It’s 17th February 1964 – You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ by The Righteous Brothers is at number one in the UK. Sir Alec Douglas-Home is Prime Minister, Beatlemania has erupted in the United States, Southampton has been granted city status (can you tell this script was running short?), and the Channel Tunnel Agreement was signed, with an estimated completion time of five years (though it would actually take 30). Meanwhile, at the cinema, released as a double feature with The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, is today’s topic – The Gorgon.

Anthony Nelson Keys, one of four filmmaking sons of comedian Nelson "Bunch" Keys, is well-known in this parish for a number of topics we’ve discussed before, including Quatermass and the Pit (Ep 34) and The Reptile (Ep 19). He joined Hammer in 1956 as an associate producer, later becoming a producer and occasional screenwriter. Keys also served as General Manager of Bray Studios in the 1960s and eventually co-founded Charlemagne Productions with Christopher Lee—or should that be production (singular)? As we know, they managed only one film together: Nothing but the Night (covered in Episode 42).

Richard Pasco plays Paul Heitz. Late in his career, he starred as Tom Colley in The Watcher in the Woods, a favorite film from Ross’s youth that we must cover one day. Before that, he played Cardinal Richelieu in the 1966 TV adaptation of The Three Musketeers and Dr. Boris Zargo in Rasputin: The Mad Monk.

#BigChrisLee appears as Professor Karl Meister, while his best buddy Peter Cushing plays Dr. Namaroff. Despite popular belief that they always worked together, the pair hadn’t shared the screen in four years before this production began.

Barbara Shelley stars as Carla Hoffman. Born Barbara Teresa Kowin in 1932, Shelley appeared in over 100 films and TV series. She’s celebrated for her roles in horror classics like Village of the Damned, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Rasputin: The Mad Monk, and Quatermass and the Pit.

For the role of the monster, former ballerina Prudence Hyman was cast, as the creature was intended to float gracefully, almost like a wraith. (Spoiler alert!) Shelley had hoped to play her character’s Gorgon form herself for continuity and even suggested using a special wig with live green garden snakes for realism. Unfortunately, the idea was rejected due to budget and time constraints. After seeing the disappointing Gorgon effects in the final cut, Keys admitted to Shelley that her suggestion might have been the better choice. As #BigChrisLee quipped, “The only thing wrong with The Gorgon is the Gorgon!”

Visually, this film is stunning, so let’s give a shoutout to Michael Reed’s cinematography and Bernard Robinson’s production design. Michael Reed’s CV includes Dracula: Prince of Darkness, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and five episodes of CITVs Press Gang. Meanwhile, Bernard Robinson designed some of Hammer’s greatest productions, spanning from the very first to the last of their classic horror films.

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The original run of A Ghost Story for Christmas aired on the BBC from 1971 to 1978, bringing classic ghost stories to television and keeping alive the tradition of sharing supernatural tales during the Christmas season.

In our journey through the series, we’ve covered A Warning to the Curious and The Signalman in Episode 21, Whistle and I’ll Come to You and Stigma in Episode 32, and The Stalls of Barchester alongside The Treasure of Abbot Thomas in Episodes 41a and 41b.

Just five days ago, on Christmas Eve, we delved into The Ash Tree. If you missed it, you can find it in our podcast feed. And tonight, as we stand on the brink of the space year 2025, we’re excited to bring you Lost Hearts.

Written by Robin Chapman, produced by Rosemary Hill, and directed by the series' creator Lawrence Gordon Clark, Lost Hearts is based on the 1895 ghost story of the same name by M.R. James. It first aired on BBC1 on December 25, 1973, marking the first installment in the series to be broadcast on Christmas Day itself—and one of only three to ever air on that date.

Robin Chapman also wrote 30 episodes of Tales of the Unexpected. (Seek out episode 29, where good old Bernard Cribbins makes an appearance.)

The film features Joseph O’Conor as Mr. Abney. O’Conor lent his voice to the narrator in (the best Muppet movie) The Dark Crystal, played Mr. Brownlow in Oliver! (cue James mentioning the exclamation point here), and portrayed the Coroner in The Gorgon—but more on that soon.

Simon Gipps-Kent plays Stephen, the young protagonist. Tragically, Gipps-Kent passed away at just 28 years old. However, in his brief career, he appeared in several notable films and TV shows of interest to our listener. He played Paul in The Tomorrow People, had a brief role in Quadrophenia, portrayed Seth in the Doctor Who serial The Horns of Nimon, and starred in something called A Traveller in Time from 1978. which was filmed at Babington House, a farmhouse owned by the parents of Blue Peter presenter Simon Groom.

