adored this book,  unequivocally adored it.

Buy It Here

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Random Quest

Based on the John Wyndham short - originally published as part of his 'Consider Her Ways' collection - Random Quest is the story of a physicist, Colin Trafford (Samuel West), shunted into a parallel dimension and into the body of his counterpart, a selfish, philandering novelist whose wife, Ottilie (Kate Ashfield), he slowly begins to fall in love with.  On returning to his own life he undertakes a quest to reunite with Ottilie who seems not to exist in this universe.

What we get is a rather gentle sort of show slowed by lots of shots of Colin wandering around whilst being filmed from odd angles and through distorting lenses to a lazy, swirly trip-hoppy soundtrack.  As a love story it hits it's beats well and the core cast (including David Burke, Shaun Parkes & Jemima Rooper) are all very watchable.  The unusual premise does leave us with a number of questions though, most crucially the fate of the otherworld Ottilie -  although I do think the film-makers included a large hint with regard to this.

An unhurried and delicate sci-fi love story.



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Ghost of Venice

The 1977 BBC anthology series 'Supernatural', created and almost entirely written by Robert Muller, was intended to be a return to old fashioned gothic tales and the classic creatures of horror.  The series found new prospective members of the 'Club of the Damned' telling a sufficiently terrifying tale that would grant them membership or death.

This, the first episode, takes ageing Shakespearean actor Adrian Gall (Robert Hardy) whose maniacal rage at a theft only he remembers many years before during a performance in Venice returns him to that city to face the ghost of his past in the form of Leonora (Sinéad Cusack).

Filled with flowery monologues and a hysterically hammy performance from Hardy that will have you chuckling and cringing in equal measures.  The studio bound setting of the production makes everything feel a little cheap and the script could certainly have done with some judicial editing to curb it's more floridly bombastic aspects.  The series is generally regarded as a bit of a failure; already old fashioned in tone and in production values upon release it certainly hasn't aged well but personally I quite like a noble failure even if it's just for it's unintended comedy value of which there is plenty here.

You can find another episode from the series here - Night of the Marionettes.



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The Daedalus Equations

'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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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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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

Wyrd Sisters

Based on Terry Pratchett's book of the same name this animated adaptation was made in 1997 by Cosgrove Hall Films, home of Danger Mouse, Count Duckula & the Doctor Who animation, Scream of the Shalka.  Sticking closely to the plot of the book (Granny wouldn't have had it any other way) it tells to tale of the murder of Verence, the King of Lancre by the deeply unsuitable and unstable Duke Felmet and of the three witches - Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick - who hide the King's infant son, Tomjon, and protect both him and the - very angry - land until he comes of age.

There's a nicely rustic quality to the animation, if you've grown up on high budget animations from the likes of Studio Gibli and Pixar you may find it all a little crude but for those of us of the Roobarb generation that's, at least, half the appeal.  The voice cast is top notch with the likes of Christopher Lee (DEATH), Jane Horrocks (Magrat), June Whitfield (Nanny Ogg) and Annette Crosbie (Granny Weatherwax) all perfectly cast but I'm less (much less) enamoured of Les Dennis' performance as The Fool.  The joy though is of course the source material which Cosgrove Hall treat with the utmost respect and which the extended run time allows all the space it needs.

I have to admit that I've never been much of a fan of the Discworld books but in recent months I've been having another go (on audio) and have discovered a real fondness for the books featuring the witchy trio with this one being a particular favourite, it's Shakespearean allusions never failing to raise a chuckle from me and hopefully from you too.

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The Wyrd Britain Book Shop

Those of you who follow the Wyrd Britain Facebook page will have spotted all the new additions to the Books for Sale image folder.  These are for sale in our Etsy Shop where you can find a host of vintage books that cover many of the facets of Wyrd Britain and more.

There are around 700 books listed covering genres such as horror, science fiction, the paranormal, poetry, biographies, classic kids books, literary fiction, annuals, novelisations and more.  New stock is being added all the time - as I type this there are three boxes of books in front of me that'll be added over the weekend.  Clicking the widget below will take you to the shop.


As well as the Etsy page I also have slightly more modern books (and occasionally music, toys and memorabilia) for sale on the wyrdbritain eBay page.

