Dramarama: Spooky - The Complete Series [ITV] [Network] [DVD]

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As a punishment he’s put in detention and left alone in an empty music room to finish the work he’s been neglecting. Built sometime between 1165 and 1173 to consolidate Henry II’s power in East Anglia, it’s probably best known these days for its uniquely designed keep but readers with an interest in such matters may know it more from the climax of Witchfinder General (1968). Broadcast in 1983, and preceeding the forthcoming "Dramarama" series by a few months, the anthology collection "Dramarama Spooky" gets things off to an entertaining start, with a collection of seven, 25-minute supernatural dramas, a goodly mix of the spooky and menacing, with intelligent and thought-provoking stories provided by the likes of Paula Milne, Jane Hollowood, Leon Garfield and Alan Garner (The Owl Service). The main run of Dramarama episodes included more than a few science fiction, horror and fantasy offerings ( Jack and the Computer (1983), Mr Stabs (1984), The Young Person’s Guide to Going Backwards in the World (1985), The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt (1986) and many others) but it was this initial run, subsequently released on DVD by the always wonderful Network, that provided some of the most memorable moments.

They’re caught by the sexton (Wilfred Bramble in one of his last appearances) and the boys decide to scare the old man away long enough to carry out their raid, despite their fear of the ghost of a drummer boy (Mathew Peters) who is said to haunt the graveyard. Only four ITV companies of the time did not contribute to the series: Anglia, Channel, Grampian and LWT. The Keeper', written by Alan Garner, was the final episode of the original 'Spooky' series of the long running Dramarama series, an anthology show for children. THE UNIVERSE DOWNSTAIRS: Kid finds backward dimension in his basement, where a mangle is “more advanced” than a washing machine.

Deaf Angel begins to turn and just as we begin to see something horrible we cut to the kid in his hiding place, looking. As usual, I would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to Network for taking the trouble to licence and master these marginal interest pieces. From the music – Gordon Crosse’s stark, unsettling medieval score – to the camera work – probing, invasive, like the POV of an unseen presence – all parts of the production are operating at the top of their game. Entertainment Magpie Limited t/a Music Magpie is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FRN 775278.

While this sequence can be seen as dealing with the familiar trope of people messing with things they know nothing about, Garner adds in a chilling aside, neither Peter or Sally have seen a ghost but then Sally adds “I’d be more bothered if a ghost had seen me. I am part of the vastness; part of the silence and emptiness that is filled up with your inane chatter and your trivial words,’ the pedantic phantom croons, sentencing Gary Davies, Simon Bates and Dave Lee Travis to sleepless nights with the sledgehammer obviousness of the satire while Gwyneth Strong (Cassandra from Only Fools And Horses in full-on faux new-romantic glitz mode) plays an endless stream of mostly forgotten hits by Grace Jones, Shack Attack, Fashion, Junior, Lynx and Aswad. She starts to recite a creepy poem (“In the dark, dark wood, there was a dark, dark house…) Inexplicably, the boy finds himself drawn into the poem where he meets the wonderfully creepy ghost of his father, dripping wet having been drowned, and explores the mystery of what is in the dark, dark box in the dark, dark trunk in a dark, dark cupboard. The boy runs to the road and there’s his dad’s truck but just as he reaches it the truck drives off – dad has the doppleganger in the passenger seat. This enduring bric-a-brac franchise at the very least gave you a chance to play spot-the-regional-logo, and at the very worst gave those regions some less than impressive caught-in-the-headlights national exposure.

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