Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series) The Flypaper (1980) User Reviews

Probably the most chilling, terrifying, disturbing of all the Tales

[martinu-2 · 8/10 · 26 April 2007]

Of all the Tales of the Unexpected, this is probably the most chilling, terrifying and disturbing one.

The story opens with a news report showing the police searching for a missing girl. We see another girl, Sylvia, walking home from her piano lesson, with a man watching her. When she gets home, she sees on the news that the missing girl has been found dead on waste ground nearby – it looks as if there is a murderer at work in the area. Sylvia is very apprehensive when she has to go home after the next week's lesson, especially when she sees the man again, and that apprehension turns to panic when he gets on the bus and starts chatting to her – he is very amiable and very charming, but also very very creepy.

Sylvia is so afraid that when she sees an elderly lady get off the bus, she follows her so as to be safe with her, even though it is several stops before her own house. The woman takes care of Sylvia and they go back to the woman's house so she can phone the police. Then comes the twist – a very memorable one that I certainly wasn't expecting. Never trust "safe" little old ladies! The look of desperation on Sylvia's face as she suddenly realises the utter hopelessness of her situation is one that stays with you for a long time.

Nowadays, with the emphasis on abduction, stalking and "don't talk to strangers", the story is even more poignant than it would have been at the time it was made.

The Flypaper

[Prismark10 · 8/10 · 31 July 2020]

Written by Elizabeth Taylor, no, not that one. I think the real life Moors murderers might had been an inspiration for this story which was published in 1972.

Schoolgirl Sylvia, Taylor is a well brought up but surly child. She hates her piano lessons but her grandmother who she lives with insists on manners and does not quiet understand young people at her age.

However a strange old man is following her about and she has an uncomfortable bus journey on the way to her house. The strange man insists on talking to her and asking questions. All this with a backdrop of a missing schoolgirl.

When Sylvia kindly gets off the bus, a kindly old lady intervenes and takes her back to her cottage for a cup of tea and to ring the police.

There is a macabre fairy tale quality about this story. Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel. No wonder in his introduction Roald Dahl wished he wrote this story.

Positively harrowing, but a great and chilling episode.

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 9/10 · 13 April 2019]

That children, is why you don't talk to strangers. I honestly found this to be the best, most effectively made episode of this show that I've seen yet, for the most part the aesthetic has not really been to my taste. But this one I found to be a superbly eerie and disturbing cautionary tale because it felt a little more realistic and relatable than the average Tale of the Unexpected. It was such a sad story, that poor girl was so lost and alone in her life to the point that she actually wanted to disappear, she had no friends at school, no caring parents to turn to, and even her grandmother was a belittling self-centred old cow, small wonder that she'd be so trusting of the first sociopathic woman to come along who seemed to be so genuinely sweet and caring for her wellbeing when she came to her aid and 'saved' her from being accosted by a sinister stranger, but how could she possibly know what she was getting into by accepting that help, how could her young mind have realised that evil can sometimes hide even behind a kind and benevolent demeanour just as easily as it can a wicked one? The evil man and woman, for that is surely the only way to really describe those that prey on innocent children, saw her vulnerability and used and prayed upon it to set a fiendish trap for the girl to unknowingly walk right into and I find this idea of these twisted individuals working together terribly chilling, because sadly there has been real life parallels... The scene is quaint yet so very scary at the end, she's caught in their web, and you don't know what they have planned for her but it can't be anything good, and what the man says about the flypaper really sums it all up. To me rather than the slightly or very fantastic nature of what most of this show's episodes come across like in tone, this felt distinctly more like one of those old child warning educational films about the dangers of trusting strangers that you'd occasionally get shown at school, well if I'd have seen this as a wee one it would have certainly gotten my attention! Lorna Yabsley was excellent as the troubled and very likely depressed young Sylvie, she felt like a real person, and in her brief screen time she quietly made her character very sympathetic, her Sylvie didn't just come off as another sullen and moody kid, but somebody who your heart breaks for. In a completely different way Alfred Burke was also terrifically effective and his chatty character was disarming yet there was still a certain creepiness there too beneath the joviality, he really captured that creepy childhood feeling of when you're little and you find yourself stuck somewhere with an overly-familiar strange adult who's getting right in your face. This tale struck a real frightening chord with me. Sadly the only monsters there actually are that take unwary children away have always been ourselves... I found this gripping and it delivered its grim point very well. Excellently done and one of the best I've ever seen. Take care all 🕸

The out and out best, a chilling, nasty episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 12 February 2016]

Schoolgirls are going missing, and Police are out searching. Young Sylvia is living with her Grandmother who doesn't particularly want her living there, she's hating everything, including her awful music lessons. After the latest lesson she heads home, but is aware of a man following her. On a bus journey he strikes up an uncomfortable talk with her, but she's rescued by a sweet, well meaning woman........

