"Colonel March of Scotland Yard" Present Tense (TV Episode 1955) Poster

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7/10
Watch out for John Laurie.
Sleepin_Dragon28 November 2020
I rather liked this episode, I definitely preferred it to the first episode I watched. It's a nice character driven story, one with some nice themes and good ideas.

A woman, who's in a love triangle, is haunted by the spirit of her recently departed husband.

This reminded me of something I had watched recently, it came to me, an episode of Murder she wrote, called Reflections of the Mind, it's virtually the same plot.

Nice to see John Laurie before he became famous for Dad's Army, Karloff doesn't actually play a big part here.

Rather good, they keep things rather low key, it could have easily been overly dramatic. 7/10.
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7/10
Be present for it
hte-trasme29 May 2010
This episode of "Colonel March Investigates" starts with the rather strange premise of a love triangle of sorts in which one of the points -- a man probably about to be divorced -- is recently divorced but remains relevant through Spiritualist communication.

This could easily become silly but is played absolutely straight and not without emotion, benefiting from good performances all round. One could easily believe that an event like this could have such an effect on a young woman with such an investment in Spiritualism.

Colonel March is given a personal investment as a reason to get involved, as the woman involved is his niece, and his trickery at the end to solve the case is clever. However, the "let me explain my evil plot" ending and very quick resolution were rather unsatisfying. On the whole though, quite a good episode.
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4/10
Dead husband haunting his wife
kevinolzak10 September 2011
Episode 22, "Present Tense" squanders an interesting premise, beginning with the crash of a flight containing the husband of young Emily (Mary Parker), who was waiting to divorce him and marry Gordon Baird (Phil Brown, previously seen in "The Sorcerer"). He seemed to have developed an interest in telepathy before his death, and now his grief stricken widow feels responsible for what happened, and continues to refer to him in the 'present tense,' according to Gordon. Lydia the housekeeper (Doris Hare) is convinced that his ghost has returned from the grave, playing the piano at night, and is too frightened to remain. Fortunately, Dr. Brandeis (John Laurie) has called upon Emily's uncle, Colonel March himself, to help clear up the mystery (Ewan Roberts as Inspector Ames is absent here). Most disappointing is the climax, which dispels any trace of the supernatural.
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4/10
Present Tense
Prismark1025 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Emily is Colonel March's niece who has witnessed the death of her husband in a plane crash while it was preparing to land.

Emily was estranged from her husband. She had planned to tell him that she had found someone else and wanted a divorce.

Somehow Emily talks to about her husband in the present tense. That somehow he is not dead. Even the housekeeper makes reference to a ghost haunting the house.

A concerned Colonel's March comes to stay with Emily and investigate the supernatural. One night she hears the piano being played and comes across a familiar figure.

There was nothing supernatural about this story. There seem to be little investigation done by Colonel March although he had a probable theory on his mind.

In some respects a husband coming back from the dead is a well known premise. In this case, the husband takes advantage of his death to drive his wife to suicide and claim the inheritance.

The climax was reduced to hysteria and hammy acting. It was all pretty slipshot.
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4/10
Cheap and rather mundane
Leofwine_draca14 September 2016
PRESENT TENSE is the third episode of the COLONEL MARCH TV series and the most disappointing yet. Instead of being silly like the previous episode (THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN) it's just quite dull as it retells the usual is-she-going-out-of-her-mind? plot about a wife who appears to think she's being communicated to by her dead husband. The low budget nature of the show is particularly apparent here in the poor staging of the opening plane crash which is kept off screen.

My main disappointment with this episode is that Karloff doesn't get to do any real investigating and just shows up at the climax to explain things. Plus the resolution to the mystery is disappointingly mundane, which doesn't really make for good screen entertainment.
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