Misterio

At last Brian Clemens' wonderful 1970s anthology series has been released in it's entirety in 16 disk Mega DVD set in the UK. This is a Region 2 release and also contains a number of tantalising extras

43 unrelated - but remarkably consistent - hour long thrillers from the fertile mind of Mr Clemens stand testament to the claustrophobic feel of studio taped television drama where the skill of the actor basically decides the pace of the piece in conjunction with the skill of the director using a multi camera set-up (an art probably destined to disappear altogether in another generation).

So many themes, so what to recommend? Well there is hardly a "dud" in there. One "K is for Killing" is rather incongruously a comedy and should really be treated as separate to the main mood of the remaining stories, which take in supernatural tales (especially in the first series), espionage stories and all variants of general crime from psychopathic scheming to killers on the run. It's is hard to isolate the "cream of the cream", the general standard being very high - however there are some that are classics from first viewing and remain forever so ... to my mind these comprise the following stories: (in chronological order)

The Colour Of Blood, The Eyes Have It, I'm The Girl He Wants To Kill, Death To Sister Mary, In The Steps Of A Deadman, Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are, Nurse Will Make It Better, A Killer In Every Corner, Where The Action Is, The Double Kill, The Crazy Kill and The Next Voice You See

I remember staying up late and watching this show in syndication on WGN-TV in the late 1980's. It was a fascinating series of almost feature-length suspense stories which were written mostly by Brian Clemens and starred a mostly British cast. It was while watching this show that I "discovered" many of my now favorite actors, including Pamela Franklin, Judy Geeson, Hayley Mills, Patrick Magee, Jeremy Brett, Donna Mills, Ian Hendry, Carol Lynley, and Carroll Baker. Sadly though, the series seems to have all but vanished, as it no longer appears in syndication and the selected few episodes that were released to videotape have long gone out-of-print. It would be utterly fantastic if they would release all of the episodes to DVD!

Thriller was a ground breaking TV series broadcast from 1973-1976 in the Uk on Saturday nights where it kept a regular spot through out it's run. I say ground breaking because this series was produced entirely for TV and was just perfect for the early 70's. By 1973 color TV's were were available to rent, so consequently many households had access to a color telly. Although black and white can often help with the atmosphere in a film, by contrast the color in this series at the time gave thriller a more modern and realistic feel which I think added to it's chilling effect. I know that it sounds ridiculous today with 43" widescreen plasma screens and hundreds of channels to choose from but in 1973 a 19" or 22" colour telly took TV viewing to a new and exciting level which was the real deal back then!

In addition the regular appearance of imported American actors added another dimension to it. It was interesting to see an American actor such as Garry Collins who normally played a good guy in US TV movies acting in the eery and claustrophobic atmosphere of thriller.

With what I can recall when it originally aired was that at no time did you ever really feel safe in thriller, well at least not for long until some sinister event occurred, somebody disappeared or a body turned up. Even when things appeared perfectly normal suddenly you would start to feel that something was about to happen. Another interesting feature was that the stories changed from week to week; some being supernatural, witchcraft, a mystery, a simple crime, murder or some times a combination of two or three.

The creepy and loud music score was certainly memorable at the beginning as well as the during the nauseating moments when you were expecting something to happen was ideal for TV. Yes some of the acting was wooden and even back at the time I thought that some of the expressions and menacing body language was over the top. Having said that the oppressive atmosphere, the dialog, music score, body language, slow camera work was all that producers had back in those days to make it a horror/thriller series.

There was no special effects or huge sets and if you wanted fast cars, fights and action well there was the Sweeney. Also no muscle bound 20-30 year old men here nor women wearing the now obligatory tank tops and spandex pants. Note there was no gratuitous violence ( if you don't count being strangled, stabbed, or shot with a pillow over the nozzle!) and profanity.

Thriller is very dated today but that is because over the last 30 odd years TV has changed so much. What we find entertaining on TV is completely different from 1973. Can you imagine back in the 70's people being entertained by reality TV shows – not a chance ! Thriller probably has a following more for nostalgic reasons than anything else. However, that is understandable because there does come a time when you just get sick of modern TV and the different tone of thriller ironically now appears to provide a refreshing change to the monotonous, identical garbage of soaps, reality TV shows, 24 hour news and our 21st century obsession with celebrities, the internet, computer games and lastly amercian junk TV like jerry springer, sex and the city and desperate house wifes.

Now that thriller is available on DVD I'll certainly check them out and – – – try to watch them on Saturday nights with the lights dimmed!

Quite campy but enjoyable screenwriting. Unexpected actors from both sides of the pond makes it fun!

Classic Seventies VT Drama at it's suspenseful best from one of Television's best-ever writers - Brian Clemens.

Many a youngster who was embarking on their early growing-up years in the mid-70's will no doubt have either vague or very fond memories of this series. These memories will no doubt be of the eerie opening/closing titles and theme music which added to the atmosphere of the stories. "Thriller" does have a vast cult following across the globe and with the lavish 16-Disc DVD Boxed Set now available to buy at a bargain price online, this following will continue to grow. If you're a fan of "Thriller" then you can re-live the magic of what it was like when first watching this on a Saturday night way back when.

The production is certainly of it's time with a combination of VT studio and filmed location footage, along with at least one American Guest Star in, more or less, every episode. Brian Clemens really pulled out the stops with his venture into the supernatural, murder and mystery genre's and kept us on edge with each weekly installment. You'll have your favourites and not-so favourites, but basically there is something for everyone in this British Anthology series. There are plot twists a-plenty in each episode and some less obvious than others, along with some great acting performances from the likes of Robert Powell, Diana Dors, Norman Eshley, Brian Blessed, Hayley Mills et al.

Don't miss out on this one - "Thriller" provides you with a wonderful piece of British Television history that you won't find being shown on Terrestrial TV anymore.