I am stunned this was written by Elizabeth Taylor. An insanely nasty story, which to this day holds up well, the sheer spite and true terror has not diminished in what's now approaching forty years, still a hugely relevant warning. That twist at the end is delivered in such a bleak way, it's horrible.

Filmed in Cambridgeshire, it's a particularly picturesque location, at such odds with the bleakness of the story.

Wonderfully well acted, young Lorna Yabsley is excellent as young Sylvia, Alfred Burke is incredibly nasty as Herbert, Pat Keen gives a top notch performance, her performance in this such a contrast to the funny one she gave in Fawlty Towers (The Annivesary.)

Even now I watch this with a total feeling of unease, a lump in my throat, and a discomfort. Tough viewing, but it is just outstanding, arguably the best episode of Tales.

No other score then 10/10

Quite simply the scariest EVER Tale of The Unexpected!

[lisakeenan72 · 3 August 2011]

There are very few TV programmes that are capable of chilling me to the bone. This is top of that very short list!

The episode begins with news footage showing police dragging a river, looking for the remains of a missing 12 year old girl.

The recently orphaned Sylvia lives a miserable life with her cold and uncaring Grandma. Forced to attend piano lessons each day adds to the misery of Sylvia's lonely life. Returning home from a lesson one day Sylvia become aware of a somewhat seedy man looking at her. She returns home and reports the matter to her Grandma, who instantly dismisses Sylvia's worries and sends her to her room.

After school one day Sylvia boards the bus home, only to be horrified when the same man sits opposite her. As he begins to chat to Sylvia it becomes obvious that she is highly uncomfortable. An elderly lady intervenes and tells the man the has seen 'your type' before and he should leave the child alone. Becoming ever more scared Sylvia gets off the bus, running to a nearby phone box to call her Grandma.

What follows took me totally by surprise. And what the final 'unexpected' twist came I can honestly say that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! I actually had a lump in my throat at Sylvia's pitiful plight.

My teenage sons have since watched this episode and were equally stunned by it. So much so that my eldest son pointed out the story (by Elizabeth Taylor) to his English teacher who had the pupils read it. Roald Dahl states in his introduction that he wishes he'd written this episode because 'it's so neat, and nice and spooky'.

Quite simply this episode should be shown to children throughout schools. 31 years after it's making and it is still chilling viewing. 10 out of 10!

Very creepy

[VAndolini · 10/10 · 18 July 2018]

This is, bar none the creepiest, most skin crawling episode I have seen. I wanted to literally vomit at the end. Wonderful!

Chilling

[doylep-80438 · 10/10 · 23 December 2020]

Brilliant story with a great twist at the end, suspected it near the end but still a shock when it came. The reviewer who said there was never a serial couple of killers obviously never heard of Fred and Rosemary West or Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.

Should be shown to all children in schools

[dolemite72 · 10/10 · 7 April 2009]

This extremely bleak episode from 'Tales Of The Unexpected' is the epitome of what ALL the episodes should have been like (because many TOTU episodes were a bit drab, hit-and-miss affairs) but 'The Flypaper' hits the nail on the head, and wastes none of it's 25 minute running time.

The story opens with police finding the dead body of a missing young girl, in a nearby lake. The tale then moves onto a rather unhappy young orphaned girl, who lives with her overbearing, uncaring, pompous grandmother. The Grandmother also forces (it seems) this downtrodden young girl to attend piano lessons (which she hates) and if all this wasn't downbeat enough, the young girl starts catching glimpses of a creepy middle aged man, following her every move. As the episode progresses, we witness that this man does, indeed, harbour unhealthy interests in this girl, and all things come to a claustrophobic head, when the creepy guy strikes up a (forced, one-way) conversation with the poor girl, on the bus, as she heads home from school.

To give away anything else, would surely spoil this excellent, and highly recommended way to allow a mere 25 minute episode, get under your skin, and stay with you for weeks.

