1 9 8 0 (UK)
13 x 60 minute episodes
This 13-part anthology of spine-shiverers was produced for ITV by cult horror flick company, Hammer Films. Those taking the helm included such Hammer veteran directors as Don Sharp – maker of the classic The Brides of Fu Manchu – and Peter Sasdy.
Production of the series was quick – the scripts were written in a shorter time than was desirable and each of the 13 episodes was shot in two weeks, totalling approximately six months of filming.
Some of this took place in the grounds of Hampden House itself (Hammer’s new headquarters in Buckinghamshire), much of the rest of it was done in the local area, in particular, the nearby church and the village of Great Missenden.
Subject matter covered all the usual suspects – voodoo, cannibalism, witchcraft, devil worship, werewolves, body snatchers – with the overall result being decently shocking.
The series was originally screened just after the 9 pm watershed to accommodate its often-gruesome content and occasional flashes of nudity, and the high gore quotient can still shock today: hands are severed and faces blown off, while animals have a particularly bad time of it: crows are beheaded, cats immolated on window panes, rabbits disembowelled and tigers electrocuted.
A follow-on collection of Hitchcock-style thrillers appeared in 1984 as Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.
WITCHING TIME
Soundtrack composer David Winter (Jon Finch) finds a strange young woman hiding in the barn of his isolated farmhouse and ends up getting all hot under the collar for Lucinda, a lusty time-travelling 17th-century witch played by Patricia Quinn (Magenta of Rocky Horror fame – In the nude no less).
Events in the farmhouse build to a terrifying climax threatening not only David’s marriage to Mary (Prunella Gee) but also his sanity as the witch takes possession of him.
David Winter
Jon Finch
Mary Winter
Prunella Gee
Lucinda Jessop
Patricia Quinn
Charles
Ian McCulloch
Rector
Lennard Pearce
Sister
Margaret Anderson
THE 13TH REUNION
When Ruth Cairns (Julia Foster) is assigned by her newspaper to do a story on a dubious slimming clinic, events soon take a sinister turn.
First, her boyfriend crashes his car on a straight road, killing himself. Then his corpse disappears. Is it the work of body snatchers and, if so, why?
Ruth treads a trail of terror before she comes face to face with the horrifying truth.
Ruth Cairns
Julia Foster
Gwen Cox
Dinah Sheridan
Rothwell
Kevin Stoney
Andrew
Gerrard Kelly
Sir Humphrey Chesterton
Richard Pearson
Ben Faraday
Warren Clarke
Basil
George Innes
Cedric
Norman Bird
RUDE AWAKENING
Norman Shenley (Denholm Elliot) is an estate agent slowly being driven mad by dreams and supernatural happenings which he believes are in his imagination but are actually being engineered by his secretary and her boyfriend.
Features some rather grisly deaths – “you shouldn’t have done it, Mr Shenley”.
Norman Shenley
Denholm Elliot
Lolly
Lucy Gutteridge
Mr Rayburn
James Laurenson
Emily Shenley
Pat Heywood
Lady Strudwick
Eleanor Summerfield
Dr Melbury
Gareth Armstrong
GROWING PAINS
Young James (Matthew Blakstad), newly adopted by do-gooders Laurie (Barbara Kellerman) and Terence (Gary Bond) Morton (a botanist), finds a strange poem in an old exercise book. With it, he unleashes a terrifying presence as the dead William Morton (Christopher Reilly) seeks his revenge. Filmed on location in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.
Laurie Morton
Barbara Kellerman
Terence Morton
Gary Bond
Mr Ngenko
Norman Beaton
Charles Austin
Tariq Yunus
James
Matthew Blakstad
William Morton
Christopher Reilly
Matron
Daphne Anderson
Mechanic
Michael Hughes
Nurse
Karin Scott
Grave Digger
Geoffrey Beevers
THE HOUSE THAT BLED TO DEATH
Number 42 Colman Road looks a very ordinary house when William (Nicholas Ball) and Emma (Rachael Davis) Peters and their little girl Sophie (Emma Ridley) move in. But Number 42 has a gruesome history.
It seems as though the house is trying to relive its past – complete with a particularly bloody murder.
William Peters
Nicholas Ball
Emma Peters
Rachael Davis
Sophie Peters
Emma Ridley
Jean Evans
Pat Maynard
George Evans
Brian Croucher
A. J. Powers
Milton Johns
CHARLIE BOY
Sarah (Angela Bruce) has a carved figure from Africa she calls Charlie Boy. But the statue is more than a wooden statue with a funny face.
Charlie Boy has strange powers from his tribal past; powers which are easy to invoke but very much more difficult to stop when things start going wrong.
Features a cameo role from Janet Fielding (Tegan in Doctor Who).
