I’d heard of the Nightmare Man many times before, from
friends who are much more versed in Telefantasy than I am, so after finally
getting a good deal on a second-hand DVD, I settled down to watch it and see what
all the fuss was about.
So what did I think of it? Well, I could tell you, but I’d
rather you read all the other stuff I’m writing about it too, so either wait ‘til
the end, or scroll down to it.
The Nightmare Man is a 4 part thriller from the BBC broadcast
in 1981 on Friday nights. I say “thriller” but to say more would be a spoiler.
Oh go on, then. The series covers a variety of genres in one, from thriller, to
cold war shenanigans and horror to science-fiction. It’s based on the novel
“Child of Vodyanoi” by David Wiltshire and released in 1978 but it was adapted
for television by Dr Who legend Robert Holmes. Indeed the serial’s connections
to Dr Who are broad: In front of the camera, we have an early turn from
National Treasure Celie Imrie (The Bells of St John), James Warwick
(Earthshock), Maurice Roeves (Caves of Androzani), Tony Sibbald (Terror of the
Zygons), Jonathan Newth (Underworld), Tom Watson (The Underwater Menace), Jeff
Stewart (Kinda) and Pat Gorman (too numerous to mention).Of course you’ll
recognise a number of these from other shows too, like Jeff Stewart in The Bill
as Reg Hollis). Dr Who links behind the camera, besides Holmes, include
Director Douglas Camefield, Producer Ron Craddock worked on the series in 1964
as production assistant, make-up artist Fran Needham, and assistant floor
manager David Tilley. I’m sure there’s more. The series was once described to
me like a Dr Who adventure without the Doctor, and it’s probably true. I should
also add, that even though there’s a lot of Dr Who talent on screen, there’s
also some non-Who talent, including Game of Thrones’ James Cosmo and Bread’s
Ronald Forfar.
The series begins with a murder on a remote Scottish island,
and the subsequent investigation by the local police, a dentist that assists
them (yes, indeed we don’t have enough Dentistry heroes on TV) and a rather
mysterious Army colonel. Celia Imrie plays Fiona Patterson, who just happens to
be the island’s go-to person for literally everything. Maurice Roeves plays
Inspector Inskip of the local police, and is absolutely wonderful on screen,
stealing every scene he is in, bringing a necessary groundness to the bizarre
goings-on.
As the gruesome murders continue, and a strange craft is
located, the islanders begin to realise the murderer might not be one of our
own species, let alone one of their own community.
The series was also filmed using outside broadcast
equipment, which gives the series a unique “look” to it that contemporary
programmes lacked. This does help with the atmosphere of the story. The
murderer’s reveal is slow, and we don’t see much of the murder at all until
later in the run, the only times we do, is from a red screen point of view as
the murderer conducts their deeds.
I didn’t see The Nightmare Man on it’s first transmission,
and I hadn’t heard of the Child of Vodyanoi novel, so I was pleasantly going
into the with no pre-conceptions. I watched part one on a Saturday and binged
the rest over the same weekend. With the episodes being nice 30min chunks, it
made it much easier as there’s only 4 of them. For only a 2 hour run time,
though, I wouldn’t watch one after the other. Take a break between each and
savour those cliffhangers! I watched
this on the BBC DVD edition of the story, which is quite difficult to track
down these days. It was released in 2005, so may be out of print now, although
it can be located on various internet sites for inflated costs, so shop around.
Overall, I did enjoy this. It’s a product of its time, but
on the whole, it stands up well today. At the time of writing this though, some
of the plot threads are remarkably current!
Year – 1981
Series count – 1
Episode count – 4
Availability – DVD (if you can find it)
