is there a name or a phrase for or anything much written about that distinctly British CREEPY VIBE prevalent in TV shows and movies of the '60s/'70s? (e.g. The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, Baker-era

In an old annual my dad owned, there was a picture of Worzel Gummidge lying in a barn full of dummies. I used to find that image so hard to look at. Really terrified me.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LmQZjKMcPcA/hqdefault.jpg

the crowman off that was legit crepey

There was always something a little bit unsettling about Geoffrey Bayldon as an acting presence, even as Catweazle. It's easy to see why he was considered for the lead in Doctor Who when it started.

Speaking of Catweazle, Richard Carpenter is another name which could be mentioned here. As well instilling multiple generations with an instinctive dread of weirdos in long macs via The Boy From Space, his Robin Of Sherwood really played up the folkloric/supernatural aspects of the character in a way that hadn't really been seen before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alCuaPBIB4A

Bearing in mind RoS doesn't really fit the criteria of this thread, I'll also mention King Of The Castle, which definitely does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tSS22TNT3g

His Robin Hood series also introduced the Moor as a member of the Merry Men, as far as I know, which was picked up in pretty much all of the subsequent film/television versions!

Nigel Kneale's Beasts was taken down off YouTube for awhile but all the episodes are up again now from a different user. I have accordingly burned through Baby, Buddyboy, What Big Eyes, & During Barty's Party in the last week or so, along with the similar in spirit Murrain from a different series. What Big Eyes is the only less than great piece among them, otherwise blown away by this stuff. Stone Tape doesn't seem to be around but Sapphire and Steel is so that's up next.

Ps I am American so this is strictly grown up discovery time for me, no uncanny recollections from school days.

as others have said the stone tape is probably the weakest NK. although it doesn't really belong here if you see Year of the Sex Olympics anywhere, snap it up!

you already know my feelings about Assignment 2 of S&S as one of the finest pieces of TV ever made but it's worth starting from the first (which is also decent if a little silly at times) just to get some badly needed context for the whole S&S shebang.

Assignment 3 (SPOILER excepted) is probably my favourite I think, but I could make a case for all of them apart from Assignment 1.

incidentally, watching Artemis 81 again and it really is excellent. there's a wonky YouTube rip of it. also it's got sting in. but otherwise it's marvellous.

Noticed that on yt, was going to ask about it in this thread!

don't ask me, i was sent to bed and not allowed to watch the second half on the grounds that it was "a right load of old rubbish"

i saw your post upthread after i posted NV. I'm pleased to say it is definitely a load of old rubbish.

one of the major drawbacks of encroaching senility is when i post the same story to ilx twice :/

keeps things fresh and helps avoid a pass-agg "as I said upthread".

speaking of senility it's my birthday today and i might treat myself to rudkin's adaptation of the ash tree which i didnt realise was rudkin until i saw your earlier post.

Happy Birthday!

creepy thread to wish it on but marking the passage of time ties in nicely i guess

perfect thread for it. I'm hoping my incipient decay takes the form of a frail degeneration in the face of some sort of cosmic onslaught from the past.

and thanks!

Hb!

Hey Happy Birthday!

cheers everyone! no creepy vibe yet, just a day with gf around london, couple of galleries maybe (that thing helen dewitt contributed to) and some wine and food definitely. but who knows what lurks etc

http://images.tvrage.com/people/14/39008.jpg

Happy 21st Fizzles!

If you want a birthday pint I'm not rushing home after work tonight.

What's the Helen Dewitt thing? xp

Happy Day!

(If I'm remembering the stone children correctly)

thanks one and all. am sitting in my garden right now drinking wine so won't make that post-work drink today - but soon, soon.

http://i.imgur.com/uwEkYzc.jpg

substantial lol.

oh my

hehehe

apologies for late night poor quality photoshopping

!!!