I have never seen anything on UK TV so bleak (except for THREADS, perhaps?) What makes this episode so dark and hopeless is the fact, that the young heroine of the episode, is such a lonely and despised young girl, long before she receives the unwanted attentions of the creepy old guy. She is a victim, long before the creepy guy, comes into her (rather sad, unloved) life. Her Grandmother and piano teacher belittle her. She has (it seems) no friends. And the sense of her being alone and having no-one to turn to, only adds to the creepiness of this episode. Her 'voice overs' in her head, only add to this tension. Many have said, that they have foreseen the 'twist ending' of this story, coming a 'Bus ride' away.....but yet it doesn't detract from such a strong, and undeniably powerful episode, of a show, with more misses than hits.

I wholeheartedly recommend that ALL parents/teachers show their children/pupils this rather disturbing (but ultimately 'educational') piece of classic TV (that in the current climate, and however more relevant than ever, would never be made these days)

If ever there was a film to warn your children about "stranger danger"

[garywhittaker-27089 · 10/10 · 30 December 2019]

This was one of the very popular Tales of the Unexpected that was shown in the UK on ITV , this tale from 1980 has to be one of the most disturbing of then all and I will guarantee that it will linger in the mind long after you have watched it , the story tells of an unhappy girl, Sylvia who seems to be an inconvenience to her gran and to her piano teacher, it seems like Sylvia has no adults she can turn to , she leaves school one day to discover that she is being followed by an old man who eventually follows her onto a bus , he is creepy and seems to take an unhealthy interest in Sylvia, a kindly old lady steps in and berates the old man for being a creep , she takes Sylvia back to her caravan home and tells her that she must call the police due to the recent disappearance of a young girl, the phone line appears to be down so the old lady makes Sylvia a cup of tea , suddenly there are footfalls heading towards the caravan door... Really disturbing piece of drama that would never see the light of day today , the look on Sylvia's face is one of shock and resignation, which makes the whole story even more horrific

A classic

[safenoe · 10/10 · 27 November 2016]

Not only does The Flypaper have one of the highest IMDb ratings (8.2) for a Tales of the Unexpected episode, it also has probably the highest number of ratings votes (140) and user comments (7) for a Tales of the Unexpected episode.

This episode was spine-chilling, and with spine-chilling Nightmare on Elm Street music to boot. The bus trip was quite haunting, and it was an era of bus conductors (I wonder where the bus conductor was to keep things in order?). The broken phone booth...makes you glad we have mobile phones for those scary moments when one is left alone in the middle of nowhere. If only Sylvia knew some decent mixed martial arts moves - should have taken out the two with ease and then some.

Stephanie "Doc Martin" Cole appears in this episode as Sylvia's music teacher.

Like another reviewer wrote, I thought it was incredibly sad that the victim suffered much in her life from an unsympathetic grandmother and music teacher, and the fact she lost both her parents in a car accident.

One of the best Tales of the Unexpected.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 2 September 2007]

Tales of the Unexpected: The Flypaper starts as the police search for 12 year old Elaine Phillips who has been missing for 5 days, then it is announced that her body has been found in a pond. Young girl Sylvia Wilkinson (Lorna Charles) thinks she notices a man (Alfred Burke) following her on her way home from her piano lesson but fails to call the police, on her way home from school the following day the same man gets on the same bus as her & starts to talk to her. Slyvia is scared & gets off the bus a stop early to contact the police, however the public phone is broken & it seems the man has also gotten off the bus & continues his unwanted attention towards Sylvia...

Episode 1 from season 3 this Tales of the Unexpected story originally aired here in the UK during August 1980 & was a highly effective & unsettling way to kick off the third season of this very hit & miss series. The fourth of twelve Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by Graham Evans this is pretty much everything a Tales of the Unexpected story should be, it's creepy, unsettling, thought provoking & has a cracking downbeat twist ending that'll stay with you. The story by Elizabeth Taylor (no, not the Oscar winning actress...) was dramatised by Robin Chapman & during his filmed introduction Roald Dahl says Taylor lives only 6 miles from him & that the story is so clever, tight & ingenious he only wished he'd thought of it & he's spot on really. The basic story here is very effective & it gets the whole 'don't talk to strangers' message across in a genuinely shocking way, that ending really is one of the most downbeat & sombre you'll ever come see & The Flypaper is all the better for it. The character's are good, the dialogue is well written especially Sylvia's monologues & the great build up compliments the great ending which ultimately leaves things up to the viewers imagination although I didn't really want my imagination to go there...

