A short-run anthology of five self-contained psychological and crime thrillers.
The series presented five standalone plays. In “Will You Come a Little Closer?”, a saleswoman, Deanna Ward (Caroline Mortimer), is trapped in the flat of the obsessive John Dolby (Freddie Jones). “England My England” sees a businessman’s wife, Maggie Leeds (Rachel Gurney), find her marriage threatened by the arrival of Superintendent O’Leary (Hugh Burden). In “In the Name of the Law”, an all-night cafe robbery escalates to murder, with a policeman as the lead suspect. “Depart in Terror” follows the elaborate revenge plotted by a mild-mannered electronics expert, Dennis Fleming (George A. Cooper), against his unfaithful wife Mary (Sylvia Syms) and her lover (John Gregson). Finally, “The Snares of Death” is a dark comedy about an undertaker, Harold Gabbitas (Alfred Burke), whose plan to fake his own death goes awry.
This anthology of five standalone plays revived the Armchair Thriller banner for ABC Television. Edited and produced by Richard Bates, son of the author H. E. Bates, the series was a collection of taut, character-driven scripts from established writers like Roger Marshall and Julian Bond. Each play functioned as a self-contained miniature, moving from the psychological claustrophobia of a door-to-door sale gone wrong to the black comedy of a bungled insurance fraud. The format allowed for a variety of tones within the thriller genre, united by a focus on ordinary people pushed into extraordinary, and often criminal, circumstances.
Broadcast: ABC, 5 Episodes, Saturdays, 22 April – 20 May 1967
Edited and Produced by: Richard Bates
Writers: Roger Marshall, Julian Bond, Jack Trevor Story, Jacques Gillies, Stanley Miller
Directors: Kim Mills, Don Leaver, Guy Verney, Quentin Lawrence
Main Cast: Freddie Jones (John Dolby), Caroline Mortimer (Deanna Ward), Rachel Gurney (Maggie Leeds), Hugh Burden (Superintendent O’Leary), William Lucas (Freddie), Timothy West (Ralph), John Gregson (Harvey Lynch), Sylvia Syms (Mary Fleming), George A. Cooper (Dennis Fleming), Alfred Burke (Harold Gabbitas), Richard O’Callaghan (Rupert), Alethea Charlton (Vera Gabbitas)
