Tue 20 Apr 2010
A British TV Mini-Series Review: THE NIGHTMARE MAN (1981).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy , TV mysteries[11] Comments
THE NIGHTMARE MAN. BBC-TV, UK, four-part mini-series, 01 May to 22 May 1981. James Warwick, Celia Imrie, Maurice Roëves, Tom Watson, Jonathan Newth, James Cosmo. Screenplay: Robert Holmes, based on the novel Child of the Vodyanoi by David Wiltshire. Director: Douglas Camfield.
That both the screenwriter and the director were involved with the BBC’s Dr. Who, both before and after, suggests why this moderately well-plotted SF-thriller comes off so well.
All four parts take place on a unnamed Hebrides island, up around Scotland way. About 35 square miles in size, the island has a police force of four men, headed by Inspector Inskip (Maurice Roëves), and a coast guard station with three more.
Is that enough to protect the island’s inhabitants from a crazed killer whose victims have been mauled to death by a creature that seems to be half animal and half human? Under ordinary circumstances, yes, but the island is socked in by fog with no access to the mainland. Until the weather clears, the people on the island are strictly on their own.
Pictured on the DVD cover are the two principal characters in this four-act play. James Warwick as Michael Gaffikin, the island’s dentist, an outsider who honorable intentions are questioned by the closely-knit townspeople in regard to the incipient love affair between him and the island’s druggist, Fiona Patterson, played the lovely Celia Imrie.
Only once do we see the latter in anything resembling glamorous, however, during a dinner date with Gaffikin, in which she wears a daring low-cut dress. Otherwise she is as bundled up against the fog as the rest of the guys. Of course it is she who has previously mapped out the island, so it is also she who is their guide up and down and across some fairly rugged terrain (actually filmed in Cornwall), trying to reach campers in danger and to track the increasingly murderous intruder — who just may be an alien newly arrived from space.
As usual in stories like these, the truth, while equally fantastic is also rather prosaic, making the fourth of the four episodes the weakest. It takes a lot of sedentary (standing around) exposition to make the details of the island’s attacker understood.
But before then, by which I mean the previous three episodes, this is a fine example of horror fiction, slightly old-fashioned now and only moderately gory, one supposes, due to its being made for TV — shown only once, by the way, until recently released by the BBC on Regions 2 and 4 DVD.
I watched all four episodes (two hours) in one evening. I couldn’t stop myself.
April 20th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
The British do these so much better than anyone else there is just no comparison. For those who love the genre the legendary ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH and A IS FOR ANDROMEDA BBC serials written by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot (who also did the novelizations) are finally available on DVD. The former introduced Julie Christie to the world as Andromeda and the latter Susan Hampshire taking over the role.
Also available some of Nigel Kneale’s non Quatermass material, THE STONE TAPES and YEAR OF THE SEX GAMES (not what it sounds like). And if you haven’t seen it check out Neil Gaiman’s NEVERMORE, a fantasy about the world we fail to notice just out of the corner of our eye available from A&E video.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:12 am
As usual, until the creature is finally seen, THE NIGHTMARE MAN is fairly scary stuff, especially for a program that aired early in the evening — 8:30 every Friday night for four straight weeks.
And even then, when the killer’s been flushed out into the light of day, given who (or what) he really is, he’s still spooky as hell.
As for the Fred Hoyle TV dramas, those are must-have’s, as far as I’m concerned. The others you mention, I’ll pick those up as well, eventually. They’re all good. As you say, top notch all the way.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:55 am
The complete ANDROMEDA is finally available including (if I remember right) the restored original BREAKTHROUGH, a remake of BREAKTHROUGH and the original A IS FOR ANDROMEDA. You can also buy the six part serial of A IS FOR ANDROMEDA on the gray market for around $20.
The two books were both published here by Fawcett Crest and fairly easy to find. While Hoyle contributed a good deal, and was himself a first class writer as well as scientist, well known scenarist Elliot wrote the books and they are damn good.
As for the monster, it’s the old Dr. Who problem — great stories, and then the tin monster or the bad rubber suits show up. Now the fx are great, but some of those bad monster suits had a certain charm like the Daleks and Cybermen.
A bit like the great film CURSE OF THE DEMON where the monster on the train tracks at the end was a disappointment but what led up to it so good you forgave it anyway.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:49 am
Thanks for this, Steve, as I never heard of it.