Generally speaking these Tales of the Unexpected episodes are visually worthless & have zero style but The Flypaper is an exception as it was obviously shot entirely on 16mm film on location so it has a cinematic look to it, this also has some nice visual backdrops including a huge cathedral. This ties with Skin (1980) from season 2 as the best looking Tales of the Unexpected episode but unlike Skin this has a great story to go with it. Usually there's a big name star in the cast of the average Tales of the Unexpected but not here & the unknown cast makes it even better, almost like a documentary.

The Flypaper is one of the very best Tales of the Unexpected, it's a highly effective story told in a highly effective way. This is a unsettling but creepily entertaining way to pass 25 minutes.

Genuinely disturbing!

[dj-38722 · 10/10 · 4 October 2020]

Just switched over the TV on a rainy Sunday morning to watch this episode. I'm now unnerved having watched this. This really is a nightmare of an episode. Tales of the unexpected? How about tales from the darkest region of a twisted mind.

Some biscuits in my basket

[begob · 6/10 · 11 March 2016]

A schoolgirl orphan finds the heartless reprimands from the women in her life almost unbearable, but things take an even worse turn when a man in black starts to follow her ...

This comes with a lot of baggage - probably too much for such a simple story. The bullying has a touch of Dickens, with inadequate adults punching down on an innocent child, but there doesn't seem to be any point to the rival pupil or the vicar, and at no point do you sense any potential for change - it's relentless, apart from a well judged passage of relief before the climax.

The performances are good, especially once the bus conversation revs up. And there's an excellent visual with the cows grazing below the cathedral, and a nice touch with the third tea cup. But the direction and story telling are a bit lumpy, uninterested in contrasts, plus the music is daft.

Overall - disturbing, but could do with a remake.

Shockingly Overrated

[dekeparsons · 2/10 · 7 November 2019]

I watched this because I read this was the best episode of the series. Either the series is terrible or others see something that I can't.

An abused girl gets on a bus and is killed. What fun! That's really all that happens. Maybe you have to be English?

There's never been a serial killer couple in recorded history so it is unrealistic as well as a peculiar mix of nasty dullness.

"It's the sweetness that attracts them, you see."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 11 September 2021]

This is without doubt a very dark and sinister episode. In his opening remarks, Roald Dahl stated that the viewer would have to wait until the very end to realize the outcome of the story, but his warning was enough to put me on my guard and help me figure out what was going on before it finally happened. I thought the impending doom of poor Sylvia (Lorna Yabsley) was foreshadowed by how quickly the kindly old woman (Pat Keen) showed up to seemingly rescue the young girl from her unwanted stalker (Alfred Burke). She would have had to be eyeing Sylvia on her way to the phone booth along with Herbert in order to intervene, which under normal circumstances wouldn't have seemed warranted. Considering Sylvia's already tortured past of losing both her parents, and being raised by an unsympathetic grandmother, her becoming a victim of the scheming killers was even more tragic than one might have expected. Other reviewers here have called this the creepiest, scariest, (insert your own adjective, episode in the series, and while I'm only up to this one in the show's chronological order, I'd have to say it's definitely a contender for that dubious honor. This one is enough to give you nightmares.

This has happened in the UK.

[sakki-36247 · 9/10 · 22 December 2020]

This could have been written after the sick child killing couple, Mira Hindley and Ian Brady. Great for children to realise not to trust any stranger even lovely old ladies.

Sometimes the realistic makes for the most terrifying...

[overlydramaticpanda · 10/10 · 21 July 2023]

If one wants to watch a particularly creepy or disturbing episode of Tales of the Unexpected, there are certainly plenty to choose from ('Georgy Porgy', 'Skin', 'The Landlady', 'Royal Jelly', etc). But there's a reason why most people who have watched the series will agree that this is one of the scariest, if not THE scariest, episode of the lot. And it's largely because everything that happens in it is horrifyingly realistic.

Eleven-year-old Sylvia Wilkinson is a lonely orphan living with her grandmother (who is more interested in her gardening than she is in raising a child). Isolated, friendless, and uninterested in the world around her, Sylvia becomes the unwitting target of a much-too-friendly old man who follows her home one day after a piano lesson, and then the next day gets on the bus with her after school and attempts to strike up a conversation. And although Sylvia follows all the traditional "stranger danger" rules - not talking to or even looking at him, lying when he demands to know her name, and getting off before her proper stop to try and throw him off so that she can phone the police - nothing is enough to deter the man. Nothing except an old lady who takes Sylvia under her wing...

