#his character that work to erode any sympathy the audience might have felt for him; a little casual racism‚ a gradual revelation of his
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Shadows of Fear: Come Into My Parlour (1.10, Thames, 1971)
"A tube ticket?"
"Not a ticket. The ticket."
"Which one?"
"The one that should have been in my pocket."
"Was that your crime? Everybody's done that, some time in their life..."
"Not everybody gets caught."
"It's nothing."
"The most important thing that ever happened to me."
#shadows of fear#single play#horror tv#come into my parlour#classic tv#1971#thames#roger marshall#kim mills#peter barkworth#beth harris#peggy bullock#gabrielle blunt#with a depression binge of Public Eye in full swing‚ i nearly forgot to finish off this minor spooky anthology series#this was one of the few that i had pretty clear memories of too (or so i thought); it also stands out as the only episode produced in black#and white (caught up in the ITV colour strike which ran through the winter of 70/71). it is‚ like most of the stories in this series‚ a#really quite simple thing: Harris is a door to door seller of cosmetics‚ recently returned to work after a nervous breakdown; Barkworth is#the occupant behind one of the doors she knocks on‚ and seemingly a prospective client‚ but his erratic behaviour and subtle manipulations#hint at something darker. there's not much more to it than that‚ but it does afford the opportunity for a wonderful‚ monologuing#performance from Barkworth (a consistently excellent actor who never quite broke out in the way he should have) as the justice (and misuse#of justice) obsessed loner. Harris is very good too‚ but the script rarely affords her as many opportunities to shine (she has a couple of#moments‚ particularly once she starts to slowly bite back at his probing and criticisms). funnily enough i had entirely misremembered the#ending; i had a clear image in my head of [SPOILER] Barkworth failing in his inexplicable scheme to engineer a miscarriage of justice and#dying by his own hand‚ rather pathetically. i don't know what i was mixing this with because in fact he 'wins': he does die‚ but by Harris'#hand‚ as would seem to have been his intention from the beginning. his motive for creating a fictional murder scenario are slowly teased#out through the episode but his reason for picking Harris goes frustratingly unexplained; frustrating but perhaps appropriate#perhaps she was simply the person who knocked on his door and set his insane plot in motion. equally slow to reveal itself are aspects of#his character that work to erode any sympathy the audience might have felt for him; a little casual racism‚ a gradual revelation of his#misogyny. it's a slow‚ carefully composed‚ tricky little script‚ but quite a rewarding one; but i can well see it alienating some#as too obtuse or for Barkworth's reasonings being too inscrutable. i enjoyed it on 2nd viewing‚ probably more than the first time
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