Spine Chillers

Summary

Four hair-raising tales of terror, as heard on BBC Radio 4

'Three hours worth of spooky entertainment ... there are some terrific performances to be enjoyed here' Entertainment Focus

In these four supernatural dramas, first broadcast on radio in 1984, a house hides more than meets the eye; a B & B landlady helps her guests forget their troubles; a Japanese man inadvertently awakens a vengeful spirit; and a mother and baby become unsettled in remote mill.


Written by Colin Haydn Evans, David Campton, Jill Hyem and Don Webb, and starring Anna Massey, Rosemary Leach, Sean Barrett, and Pam Ferris, these eerie, atmospheric stories are guaranteed to give you goosebumps. Just don't listen with the lights off...

Figures - Stuck in a marriage of convenience, unhappy Ann is searching for a refuge. So as soon as she sees the house, she knows it has to be hers. Its past is part of her future - all she has to do is sit in the upstairs room, kept locked for so long, and wait...

Mrs M - Mrs Meadowsweet offers visitors to her country guesthouse a truly carefree holiday. Everybody is so happy. A little abstracted, perhaps, but certainly happy. New arrivals Madge and Arthur are suspicious, but can Mrs M win them over?

Origami - When mild-mannered Mr Shimojo takes a room in Mrs Bestall's house, he becomes an instant hit with her young daughter, teaching her the Japanese art of paper folding. But no one is prepared for the sequence of horrifying events which his presence seems to generate...

Witch Water Green - Barbara Tate and her baby girl are all alone in their new home - a converted mill deep in the countryside. The move has been stressful; Barbara is lonely and the baby is fretful. But there's another, deeper reason for her uneasiness...

Cast and credits
Figures
Ann - Anna Massey
Ralph Symons - Blain Fairman
Rebecca Symons - Jill Lidstone
Peter Fuller - Jon Strickland
Alex Slade - Michael Bilton

Written by Colin Haydn Evans
Directed by Ian Cotterell
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 February 1984

Mrs M
Mrs Meadowsweet - Rosemary Leach
Madge - Anne Jameson
Arthur - Roger Hume
Simon - Terry Molloy
Miss Brazenose - Joyce Gibbs
Inga - Patricia Gallimore

Written by David Campton
Directed by Peter Windows
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 February 1984

Origami
Mr Shimojo - Sean Barrett
Helen Bestall - Carole Boyd
Peter Trent - Christopher Scoular
Lucy Bestall - Helen Worth

Written by Jill Hyem
Directed by Kay Patrick
Pronunciation adviser: Masatoshi Tobia
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 February 1982

Witch Water Green
Barbara Tate - Pam Ferris
Dr Jane Rayner - Jenny Lee
The Rev Roy Brown - Nigel Anthony
Johnny Goad - Brian Southwood
Wendy Williams - Kate Lee

Written by Don Webb
Directed by Tony Cliff
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 March 1984

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