This episode is a masterclass in building suspense and dread in regards to the realistic. I often think it's fairly easy to make supernatural or "freakish" events seem suspenseful but not so much when you deal with the mundane. But this episode does it wonderfully. The performances are all kept low-key enough that you can imagine all of this happening; Alfred Burke as the creepy old man comes close on occasion to going over the top with the performance, but rather than detract from the story, it serves to highlight his character's inherent creepiness; with his exaggerated movements and bouncy vocal inflections, the character becomes like the worst kind of circus clown trying much too hard to seem fun and appealing to a young child and instead bouncing right into the uncanny. The more low-key performances from Pat Keen as the kindly old woman and especially Lorna Yabsley as Sylvia help to keep the story grounded and highlight just how unnatural the old man's behaviour truly is.

Right from the opening of the episode with a van of policemen scouring a moor with a news report informing us of the disappearance of a young girl, there's a sense of impending doom that only ramps up as the episode never lets us forget this looming threat of a child-killer somewhere on the loose. Sylvia's rival in piano arrives at her lesson bearing news of a strange man who apparently approached her, shrugging off the notion that she should tell the police because the man "looked pathetic" (for added horror, we never do learn if this man is the same one who targets Sylvia); Sylvia hears the news that the missing girl's body has been found; the core lesson of "don't talk to strange men" is brought up multiple times throughout the episode and eventually paid off to devastating effect in the end as Sylvia (and the audience) realises that that particular piece of 'stranger-danger' advice is only half-complete.

This episode, much like, say, The Twilight Zone's 'To Serve Man', is one you'll hear people often claim to have "outsmarted" by working out the twist in advance. The truth is that the episode isn't effective simply because it contains a twist and knowing the twist in advance of the ending does nothing to dispel the sense of dread building through the episode (really, I think the episode itself expects you as the viewer to have worked it out by the time the third teacup is placed on the table, even if Sylvia herself hasn't; just listening to the music used throughout the scene where Sylvia is setting the table is guiding you to the conclusion that all is not nearly as hopeful as it appears). No, the episode (and the short story penned by Elizabeth 'no not the actress' Taylor that it's taken from) is effective because this is a well-depicted story about a situation that we all recognise and all instinctively fear, even if we've had the good fortune to never have experienced it for ourselves. The neglect, abuse, abduction and murder of children (both by adults who seem clearly untrustworthy from the start and by those who lure children in with seeming kindness) is, sadly, nothing unheard of and watching the situation of one such crime play out is a chilling experience even if you know what the ending will be. It taps into a fairly primal fear that's probably inherent in all of us - even if we aren't parents, even if we think Sylvia's a bit of a brat, it's terrifying to think of ANY child being caught in that situation. It's not an episode to be watched again and again, but it is one that should probably be seen by everyone at least once.

OMG!

[francespen · 10/10 · 5 February 2021]

I must have seen this many years ago, but forgotten it - how you could forget a story like that! A couple of reviewers mentioned about not talking to strangers, but Sylvia didn't talk to the stranger, she tried all she could to avoid just that.

Even now young girls and boys have to travel a distance from their home to school and back but now a majority have mobiles so not quite the danger as Sylvia found herself in.

Alfred Burke was on top form back when he seemed type cast as a villain/bad guy, he had that look and bearing about him. Long, of course, before he became a hero as Marker. Did wonder why he kept being referred to as old, but he was 62 when he played that role, not ancient, but would be old to Sylvia. He was keeping tabs on her as he must have done with the previous girl, he did follow her home and looked through her window. The brief thought crossed my mind that Vera was the killer, after all the cops didn't know if it was a man or woman. Then the gulp moment when Vera opened her door to let Herbert in!

Stephanie Cole as the cold Miss Harrison and Peggy Thorpe-Bates aka Mrs. Rumple as the equally cold grandmother made you really feel for Sylvia. She had only lost her parents two years before yet gran expected her to be over it.

Not just Myra Hindley and Fred and Rose West who were serial killer couples, had that reviewer - they can't have been English going by their comment 'maybe you have to be English' not heard of Bonnie & Clyde?

A very chilling episode set in the peaceful English countryside. where it is so more safer than the rough inner cities.