In 2018, Severn Film Productions released a new adaptation of Lost Hearts, directed by Max Van De Banks. This version updated the story to the 1940s (and later 1953). After the death of Stephen’s parents, the young boy is evacuated to the countryside during World War II. Unusually, this production was filmed in two parts: the main elements were shot in 2005, while the beginning and ending scenes were filmed in 2016. Louis Newton, who played Stephen in 2005, returned to portray him as a young man recounting the events to his bride-to-be ten years later.

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A Ghost Story for Christmas is a series of annual British short films first broadcast on BBC One from 1971 to 1978, and sporadically revived by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original films were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and shot on 16 mm color film. The series aimed to adapt classic ghost stories for television, echoing the tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.

So far, we’ve covered A Warning to the Curious and The Signalman in Episode 21, Whistle and I’ll Come to You and Stigma in Episode 32, and The Stalls of Barchester along with The Treasure of Abbot Thomas in Episodes 41a and 41b.

This year, we’re bringing you Lost Hearts on New Year’s Eve. But tonight, Christmas Eve—the traditional night for ghost stories—we’ll be discussing The Ash Tree.

Written for the screen by David Rudkin and based on M.R. James’s short story, The Ash Tree was directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Looking back at Clark’s credits, it’s surprising we haven’t mentioned that he also directed one of our favorite monkey-man TV drama events from the 1990s—Chimera. That’s definitely something we should cover, assuming we can find a way to watch it.

The Ash Tree aired on December 23, 1975, and featured Edward Petherbridge in the dual roles of Sir Richard and Sir Matthew. According to IMDb, Petherbridge began his career in 1961 and appeared in a wide range of film and TV roles. He’s apparently best known as the sharp and snooty sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey in The Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries. Impressively, he kept working until 2017, with one of his final roles being the voice of a gentleman fish in one of Tim Burton’s Alice films.

The cast also included Preston Lockwood as Dr. Croome, Barbara Ewing as Anne Mothersole, and, happily for our status as a secret Doctor Who podcast (though perhaps less happily for James), Lalla Ward as Lady Augusta.

Barbara Ewing had an impressive career on the small screen, appearing in shows like Peak Practice, Casualty, The Bill, an episode of Hammer House of Horror, and even the Pertwee-fronted game show Whodunnit?. She also appeared in Chiller, a British horror/fantasy anthology series from 1995 that Ross has somehow never seen but seems to pop up constantly on people’s CVs. are you two aware of this and should we be covering it?) Beyond acting, Ewing is also an accomplished novelist, with nine books to her name. Her novel A Dangerous Vine even made the long list for the Orange Prize.

Lalla Ward had a fascinating career trajectory. Her first film after leaving the Central School of Speech and Drama was Hammer’s Vampire Circus. She was close friends with Douglas Adams, who famously took her as his date to a screening of The Empire Strikes Back in the early 1980s. Adams also introduced her to her second husband, Richard Dawkins (for whom she would later provide illustrations for his controversial books), at his 40th birthday party—they were the only two who showed up on time! Of course, her first husband was Tom Baker, with whom she starred in Doctor Who as the second incarnation of the Time Lady Romana from 1979 to 1981.

There really should be a General Witchfinders drinking game where you take a sip every time we mention someone in this next bit: In 2019, a modern-day audio adaptation of The Ash Tree was released by Bafflegab Productions. Written by Matthew Holness, it starred Amanda Abbington, Reece Shearsmith, and John Sessions.

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Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter is a 1974 British swashbuckling action horror film, written and directed by Brian Clemens in his directorial debut. Clemens was celebrated for his work as a screenwriter, particularly for his contributions to British television series. Prior to Captain Kronos, he wrote and produced Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde for Hammer. Other films he wrote that fall into and circle around our areas of interest include And Soon the Darkness (which he wrote with Dalek creator Terry Nation), See No Evil (the 1971 Mia Farrow film,), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Watcher in the Woods (one of Disney's forays into horror and one of Ross's all-time favorites), and one of the most bizarre sequels of all time—Highlander II: The Quickening. According to his son Samuel, Clemens' last words were, "I did quite a good job," spoken after watching an episode of The Avengers.

In Captain Kronos, the titular character is played by Horst Janson, famous in Germany for his role in Salto Mortale, where he portrayed a trapeze artist. He later became familiar to younger audiences as "Horst" in Sesamstrasse, the German adaptation of Sesame Street, which he hosted from 1980 to 1983. The Captain's voice was dubbed in this film due to Janson's strong German accent, with Julian Holloway taking on the task. Holloway, who featured in eight Carry On films before moving into voice-over work, has recently voiced Prime Minister Almec and Admiral Kilian in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He also appeared in Doctor Who's last story of the classic era, Survival. In 1976, he had a brief relationship with Tessa Dahl, daughter of Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl, which produced one daughter, the author and former model Sophie Dahl, who was born the following year.