When you buy from either shop your book will be sent gift wrapped and I always try and get it in the post within 24 hours of receiving the order.

I hope you find something fun and tempting.

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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

Calculated Nightmare

Anthology series Tales of Unease was broadcast during 1970 and was adapted from the series of books edited by John Burke who also wrote this particular story.  Much of the show seems to have gone the way of all things with only this (the 2nd episode) and the 1st (Ride, Ride) apparently having survived.  - EDIT: The rest of the series has been found.

Unlike the other episode there's nothing supernatural here and instead we have a science fiction ish piece tapping into fears about the advances of technology, the callous nature of capitalism and that good old staple of the TV play, class.

Michael Culver (a Wyrd Britain TV regular but most famous as the unlucky Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back) and John Stratton (Quatermass and the Pit, Doctor Who) play 'Johnson' and 'Harker' two executives trapped in their office by a disgruntled employee (Peter Madden - who also featured in a host of Wyrd Britain TV faves but is probably most recognisable as the undertaker from the opening credits of The Prisoner) who has discovered himself on a list of soon to be ex-employees and so manipulates proceedings to his own ends.

At less than 30 minutes it's a quick, easy and enjoyably mindless watch that uses both the limitations of it's idea and it's run time well with a fast and snappy script that paints it's characters with the broadest of strokes and doesn't waste a second in escalating the threat level up to it's inevitable conclusion.



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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

The Binding

Bridget Collins
The Borough Press
Buy it here

In the world of 'The Binding' Bridget Collins has created a world of secrets; secrets shared and secrets forgotten.  In this world, even more than our own, books have power and their contents are the truths that it's inhabitants wish to hide from themselves.

Emmett Farmer is a young (nominative determinism in action) farmer who upon recovering from a mysterious illness is summoned to become an apprentice bookbinder, one of a rare breed of people responsible for the creation of books and an occupation held in superstitious awe and more than a little dread.  Upon embarking on this new and unexpected path Emmett soon finds out that there may be more  to his life than he can recall.

Told over three acts 'The Binding' is indeed very much a book of three parts.  The opening section where Collins is building her world is a joy.  The central conceit is a novel one and she takes her time in embedding Emmett into the world of the binder before bringing this world crashing down around his ears.

The second act is the least successful and drags terribly in parts as secrets are revealed and the book becomes bogged down in some very tedious teen romance.  Thankfully Collins gets the book back on track in the concluding act with a shift of focus and a mostly satisfying denouement.

As befits a book about books this is, physically, a thing of almost fetishistic beauty that came to my attention almost entirely due to it's eye catching design but happily the contents, mostly, lived up to it with a story that wore it's unusual premise well.

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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

The Missy Chronicles

Various authors
BBC Books
Buy it here

Know your frenemy.
‘I’ve had adventures too. My whole life doesn’t revolve around you, you know.’
When she's not busy amassing armies of Cybermen, or manipulating the Doctor and his companions, Missy has plenty of time to kill (literally). In this all new collection of stories about the renegade Time Lord we all love to hate, you'll discover just some of the mad and malevolent activities Missy gets up to while she isn't distracted by the Doctor.
So please try to keep up.

After many, many years and having filled several bookcases I think I've finally...mostly...almost - there still a few Targets and a couple of annuals I'd like to find - broken my Doctor Who book addiction but I couldn't resist one last bit of fun with this anthology of stories featuring the fabulous Missy and it was worth it.

The book contains six stories by various Who alumni including James Goss, Paul Magrs and Jacqueline Rayner and is pretty much all excellent fun particularly when it's flying it's own flag in a story not beholden to the parent series.

James Goss writes about a post regeneration Missy taking gleeful revenge on a club full of misogynist scoundrels, Cavan Scott takes her off on a mission for the Time Lords, Magrs has her playing the long game with the aid of a TARDIS and a magic teddy bear, Peter Anghelides doesn't quite nail it with a time hopping romp around Venice, Rayner gives us a fun series of email exchanges between Nardole, The Doctor and, eventually, the captive Missy and finally Richard Dinnick does an OK job with the two incarnations of the Master on the giant Cyberman riddled spaceship but it feels out of place here amongst the snappier less canonical pieces.

Like I said earlier I'm very glad I broke my embargo for one last Who book as this proved to be a fine and fun way to spend an afternoon.

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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