Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense
Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense was a short-lived (one season) anthology television series from Hammer Studios. 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.
The series was a co-production by Hammer Studios with 20th Century Fox Television (as was the 1968 anthology series Journey to the Unknown), and is known in the United States as Fox Mystery Theater. Unlike 1980's Hammer House of Horror, all the episodes (with the exceptions of "Czech Mate" and "The Corvini Inheritance") had American actors as either the leads or in key roles. It was first aired in the UK by ITV in 1984, though was not simulcast and was shown in different timeslots (and a different running order) throughout the various ITV regions.
Episodes
| Title |
UK Transmission Date
(ITV London region) |
Writer |
Director |
Cast |
| 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, Tony Sibbald, Roger Milner |
| 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 |
| Child's Play |
8 October 1984 |
Graham Wassell |
Val Guest |
Mary Crosby, Nicholas Clay |
| The Corvini Inheritance |
15 October 1984 |
David Fisher |
Gabrielle Beaumont |
David McCallum, Jan Francis, Terence Alexander, Stephen Yardley, Paul Bacon, Leonard Trolley, Johnnie Wade, Kirstie Pooley, Martin Weedon |
| 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 |
| 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, Mark Heath, Gerald Sim, Neil Morrissey |
| 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 |
| Black Carrion |
12 November 1984 |
Don Houghton |
John Hough |
Season Hubley, Leigh Lawson, Norman Bird, William Hootkins, Oscar Quitak, Forbes Collins, Christopher Ellison |
| 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, Christopher Banks, Lewis Fiander |
| 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 |
| The Sweet Scent of Death |
17 December 1984 |
Brian Clemens |
Peter Sasdy |
Dean Stockwell, Shirley Knight, Michael Gothard, Carmen du Sautoy, Robert Lang, Alan Gifford, Geoffrey Colville |
| And the Wall Came Tumbling Down |
1984 |
John Peacock & Dennis Spooner |
Paul Annett |
Barbi Benton, Gareth Hunt, Peter Wyngarde, Carol Royle, Brian Deacon, Patricia Hayes, Richard Hampton, Ray Armstrong, Christopher Farries, Ralph Michael, Robert James, Simon Sutton |
| The Tennis Court |
19841 |
Michael Hastings (story)
Andrew Sinclair (screenplay) |
Cyril Frankel |
Peter Graves, Hannah Gordon, Ralph Arliss, Isla Blair, Jonathan Newth, Cyril Shaps, Peggy Sinclair, David Chessman, Annis Joslin, Marcus Gilbert |
1London region transmission date unknown, but screened on ITV's Television South West on 17 December 1984.
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.
DVD release
The series was released as a 6-DVD set in the UK in 2006.
External links