Shadows of Fear Episode 1 - Did You Lock Up? (Wednesday 17th June 1970)

The story...

Peter and Moira Astle have just returned from a romantic break when they discover to their horror that their home has been burgled. Many valuable items have been stolen as well as there being considerable damage. For the couple it is a shattering experience. Insurance is able to compensate for the stolen items and repair the damage but the emotional wounds are much harder to heal. A visit from Detective-Sergeant Newman who is investigating the crime doesn't offer much consolation. He offers useful security advice but admits there is little chance of catching the offenders and - most ominously - that they are likely to be back when they believe the valuables have been replaced. The last two pieces of information are dispiriting but they also give Peter Astle ideas. He is not content to just put the matter behind him and hope improved security deters them - he wants to catch the offenders in the act and ensure they don't get away with their crime. That may prove not to be the end of matters but only the beginning... 

Moira Astle (Gwen Watford) looks on in horror at her burgled home

Review

This opening episode by prolific TV writer Roger Marshall and directed by Kim Mills (the pair had worked together many times, mainly on Public Eye) helps set the style for Shadows of Fear. There is a very small cast with Peter and Moira Astle (played very well by Michael Craig and Gwen Watford) on screen for most of the time. Aside from them, only the two burglars and Sergeant Newman appear other then very briefly. Although their home is set in the countryside with no neighbours nearby there is no location work. There is no incidental music to "set the mood". These aspects certainly create an intensity and claustrophobic atmosphere not seen in many other shows broadly within the thriller and suspense genre. Episode 2 did not arrive until six months later in January 1971 and it appears this was a pilot or trial episode which "topped the ratings" according to a later Daily Mirror article. The broadcast clearly made the required impact to allow a full series but it was certainly unusual to take this approach when British series generally had a continuous run from their first episode. The anthology title and format though gave the producers more freedom to air instalments intermittently should they have wished,

Some comparisons with the later Thriller are instructive. Brian Clemens and Roger Marshall were both versatile writers who wrote across genres and for both filmed and video-taped productions but Roger Marshall was also very much associated with the socially-realistic Public Eye which he had co-created and had been the most frequent writer. The production style of this episode and Shadows of Fear more generally has much in common with the sparse, more downbeat production style of Public Eye - also made by Thames - including the lack of incidental music. The Astles are certainly comfortably middle-class but not quite as affluent as the standard central Thriller characters and their home is certainly very pleasant but not a mansion although its remote rural location could certainly have fitted Thriller. None of the characters starts off violent intentions towards others but we see how events such as crime can lead to violent feelings and potentially violent consequences. This story could certainly have been readily rewritten as a non-thriller, non-suspense drama about the impact of a domestic crime on its victims and the efforts of a man to catch the culprits and it would have been an interesting affair on those terms but this being Shadows of Fear it hints at and ultimately takes a rather darker direction.

This is a strong opening if not one of the show's best. The subject of burglary and its impact on its victims has been surprisingly little covered on screen given that unfortunately it is a crime that many viewers have either experienced directly or have known happen to friends or family members. That in itself can make it an uncomfortable watch but also one that needs to be explored. The impact here is certainly well-covered and the upset and anxiety are very well-depicted. The mixture of anxiety and anger is evident. 

Peter and Moira inspect some of the damage in their home

Peter and Moira also diverge in terms of their longer-term responses. Both are understandably upset and badly affected but Moira tries to come to terms with events and move on. She doesn't want the couple to turn their home into a fortress and in effect become prisoners within it. She doesn't want to become too scared to leave the house and thereby miss out on the wider pleasures of life. She doesn't want to suspect long-trusted people of involvement in the crime. Peter though cannot move on, even when he has installed high-security measures within the home. For him resentment, anger and a desire for justice become the pervading emotions. He becomes suspicious of anyone who visits the home or has knowledge of it such as cleaners and tradesmen as well as those who might possibly have come across his stolen property. There is a fine scene when he visits a local antiques dealer - whom he suspects of being a "fence" for such items - and comes close to accusing him of having a clock stolen from the house.

Peter then develops an elaborate plan for catching the burglars and also for preventing some of their likely responses. It does have to be said there are elements of this which are a touch unlikely but it's still fascinating viewing. The offenders are certainly an unsympathetic pair with one played by a young Mark McManus, later renowned as Scottish detective Taggart but here with a London accent. This leads up to a remarkable final few minutes in which it seems Peter may have fatefully changed his plan; the outcome raises intriguing moral and legal questions with the viewers pondering what happened next and this indeed would be a feature of the series. This would have stood well even as a one-off play but thankfully many more episodes were to follow the next year. 

Notes

In an interview with Action TV magazine (Number 11, Spring 2005), writer Roger Marshall said that his own anger after being burgled led to him writing this script.

An ending with some similarities to this one occurred a few years later in one of the most acclaimed episodes of Thriller.

The end credits roll over the final scene without music. 

This episode was repeated on Thames (who produced it) on Thursday 25th March 1971 (11.00 pm-12.00 am). This seems to have been the only Shadows of Fear repeat on ITV.

Three years later Mark McManus played another character (with London accent) on the wrong side of the law - or at least suspected of being so - a man on trial for armed robbery in R v Bryant, one of the earliest Crown Court instalments.