I think Imrie was the subject of this exchange in CALENDAR GIRLS:
Celia: It’s the whole showing your breasts issues that concerns me.
Annie: The point is that we won’t really be showing anything.
Celia: Yes, that’s what concerns me.
Annie: Yours are good, are they?
Celia: They’re tremendous.
Remember “we’re going to need much bigger buns?”
That was about Imrie.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:40 am
Jeff
I think the actual wording is:
“…we’re going to need considerably bigger buns.”
— Steve
April 21st, 2010 at 10:48 am
That line about the buns is taken out of context. To explain, I’ve gone to the Internet and have come up with some photos. They were taken in conjunction with the more recent version of CALENDAR GIRLS as a play rather than the film, but to my eye, they’re still relevant:
http://almostalwaysthinking.com/2009/11/02/%E2%80%9Cwe%E2%80%99re-going-to-need-considerably-bigger-buns%E2%80%9D/
April 21st, 2010 at 1:03 pm
I loved THE NIGHTMARE MAN when it was originally shown, and I was delighted to find that it still stood up when I watched the DVD. As I remember, it was shown at around 8.30pm in the evening. This meant that they were rather restricted as to exactly how much gore they could show, although what they don’t show manages to be as scary as Hell.
The last episode does suffer from the problems that one usually finds in television detective dramas: someone has to sit down and explain exactly what has been going on, and TV is mainly a visual medium. I always found the ‘truth’ pretty interesting, but like you say, it’s all talk. Also, the climax of the novel takes place at night, and the TV version was simply unable to do the night shooting.
The original book THE CHILD OF THE VODYANOI, is a fine thriller. Robert Holmes does a excellent adaption of it. His professional men, such as policemen, always come across well (possibly because Holmes was an ex-policeman). With the release of such cult British shows as ADAM ADAMANT LIVES, DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, THE STONE TAPE and STRANGERS this has been a good time for fans.
April 21st, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Bradstreet
You’re quite right about the policemen in NIGHTMARE MAN. There’s a strong sense of familiar camaraderie between them in this teleplay, especially under stress, that you don’t always see too often.
As for ADAM ADAMANT, I’ve been watching the first several episodes, three so far, and while I like the players very much, especially his girl assistant, the plots and the storylines have been weak, so far.
But I’ve read the program notes, and with all of the problems involved in getting the series on the air, it’s lucky that anything came of it at all.
For those not familiar with the series, Adam Adamant was a Victorian (or Edwardian?) adventurer who was frozen solid in 1902, but whose body was found and revived to restart his crime-solving career in 1966. Originally he was to have been Sexton Blake, but those plans fell through very quickly.
April 21st, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I know what you mean about the first few scripts. They are a bit of a mess, but things do improve (honest!) The DVD boxset of the series has some interesting extras, and I enjoyed the sense that the whole thing was a labour of love to those producing the boxset. The presenter, Mark Gatiss, seemed genuinely excited to be involved, and this enthusiasm came through the screen.
There do seem to have been quite a number of archive series making a return on video recently. An eight-part thriller from the late 70s called THE HANGED MAN and starring Colin Blakey, has been announced for release next month. I’ve been waiting for it to be released for years, and now it’s nearly here. If only they would release its sequel, a comedy drama called TURTLE’S PROGRESS, then I’d be very pleased indeed.
I’ve always been mystified by the sudden disappearance of James Warwick from TV. Around this time he appeared to be in practically everything on the box (WHY DIDN’T THEY ASK EVANS/THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY/PARTNERS IN CRIME/DOCTOR WHO), so it’s strange to see that from 1990 on he seems to have been mostly doing voice-over work.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:28 pm
James Warwick, from the little I’ve been able to find out, switched from movies and TV appearances to the live theatre, both acting and directing. I suppose the voice-over work he’s done (IRON MAN cartoons and STAR WARS video games) was to primarily pay the bills.
He certainly was in high demand earlier on, though, whenever a strong, determined and good-looking leading man was needed.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:30 am
As Bradstreet knows because of the nature of British television the crossover between television and theater was big and because of the short seasons for many BBC series and the serial form actors could do both and work a few films in too, where it was much harder here — especially when a season was thirty or more episodes. We saw a little of that when more films and television series were made in New York, but never as extensive as the British version.
As for Mark Gatiss enthusiasm for ADAM ADAMANT no wonder, sounds a lot like his Lucifer Box novels.