Gruesome

[aramis-112-804880 · 25 February 2023]

If you want a horrible episode with a dreadful twist ending, the haunting "The Flypaper" is "tailor/taylor"-made for you.

A few familiar faces pop in, but familiarity breeds no promise of amiability. Everything about this episode is unpleasant and troubling.

And for those who think it should serve as a warning, it's only the warning of the flypaper: something flies get tangled up in and they can't get away.

It also doesn't help that the girl at the epicenter isn't very pleasant. For those who think the moral is "don't talk to strange men" I'd answer that she didn't. She was talked at. If that's your opinion of men I'd prefer to say, don't trust women. They'll always lead you up the garden path.

It's the sweetness that attracts them

[heavenlyhellebores · 10/10 · 21 April 2021]

I love Tales of the Unexpected (hence the 10/10 score) I watched all the series as a child and rewatching all these years later gives me a warm familiar glow of pure nostalgia and therefore I can be forgiving of some of the stories featured.

This particular episode really spooked me as a child! I didn't see the twist coming and BAM! It hit me with its sinister finale. It still remains one of the creepiest stories and stays with me long after the dancing girl credits have rolled. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk to...

Shocking

[olderfan · 10/10 · 8 December 2022]

Easily tops host Dahl's own well done classics in the series: Man From the South, Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat, A Dip in the Pool, etc. And is far and away better than the too short, short story on which it is based, which lacks the episode's atmosphere and suspense.

The mood of impending doom awaiting Sylvia is palpable. She's an orphan with a tragic past and unhappy life, and largely ignored by her guardian, a victim waiting to be picked off by predators. TV child star Lorna Yabsley plays the role to perfection, her thoughts often heard in voice-over.

Sylvia's sad life, the shocking ending, and the very ordinariness and heartlessness of the killers, is what makes this episode so memorable.

Horrific

[johnnymichaelbell · 9/10 · 7 April 2023]

Thought I'd seen all of the Tales of the Unexpected but must of missed this one.

This is a truly Horrific and thought provoking episode without actually seeing anything of course.

When you wonder that people like this actually exist and do this kind of thing .

Anyhow schoolgirls are going missing and this young girl who has been orphaned and quite Obviously hates her current life and piano lessons gets followed by a creepy old man on a bus And thinks she has her wits about her but obviously some people are much cleverer and will use that To there advantage.

Chilling episode and must be shown to children to show them the dangers .

Shocking

[murray-allison94 · 2/10 · 3 March 2024]

I think this episode seems to have about the highest rating here of any of the series, and I find that totally extraordinary. I have just finished watching it and it seems to me that it is in extremely poor taste. It's not that I think that paedophilia should not have any place in drama but it's rather that it needs to be treated seriously. This whole series is about stories with endings which, as the title suggests , are unexpected but usually in a quirky, and often slightly humorous sort of way. This , though is not in that vein at all. It should have come with a warning. It treats a grave subject as if it were light entertainment. I am sure it could not have been made in the present day and I'm truly surprised that it's being shown.

One of the creepiest 'Tales' ...

[insect-09018 · 8/10 · 3 March 2022]

Unlike many episodes of TOTE, this one really does deliver a bitter jolt. A bit like 'The Landlady', without the black humour of that episode. There's a sense of impending, unavoidable doom from the off, which is I think what makes this one so oppressively unpleasant. I applaud that, since too few episodes pack such a charge, but there again this isn't an episode I've rewatched too many times. Which is a shame, because apart from being beautifully filmed, performances are excellent - particularly the great Alfred Burke. It's jarring to see the actor who played Frank Marker, one of the most admirable of screen heros, in the role of a predatory monster. In one word - creepy. But genuinely so, unnerving. The world is a rotten place, it says - bear this in mind if this is not what you want from your entertainment!

Spine chilling and not for the faint hearted...you have been warned

[paul8714 · 10/10 · 30 August 2023]

My wife hated this episode but 5 years later we saw it again and she said it stool with her. She said it is beyond scary

That is probably a sign that it is incredible

The girl's journey is well acted and constructed and it is obvious the inspiration is the moors murders of the time. Not sure how controversial it was at the time but it must have raised some eyebrows about what is tasteful ot not

It is a hard watch at the end and it stays with you. My feelings years after are the same that it is a classic and well deserving of it's position at top of the list of TOFE episodes.....

You have been warned.