The supporting cast includes John Carson as Dr. Marcus, a physician who enlists Kronos's help to investigate strange deaths in his village. Carson, often noted for his voice that bears a striking resemblance to James Mason’s, was a Hammer regular with appearances in Taste the Blood of Dracula and The Plague of the Zombies.

Caroline Munro appears as Carla, a Romanian girl who becomes Kronos's feisty sidekick. Known for her glamorous looks, Munro rose to fame as the "Lamb's Navy Rum" poster girl, a role she held for ten years. She initially caught Hammer’s attention through her work on The Abominable Dr. Phibes, where she played Vincent Price's silent, deceased wife, and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (check out episode 10 for our review of the first of those two "classics"). As well as this film, she of course appeared in the subject of our very first podcast episode, Dracula A.D. 1972. Outside Hammer, Munro went on to play the slave girl Margiana in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, the princess in At the Earth's Core, and the deadly Bond girl Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me, turning down the role of Ursa in Superman to accept it.

The film’s score was composed by Laurie Johnson, who, from the 1960s to the 1980s, composed over fifty themes and scores, including the theme used on This Is Your Life (entitled "Gala Performance"), The Avengers (from 1965), Animal Magic (entitled "Las Vegas"), Jason King, The New Avengers, and The Professionals.

Though Captain Kronos was shot in 1972, it was delayed and eventually released in 1974. The film was intended to kick off a series featuring Kronos and his companions, but no sequels were made—although there have been a number of follow up comic book adventures.

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The Dæmons is the final story in the eighth season of Doctor Who, with Jon Pertwee playing the eponymous hero (see episode 48 covering The House That Dripped Blood for some fantastic Pertrivia). It aired over five weeks on BBC1 from 22 May to 19 June 1971.

In The Dæmons, the Master, played by Roger Delgado, awakens the ancient horned alien Azal, hoping to gain his immense power. Delgado, a close friend of Pertwee, worked extensively on stage, TV, film, and radio. His work included the BBC’s Quatermass II, Battle of the River Plate, Hammer's The Mummy's Shroud, and English dubbing for The Horror Express (see episode 7). He often played villains in British action-adventure series like Danger Man, The Saint, The Champions, and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Tragically, Delgado died in a car accident in Turkey while filming a Franco-German mini-series. He was only 55 years old.

The Dæmons began as an audition scene for Jo Grant, played by Katy Manning, and was later reworked into episode four. Manning attended Miss Dixon and Miss Wolfe's School for Girls, becoming close friends with Liza Minnelli. She socialized with stars like James Mason, Dirk Bogarde, and had tea with Noël Coward at The Savoy. As a teenager, she modeled for Biba and dated Jimi Hendrix, Richard Eyre, David Troughton, Derek Fowlds, Stewart Bevan, and Peter Bardens, Rod Stewart’s keyboard player.

Manning had a close bond with Pertwee, who would pick her up daily for filming, either in his car or on his motorbike, where she would ride pillion. They even raced with Dick Emery and Sir Ralph Richardson to see who could reach the BBC studios first. After three years on Doctor Who, Manning left to pursue other acting work. Pertwee was saddened by her departure, citing her exit and Delgado’s death as two major reasons for leaving the show a year later.

Producer Barry Letts wanted to write a story about black magic to tap into the zeitgeist of the Age of Aquarius and frighten young viewers. However, script editor Terrance Dicks had concerns it might be seen as Satanist. The story was revised to focus on a scientific threat with occult themes. Originally, the Master was to worship the demon in a church, but to avoid offending religious viewers, the scenes were moved to a crypt, later referred to as a cavern (though the set remained crypt-like). Letts co-wrote the script with playwright Robert Sloman under the pseudonym Guy Leopold, as the BBC frowned on production staff writing for their own shows.

Much of the serial was filmed on location in Aldbourne, Wiltshire, with two weeks allocated for filming—more than double the usual time—leading to more outdoor scenes.

The cast included comedy actress Damaris Hayman, who starred as Miss Hawthorne. Hayman had an interest in the supernatural and served as an unofficial adviser on the production. Her friend, a practicing witch, praised the accuracy of the scripts. Future Sooty puppeteer Matthew Corbett had a brief role in the final episode as a hooded coven member who objects to Jo’s sacrifice. Corbett, whose great-uncle was Harry Ramsden of fish-and-chip fame, had to change his name when joining the actors' union Equity, as there was already a Peter Corbett registered.

