This series of six effective and concise horror/mystery stories commissioned by ATV from producer Nicholas Palmer and writer Nigel Kneale (creator of Quatermass) was transmitted on Saturday nights.
Laden with suspense, drama and a thick vein of black humour, each stand-alone play was based on anthropomorphic terrors.
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This debut episode introduced misfit teenage checkout operator Noreen Beale (Pauline Quirke, pictured at right) who developed an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager, Colin (Geoffrey Bateman).
Meanwhile, the shop’s cuddly cartoon rabbit mascot (‘Briteway Billy’) has come alive and is causing havoc, with snowstorms of soap powder, geysers of ketchup, machine-gun bursts of cornflakes, winds of small change, a chariot race of shopping trolleys and washing up liquids all piddling away in a row.
Noreen Beale
Pauline Quirke Colin Grimley
Geoffrey Bateman Arnold Liversedge
Wensley Pithey June King
Ruth Goring Linda
Shirley Cheriton Mickey
Herbert Norville Mrs Ogden
Madoline Thomas Anchovy Lady
Jane Williams Coffee Lady
Jean Hardwicke Joyce
Ysanne Churchman
During Barty’s Party
Suburban couple Roger (Anthony Bate) and Angie (Elizabeth Sellars) Truscott are held under siege in their secluded home (pictured at right) by a pack of frighteningly intelligent rats.
As the rats gets closer, tough guy Roger begins to crack up and his nervous wife takes control.
The episode is a feast of sound effects: gnawing, scuttering and squeaking, not to mention four neighbours and a courting couple in a car all being eaten alive.
Angie Truscott
Elizabeth Sellars Roger Truscott
Anthony Bate Barty Willis
Colin Bell Police Sergeant
Norman Mitchell Peter Newell
John Rhys-Davies James Dodge
Denis Cleary Mr Gibson
Alan Dudley Mrs Gibson
Elizabeth Counsell Gibson children
Jennifer Brassett
Steve Fletcher
Buddyboy
Playboy nightclub owner, Dave (Martin Shaw,) buys a derelict dolphinarium, where he and Lucy (Pamela Moiseiwitsch) seem to be haunted by the ghost of Buddyboy, a dolphin who was the former star attraction until he was killed in mysterious circumstances a few years ago.
Budyboy was born in the Pacific Ocean and brought like a slave to Hubbard’s dolphinarium.
He was a beautiful, clever dolphin – but also a rebel who would change the act and wreck the show. Hubbard (Wolfe Morris) hated him and had to show him who was the boss.
Now Buddyboy was dead, and Hubbard was a frightened, haunted man . . .
Dave
Martin Shaw Lucy
Pamela Moiseiwitsch Hubbard
Wolfe Morris Jimmy Beattie
Stuart McGugan Ashwell
Denis Holmes Crisp
Peter Halliday Usherette
Marriane Morris Doctor
Ronald Markham Projectionist
Robert Barker
Baby
In arguably the scariest and most disturbing of the six stories, vet Peter Gilkes (Simon MacCorkindale) and his pregnant wife, Jo (Jane Wymark), move to the countryside where they discover a strange mummified animal (a lamb? a pig? a monkey?) sealed in the wall of their cottage.
Jo increasingly feels that she and her unborn child are in danger.
Jo Gilkes
Jane Wymark Peter Gilkes
Simon MacCorkindale Dick Pummery
T P McKenna Arthur Grace
Mark Dignam Stan Biddick
Norman Jones Dorothy Pummery
Shelagh Fraser
What Big Eyes
RSPCA officer Bob Curry (Michael Kitchen, pictured at right) is horrified when he discovers pet shop owner Leo Raymount (Patrick Magee) has been conducting experiments on a wolf, searching for proof of lycanthropy.
Raymount
Patrick Magee Florence Raymount
Madge Ryan Bob Curry
Michael Kitchen Joe Nash
Gerald James Duggie Jebb
Bill Dean
The Dummy
Washed-up actor Clyde Boyd (Bernard Horsfall) has a nervous breakdown after the collapse of his marriage and ongoing tax problems, and believes that he really is the 9-foot movie monster that he has been hired to play.
Clyde Boyd
Bernard Horsfall Bunny
Clive Swift Sid
Glyn Houston Sir Ramsey
Thorley Waters Joan Eastgate
Lillias Walker Sheila Boyd
Patricia Haines Peter Wager
Simon Oates Mike Hickey
Ian Thompson Tea Lady
Ruby Head Police Sergeant
Micheal Sheard Vic
George Malpas
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This debut episode introduced misfit teenage checkout operator Noreen Beale (Pauline Quirke, pictured at right) who developed an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager, Colin (Geoffrey Bateman).
Suburban couple Roger (Anthony Bate) and Angie (Elizabeth Sellars) Truscott are held under siege in their secluded home (pictured at right) by a pack of frighteningly intelligent rats.
Playboy nightclub owner, Dave (Martin Shaw,) buys a derelict dolphinarium, where he and Lucy (Pamela Moiseiwitsch) seem to be haunted by the ghost of Buddyboy, a dolphin who was the former star attraction until he was killed in mysterious circumstances a few years ago.
In arguably the scariest and most disturbing of the six stories, vet Peter Gilkes (Simon MacCorkindale) and his pregnant wife, Jo (Jane Wymark), move to the countryside where they discover a strange mummified animal (a lamb? a pig? a monkey?) sealed in the wall of their cottage.
RSPCA officer Bob Curry (Michael Kitchen, pictured at right) is horrified when he discovers pet shop owner Leo Raymount (Patrick Magee) has been conducting experiments on a wolf, searching for proof of lycanthropy.
Washed-up actor Clyde Boyd (Bernard Horsfall) has a nervous breakdown after the collapse of his marriage and ongoing tax problems, and believes that he really is the 9-foot movie monster that he has been hired to play.
Sir Ramsey
