Three survived...

October 31, 2017 10:28 AM

Dead of Night was a British 1970s supernatural anthology tv series. Sadly only three episodes now exist... but one of those is claimed by some to be one of the most horrific dramas ever to be broadcast.

'The Exorcism' - The best / notorious episode, it has been revived as a stage play on numerous occasions.

'Return Flight' - Written by Doctor Who writer and script editor Robert Holmes

'A Woman Sobbing'

The Nigel Kneale classic The Stone Tape was made by the same production team and was intended to be the last episode in the series but was broadcast as an separate tv play.

Dramatic Spaces: The Imaginative World of the TV Studio (Dead of Night: The Exorcism, BBC 1972)

posted by fearfulsymmetry (8 comments total)

Nigel Kneale was one of the greats of folk horror. He's also responsible for Quatermass, The Witches, and was the uncredited creative force behind Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which has some of his signature elements and sounds like it could have been much more Kneale.
posted by maxsparber at 10:42 AM on October 31, 2017 [14 favorites]

That was very well done. I love that they created something suspenseful, engaging, and creepy without overt gore/blood/etc.
posted by agatha_magatha at 11:41 AM on October 31, 2017

Have to start getting ready for work, so no time to watch now. I will watch when I get home though...
posted by Samizdata at 11:48 AM on October 31, 2017

I just tried to watch A Woman Sobbing the other night, and maybe it gets less harrowing, but the continued sound of a woman crying for the first five minutes was too much for me.

I watched The Stone Tape after that and that was a lot of fun. Slow and 70s British, but fun.
posted by khaibit at 12:06 PM on October 31, 2017

I have a DVD of The Stone Tape that I hadn't watched in years...Last year I tried to watch it again but something about the electronic score in the very beginning drove my cat crazier than I've ever seen him so I had to stop. I'll have to watch it with headphones I guess, I remember liking it (but wishing it had been shot on film).
posted by doctornecessiter at 12:10 PM on October 31, 2017

Robert Holmes! He wrote some of the very best Doctor Who scripts including my very favorite, Talons of Weng Chiang! Definitely going to watch these, thanks for posting!
posted by orrnyereg at 12:28 PM on October 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

A field in which the BBC was sometimes too successful.
posted by aqsakal at 1:03 AM on November 1, 2017

Thanks so much for this - loved the Exorcism's left wing ghost story.

Clive Swift in The Exorcism reminded me of his performance in an MR James adaptation The Stalls of Barchester - more 70s British horror TV, and also great imho.
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 2:53 AM on November 1, 2017