Beasts

1 9 7 6 (UK)
6 x 60 minute episodes

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 clever dolphin who was the former star attraction until he was killed in mysterious circumstances a few years ago.

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 believes that he really is the 9ft 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