© Words Matteo Sedazzari

Frankenstein The True Story made in 1973, directed by Jack Smight, a veteran of TV movies and shows (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Arrest and Trial, The Sound of Miles Davis) and cinema (The Illustrated Man, Kaleidoscope ,The Third Day).   Much of Smight’s work is focused on the psychology of the central actors, and how circumstances affected their actions and decisions. This is certainly the case with Frankenstein The True Story, made for TV, yet with such picturesque settings, dramatic sound track and strong performances, Frankenstein The True Story could easily have been released for the cinema.

Hello Chaps, Ferdy Fox here, connoisseur of the frighteningly fantastic and the morbidly macabre.

I seem to recall promising a New Year’s Honours list where I pay tribute to my top five films of the last five years from the International Horror scene. So here it is - fashionably late.

From the icy fjords of Norway, the dusty back streets of downtown Havana, remote South American forests and a post apocalyptic Germany – I am taking you on a journey of Jules Verne proportions,

© Words Laurence Marcus.

When the series was screened on BBC2 the critics heaped praise on it finding David's story-telling hilarious and the new technique of using the filmed sequences an exciting innovation. In spite of Dave Allen's reputation for controversial material this first series took great pains to avoid anything crude or vulgar. True, he did take a side-swipe at religion and other sacred subjects but the only complaint that the first show had was not from a viewer.

© Words - A.J Marriot
There is a very strong, indefinable spiritual bond that binds comedians together, one which makes them want to seek out each other's company – regardless of the distance or hardship involved. Thus it was that the lives of the three greatest screen clowns that England has ever produced were destined to cross. Such was the impact of these meetings, that the lives of at least two of them were changed and sustained during their formative comedy years.

© Words - Justine Kerrigan

My mum passed away when I was eleven, after this I spent a lot of time with family including my grandparents. One of my most vivid memories from the months that followed were my granddad, who was actor Peter Kerrigan taking me to a close just off Deysbrook lane in west derby and leaving me with a fabulous young man called Francis Harcombe. The close turned out to be Brookside close and the young man was a floor manager and was to become a very good friend of mine in the not so distant future. This was August 1982 and I had no idea how important this little close would become to me and my family and friends.