| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.38 |
I've been watching these (thanks to Proto) and have to say I'm loving them. I did see them when they were first on so there's probably a sense of nostalgia sustaining them, but the fact that I only really remember one of them clearly surely means that isn't exactly the case. The ep I've enjoyed most so far is the one about the two girls who move into a huge old house with these other odd characters and find there's something odd about 'someone at the top of the stairs' (that's actually the title). The stmosphere of this piece is just so strange and so rich; eyes peek from every hole in the wall, a man nicks bras and knickers from the girl's room and when they find his room it's all dusty and empty but for a little pile of bras and knickers... it's just fantastic (maybe I like it because it's practically the plot of the book I've been tryin to write these past two years  ). Anyone else any memories of it? Does it get any better than this? BTW, if nostalgia is playing a part in my affection why are my kids so hooked on it? If anything I think they enjoy it even more than I do... | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.129.40 |
Tony, my memories of THRILLER, like yours, are touched with nostalgia. Back in the early 1970s, when it was in its heyday, I remember watching every episode on Saturday nights with my mum and dad, or with my grandma if she was babysitting for my younger sisters. I was just about old enough to be allowed to watch it, but I always knew - right from that ghastly scream at the start of each episode - that it was going to be very scary. I too have some episodes, and even some old scripts. As a show, it occupied a strange hinterland between horror and very grim suspense. It occasionally featured supernatural and occult themes, but most often concerned serial killers and maniacs. (One very powerful opening I still recall vividly: a young guy in a smart suit, wearing a carnation, pushing a wheelchair across a rubbish dump. In the wheel chair lies the body of a horribly mutilated woman. He arrives at the edge of a refuse heap and calmy tips her down into the water at the bottom. Then walks away brushing his hands, as if it's all in a day's work - which of course it is). They weren't what I'd call 'Gothic stories' in the style of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, which came a few years later - there was a bit too much police procedural in some of them for that - but they were often set in middle-class suburban England, which, for me, gave them an ambience of the Amicus movies and even the Pan horror stories. (The London rooming-house one that you mention was one of the few forays into the inner city, but it was well worth the trip. Ultra-spooky, that episode). They're well worth viewing again, for sure. Though I think modern viewers would find them rather talkie and studio-bound. They'd also probably find them quite derivative, given how much horror water has passed under the bridge since then. I doubt a similar series would ever be made now, even though we're screaming out for one. Modern TV drama takes itself far too seriously to even contemplate cramming such intense, gruesome and disturbing stories into a single hour. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
Hi Tony! We've got this boxset but it's years since I've dipped into it. I mentioned on a thread ?years ago that I found them incredibly relaxing to watch - static camerawork, often understated acting, no smash cut editing - lovely. That episode you describe is a goodie, isn't it? I loved the end where she enters the room of that guy who's been there since Victorian times - seriously weird. My favourite episodes so far though are the ones featuring the wonderfully roguish private detective Matthew Earp, played superbly by Dinsdale Landen. If I could have been a private detective I would have been him. "Can I trust you?" says the distraught female heroine. "In my hotel room at two in the morning? Of course not!" The episodes are: An Echo of Teresa The Next Scream You Hear Let me know what you think! JLP | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Tony, you're talking about one of the all-time jewels of British television imo. The 'Thriller' box set is one of my most prized possessions. I watched them all a few years ago, one a week on a Saturday night, as I remembered viewing them, and it was the most sublime experience, in terms of nostalgia and pure entertainment value, I have had since the start of the whole DVD phenomenon. What makes the shows still stand up, head and shoulders above the populist crap we are fed today, is the sheer quality of Brian Clemens scripts and classical storytelling ability coupled with the performances by a plethora of the greatest British character actors ever to grace the screen, all treating the material with deadly seriousness - and don't forget that spine-chilling music, the most memorable TV horror theme ever composed, matched by those wonderfully understated fish-eye mirror credits. Everything about the show screams quality! My Top 10 Episodes: 1. ‘Nurse Will Make It Better’ (1975) Series 4 2. ‘A Place To Die’ (1973) Series 1 3. ‘Someone At The Top Of The Stairs’ (1973) Series 1 4. ‘A Killer In Every Corner’ (1975) Series 4 5. ‘Good Salary, Prospects, Free Coffin’ (1975) Series 5 6. ‘Won’t Write Home, Mom, I’m Dead’ (1975) Series 5 7. ‘Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are’ (1974) Series 3 8. ‘One Deadly Owner’ (1974) Series 2 9. ‘I’m The Girl He Wants To Kill’ (1974) Series 3 10. ‘Where The Action Is’ (1975) Series 4 But there are loads more in all the series could easily swap with any of these, depending on my mood. And you’re putting me in the mood to watch them all again! JLP, the Earp character, and Dinsdale Landen's suave performance, was so instantly memorable I can't understand for the life of me why he didn't get his own spin-off series? | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 137.191.224.102 |
