Have You Been Watching...? The Nightmare Man

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)