The Stone Tape is getting a radio adaptation this Halloween, to be directed by Peter Strickland (mentioned at the end of this article):

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/jun/17/duke-of-burgundy-director-peter-strickland-radio-play-len-continuum

that's great news. every chance he'll do a better job than the original imo. this makes sense in terms of triangulating the PS aesthetic i think.

Just got hold of a DVD of The Changes, an old 1970s sci fi for children. It looks fantastic. Can't wait to watch it.

i remember seeing that around my cousin's at the time (was itv iirc, we were a bbc household. no magpie for us...)

New radio version of The Stone Tape on Friday by Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06g63fh

Thanks for the reminder, aldo. As I said upthread, have a certain amount of expectation this will be better than the original.

It was but I still have reservations. Sound design was superb and genuinely scary, even in not 3D. Horrifying 1970s banter was toned down (I wondered if they were going to give it a modern day setting but I suppose no-one could ever be excited anymore by the prospect of a new recording medium.) The ending still felt weak though and I'm not sure it would have made any sense to anyone who hadn't seen the original.

this seems relevant:

Haunted half-hours – how the BBC made Christmas creepy

http://gu.com/p/4dmgq?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

there's a 6 disc box of bbc christmas ghost stories, featuring a shedload of MR James and a bunch of stuff i don't remember.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009XD7M2Y

has nobody mentioned the Amazing Mr Blunden?

That BBC box is great.

Stone Tape was really well done but, yes, I think you needed a little familiarity with the original for it to work properly.

Saw The Owl Service mentioned as a see also on some page about Penda's Fen so decided to watch it while waiting for the latter to download (still waiting). (I never read the book, always assumed it was owl service like postal service.) For a kid's show it's certainly far out there. The sexual undercurrents are very confusing given that the kids are supposed to be teenagers, they're played by actors in their 20s, and they behave like 12 year olds. The first episode is creepy and weird enough - aided by the fact that the stepmother, theoretically a significant character, is never seen or heard but has her pronouncements issued via other characters - but it soon succumbs to the deathly slowness of yesteryear; aside from occasional plot snippets over half the episodes feel not just dispensable but downright irritating, lovesick teenagers mooning about or being insufferable snobbish pricks. No holds barred for the batshit final episode though: torrential rain and muddy pratfalls, oilskin-clad gurning loony villagers, a darth vader moment, and a climax that seems to foreshadow The Exorcist.

is there somewhere i can download penda's fen online?

started watching the Children's serial 'Box of Delights'. It's weird and unsettling and makes very little sense.

I had to torrent it, one seeder.

Box of Delights definitely a favourite of my childhood, I can still remember the theme. One major caveat though which I won't spoil.

I think I got pendas fen by downloading it from YouTube a couple of years ago when there were still iOS apps that'd do that

Penda's Fen is getting a DVD release in May, if you're willing to wait/would rather obtain it legally.

Just watched a VHS rip on YouTube last night

Another big tick for Box of Delights. It hit me squarely at the right time, when I was six or seven and in the lead in to Christmas. Have a strong sentimental attachment to it, and will still occasionally watch at Christmas. Both that and The Midnight Folk have similar 'anything anywhere' magic - with a very mutable human form and spirit that gives access to a total possible immersion into all corners of nature, time and mythology. It's quite appealing in one way - Raymond Lully escaping Troy but captured by medieval pirates, with Edwardian schoolboy in attednace - but has a knock on effect that the progress of events-in-settings are incoherent, the lack of restriction somehow dispersing a train of emotional investment. That's much less a problem in the TV series though, and the theme music is quite magical, I'm not sure it will ever leave me.

never watched it but vividly remember the trailers for it (and even then i thought the sfx were shonky looking)

"Come, be a beast with me in my wild wood..."

wouldn't get away with that today...

Just looked up the main title music. Fantastic. It's taken from A Carol Symphony by a composer named Hely-Hutchinson (looks like there is a recording on Naxos)

oh ok. that's interesting! will seek out. it's so totally bound up with childhood that I'm incapble of fair critical assessment, which is always quite an enjoyable state.