By the late 1970’s the iconic film studio Hammer was no longer the force it once was, deciding that TV would be a new avenue to explore the company put together a fantastic anthology series they called Hammer House of Horror and featuring the cream of British acting talent, seldom seen since (apart from occasional edited late night showings) it was generally a spooky and sometimes frightening anthology series.
The series features some great talent including the likes of Peter Cushing, the always fabulous Diana Dors, Celia Gregory, Ian McCulloch, Denholm Elliott, Brian Cox, Sian Phillips, Barbara Kellerman, Simon MacCorkindale, Norman Beaton and even a young Pierce Brosnan in one of his first ever roles to name just a few.
Being an anthology series the stories are not linked in any way other than that they are either spooky, scary or even horrific. Ranging from a tale of witchcraft when a composer (Jon Finch) conjures up a 17th century witch in Witching Time to dark doings with Werewolves in the Diana Dors starring Children of the New Moon to the mad scientist plot of the Peter Cushing story The Silent Scream. Stand out story has to be The Two Faces if Evil in which terrible events occur to a family after they pick up a sinister hitch-hiker.
There was a second anthology a couple of years later called The Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.
Special Effects: Ian Scoones / Music: Philip Martell / Executive Producers: Brian Lawrence, David Reid
UK / ITV – Hammer – ATV – ITC – Jack Gill / 13x50m-e / Broadcast 13 September – 6 December 1980