Graham
Leigh Lawson
Sarah
Angela Bruce
Heinz
Marius Goring
Gwen
Frances Cuka
Mark
Michael Culver
Phil
Michael Deeks
Peter
David Healey
Franks
Jeff Rawle
Secretary
Janet Clare Fielding
Armourer
Michael Stock
THE SILENT SCREAM
When habitual criminal Chuck Spillers (Brian Cox) leaves jail, he is befriended by Martin Blueck (Peter Cushing), a prison visitor.
Blueck has his own, strange reasons for offering Chuck a job – reasons which involve a unique collection of wild animals that Blueck keeps at the rear of his innocent-looking pet shop.
One of the best-remembered Hammer productions.
Martin Blueck
Peter Cushing
Chuck Spillers
Brian Cox
Annie Spillers
Elaine Donnelly
Detective Inspector Aldridge
Anthony Carrick
CHILDREN OF THE FULL MOON
Tom (Christopher Cazenove) and Sarah (Celia Gregory) Martin are on a West Country holiday when their car mysteriously goes out of control on a remote road. They are taken in by a woman (Diana Dors) who lives with numerous children in a lonely house in the forest.
The alarming events of the night and a dream about werewolves are explained away. But they have a lasting effect on Sarah . . .
Mrs Ardoy
Diana Dors
Tom Martin
Christopher Cazenove
Sarah Martin
Celia Gregory
Harry
Robert Urquhart
Woodcutter
Jacob Witkin
Tibor
Adrian Mann
Sophy
Victoria Wood
Eloise
Sophie Kind
Irenya
Natalie Payne
Andreas
Daniel Kipling
CARPATHIAN EAGLE
The tale of a beautiful countess from Carpathia whose pet eagle tore out her lovers’ hearts is just an ancient myth? or is it?
It seems that no man is safe when a series of gruesome murders in modern-day London brings the legend horrifically to life – and death.
Featured Suzanne Danielle and Sian Phillips, along with a then-unknown Pierce Brosnan (pictured above with Suzanne Danielle) credited as ‘Last Victim’.
Natalie
Suzanne Danielle
Inspector Clifford
Anthony Valentine
Mrs Henska
Sian Phillips
Tony
Barry Stanton
Tadek
Jonathan Kent
Andy
Matthew Long
Bacharach
Gary Waldhorn
Edgar
Jeffrey Wickham
GUARDIAN OF THE ABYSS
For centuries, evil men and women have tried to raise the archdemon Choronzon, Guardian of the Abyss. Many have died in the attempt. Others have lost their reason.
Then a chance purchase by antique dealer Michael Roberts (Ray Lonnen) brings him into terrifying contact with the Unknown.
Starred the posh woman from C.A.T.S Eyes (Rosalyn Landor) and Paul Darrow (Blakes 7).
Michael Roberts
Ray Lonnen
Allison
Rosalyn Landor
Charles Randolph
John Carson
Simon Andrews
Paul Darrow
Tina
Caroline Langrishe
Laura
Barbara Ewing
VISITOR FROM THE GRAVE
A night intruder terrorises Penny (Kathryn Leigh Scott) in her lonely cottage. She kills him with a shotgun, her boyfriend (Simon MacCorkindale) buries the body in the woods and they try to forget it ever happened.
But Penny finds the terror is only just beginning – the dead man refuses to stay in his grave.
Penny
Kathryn Leigh Scott
Harry
Simon MacCorkindale
Margaret
Mia Nadasi
Charles Willoughby
Stanley Lebor
Richard/Gupta
Gareth Thomas
TWO FACES OF EVIL
A family’s car crashes after they pick up a hitchhiker in a yellow raincoat and he attacks the husband with a claw finger.
The husband, Martin (Gary Raymond) returns home but seems to be a completely different person. He can’t talk and he rings a little bell for attention. But if Martin is not Janet’s (Anna Calder-Marshall) husband, who – or what – could he be?
Janet
Anna Calder-Marshall
Martin
Gary Raymond
David
Paul Hawkins
Sister
Pauline Delany
Hargreaves
Philip Latham
Mrs Roberts
Jenny Laird
Mr Roberts
William Moore
Dr Cummings
Jeremy Longhurst
Nurse Davies
Brenda Cowling
PC Jenkins
Mike Savage
THE MARK OF SATAN
Edwyn (Peter McEnery) lives a nightmare, convinced that the forces of evil are conspiring against him. Everywhere he sees threats and the devil’s mark – the number 666.
As the pressure increases, he seeks escape – but that calls for increasingly desperate measures. including trying to drill a hole into his head.
Edwyn Rord
Peter McEnery
Stella
Georgina Hale
Dr Harris
Emrys James
Markham
Peter Birrel
Priest
Anthony Brown
Dr Manders
Conrad Phillips
Mrs Rord
Annie Dyson
Surgeon
Peter Cartwright
Sampson
James Duggan
Steve
Andrew Bradford
Pritchard
James Curran