Studio taping for The Dæmons was completed on 16 May 1971, just weeks before the final episode aired. This episode included footage of a model church being blown up, which was so realistic that it prompted viewer complaints. If the clip of the Brigadier's helicopter crashing into the heat shield looks familiar, it was borrowed from the James Bond film From Russia with Love.

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This time, we listened to and read Ringing the Changes by Robert Aickman.

Robert Fordyce Aickman was an English conservationist and writer. As a conservationist, he played a key role in preserving and restoring England's inland canal system. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories."

On his mother’s side, Aickman was the grandson of the prolific Victorian novelist Richard Marsh. Marsh is known for his occult thriller The Beetle, a book as popular in its time as Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Aickman is best known for his 48 "strange stories," published across eight volumes.

Podcast favorite Jeremy Dyson has adapted Aickman’s work in various forms. Listen to episode 8 for our most in-depth look at Jeremy’s work. A musical version of Aickman’s short story The Same Dog, co-written by Dyson and Joby Talbot, premiered in 2000 at the Barbican Concert Hall.

In 2000, Dyson, along with his League of Gentlemen collaborator Mark Gatiss, adapted Ringing the Changes into a BBC Radio Four play, airing exactly twenty years after the CBC adaptation. This adaptation was intended to start a tradition of 'An Aickman Story for Halloween,' but unfortunately, it did not continue. Dyson also directed a 2002 short film based on Aickman’s story The Cicerones, with Gatiss as the principal actor.

It is this Dyson/Gatiss adaptation that we listened to for this episode. (Thanks to ‘Mysterious Magpie’ for putting this up on YouTube so we could listen to it)

The cast includes George Baker as Gerald. Baker is known for his roles in The Dam Busters as Flight Lieutenant D. J. H. Maltby, Tiberius in I, Claudius, D.C.I. Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Decider Logrin in the Doctor Who story Full Circle, and appearances in two James Bond films.

Fiona Allen plays Phrynne. Allen is an actress and writer known for 24 Hour Party People, Smack the Pony, and Poirot. She has been married to Michael Parkinson since April 2001. This surprised Ross when writing this until he discovered it wasn’t ‘That’ Michael Parkinson (see episode 18 of this podcast for more about him). Instead, it’s the patronymic son of the chat show legend, whom she met while he was working as a location manager on Smack the Pony. Confused? I am!

Friend of the show Mark Gatiss appears as the Narrator and Mr. Pascoe, the landlord.

Commandant Shortcroft is played by Michael Cochrane, known for his role in 280 episodes of The Archers, Arnold (Private Godfrey) Ridley in We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story, and for playing three different characters in three different episodes of Heartbeat.

Barbara Shelley plays Mrs. Pascoe. Known to our podcast listeners for her portrayal of Barbara Judd in the Hammer version of Quatermass and the Pit (reviewed in episode 34), she also starred in The Village of the Damned (which we need to review soon), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (one of the Dracula films we still need to cover), Rasputin: The Mad Monk, The Gorgon, and the 1958 Hammer wannabe Blood of the Vampire, written by Jimmy Sangster.

She also appeared in both Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who— as I'm sure James is dying to know, we can tell you she played Sorasta in Planet of Fire and was considered for the role of Tanha in Snakedance… but that’s enough Doctor Who for now…

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"The House That Dripped Blood" is a 1971 British anthology horror film directed by Peter Duffell and distributed by Amicus Productions. The film is a collection of four short stories, each concerning a series of inhabitants of the eponymous building.

Denholm Elliott appears in the segment "Method for Murder," playing Charles Hillyer. He is joined by Joanna Dunham, who portrays Alice Hillyer, Charles' wife.

Peter Cushing stars in the segment "Waxworks," portraying Philip Grayson. Joss Ackland (known for "Lethal Weapon 2," "Watership Down," and "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey," among over 100 other films) plays Neville Rogers, Grayson's friend. Wolfe Morris appears as the Waxworks Proprietor.

Christopher Lee appears in the segment "Sweets to the Sweet," playing John Reid. He is joined by Nyree Dawn Porter (star of "The Forsyte Saga," who turned down the lead female role in "The Avengers") as Ann Norton, the tutor hired to care for Reid's daughter.

Jon Pertwee features in the segment "The Cloak," portraying Paul Henderson. Ingrid Pitt plays Carla Lind, Henderson's co-star and love interest in the vampire film they're working on.

All of the stories were written by Robert Bloch, best known as the writer of "Psycho." Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels and was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft.

Amicus films are sometimes mistaken for the output of Hammer Films due to their similar visual style and use of some of the same actors. However, unlike the period gothic Hammer films, Amicus productions were usually set in the present day.

