Anoraks Assemble

The Nightmare Man is a four-part sci-fi / horror TV series which was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1981.

It was based on the novel, “Child of Vodyanoi” by David Wiltshire and adapted for TV by Dr. Who legend Robert Holmes.

Set on a small Scottish island (but actually filmed in Cornwall), a series of savage murders strike fear into the locals. After a strange craft is found on the beach, difficult questions are asked. Is it aliens, the Russians, or a secret military plot?

Of could it somehow be a combination of all three?

Mysterious deaths on a remote island are hardly a new thing – think of something like Island of Terror or Night of the Big Heat – but this is a little different in that it is rooted in a kind of realism of that era, with a Cold War paranoia and fear of Russia.

Ex-army dentist Michael Gaffkin (the heroic James Warwick) is roped in to help. Along for the ride is his pharmacist girlfriend Fiona, played by the fabulous Celia Imrie.

The special effects are absolutely fine. We see the monster’s actions from its point of view, which is actually quite effective. These scenes are accompanied by rather unpleasant slobbering noises and, disturbingly, inhuman laughter.

Like so many BBC dramas of this era, it is low-key and slow-moving, but I do not mind this. It is also very tame in terms of what is shown on screen. I remember watching it in 1981 as an eight-year-old and absolutely loving it!

The Nightmare Man comes from the era of The Omega Factor and The Mad Death, when the BBC took risks and showed us something a little ‘different’. I think the intervening years have been kind to the series and it holds up pretty well.