Thriller

I remember seeing Thriller back in the mid-1970's when I was about ten. I found it the most terrifying TV series I have seen before or since! It had a memorable creepy theme tune accompanied by fish-eye lens shots of the locations used in that week's story, with a blood red surround. You never knew what to expect from an episode, some being supernatural, others being real world whodunits or Hitchcock style dramas. Some of the mysteries are very intriguing, and the direction is always good. Thriller can be criticised as being of its time in some negative ways, such as being slow moving, having a lot of stock characters, being predictable, and having plot holes. Also, the great clunking fist of Lord Grade appears frequently in the form of many characters being irrelevantly American to please ABC, who reportedly paid $100,000 per episode! But when you look at almost any good TV series many years later you see these sort of faults, and Thriller is inventive, frightening and enjoyable enough to brush its bad points aside. A few years after its first showing, the series was broken up into stand alone TV films with rubbish music/credits replacing the classic theme with the fish-eye lens shots. This made the episodes easier to repeat, as they were no longer officially a series, but it meant subsequent generations of viewers have been less aware of this fine series, and it would have been forgotten were it not for online fan-sites creating demand for the superb 16 disc boxed DVD set of all 43 episodes.

I have happy memories of this series, which was on late-night television where I lived in the states. I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes, which usually had one American TV star, i.e., Barbara Feldon, Donna Mills, etc. and a predominantly English cast. Most of the series, if not all, was written by Brian Clemmens. My favorites were "Coffin for the Bride" and "Lady Killer." Both of these were fabulous. "Coffin" featured a bravura performance by Helen Mirren and "Lady Killer" was a great story with a twist, starring Barbara Feldon and Robert Powell. I had the pleasure of interviewing Barbara Feldon, and she said it was absolutely freezing cold and that in one scene, when she's running while wearing her bathrobe, the wind opens her bathrobe and she had all kinds of clothes on underneath! I have both of those on video, but would love to see the other episodes someday.

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.

A truly-exceptional series that has largely disappeared into obscurity. This is despite it achieving considerable critical and popular approval when broadcast in the 1970's. It is one of the few British series to have achieved success in the USA and it is not difficult to see why it achieved such popularity.

Unlike most series, "Thriller" was an anthology of separate stories, without recurring characters or situations. This allowed great flexibility in terms of style and story-writing but unfortunately made it more difficult to achieve a long-term identity.When broadcast in the USA and given a rare repeat in the UK in the 1980's it was billed as discrete movies, further eroding its identity.

The show had a very unusual length of just over an hour of action. This allowed more chance to develop stories and explore characters, to great effect. However it also created scheduling problems and has probably helped to kill the chance of further repeats. Unlike better-remembered but unquestionably inferior productions of the time, it was shot on video-tape. Once again artistically this was a great success. It made the action darker and more claustrophobic. Unfortunately this also made repeats less likely with filmed action usually seen as more likely to win wider viewer-approval.

Most credit must go to Brian Clemens. He created the series, wrote most episodes entirely and provided the outlines for all of them. His writing was first-class, and well-supported by guest writers such as Terence Feely. He produced highly intriguing, unsettling, often frightening stories. Astutely, violence was largely kept off-screen and the exact motives of characters were frequently well-hidden. Viewers were forced to use their imaginations, making for deeper and more satisfied viewing. Characterisations were very sophisticated but suitably enigmatic. Most stories featured extraordinary twists and some terrifying scenes.

Direction could still have set things back but was immensely strong. A small team of directors kept true to Clemens's intentions and added great atmosphere. Laurie Johnson's music was perfect - extremely chilling and unnerving - and cranked up the tension spendidly. However the producers also knew when to use silence to powerful effect. They were utterly aware that less is often more.

Acting was very fine. The British performers included many of the leading lights of the 1970's and beyond. Unusually almost every story featured an American actor. Although this was almost definitely to help American sales, it brought an extra dimension. The Americans were able to offer more stylish and classless displays than their more traditional and austere (but still exceptional) British counterparts.

There were inevitably some limitations. The depiction of women was very old-fashioned and often patronising, with far too many references to grown women as "girls". There was an over-emphasis upon portraying women as pretty but helpless, dependent on men to save them. However there were some strong, perceptive and assertive female characters. Generally the view of England is very traditional and deferential, focusing on affluent figures in ostensibly idyllic surroundings. Its world-view was more of the 1950's than the 1970's.

Story-development is a little formulaic. For example, many episodes end with men cradling distressed women. However it should be remembered that "Thriller" was intended for a popular audience and not for the avant-garde, and some predictability goes with the territory and is often part of the fun.

The American versions feature filmed titles and music added long after original production by different companies. The music is sometimes very effective but the titles are unnecessarily long, often amateurish or crass, and alien to the main episodes.

However these are minor points. "Thriller" triumphs irrespective of these reservations, and no production is perfect. Any sophisticated viewer lucky enough to see an episode should be hugely impressed with what is seen. One hopes that stories will appear on DVD or video or receive a repeat broadcast so everyone can see what they have been missing!

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