Memento Mori (19 Apr. 1992)

A group of old people is being frightened by mysterious phone calls.

Director:

Jack Clayton

Writers:

Muriel Spark (novel), Jack Clayton,

Stars:

Maggie Smith, Michael Hordern, Renée Asherson

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Maggie Smith	...	Mrs. Mabel Pettigrew
Michael Hordern	...	Godfrey Colston
Renée Asherson	...	Charmian Colston
Stephanie Cole	...	Dame Lettie Colston
Thora Hird	...	Jean Taylor
Maurice Denham	...	Guy Leet
John Wood	...	Ex-Inspector Henry Mortimer
Zoë Wanamaker	...	Olive Mannering
Peter Eyre	...	Eric Colston
Cyril Cusack	...	Percy Mannering
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Baskcomb	...	Fat Old Man
Elizabeth Bradley	...	Mrs. Anthony
Jan Carey	...	Tea Shop Manageress
Andrew Charleson	...	Policeman
Anna Cropper	...	Mrs. Mortimer

Storyline

The story sets in UK during the 1940's. Lettie Colston is a bad tempered lady, who treats in a very rude fashion her maid and has a quite strict personality. Charmian Colston, on the contrary, is a very nice woman, but she lives obsessed with Jean Taylor, because she calls every person like that despite his husband, Godfrey Colston, tells her everyday that Taylor's in the hospital. In fact, Lattie visits almost everyday to Jean at the hospital, a very calm old lady, who shares the room with other old women, some of them living in her own world. One day, Lattie receives a mysterious phone call, with a creepy male voice speaking, telling that "remember that you have to die one day". Charmian is receiving the same phone calls as well as Godfrey. Other friends are receiving the phone calls as well, a group of old people who likes to organize social reunions, gathering together in funerals. Lattie and Charmian are too scared because of these phone calls, and they're trying to find out who ...

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 April 1992 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jack Clayton spent many years trying to set up a film of Muriel Spark's novel, which was first published at the end of the 1950s. He was repeatedly told that too many of the leading characters were old people for any film version to be a box-office success. After the film of "Driving Miss Daisy" had proved a great hit, he tried again, but, even then, could only set the film up as a TV movie, using the same screenplay that he had prepared for the cinema.

User Reviews

A Little Gem

Remember You Must Die.....Hardly the sort of thing you expect to hear when you answer the telephone, but this is just what an elderly and somewhat eccentric circle of friends do hear from their mysterious caller. Only one of the circle is seriously upset by the constant calls, the rest deal with it in their own inimitable ways.

A retired inspector takes on the task of finding the source of the calls with extremely interesting results.

The cast of this little gem reads like a who's who of English theatre. Each actor plays their role to perfection, engendering delight and ire accordingly. There is much to entertain in this story, a little harmless sexual titillation from one old gent, tales of long past infidelities, blackmail, a dissolute son, a secret marriage and of course death itself.

This took no effort at all to watch.