Algernon Blackwood and Tales of Mystery

Creepy, dour, John Laurie (as Algernon Blackwood) introduced the show each week. The shrill shriek of an owl, then Laurie half in shadow, speaking softly, confidentially to each and every one of us. Wednesday night’s “Tales of Mystery” materialised on our TV screen. Laurie would roll the whites of his eyes, glancing to right then to left, and you would feel yourself isolated and strangely at risk as this sinister show began.

The very first episode was the spooky “Terror of the Twins” which starred Malcolm Russell as Sir George Fletton; John Kidd and Aimee Delamain co-starred. Sir George wanted but one thing in life, he craved a male heir, but with the birth of twin boys to his wife, Sir George’s desire turns to hatred and madness.

“The Promise”, the second show in this macabre circus, concerned a student of Edinburgh University named Marriott who is visited by a friend not seen for some years. The friend looks close to starvation, and Marriott feeds him and lets him sleep. But all is not as it seems. An old promise will come back to haunt poor Marriott. Dinsdale Landon and Derrick Sherwin starred.

“The Man who was Milligan” starred a young Harry H Corbett (pre-Steptoe & Son) and Joan Newell. Harry H was the young man who sensed the mysterious Chinese picture on his wall had come to life. The boat with its solitary occupant moved in the darkness. Eventually the boat had two occupants.

“The Tradition” – who having heard them could ever forget the terrible sound of those horse’s hooves clattering on cobbled stones? (“It’s only the mail van, dear…”) Michael Aldridge and Ann Castle listened in horror as the pale horse came for their fever racked son. But the boy recovered and the horse returned for another, unsuspecting rider.

“Accessory before the fact” – Martin stumbles into a supernatural trap at the crossroads; the young traveler’s encounter with a tramp unfolds into a nightmare where nothing is as it seems. Charles Morgan and John Glyn-Jones starred.

There were three episodes in particular that haunt me still, all these long years later, each introduced as usual by Laurie who wore the darkness about him like some mysterious cloak of menace. His brooding presence overshadowed everything.

“Confession” – A wounded man returned from the front during the Great War, slightly shell shocked, alone, walks through a thick London fog (It is late and he’s missed the last train). All looks strange and unusual. He hears a sound. Beside him appears a dead comrade who accompanies him. One minute he’s there, then he’s gone, only to return seconds later. Silent, expressionless, unsettling. Ultimate the man, Paul Maxwell, meets a young woman, Petra Davies and offers to escort her safely home (foolish, foolish man, thinks the viewer).

At the time of viewing this episode, it was particularly relevant as we’d recently had some dreadful fogs, real pea-soupers where you became lost at the drop of a hat, where sound was muffled to an almost unnatural silence, and where people became simply shapes that shifted in the grey fog, insubstantial as ghosts.

“The empty sleeve” – a musician, Isidore Hyman’s desire for the small Strad (Guarnerius, I know in the original story. But I’m sure in the TV episode it was a Stradivarius?) owned by a couple of violin collectors (brothers), leads to diabolical pacts when he declares he would give his soul to own it. One of the collectors, John Gilmer disturbed a black cat in the room where the violin is kept. He lashed out with a whip (a Turkish sword in the original story)taken from the wall almost severing one of the cat’s front legs. And, of course, when Hyman makes a reappearance his arm is missing, the end of the empty sleeve of his dinner jacket tucked neatly in his pocket. This episode starred Walter Hudd, Hugh Burden and Paul Rogers. It was exceptionally powerful and disturbing. Especially the scene where Hyman frenetically plays the violin, his face positively demonical to observe.

“Ancient Sorceries” was certainly the stuff of nightmares! A young man, a tourist travelling by train, is persuaded to alight in a small remote French hill town. A bad mistake to make. Eerie from those first opening seconds the story takes our young hero into a spider’s web of secrets and ancient mysteries. Michael Bates starred with Jacques Cey and Selma Vaz Dias (whose eyes transposed into those of a cat ended the episode and haunted me for weeks after).

But enough, enough. Who today is interested in these old gems? They certainly don’t make television dramas like these any more. These were creations, interpretations, emotional depictions of the ethereal and supernatural, with good actors and script writers. Today we are content with the third rate, the plastic over the gold. The effect.

Where on television today could you watch anything as subtle as “Chinese Magic” (Helen Lindsay, Peter Williams and Hugh Burden)? Or the conversations between the reporter Williams and the murderer “Max Hensig” with its disturbing after echoes?

Answer: You can’t, and you won’t.

Episode list
The Promise
The Man who was Milligan
The Tradition
The Empty Sleeve
Accessory before the fact
The Woman’s Ghost Story
Decoy
Confession
Chinese Magic
Max Hensig
The Man who found out
Nephele
Ancient Sorceries
Deferred Appointment
The Pikerstaffe Cast
The Telephone
The Call
The Wolves of God
Old Clothes
The Doll
Egyptian Sorcery
The Damned
The Second Generation
A Case of Eavesdropping
Petershin and Mr. Snide
The Lodger
The Insanity of Jones
Dream Cottage