The Other Window

In 'The Other Window' was the final episode of the first series of the supernatural anthology series 'Shadows' scientist father John Woodvine ('Knights of God', 'Enys Men') brings home a fresnel lens to amuse his three children, Elizabeth (Gwyneth Strong), Mark (Roy Jacobs) & Jan (Sophie Ward).  After taping it to the window the children begin to see figures from the past through it, visions from their family's history that begin to take on a sinister aspect.

Written by husband and wife, J.B. Priestley ('An Inspector Calls') and Jacquetta Hawkes ('The Lonely Shore'), it's a pretty insubstantial affair slowed down by an over long explanatory section in the middle that takes valuable time that could have been better used in the finale and there's some frightfully shrill drama school performances from the children but in it's naivety it has some charm.

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The Man Who Hated Children

By it's third and final series, the ITV anthology 'Shadows' was running out of both scares and steam and was delving into the realms of fantasy with stories about Merlin, magic lands and, in this instance, Peter Pan.

At it's centre and hamming it up horribly is future 'Grange Hill' caretaker George A Cooper as the curmudgeonly councillor 'Higgs', determined to bring the wrath of the law down on the heads of the two kids, 'Willie' (Paul Watson) & 'Tom' (William Smoker) who've been bedevilling him.  Recruiting fellow councillor 'Sliggs' (Brian Wilde - 'Porridge', 'Last of the Summer Wine'), he begins to enact a plan that unwittingly pits him against literature’s perpetually prepubescent prankster and brings him to a particularly odd ending.

To my mind this episode has very little to recommend it, Cooper is in full on pantomime villain mode and Wilde is still essentially playing 'Mr Barrowclough', a role he'd only left the previous year, but, right in the middle, there is one rather magical little scene that makes it all worth while but which will leave you wondering why the rest of the story couldn't have been like that.

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After School

This the second episode of the first series of the 1975 ITV series of spooky stories for children, 'Shadows', was written by Ewart Alexander - who wrote an episode for each of the three series - and directed by Audrey Starrett, 'After School' is the story of two Welsh schoolboys Poodle and Seth (Rhys Powys and Lyn Jones) trapped after school in their PE teacher's (Gareth Thomas) office after school who experience a number of ghostly events all relating to the town's coal mining history.

Even though he makes only a short appearance it's fun to see Thomas - seen here a year before heading off to the village of 'Milbury' to look at some stones -  giving his original accent free reign and his portrayal of the PE teacher brought back some unwelcome memories of my own Welsh valley school teachers although they would have laughed at his football obsession as they brutalised generations of children on a poorly maintained rugby pitch. The two young lads who carry the majority of the episode are solid enough and make the best of what they have with a script that requires them to continuously over-emote. Written and aired in the long shadow cast by the Aberfan disaster Alexander's script touches on some delicate areas but the 30 minute runtime means any commentary is fleeting and whilst it has some nice touches, such as the 'mine collapse', the film never really amounts to anything more than a curio. 

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The Witch's Bottle

When Jill (Georgina Kean) and Steve Lancaster (Jasper Jacob) go to stay at their Uncle Mark's house Jill finds herself repulsed by the old oak tree in the garden and troubled by visions of flames.

This, the third episode of the mid 70s Thames Television series 'Shadows', is to my mind one of the gems of the entire run.  Written by Stewart Farrar, author of "What Witches Do" and perhaps the chief popularist of Wicca during the 1970s and 80s this is a light hearted and slightly frivolous tale of a, sort of, haunting and an old wrong remedied which showed that Farrar was willing to embrace the funny side of his obviously deeply held beliefs.

Director Vic Hughes made something of a career out of scaring kids with stints working on 'The Tomorrow People', 'Chocky' and the 'Spooky' first series of Dramarama and here he crafts a gentle spell punctuated by a seance scene that's guaranteed to put the wind up any watching young uns with a fine performance from Kean who would later be seen in kids fantasy programme 'King of the Castle'.  The cast is rounded out by two minor Doctor Who alumni ('The Ice Warriors' & 'The Time Monster' respectively) with a solid, if brief, appearence by Neville Barber (as Uncle Mark) and an enjoyably enigmatic performance from Wendy Gifford as the "herbalist" next door.

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The Waiting Room

The producers of 'Shadows', a mid 70s supernatural anthology series for kids, had a talent for attracting well respected writers and actors to their programme.  Here on Wyrd Britain we've already featured an episode written by Susan Cooper ('Dark Encounter') and one by PJ Hammond ('And Now For My Next Trick') and hidden amongst the three series are episodes written by Joan Aiken, Penelope Lively, Fay Weldon &  J. B. Priestley.  The casting could be equally solid with appearances from British acting stalwarts like Jacqueline Pearce, Brian Glover, Gareth Thomas and, in this case, Jenny Agutter.

'The Waiting Room' finds a brother and sister having to spend the night in a deserted and isolated railway station after missing the last train home.  Whilst there they experience a 50 year time slip to 1925 where they are witness to a train crash before a slip back to their own time sees those same events begin to repeat themselves.

'The Waiting Room' despite it's nicely dingy single set never really manages to achieve a satisfying level of claustrophobia and you can't quite shake the feeling that you are watching a village hall am-dram production with one standout actor amongst it's cast. Agutter is, of course, rock solid and anchors the proceedings nicely but her co-star, Paul Henley, is way out of his depth and hamming it up something terrible.

With all that said though I do quite enjoy this one.  It's very old fashioned even for 1975, extremely well mannered and is very much a hark back to the classic Edwardian ghost tale which I'll probably always have a soft spot for.

Buy it here - Shadows - The Complete First Series [Series One] [1975] [DVD] - or watch it below.



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Dark Encounter

Taken from 'Shadows', the mid 70s series of supernatural tales for children, 'Dark Encounter' is an interesting addition to one of the YA cornerstones of Wyrd Britain fiction. Written by Susan Cooper what we have here is a short tale that seems to exist in the same storyworld as her 'The Dark is Rising' novels.

The story tells of an actor (Alex Scott) returning to the town that he'd been evacuated to during WWII, where he meets a quartet of unusual folks (including Brian Glover) in an old windmill and is made to confront his fears of trees and 'The Dark'.

There really isn't all that much here; the story is crammed into the limited run time, the effects are entertainingly rudimentary and the acting - with the exception of Shelagh Fraser (Luke Skywalker's Aunt Beru) - is very overblown but it makes for an interesting artifact and an intriguing addendum to the novels.

Buy it here - Shadows - The Complete Second Series [DVD] - 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

Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.

And Now For My Next Trick

'And Now For My Next Trick' is an episode of the children's supernatural TV series 'Shadows' first screened in October 1978 and written by the creator of Sapphire & Steel, P.J. Hammond.

It stars British television staple Clive Swift as Mr. Devine, a down on his luck magician reduced to playing to rooms full of the bored children of formidable parents such as Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan from Blake's 7), who suddenly finds himself in possession of three magical eggs.  Blind to the consequences of his new found luck he embarks on an attempt to relaunch his flagging career.

As you might expect from a writer like Hammond this is a nifty little tale although perhaps a little moralising with an ending that's particularly brutal for a children's show.

Buy it here - Shadows - The Complete Third Series [DVD] - 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