Come Into My Parlour - Episode 10, Tuesday 9th March 1971

The story....

Deanna Ward is a door-to-door cosmetic saleswoman who is returning to work after a nervous breakdown. Often she encounters rejection by those she calls upon so she is surprised when a middle-aged man called John Dolby shows interest, even though he lives alone. She goes into his flat and he says he wants to buy items for his mother, though later and somewhat oddly changes his mind and saying he is buying for his fiancée. 

However the conversation ranges much more widely than cosmetics. Dolby explains that he works in a betting shop but that he used to work for a firm of solicitors before losing his job after being convicted for riding a tube train without a ticket which he says he lost but wasn’t believed. He is clearly still very affected by that incident as well as showing a peculiar interest in wider issues of crime and justice including notorious murderers. His behaviour does make her feel uncomfortable at times, not least when he asks her to pose for a photograph with him saying he wants to test a new camera. However at the same time she appreciates that someone is showing interest in her and she is able to talk about her own difficulties at work and her lack of family and friends. She is also able to display her remarkable talent in being able to identify hymns just by their number and she leaves his flat not just with a sale that could help her keep her job but feeling much more happy with herself.

She returns to deliver the goods a few days later but events have moved in a strange direction. Dolby has got dressed-up and tells his home-help that he has got engaged. He displays a telegram of congratulations and there is a notice in the paper about his engagement to “DW” – by remarkable coincidence Deanna’s initials. Some of the things he says and does contradict what happened a few days earlier but the biggest change is in his focus of interest. He asks her to join him in a toast for “justice” and very soon he is resuming his preoccupation with the issue but in a very disturbing way….

John Dolby's first view of Deanna Ward, the fish-eye lens conjuring up images of a better-known series that followed

Review

A quite exceptional episode. Much of this is down to the captivating nature of the two central characters who – not unusually for the show – are on-screen almost throughout. Both are in different ways scarred by difficult pasts, insecurities and loneliness, Deanna is the more clearly sympathetic figure. Her parents were killed in the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya and she says she has no other family or – it seems – friends, her last phone bill was entirely rental with no calls made at all, To add to all this she has a troubled work history with a failed job in a packing department and her current sales work at severe risk unless she produces orders for her supervisor with whom she doesn’t get on. Maybe these difficulties mean she has to take chances in her job and that includes seeking out dubious clients like John Dolby.

Dolby is a mysterious figure. He portrays himself as a victim – a man who lost a high-status job due to an innocent mistake; indeed the kind of mistake that might befall any person. One can understand how such an experience could be troubling, even traumatic for someone. It is clear he is resentful, chiefly towards the justice system that convicted him rather than his erstwhile employers. It is women - ranging from the ticket inspector who stopped him through to the chairman of the magistrates - that seem to particularly antagonise him. Now he says he is working in a betting shop and has a day off work. However is he telling the truth? It is clear he is prepared to invent stories on other matters such as his supposed engagement with him trying to give others the impression that Deanna is his fiancée. Maybe he just wants company and embroiders stories to make himself more interesting. Maybe he is a fantasist, a lonely man who wants others to think he is about to be married. Maybe he is a crank who gets peculiar amusement from stringing others along or provoking them.

Or maybe he is actually a dangerous man – possibly with a violent past – who has snared a victim – maybe not his first. His fascination with notorious killers may be just of academic interest and there are plenty of law-abiding people who enjoy learning about the most appalling crimes and their perpetrators. However it’s also possible that he sees these individuals as his role-models. The title sequence of a prowling spider and the title “Come into My Parlour” do imply that he is some kind of predator and Deanna has fallen into his web. In a private moment soon after she arrives he holds his hand to his face in apprehension – possibly uneasy about a future act he is about to commit but also possibly of someone trying to fight temptation or even anxious about meeting someone new.

Whatever his motives there is no doubt that the first meeting has plenty of moments where both show warmth and friendliness. Deanna finds her anxiety slipping and Dolby is able to make her smile and laugh at times. Maybe there is a chemistry of sorts and her spirits are definitely lifted. However she is a fragile, vulnerable person who is less able than most to deal with his mind-games and strange behaviour. When troubled people come together the results can be very unpredictable.

Deanna struggles to cope with her host's behaviour

Typically for Shadows of Fear everyday issues and anxieties are explored. Door-to-door sales work can be a frustrating business for both sellers and the householders they call upon. It involves a meeting of strangers and that can be awkward for both parties and in some cases risky as well, particularly when the interaction moves inside away from public view. Either may be looking to exploit or even abuse the other but how can they tell beforehand? When either is in need or vulnerable they may especially take chances in an interaction or transaction they will regret. Deanna seemed to have got over the greatest risk by having a seemingly successful first meeting but maybe that apparent success was just to draw her in and get her to drop her guard.

Peter Barkworth and Beth Harris give exceptional performances as Dolby and Deanna, both in the first meeting with its lighter moments and in the more disturbing second encounter. I have always had some reservations about the ultimate conclusion but it is certainly a plausible one and the final shots are unquestionably powerful ones. At the very end “colour” spills over the screen and it is unfortunate here that the episode was made in black-and-white (due to a technicians’ dispute) as that does inhibit the impact of that final shot but clearly it was unavoidable and it does round off a remarkable story. 

Unfortunately it was the last of the series “proper”. Whether more full-length episodes were planned and then suspended due to the dispute is not known but in any event only one more episode of the show followed – The Party’s Over - and that was only half the length, in a very different style and transmitted almost two years later. That could almost be part of a different show and it is on this remarkable note that the series in its original format ended.

Notes

TV Times listing for the Armchair Theatre version

This was a remake or reworking of an episode Roger Marshall had written for Armchair Theatre called "Will You Come a Little Closer", broadcast on 22nd April 1967 but presumably wiped before this version was produced. Freddie Jones and Caroline Mortimer took the lead roles in the earlier play. It's not known how closely the Shadows of Fear version followed its predecessor but a TV Times response to a viewer indicated the same conclusion and some interesting ideas on why John Dolby acted as he did.