In the Second World War, Denholm Elliott (famous to this podcast for his titular role as the Signalman in the BBC "Ghost Story for Christmas," podcast episode 21) joined the Royal Air Force, training as a wireless operator/air gunner in 1942. His aircraft was hit by flak and subsequently ditched in the North Sea. Elliott and four of his crewmen survived, and he spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft VIIIb, a prisoner-of-war camp.

Later, Pertwee was attached to the top-secret Naval Intelligence Division, working alongside future James Bond author (and of course Big Chris Lee’s cousin) Ian Fleming and reporting directly to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In 1967, he was chosen by "Dad's Army" producer David Croft for the role of Captain Mainwaring, but Pertwee turned it down. In 1969, Pertwee asked his agent to apply for the role of Doctor Who and was surprised to find he was already on the shortlist. He was the second choice for the role; Ron Moody was the first but was unavailable.

Jon Pertwee later claimed that "The House That Dripped Blood" was meant to be a comedy-horror film and was initially filmed in that way. However, during the production, "the producer came in, took one look at what we are doing, and went raving mad," insisting it be a horror film and not a comedy. This change meant a shift in tone, but the material already filmed remained, resulting in the film dipping in quality and edits to remove comedy elements from Pertwee's sequences. He also admitted that he intentionally based his character on his co-star and friend Christopher Lee. In a scene where Jon's character talks about favourite roles, he says that he prefers Bela Lugosi's Dracula rather than "the chap who plays him nowadays."

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Inside No. 9 is a British black comedy anthology series that aired from February 5, 2014, to June 12, 2024. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith and produced by the BBC. The only recurring elements are a setting related to the number 9 and a hidden brass hare statue. The show blends comedy, horror, and plot twists.

The episode we watched, "The Devil of Christmas," is a Christmas special and the first episode of the third series, aired on December 27, 2016. Directed by Graeme Harper and written by Pemberton and Shearsmith, it took heavy inspiration from 1970s anthology programs such as Beasts (see episode 27 and 44 a and b), and Tales of the Unexpected (listen to episode 29 for more details), filmed at Studio D in the BBC Elstree Centre with rented 1970s costumes and props, the production used retrofitted 1970s cameras and lighting. This approach differed from the usual single-camera setup of the series. Producer Adam Tandy noted the blend of heritage and modern technology, while Shearsmith remarked "it looks shit, but it's brilliant".

Graeme Harper, the episode's director, is well-known for his work on Doctor Who, being the only person to direct both the original and revived series. Harper's direction was widely acclaimed, with Peter Davison praising him as the best director he worked with on Doctor Who.

The episode featured Rula Lenska, born Roza Maria Leopoldyna Lubienski, who has appeared in Special Branch, Minder, Boon, The Detectives, Footballers' Wives, To the Manor Born, One Foot in the Grave, Casualty, Space: 1999, Return of the Saint, Robin of Sherwood, Doctors, and EastEnders, where she played Frank Butcher's girlfriend, Krystle, in a 2002 Costa del Sol special. In the 1970s, she was shortlisted for the role of companion Jo Grant in Doctor Who and later appeared in Resurrection of the Daleks. She starred as Mrs. Peacock in series 2 of Cluedo and appeared with John Inman in the series Take a Letter, Mr. Jones.

In 2009, Lenska joined the cast of Coronation Street as Claudia Colby, an old friend of Audrey Roberts. She left in May 2011 to join the Calendar Girls tour. Lenska was married to actors Brian Deacon and Dennis Waterman, with both marriages ending in divorce. She appeared in commercials for Alberto VO5 in the US during the late 1970s, becoming a running joke on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Her work with the London Gay Men's Chorus led to her participation in the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, where she made headlines for a role-play task with George Galloway.

Since today's topic was a last-minute change to our schedule, we didn't have much time to research Steve and Reece thoroughly. I’m sorry we don’t have more to share about them, but they seem like really nice guys. Both, along with the other two members of the League of Gentlemen, consistently create content that we pretty much universally like, if not love. (Ross is speaking for himself here, but I think Jon and James would agree.)

This episode also features the voice of Sir Derek Jacobi, Professor Yana himself!!!!. Due to time constraints, our research for this episode was limited. We'll need to cover another project featuring Derek so we can properly explore the life and work of this wonderful actor. If you have any suggestions, please tweet us @GeneralWitch1.

In May 2024, it was announced that Pemberton and Shearsmith had adapted the series into a West End stage play, Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright. They will perform in the production, premiering in January 2025 at Wyndham's Theatre, London. (Ross and his wife have tickets to go in April!)

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