User Reviews

When I saw the name John Thaw, I thought, this time, an episode of The Frighteners will either Grip, thrill, or at least engage me, but sadly as with the first few episodes I've watched, all I can say is, it was alright. The acting is rather good, John Thaw and George Innes are rather good, indeed as is Robert Urquhart, but it's the story once again. The story isn't bad, it just lacks the capacity to engage or thrill, I'd class this as one of the above average Tales of the Unexpected episodes, it feels like it wants to be that kind of thirty minute shocker with a twist, but sadly it just doesn't work on that level. That said, it's the best one I've seen so far (three down) and it does contain several moments of tension, I'd just hoped for a series along the lines of Thriller/Tales of the unexpected, and sadly so far they're nowhere near.

A decent watch, 6/10

Two ex-army men track down their former sergeant in his remote country shack hideaway - with the sole purpose to torment him and exact revenge for what they see as his betrayal seven years earlier, which led to them being kicked out of the armed forces and imprisoned for a crime they say the didn't commit.

This is a rather uncomfortable watch, and you can see from the start it's not going to end well. The action pretty-much all takes place in the same room, so there's little space for creating any filmic atmosphere or much in the way of breathing space away from the dialogue. It's great seeing John Thaw - just two or three years before he found fame as Jack Regan in The Sweeney, and you can certainly see elements of his best-loved character here, although he comes across as fairly humorless and unsympathetic here.

As with most of the stories in this series, it's quite jarring and sad, and you wonder how it's all going to resolve itself. It's probably one of the weaker stories in what was quite a patchy series at best - but more of interest these days for its nostalgia value, and seeing familiar actors in earlier roles.

I quite liked this one, perhaps my favourite of "The Frighteners" so far.

Two former soldiers, Wood (John Thaw) and Leggett (George Innes) arrive at a remote cabin, used as a getaway by Rutherford (Robert Urquhart) whom Wood and Leggett served under some years previously. Though Rutherford doesn't remember them, they remember him and begin to tell a story about their dishonourable discharge and spell in military prison - more specifically, about the part that he had to play in it.

There's a real sense of foreboding to this episode. Wood and Leggett appear jovial on first arrival, but there's an undercurrent of threat, even from their first moments in the episode, that only heightens as the grudge they have against Rutherford is explained and their plan for revenge is acted out. All this is wonderfully performed by George Innes, whose face I recognised from numerous projects over the years, and, of course, by the legendary John Thaw, most famous for his 13 years as Inspector Morse on British Television.

The only element that I struggled with was the trial that they put Rutherford through to conclude the episode. I don't feel that it gelled with the idea that they were out for revenge. Wanting to kill him for what happened doesn't feel like it would have been proportional, but I might have understood it. . . but by the same token, this level of psychological torture, and specifically the time it all takes feels too much, if the plan was always just to scare him.

But, that came as a retrospective though after a solid half an hour of TV that kept me guessing and entertained.