TV Tomb: Beasts
A new, semi-regular (depending on how long it takes me to watch them) series on Mine Was Taller, TV Tomb will take a look at some bygone shows. Ranging from the ‘50s to the modern day with shows from the UK, USA and maybe even further afield, the only criteria for inclusion will be that the series has ended its run and thus been consigned to the “TV Tomb”. First up is an ITV show from the mid-seventies that lasted only one season.
Beasts is a series of six self contained dramas with a horror bent from the pen of Quatermass creator Nigel Neale. I didn’t watch the show when it first aired back in 1976, I was eleven at the time and it was probably shown after my bedtime, so this DVD release from Network was my first exposure to it.
It looks dated in its production values but for the most part the stories still stand up. As with many television dramas of the time is was shot on video tape and on the kind of ‘70s sets that never fooled anyone into believing they were the real thing, so it’s not particularly pleasing on the eye. Some of the acting is a little too broad, having more in common with stage acting than film, but there are some standout performances.
High points are the episodes “Baby” and “What Big Eyes”. The first deals with the mummified remains of a baby (of unknown species) found in the walls of a country cottage owned by a young vet and his pregnant wife. The episode’s creepy atmosphere and a fine performance from Jane Wymark manage to overcome a lack of action and the overly dramatic performance of Simon MaCorkindale. The final scene closely mirrored that of Inside which I’d seen just days before at the FrightFest all-nighter and may have added to the unsettling nature of the episode and enhanced its ability to creep me out.
“What Big Eyes”, as you probably guessed, is a werewolf tale but one with a difference. Loopy scientist Leo Raymount is convinced that man has an inherent ability to transform into a wolf and, with a serum created from wolf blood and himself as a test subject, he’s determined to prove his theory or die trying. The episode is virtually a two-hander with Patrick Magee giving a tour de force performance as Raymount opposite a young Michael Kitchen as an RSPCA officer trying to find out what happened to the wolves used in Raymount’s experiments.
It’s clear that Neale was keeping up with his horror reading with two episodes “borrowing” from a couple of then current horror novels. “Special Offer” is Stephen King’s Carrie moved from a school to a supermarket with Pauline Quirke as a girl with telekinetic powers that she can’t control. The episode doesn’t really work, with the story not strong enough to support the fifty minute running time and the performances lacking the scene stealing power of Magee.
Far better is the oddly titled “During Barty’s Party” which plays like a chapter from James Herbert’s Rats. Another two-hander, this time with Anthony Bate and Elizabeth Sellars playing a married couple terrorised in their country home by marauding rats. The fact that the rats are never seen, only heard, adds to the tension and the small cast helps give the episode a suitably claustrophobic feel with the tension mounting steadily throughout.
The oddest episode is “Buddyboy” about the ghost of a dolphin haunting its old pool. Martin Shaw is pretty good as a sleazy porn entrepreneur who plans to turn the disused pool into an “adult” cinema but the story is too weird to really work.
“The Dummy” is another interesting failure. An actor playing a monster in a horror film runs amok when he immerses himself a little too much in the part. The story is a sly jab at Hammer after Neale’s less than happy experience working with the company, with the creature dubbed “The Dummy” a surrogate for the author who perhaps felt himself something of a dummy for being taken in by the studio.
Also on the DVD is an episode of Against the Crowd written by Neale and titled “Murrain”. Superstitious villagers become convinced that a local woman is a witch who’s responsible for a run of ill luck in the area and they try and enlist the aid of an out of town vet, with disastrous results. The episode feels like a dry run for Beasts, with a similar mix of the real world rubbing shoulders with the unknown. Bernard Lee, as a local farmer and ringleader of the witch-hunt, gives a great performance that’s a world away from his most famous role as M in the Bond films.
Beasts is always entertaining, with even the weaker episodes having some redeeming features and at its best it’s a fine example of how good TV horror can be.
