The reason I love YouTube so much now and again it throws up a gem of nostalgia like yesterday when I came across a television horror anthology series the ”Dead of Night”, pretty obscure and made by the BBC. One thing for sure I don’t remember watching them back in the day I don’t think mum would have approved.
The BBC aired seven 50-minute episodes from November 1972 on a Sunday at 9:35pm and on BBC2, a channel we would rarely watch in our house three channels was so much choice. I found "Return Flight" and then The Exorcism - Dead of Night finally A Woman Sobbing and some research found out the other four were wiped by the BBC, which was the normal back then with many film reels were used repeatedly in a cost cutting effort.
On the plus side, YouTube had the three remaining episodes but what a sad waste destroying the others. They were an interesting watch, serious tone and there seemed to be a reasonable amount of psychological depth and well-rounded characters on display. It even was successfully chilling on a few occasions, which was great. The three I watched could in no way be call blood and guts horror and looked and felt dated that may affect a younger viewer but having lived through the time period I didn’t feel it.
Describing the stories that remain all feature what can be best as hauntings of troubled individuals. The episodes sometimes have subtexts underlying their supernatural tales, such as a socialist message underpinning 'The Exorcism' and feminism playing a similar role in 'A Woman Sobbing'. These two instalments incidentally are the strongest ones of the three, with the third 'Return Flight' feeling a little less focused and muddled. 'The Exorcism' is the most famous episode and quite rightly, so, it benefits from a very strong performance from Anna Cropper who is possessed by a ghost in a scene of remarkable intensity. It's the best moment in the series and the episode as a whole connects its social message within the ghost story framework extremely well. 'A Woman Sobbing' similarly benefits mainly from another very strong performance from its lead actress, in this case Anna Massey who plays a woman increasingly unhappy wit
h her role in life as a housewife bringing up children. She is haunted by the sound of a woman crying in the night. Like 'The Exorcism' it's executed with considerable intelligence and is genuinely chilling at times.
h her role in life as a housewife bringing up children. She is haunted by the sound of a woman crying in the night. Like 'The Exorcism' it's executed with considerable intelligence and is genuinely chilling at times.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing this little gem of horror TV. It's a criminal waste that most of the episodes only was broadcast the once, expect for the 'The Exorcism' which had a one of showing in the noughties. But three is better than zero, and these surviving episodes do indicate that this was a good quality series of contemporary ghost stories with social relevance and gets a thumbs up.
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