Beasts (TV Mini Series) Special Offer (1976) User Reviews

Fondly Remembered

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 18 October 2012]

It's interesting how every official document states that Special Offer is the first broadcast episode of BEASTS because this viewer remembers it as being the very last one shown . I'm not claiming the episode guides are wrong , just that the independent regional stations didn't transmit programmes in a network manner as with the BBC and During Barty's Party was the first episode shown on STV

That said both the episodes are good ones to open the series on and Special Offer is perhaps more fun than Barty . The premise revolves around things falling off shelfs at a supermarket and new check out assistant being suspected of sabotage . As the story continues it mirrors that of CARRIE though is much more good natured and less explicit than the De Palma classic

To tie in with the series writer Nigel Kneale gave an interview to TV Times , an interview that passed in to legend where he revealed that he'd never let his children watch DOCTOR WHO on the grounds that it's too scary for kids . Kneale is of course the writer of the QUATERMASS serials and for one moment I thought we were going to get a post modernist reference to Hobbs Lane when the characters discussed poltergeist activity but perhaps rightly this never materalised

It's not really an episode that disappoints from memory but you do have to be slightly forgiving as to how television was made in the 1970s . People remember the likes of THE SWEENEY and THE PROFESSIONALS and watch the repeats on ITV4 but the vast majority of British television in the mid 1970s was shot on videotape with long edits and rather flimsy sets . It's also disconcerting watching a 17 year old Pauline Quirk since she looks younger without actually looking young but this episode of BEASTS unlike so much archive television doesn't disappoint

BEASTS – Episode 4: SPECIAL OFFER (TV) (Richard Bramall, 1976) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 22 October 2008]

This is a good entry in the series, marking perhaps the most enjoyable episode thus far – though ending on a tragic note and being somewhat repetitive in the long run. It involves a poltergeist at a supermarket, whose 'source' is narrowed down to the sexual frustration of a young, frumpy cashier with an inferiority complex!

The special effects are very well done for a TV show: incidentally, the phenomenon is mostly treated in a light vein (at first, it's taken to be a stray animal and, with the supermarket itself having a squirrel for its mascot, is even referred to by that brand-name!). Even so, coming the same year as CARRIE, the implications of it all are undeniably chilling – considering also that it increases in fury with each subsequent manifestation.

As ever, the performances – especially those of the neurotic protagonist and the object of her unrequited affection, the patronizing albeit long-suffering manager (shamelessly involved with an attractive colleague and later seen flirting with a prospective mature employee) who actually hates her guts and constantly tries to have the girl sacked – lend much-needed persuasion to the unfolding supernatural events.

Really enjoyable entry in the short series.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 9 May 2018]

Special Offer is one of my favourite episodes of Beasts, it benefits from having no rubber suits or plastic masks, the horror is chilling, but inferred, subtle, but well delivered. All in all it does the repressed passion, poltergeist story rather well.

A young Pauline Quirke is excellent as the dowdy and frustrated cashier, Geoffrey Bateman is great as the slimey store manager. The friends I watched it with complained that there are only so many times Billy could hit the stuff off the shelves and cause mayhem, I suppose it was done several times too many, but with each occurence came increased severity, until the fatal end.

I love it from a social point of view, how times have changed, you compare the size of the shop to today's Supermarkets.

Funm 7/10

Every Little Helps.

[southdavid · 5/10 · 17 May 2020]

Having been introduced to the series via the "Baby" episode, I decided to dig out the rest of the series. Starting, as would make sense, with the first "Special Offer". Which was less effective than "Baby" as a genuinely scary horror story, but rather affecting as a story of bullying in the workplace.

Noreen Beale (Pauline Quirke) is a dowdy supermarket employee whose demeanour constantly annoys her lecherous and ambitious store manager Colin Grimley (Geoffrey Batemen). When Colin again accuses Noreen of clumsily knocking items off the shelves, she blames the spillage on a loose animal that only she seems to catch sight of. As Colin tries to get rid of Noreen, the scale and damage of the animal attacks increase.

Watching it today, the spectre of "Carrie" looms rather large over this episode. It's implied, though never specifically stated, that Noreen is causing the damage rather that anything more literal than that, and when you consider stories of bullied girls striking back with telekinetic powers you have to think of "Carrie". As ubiquitous as it is now, 1976 was only two years after King's book had first been published and was the same year as Brian De Palma's movie, so at the very least it was a fresher idea then. A young Pauline Quirke is very good in the lead role, as she would go on to be in numerous things. It's quite a subtle shift she puts as she goes from put-upon victim to subtle executioner. The practical visual effects, items moving on shelves and, in particular, bags opening themselves is very nicely done.

However, I didn't feel like it was a great episode of television. It hit the same story beats too often, without much in the way of progression. It's also isn't scary. "Baby" had a genuine sense of tension and atmosphere before the final (admittedly underwhelming) moment. Tonally "Special Offer" never generates much anxiety, it's mostly sad and then repetitive.

I'll keep going with the series but for the moment, "Baby" is the highspot.