Escape Into Night

I remember a show like this from my childhood, but thought it was earlier than 1972 (somewhere between 1968 and 1971). It featured a girl and boy walking through a dark, scary dream world in their pyjamas/gowns where the scenery was all theatre-like painted backdrops. ESCAPE INTO NIGHT sounds so like this show but the timing isn't quite right and the atmospheric painted scenery isn't featured. Does anyone else remember a television show around 6 or 7pm at night with 2D drawn/painted scenery, for example the trees in the forest, in the late 60's early 70's?

I remember the girl had long dark hair.

I think it may have also featured a house, but I particularly remember the flat 2d painted trees in the dream woods.

Anything anyone can tell us about this show would be much appreciated.

Was there another dramatized version of Marianne Dreams around the end of the 1960s?

The somewhat fusty memories of this programme still gives me the jitters, it scared me silly, I had quite a vivid imagination as a child and everything was thrown into turmoil when i watched this chilling masterpiece, ( I didn't want to look out of my window at night), What scared me so much about Escape into night? ... THE STONES... they were seriously evil, and you can guess that many nightmares followed, A classic 'KIDS' TV programme from when they had to rely on the story and not the effects to keep the audience glued to the box. If you thought doctor who was scary, (and it was), this was 100% more creepy... having said that ... I wish it was on DVD so i could watch it again, I have recently purchased children of the stones on DVD and that was fairly creepy too. come on independent television, Cash in on an old favourite while you can. p.s. The ORIGINAL book is still available MARIANNE DREAMS by CATHERINE STORR, published by FABER & FABER, ISBN 978-0-571-20212-6

Like most of the people who have commented on this series I found this programme very haunting, not scary so much as disturbing or unsettling. I was older than most of the people who have posted so far, twelve in 1972 (& strangely like one of the above was convinced this prog. was from the late 60's) & also couldn't remember the name of the series. I tracked it down a few years ago & last year discovered that all 6 episodes do still exist in some form but only one in it's original colour form. It was shown on ITV btw not BBC as someone has said. Last night I finally watched one episode for the first time in 34 years that I managed to obtain from a collector on DVD. It was very poor quality b/w but fascinating to see. It was the final episode which was good as I couldn't remember how it ended and if the boy got out of the house (but won't spoil it for anyone lucky enough to see it again). The rocks had reached right up to the house. I had forgotten the eyes! There was strange radiophonic workshop type electronic noises (rumblings and whirrings) throughout the scenes in the house which may be what provided some of the chills that people remember. In fact they even drowned out some of the dialogue but this may be just down to this DVD not how it went out on air. The acting has not held up well by today's standards or even compared to say 'Timeslip' from the same era of kids drama. There was still something imaginative and strange about the programme though that lingers.

Yes, I too saw this excellent series I was only about 11 at the time, but it stayed vividly in my memory - utterly disturbing and very scary.

In response to 'geffers' - the series was originally aired in the UK on the ITV network, produced by ATV (later to become Central TV) in 1972 - so nothing to do with the infamous BBC purge.

It is known that Thames TV (another ITV programme provider of the time) had a similar 'cull' of some of their children's TV - but this goes back to about 1970-71 - this itself shouldn't have affected the ATV-produced Escape Into Night production.

Let's hope its out there in the VT archives somewhere - maybe we'll get a DVD release one day...

Peace,

PG.

I'm glad to find this listing - I remember watching this as a child, and there were some memorable scary moments - when the voices start coming out the radio.

I'd recommend the Catherine Storr book, even for adults!

Latest: The DVD is being released by Network in May 2009.

Just as an additional comment, I tracked down the sequel (book) Marianne and Mark which is somewhat harder to find than the bestselling Marianne Dreams, from which this programme derives. Marianne and Mark is quite a curious book, because although it is clearly the same Marianne and Mark from the earlier story, the author seems to push back the early happenings as though it were make belief. Marianne, now a teenager, seems to have dismissed the events as being induced by her sickness.