Supernatural

The richly Gothic sounding organ music of Poulenc set to images of gargoyles tells you what kind of series this is. The sort they don't make any more. "Supernatural" is a series for people who may enjoy reading old Gothic horror short stories or the original novels "Dracula" and "Frankenstein". Not for those who like today's style of horror movie. Beneath the horror fantasy "Supernatural" may as well be called "Unnatural" as it focuses on Victorian sexual repression almost as much as it pays homage to Mary Shelley, Sheridan Le Fanu etc.

A little peaceful time to yourself is essential if you really want to escape into this slow building wordy world of sinister misty nights. Join the Club of the Damned,or at least damned good actors achieving mixed results. Two episodes are much too peculiar and addled (like "Mr Nightingale" - ear-trumpets and all - too boring). "Mr Nightingale" and the one with Denholm Elliot would make the M.R. James "Ghost Stories For Chritmas" look modern and sexy. However Billie Whitelaw is so beautiful, elegant and lethal in the two-parter "Countess Ilona" and "Werewolf Reunion"."Night of the Marionettes" is worth seeing with Gordon Jackson and Pauline Moran on the trail of Mary Shelley(in which Sdyney Bromley, the little actor who whees up the wall as the Porter in Polanski's MacBeth, adds to the tone). You'll be trying to place the mysterious looking actor Vladek Sheybal too - ("From Russia With Love").

"Dorabella" is another atmospheric piece of escapism before bedtime. If you have a lot of patience!

There are some nice twists regarding some of the storytellers.

Join the club.

While many people are familiar with the anthologies of Hammer House of Horror and Amicus productions, I had to learn about this particular BBC horror series from a random YouTube video. I am delighted to have found something compelling, well-written and of relatively high quality if you like subtle horror from the time period.

The magnificent queer episode Viktoria was a huge surprise considering the conventional morality of mid-20th century Brits (at least the middle class sort who were in charge) and the legendary censorship of Video Nasties in the following decades. Clearly it was inspired to a degree by the German 1930s film Viktor und Viktoria, better known to English speaking audiences in the 1982 Julie Andrews version.

BBC4 have been showing a handful of episodes of this long-lost supernatural anthology series from 1977, so here are my thoughts on individual episodes: VIKTORIA - the weakest story thus far, but not without a certain atmosphere. This is a family-based tale focused around a creepy life-sized doll and the strange girl who owns it. The story is worthy of note in featuring both Judy Cornwell (KEEPING UP APPEARANCES) and Lewis Fiander (DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE) in strong roles as housekeeper and husband respectively, and an intricate little, character-focused storyline filled with twists and turns. It's not particularly frightening or stand out-ish, but it is creepy so that counts for something

NIGHT OF THE MARIONETTES - TV favourite Gordon Jackson stars as a scholar hot on the trail of Mary Shelley who falls foul of the strange proprietor of a roadside inn and his lifesize creations. The actress who plays the possessed daughter went on to become THE WOMAN IN BLACK in the long-lost '80s adaptation of that novel. This one is weird rather than scary, although it has some memorably weird highlights.

DORABELLA - the last of the series is also my favourite, thus far. It's a vampire story in which a couple of youthful men are the victims for a change; the gender reversal brings back fond memories of the likes of VAMPYRES and DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS. This episode is quite remarkable for the way in which it builds a rich Gothic atmosphere and a sense of dread which go hand-in-hand throughout. It's visually beautiful, full of stunning imagery like jet-black carriages, desolate beaches and of course the expected creepy castles. All in all a great twist on the vampire legend.

When I first found this website about four years ago I remember trying to get information on THE SUPERNATURAL but there was none and it's only very recently someone has gone to the time and trouble of registering it . Hopefully someone can contribute more info at a later date .

As for myself I can remember bits of it . The title credits start with a blast of organ music with the camera panning across Gothic images of gargoyles . I remember it seemed very effective at the time when I was aged ten or eleven years old .

Each episode was self contained with someone being invited to an English Victorian club where they had to relate a true supernatural event in their life to be allowed membership and as with all these type of anthology stories they'd be a twist at the end . One of the stories was spread over two episodes and featured several gentlemen staying at a remote mansion in central Europe where a werewolf stalks them , another featured a doll that comes to life while another episode stars Gordon Jackson in a tale that reworks Frankenstien . It's interesting to note that this episode is unique in that the club members think this tale has no basis in fact , it's a made up story

The production values were typical of the BBC of the time , ie it was made rather cheaply with very obvious studio exteriors . I also recall letters to the Radio Times were very mixed with some viewers thinking THE SUPERNATURAL was a load of rubbish while some thought it was a fairly good drama . I personally liked watching it on a Saturday night but there again I was still only a child and it should also be pointed out that the BBC dropped the series after one season while the IMDb hasn't exactly been deludged with either info or reviews for this show which unfortunately may say something about its quality

Update Nov 2014 . After seeing the BBC 4 repeats it's as I suspected . Painfully slow , stagey acting and static directing and twists you can probably see a coming a mile away

A vague childhood memory of creepy organ music and a lizard and a big house. Somehow these elements do make sense more than 40 years later now that I view Supernatural again. I was surprised to learn that only 8 episodes were made . Of uneven quality, yes. Studio bound ..yes. But convincing sets and the contrivance of the stories taking place in confined indoor locations makes the lack of location shooting immaterial . My first revisit to these episodes was the one with Gordon Jackson and the Marionettes. What a good actor he was and the acting is first rate on all the episodes I have so far revisited. Ian Hendry and Billie Whitelaw also give stand out performances in my view. It seems a shame that these performances have been hidden away for so long . Worth watching just to see these actors again in contexts that are not the ones we most commonly see them in on the oft repeated shows . Gordon Jackson after all , was not just Mr Hudson or overseeing the antics of Bodie and Doyle ! These stories are slow by today's editing standards but serve as showcases for the talents we alas miss . If you like the old gothic classics and prefer horrors which are implied rather than shown in CGI ( which is rarely convincing anyway ) , you could give this short series a try.