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Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, aired in the United States as Fox Mystery Theater, is a British mystery anthology television series produced in Britain in 1984 by Hammer Film Productions. Though similar in format to the 1980 series Hammer House of Horror, the Mystery and Suspense series had feature-length episodes, usually running around 70 minutes without commercials.

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense
GenreMystery
Starringvarious
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series1
No. of episodes13
Production
ProducersHammer Film Productions
20th Century Fox Television
Running time70 minutes
Original release
NetworkITV
Release5 September (1984-09-05) –
17 December 1984 (1984-12-17)

The series was a co-production by Hammer Film Productions with 20th Century Fox Television (as was the 1968 anthology series Journey to the Unknown). It was first aired in the UK by ITV in 1984, though it was shown in different timeslots (and a different running order) throughout the various ITV regions.[citation needed] The Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense series was the last production undertaken by the Hammer film company.[1]

Episodes

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Title UK Transmission Date
(ITV London region) 		Written by Directed by Cast
1. Mark of the Devil 5 September 1984 Brian Clemens Val Guest Dirk Benedict, Jenny Seagrove, George Sewell, John Paul, Tom Adams, Burt Kwouk, James Ellis, Reginald Marsh, Alibe Parsons, Hugh Morton
2. Last Video and Testament 12 September 1984 Robert Quigley (story)
Roy Russell (screenplay) 		Peter Sasdy Deborah Raffin, Oliver Tobias, David Langton, Clifford Rose, Shane Rimmer, Robert Rietti, Norman Mitchell
3. Child's Play 8 October 1984 Graham Wassell Val Guest Mary Crosby, Nicholas Clay
4. The Corvini Inheritance 15 October 1984 David Fisher Gabrielle Beaumont David McCallum, Jan Francis, Terence Alexander, Stephen Yardley, Paul Bacon, Leonard Trolley, Johnnie Wade
5. In Possession 22 October 1984 Michael J. Bird Val Guest Carol Lynley, Christopher Cazenove, Judy Loe, David Healy, Bernard Kay, Brendan Price, John D. Collins
6. Paint Me A Murder 29 October 1984 Pat Silver & Jesse Lasky Jr. Alan Cooke Michelle Phillips, James Laurenson, David Robb, Alan Lake, W. Morgan Sheppard, Richard LeParmentier, Tony Steedman, Gerald Sim, Neil Morrissey
7. A Distant Scream 5 November 1984 Martin Worth John Hough David Carradine, Stephanie Beacham, Stephen Greif, Stephan Chase, Fanny Carby, Ewan Stewart, Lesley Dunlop, Bernard Horsfall, Edward Peel
8. Black Carrion 12 November 1984 Don Houghton John Hough Season Hubley, Leigh Lawson, Norman Bird, William Hootkins, Oscar Quitak, Forbes Collins, Christopher Ellison
9. The Late Nancy Irving 26 November 1984 David Fisher Peter Sasdy Cristina Raines, Marius Goring, Simon Williams, Tony Anholt, Zienia Merton, Tom Chadbon, Michael Elwyn, Derek Benfield, Lewis Fiander
10. Czech Mate 3 December 1984 Jeremy Burnham John Hough Susan George, Patrick Mower, Roy Boyd, Richard Heffer, Peter Vaughan, Robert Russell, Pam St. Clement, Christopher Robbie, Steve Plytas, Hana Maria Pravda
11. The Sweet Scent of Death 17 December 1984 (London region transmission date unknown, but screened on ITV's Television South West on 17 December 1984.) Brian Clemens Peter Sasdy Dean Stockwell, Shirley Knight, Michael Gothard, Carmen du Sautoy, Robert Lang, Alan Gifford
12. And the Wall Came Tumbling Down 4 July 1985 John Peacock & Dennis Spooner Paul Annett Barbi Benton, Gareth Hunt, Peter Wyngarde, Carol Royle, Brian Deacon, Patricia Hayes, Ralph Michael, Robert James
13. Tennis Court 27 June 1985 Michael Hastings (story)
Andrew Sinclair (screenplay) 		Cyril Frankel Peter Graves, Hannah Gordon, Ralph Arliss, Isla Blair, Jonathan Newth, Cyril Shaps, Peggy Sinclair, Marcus Gilbert

Two of the episodes, "A Distant Scream" and "In Possession", were remakes of stories that had been made for the fourth season of the BBC anthology series Out of the Unknown, originally titled "The Last Witness" and "The Uninvited". The master videotapes for both of the original teleplays were wiped by the corporation during the 1970s and no copies are known to exist, leaving only still photographs, a short video clip of "The Last Witness" and a complete audio recording of "The Uninvited" surviving. "A Distant Scream" and "In Possession" are effectively the only way these two stories can be viewed in a full audio-visual format.

Home media

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The series was released as a six-DVD set in the UK in 2005,[2] but is currently out of print. In Germany, a four-DVD set was released in March 2018 under the title Vorsicht, Hochspannung!, which has 11 "main feature" episodes with a choice of either dubbed German language audio or the original English language audio, along with 2 "bonus episodes" with just the original English language audio.

References

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  1. ^ O'Connor, Ashling (8 February 2000). "House of horror has risen from its grave". Financial Times. ProQuest 248842108.
  2. ^ "Friday Review: THE MUST LIST". The Guardian. 11 February 2005. ProQuest 246292551.
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