Shadows of Fear (TV Series) The Death Watcher (1971) User Reviews

The Death Watcher

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 22 January 2022]

Emily Erickson (Judy Parfitt) is an academic and psychologist who has aroused the interest of Dr Pickering (John Neville.) He wants her to take part in some research regarding ESP.

Her husband is concerned about this but Emily goes ahead to meet Dr Pickering. He turns up on the train she is travelling in and then whisks her away to an isolated house. Not the the place she was meant to go.

Emily should be worried. Dr Pickering has hired a psychiatric nurse Dawson (Victor Maddern) telling him that she might be a difficult patient.

When Emily arrives, Dr Pickering explains his hypotheses. That the dead can communicate and he plans to experiment regarding this.

The test subject will be Emily and she is locked in her bedroom for days. Her husband is worried as Dr Pickering has made a contraption where Emily will be drowned and the last image she will see will be that of Dr Pickering.

Emily's only hope has to be Dawson, maybe he will realise that Dr Pickering is a crank.

There is a fantastically unhinged performance from John Neville. It is let down by flat direction which robs it off thrills. Emily becomes a passive character relying on others to come to her assistance.

It is strange that no one in the village or Dawson come to realise that Dr Pickering is not all there.

Terror From Thames!

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 29 March 2009]

Sufferers of a nervous disposition found much in early '70's British television to give them sleepless nights - the half-eaten corpse in the 'Tomorrow The Rat' episode of 'Doomwatch'; 'Dr.Edith Joynton' ageing to death in seconds in 'Timeslip'; 'Platoon Under-Leader' Benton's transformation into a Primord in the 'Dr.Who' story 'Inferno'; people turning into skeletons in the 'Bones Of Byrom Blain' outing of 'Department S', and in 'The Goodies', Tim Brooke-Taylor in drag finding the remains of Cecily's nanny in a rocking chair ( more frightening than 'Psycho'! ). I forgot to mention Hughie Green in 'Opportunity Knocks!'.

Beating them all for sheer terror was the title sequence of this Thames-made anthology series. Following the familiar Thames logo, we see a bleak overhead shot of a town. We then glide along a row of terraced houses, whose windows contain screaming faces, a faceless figure, and a boy staring at a bald man whose internal organs are on display. Accompanying all this is a haunting Roger Webb tune, punctuated by the chatter of human voices. Brown trousers time.

'The Death Watcher', the third edition broadcast, was written by Jacques Gilles, whose other credits include an episode of 'Danger Man' ( called 'Say It With Flowers' ) starring the late, great Patrick McGoohan.

Emmy Erikson ( Judy Parfitt ) is a University Professor who travels by train to meet Pickering ( John Neville ) in the name of research for a book on psychic phenomena. He surprises her by taking her to a different location, a house in an isolated setting. He appears charming and affable at first, then mentions his reason for bringing her there. He wishes to stage an experiment to communicate with the dead.

Realising he is a nut case, she tries to leave, but there are no late trains so she reluctantly must stay the night. The room she is given has bars on the windows and the door is locked. The next morning, she again tries to leave, but Pickering instructs his employee Dawson ( Victor Maddern ) to physically restrain her. In his cellar, the deranged Pickering has a box in which he intends to imprison Emmy, cover it with chicken wire, and fill with water. As she dies, the last thing she will see is a huge blow-up photograph of her killer. He can then ( so he believes ) speak to her in the next world.

Emmy tries screaming out of her window, but to no avail. Pickering has put up a sign that says: 'Nursing Home'. Passers-by simply ignore her cries of help...

This is a tense, suspenseful story, and John Neville ( who played 'Sherlock Holmes' in the 1965 film 'A Study In Terror' as well as the title role in Terry Gilliam's 'Baron Munchausen' ) is brilliant as the maniac. Charming, elegant, intelligent - but mad, not averse to dancing with a roll of chicken wire! Judy Parfitt likewise is impressive as the imprisoned Professor. Today they would probably cast some bimbo in the role.

Victor Maddern, known for comedy roles, provides good support as 'Dawson'. Ostensibly he is on Pickering's side, but then even he comes to see his employer is off his trolley.

The ending is guaranteed to send a shiver up the spine.

Eleven episodes of this show were made, still exist, and deserve to be released on D.V.D. Checking the transmission dates, I note that the last one went out two years after the rest of the series. I wonder why?

Excellent, chilling episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 18 September 2018]

The Death Watcher was without doubt the most satisfying of the four episodes I've seen to date. Definitely the one that stands out in terms of tension, fear factor and threat. Even by the show's own premise it delivers on a huge level, fear brought about by people doing horrid things, and placing people in real danger, this certainly does that.

It's a plot that I've seen several times over, especially from the seventies, an episode of The Omega Factor, and I'm sure a few others, but it's the greater plot, and the brilliance of the characters that make this episode so successful. I've always seen Judy Parfitt as such a strong actress, she's always come across so tough, so it's nice to see her play a slightly more fragile role, she really delivers in this one, Victor Maddern is great, John Neville is of course excellent, he's so understated, he could have easily overplayed it.

Definitely the most accomplished of the first four, this very much could have belonged in the Thriller series, and to be fair it would have been classed as one of the best.

A classic, 9/10