Glad you're enjoying them, Tony. It's getting increasingly rarer that I can say this about things so here goes: I think THRILLER was before my time. It's not glazed in nostalgia for me and I actually feel a bit relieved that I didn't HAVE to watch such a mammoth box set. (Is it "box set" or "boxed set"?) I'm free! http://www.lukesurl.com/comics/2010-02-24-determinism.png | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.106.220.19 |
This is a great set - I too loved Lansden's appearances. The one I recall clearly from the 'seventies was the "girl locked in an office block after hours with a killer" one, but they all have something to offer. The one with the potential assassins in a school for the blind is pretty good too. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Mick, the girl in the office block ep is 'I'm The Girl He Wants To Kill' and the blind school one, with Dennis Waterman, is 'The Eyes Have It' - both cracking examples of pure Hitchcockian suspense. Another memorable "blind person in jeopardy" one was 'The Next Voice You See'. And what about Helen Mirren's performance in 'A Coffin For The Bride' or Michael Jayston's creepy butler in 'Ring Once For Death' or Angharad Rees coolly efficient serial killer in 'Once The Killing Starts', etc, etc... | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
I envy you people to whom this doesn't look like the Crossroads of suspense. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
I just picked up series 1 of Afterlife. I'll have to take an antihistamine as it may contain traces of Leslie Sharp. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I have to confess I'm not at all familiar with this series. Looking at the dates Stevie mentions above - 1973 to 1975 - I missed out on a lot of TV at that time as I was "otherwise occupied" (nothing sinister, honestly  ). It sounds right up my street though. I hope this boxed set is still available and not too expensive - I'm sorely tempted to treat myself ... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Proto, how the show looks and was filmed, once you readapt your senses to it, is actually one of the strengths of the series - and 70s British TV in general. Take 'I, Claudius' as the prime example. Each one of these episodes is like watching a finely acted play unfold on screen, with the intensity of the acting and quality of the scripts and plots absolutely riveting the attention imo. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
Stephen, I'm fine with high-key lighting and studio floors. That kind of thing has never stopped me believing that Doctor Who was filmed on a real spacecraft. It enhances the atmosphere of Sapphire and Steel, for example. My problem with Thriller is that it's poorly written and the stories all seem at least 30 minutes too long. But they were made when the only alternatives were snooker on BBC 1, a subtitled film on BBC 2, or to pop out for a race riot. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.115.49 |
Caroline - about £34 at the moment:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B001KY2QDY?ie=UTF8&shipPromoFilter=0&so rt=sip&me=&seller=&condition=new&tag=findhotelinth-21 | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
Proto, this is one we're going to have to disagree on. In my opinion it is the strength of Brian Clemens' scripts, and how the actors responded to them, that makes 'Thriller' so special. The man was a master of knowing exactly how to grip an audience, going right back to his incomparable work on 'The Avengers'. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.221 |
I think the eps were a bit long, too. But that's ok, you sort of mentally edit while you watch. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.131.109.221 |
The ep that got me as a kid was the one about the guy looking for his brother in the Wicker Man Village. That final shot petrified me. I hope it holds up when I watch it again. | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.18.7.180 |
I don't think THRILLER could ever be classed as classic TV, but I think it illustrated an attitude back in the 1970s, as DR WHO did on the BBC, that no concept was too big, too strange or too risky to be skillfully slotted into a short drama window with minimal budget. One episode that sticks in my mind, though it's fogged a little by the passage of the years, concerned a necktie strangler terrorising a small town, with all the housewives gathering each lunchtime in the library to discuss whose husband or boyfriend it might be - meanwhile, the mousy librarian who doesn't have a boyfriend, suspects all of them. Not an original idea now - years later TALES FROM THE CRYPT also did a scared librarian / serial killer story - but I can't fail to admire the way they tackled so massive a story (because there was a big police operation going on in the background), but instead of getting bogged down in the boring detail of forensics and procedure, they told it exclusively from the POV of the terrified townsfolk in the besieged library, turning what would now be a 5 episode 'grim up north' Lynda La Plate special into a short, claustrophobic horror story. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.34.96 |
Maybe I've given up too soon. I'd only watched the eps that were recommended by folk on the internet (the Helen Mirren one, for instance). |