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Late Night Horror: A Complete Guide To The BBC Horror Series
This book gives a detailed insight into the making of "Late Night Horror". Supplemented with a dvd containing the only surviving episode, "The Corpse Can't Play" (plus extras).
109 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
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December 23, 2023
The lead-in to the Age of Streaming was, unfortunately, not as streamlined as it could have been. In other words, the road of "Age of Media" is full of gaps and potholes - sometimes understandable (live broadcasts radiating outwards forever into space) but sometimes not (the short-sighted, economy driven decisions to trash/wipe/erase/"no longer pay for the storage of" hours and hours and days and years of content). Such is the case with the BBC's decision to wipe decades of programming from videotape. And, even worse, we have concurrent media (magazines, TV listing, recollections) to KNOW what we are missing, yet no way to retrieve it...
Unless, as it turns out, someone smuggles aside a copy of something (probably made to interest overseas profits in syndication) and so, decades later, a tantalizing fragment turns up.
As in this case. LATE NIGHT HORROR, in the late 1960s, was the BBC's latest stab at doing a horror anthology television show (a form I love) - with the recent addition of color broadcasting (as this books makes evident, it's possible that LNH was the first BBC show FILMED in color, but definitely was not the first broadcast) making it extra special. It came, it was broadcast, it went and then it sat on film or tape until it was wiped or thrown away, years later. End of story.
Except an episode has turned up and been restored and is now offered by TV Brain on DVD, along with an overview book about the series. As is usual with these things (see my review of Way Out: A History and Episode Guide to Roald Dahl's Spooky 1961 Television Program) overviews of unseen/unseeable shows tend to be close examinations of surviving "related media" and production archives (ie: scripts, studio memos, promotional material, TV listings and reviews) and such is the case here.
LATE NIGHT HORROR sounds interesting (I haven't watched the DVD yet but I love these BBC stage-bound plays), almost like an attempt to do a British "NIGHT GALLERY" just short of a decade before the US. What I mean by this is while the show may have been adapting "classics", they were generally attempting to feel contemporary and eschewed the "classic Gothic" approach of shows like MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION.
In brass tacks terms (and for the benefit of supernatural/horror short fiction fans like myself), the show had 6 episodes adapting Richard Matheson ("No Such Thing As A Vampire" - adapted as well in the US in DEAD OF NIGHT in 1977), Roald Dahl ("William and Mary" adapted before this on the US show WAY OUT in 1961 and, later, on TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED in 1979), John Burke ("The Corpse Can't Play" - a re-titling of his story "Party Games"), H.R. Wakefield ("The Triumph Of Death"), Robert Aickman ("The Bells Of Hell", a re-titling of "Ringing The Changes") and Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Kiss Of Blood", a re-titling of "The Case Of Lady Sannox").
Since only "Corpse" survives (although the book hints that "The Triumph of Death" may still be wandering out there in the wilds, given a possible sighting) it's the only thing we have to form an opinion on. The Aickman certainly gives one grounds to conjure, given how enigmatic his work is and how unlikely it seems as a fit for general adaptation (not that it hasn't stopped some) - and I find the Wakefield (having just read a lot of him in the last few years) intriguing as well (here's to hoping someone tracks it down!). The show, as described in the various production materials, sounds like it was a serious attempt to be both scary and suspense-minded, and now sadly all we have is this book and the one episode. Still, better than nothing!
ADDENDUM - having finally watched "The Corpse Can't Play" - well, it's nice to have but it's probably not the show's best exemplar (but will possibly be its only) as it's more of a conte cruel grand guignol that gains its effect from its contrast with the prosaic setting, than anything atmospheric, supernatural or, dare I say, suspenseful. Burke's story is essentially a British gloss on Bradbury's superior "The October Game" and they pull it off as a solid, if negligible shocker. The one surprise is how gory it is for the time period - not just in the specific climax but in a further note that follows. Still, happy to have it.
Unless, as it turns out, someone smuggles aside a copy of something (probably made to interest overseas profits in syndication) and so, decades later, a tantalizing fragment turns up.
As in this case. LATE NIGHT HORROR, in the late 1960s, was the BBC's latest stab at doing a horror anthology television show (a form I love) - with the recent addition of color broadcasting (as this books makes evident, it's possible that LNH was the first BBC show FILMED in color, but definitely was not the first broadcast) making it extra special. It came, it was broadcast, it went and then it sat on film or tape until it was wiped or thrown away, years later. End of story.
Except an episode has turned up and been restored and is now offered by TV Brain on DVD, along with an overview book about the series. As is usual with these things (see my review of Way Out: A History and Episode Guide to Roald Dahl's Spooky 1961 Television Program) overviews of unseen/unseeable shows tend to be close examinations of surviving "related media" and production archives (ie: scripts, studio memos, promotional material, TV listings and reviews) and such is the case here.
LATE NIGHT HORROR sounds interesting (I haven't watched the DVD yet but I love these BBC stage-bound plays), almost like an attempt to do a British "NIGHT GALLERY" just short of a decade before the US. What I mean by this is while the show may have been adapting "classics", they were generally attempting to feel contemporary and eschewed the "classic Gothic" approach of shows like MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION.
In brass tacks terms (and for the benefit of supernatural/horror short fiction fans like myself), the show had 6 episodes adapting Richard Matheson ("No Such Thing As A Vampire" - adapted as well in the US in DEAD OF NIGHT in 1977), Roald Dahl ("William and Mary" adapted before this on the US show WAY OUT in 1961 and, later, on TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED in 1979), John Burke ("The Corpse Can't Play" - a re-titling of his story "Party Games"), H.R. Wakefield ("The Triumph Of Death"), Robert Aickman ("The Bells Of Hell", a re-titling of "Ringing The Changes") and Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Kiss Of Blood", a re-titling of "The Case Of Lady Sannox").
Since only "Corpse" survives (although the book hints that "The Triumph of Death" may still be wandering out there in the wilds, given a possible sighting) it's the only thing we have to form an opinion on. The Aickman certainly gives one grounds to conjure, given how enigmatic his work is and how unlikely it seems as a fit for general adaptation (not that it hasn't stopped some) - and I find the Wakefield (having just read a lot of him in the last few years) intriguing as well (here's to hoping someone tracks it down!). The show, as described in the various production materials, sounds like it was a serious attempt to be both scary and suspense-minded, and now sadly all we have is this book and the one episode. Still, better than nothing!
ADDENDUM - having finally watched "The Corpse Can't Play" - well, it's nice to have but it's probably not the show's best exemplar (but will possibly be its only) as it's more of a conte cruel grand guignol that gains its effect from its contrast with the prosaic setting, than anything atmospheric, supernatural or, dare I say, suspenseful. Burke's story is essentially a British gloss on Bradbury's superior "The October Game" and they pull it off as a solid, if negligible shocker. The one surprise is how gory it is for the time period - not just in the specific climax but in a further note that follows. Still, happy to have it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review