Of the four missing episodes of Dead of Night, the one I would most like to see recovered is 'Smith'. Written by Dorothy Allison (who only has three writing credits to her name including this episode), it focuses on a young reporter writing about famous serial killers whose victims were women, and based on the script it had the potential to be monstrously creepy.
'Smith' opens in the editorial office of a magazine, where editor Ted announces that a series on "ladykillers" - serial killers who preyed exclusively on women - is to be pulled. Reporter Michael goes to inform his girlfriend and lead writer on the series Anne of this, but not before he stops off for sex with colleague Tessa, with whom he's having an affair. He eventually joins Anne, who has elected to spend the night in the serial killer display of a waxworks museum, to get her in the mood for writing a piece on Victorian serial killer and bigamist George Joseph Smith.
If you can swallow the inherently silly premise of Anne deciding to spend the night in a room full of wax facsimiles of murderers in order to write her article, then that setting alone should be enough to send shivers down your spine. Things soon take an even darker turn however, when Michael returns later on, dressed in the clothing of the Smith waxwork, and seemingly believing that he is in fact Smith. The denouement is, of course, obvious.
One suspects that the script was Dorothy Allison's revenge on those women who romanticise serial killers, although ironically she has clearly done plenty of research about Smith in the process of writing it. The script is extremely atmospheric, and is likely to have made a fine episode of Dead of Night, providing that the cast members gave decent performances (certainly, John Castle as Michael sounds like promising casting) and director Robert Knights did a decent job. Of course, we simply don't know, but with a script like this, 'Smith' has the potential to have been a wonderfully chilling slice of television.
'Smith' opens in the editorial office of a magazine, where editor Ted announces that a series on "ladykillers" - serial killers who preyed exclusively on women - is to be pulled. Reporter Michael goes to inform his girlfriend and lead writer on the series Anne of this, but not before he stops off for sex with colleague Tessa, with whom he's having an affair. He eventually joins Anne, who has elected to spend the night in the serial killer display of a waxworks museum, to get her in the mood for writing a piece on Victorian serial killer and bigamist George Joseph Smith.
If you can swallow the inherently silly premise of Anne deciding to spend the night in a room full of wax facsimiles of murderers in order to write her article, then that setting alone should be enough to send shivers down your spine. Things soon take an even darker turn however, when Michael returns later on, dressed in the clothing of the Smith waxwork, and seemingly believing that he is in fact Smith. The denouement is, of course, obvious.
One suspects that the script was Dorothy Allison's revenge on those women who romanticise serial killers, although ironically she has clearly done plenty of research about Smith in the process of writing it. The script is extremely atmospheric, and is likely to have made a fine episode of Dead of Night, providing that the cast members gave decent performances (certainly, John Castle as Michael sounds like promising casting) and director Robert Knights did a decent job. Of course, we simply don't know, but with a script like this, 'Smith' has the potential to have been a wonderfully chilling slice of television.