Haunted by televisual memories

The TV we grew up with has scarred us for life, says Andy Paciorek, examining two explorations of the macabre, spooky, edgy and dark dramas that made Mrs Whitehouse froth at the mouth

Scarred For Life Volume 2 – Television in the 80s Stephen Brotherstone & Dave Lawrence www.lulu.com 2020 (and see Facebook group) Pb, 530pp, £19.99 (No ISBN) Looking For A New England Action, Time, Vision Music, Film & TV 1975-1986 Simon Matthews Oldcastle Books 2021 Pb, 256pp, £16.99, ISBN 9780857304117

Brotherstone and Lawrence’s Scarred For Life books and Simon Matthews’ Looking For a New England cover the same period of television and cinematic history in Britain; they come at it from slightly different angles, but both are very aware of the culturally powerful and distinctive time of the 1970s and 80s.

When I first heard about the Scarred For Life project, a voyage of discovery into just what haunted the formative years of Generation X, my reaction was “Oh bugger!” as I had been considering creating a similar work. However, upon seeing their first book I was pleased that they had done it rather than me as their enthusiastic expertise for the subject is enlightening and infectious.

While Volume 1 covered the whole gamut of macabre and frightening stuff that beset 1970s children, from spooky-themed ice lollies to folk horror TV shows to bizarre board games, Volume 2 has a narrower focus, concentrating on weird 1980s

British TV.

They’re not caught short for material there by any means. They kick off proceedings with

Noah’s Castle, a tea-time drama for kids about British families hoarding food in a time of economic desperation. With reference to crime, violence, a precarious situation for family pets and the implication of teenage girls selling their bodies for food, this grim scenario is haunting in these times of Brexit and Covid. Bizarrely, it was originally broadcast directly after The Sooty Show! From dog-puppet Sweep’s squeaky mischief to economic dystopia in the space of an advert break.

Things don’t really get any lighter on our stroll down televisual memory lane, as those of us of a certain age are reminded of our childhood traumas of viewing Jigsaw’s Noseybonk or

Salem’s Lot (I shared a bedroom with my elder brother as a kid and during the night he would make scratching noises, claiming that Danny Glick was at the window!) or being subjected to PIFs (Public Information or rather Panic Inducing Films) telling us that if rabies did not get us it could be cigarette-induced lung cancer, AIDS or heroin (Just Say No, Zammo!).

Scarred For Life does not need to be read cover to cover but can be dipped into randomly. I first sought out the things that personally resonated most with me – John Wyndham (the adaptations of The Day of The Triffids and Chocky), Tales of the Unexpected ( The Fly Paper episode, which freaked me out the most, seemingly being one that many remember with a shudder), the birth of Channel 4 (its offbeat edgy early days being very vivid in my memories), ghostly dramas and odd TV plays. Strange figures on the edge of our memories return to haunt us such as the Weetabix skinheads,

Murun Buchstansangur and the Chocadooby Kinder egg man. But there are so many more engrossing rabbit holes to fall down within this book – and there are more to come. In Volume 3, we are promised a closer look at the nuclear war paranoia of the 1980s and more fortean fare such as Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World and The Unexplained

magazine.

Whereas Scarred For Life

may be seen as exploring the effect that certain films and TV shows have had upon viewers, Simon Matthews’ Looking For a New England looks at how the political-social culture and music of the era affected film – which often means how punk rock stamped its DM boot print on media output.

Looking for a New England does mention Fortean Times in passing, but its attention to fortean subject matter is peripheral and mostly in relation to edgeland figures such as Ken Campbell, Derek Jarman, Genesis P Orridge, John Michell, Nigel Kneale, Mark E Smith and a whole chapter on David Bowie.

Like Scarred for Life, Looking for a New England also draws attention to Dennis Potter’s

Brimstone and Treacle (both the film and the earlier television play). Potter sometimes seems rather forgotten in the annals of nostalgic televisual revisitation, but this tale of the Devil visiting suburbia and “babysitting” a disabled catatonic woman is surely one of British TV’s most powerfully disturbing moments. Unsurprisingly, the permanently disgusted Clean Up TV campaigner of yesteryear, Mary Whitehouse, can be found wandering through both books like a frothmouthed rabid beast.

Looking for a New England has a chapter dedicated to Dystopia, covering a host of dark dramas such as the Sheffield-based nuclear devastation TV film, Threads,

the mini-series Edge of Darkness

and The Quatermass Conclusion,

but does not delve into horror particularly.

Matthews clearly knows his stuff, which sometimes feels like a machine-gun barrage of names and dates, but when the pace slows and he focuses on specific films, it is informative and engaging. The book might have benefited from more pages and film lists covering specific themes at the end of each chapter.

Scarred For Life vol 2 ★★★★

Looking For A New England

★★★

From dog-puppet Sweep’s squeaky mischief to economic dystopia in the space of an advert break