The "ceilidh play", as writer John McGrath styled it, is presented in the BBC's 1974 "Play for Today" production to a live audience intercut with filmed reconstructions of the Highland Clearances and the Victorian obsession with hunting stags. Restored in high definition from the original film masters held in the BBC Archives.
Comedy legend Frankie Howerd stars as the victim of sinister shenanigans in this hilarious spoof of British horror films of the early ‘70s. Starring Hugh Burden and Oscar winner Ray Milland, and written by Terry Nation. Foster Twelvetrees, a struggling tragedian who scrapes a living by giving hammy performances from the classics, can hardly believe his luck when he’s invited to give a dramatic reading at the country home of a well-off family. Joy soon turns to outraged horror when he discovers dead bodies, foul intentions, lots of snakes and a madwoman in the attic. Can he uncover the hidden family secret before he comes to a sticky end..?
A series of murders occur that mirror those committed by the Whitechapel Ripper. Through his experiments with psychoanalysis Dr Pritchard discovers a deadly violence in one of his young female patients. As he delves into the recesses of her mind he uncovers that Anna is possessed by her dead father's spirit, willing her to commit acts of gruesome savagery over which she has no control. But the most chilling revelation of all is the identity of her father: Jack the Ripper himself.
Barry Reckord adapted his stage play for TV and his brother Lloyd plays the central character – a Jamaican new to London. When he begins a relationship with a white woman, he finds himself in conflict with his mother, who has great expectations for him. The very early intimate portrayal of this interracial relationship broke new ground, and is believed to feature one of the world's first examples of an interracial kiss on TV.
