Dramarama: Spooky - The Complete Series [ITV] [Network] [DVD]

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Things got off to a strong start with Maggie Wadey’s story of schoolboy, Kevin (Adam Bareham), who is more interested in war-gaming than in studying. The ghost decides to put aside his lust for revenge to help his descendants and their young daughter Cathy (Caroline Dudley) to find the stash of English Civil War-era treasure hidden in a secret room. She starts to recite a creepy poem (“In the dark, dark wood, there was a dark, dark house…) Inexplicably, the boy finds himself drawn into the poem where he meets the wonderfully creepy ghost of his father, dripping wet having been drowned, and explores the mystery of what is in the dark, dark box in the dark, dark trunk in a dark, dark cupboard.

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Those of us a certain age will wax lyrical (and often at great length) about the scariness of the shows made for children in the previous decade, name checking the likes of Sky (1975), Children of the Stones (1977), the Hinchcliffe era of Doctor Who (1963-1989) and many more but the 1980s had their fair share of memorably chilling moments, many of the best supplied by this short series of seven half-hour tales of the supernatural. The main run of Dramarama episodes included more than a few science fiction, horror and fantasy offerings ( Jack and the Computer (1983), Mr Stabs (1984), The Young Person’s Guide to Going Backwards in the World (1985), The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt (1986) and many others) but it was this initial run, subsequently released on DVD by the always wonderful Network, that provided some of the most memorable moments.Sadly, that episode wasn’t part of the dedicatedly phantasmagorical precursor, Spooky, but there is a surfeit of similarly supernatural activity on show here – from the dizzily pretentious to the mind-bogglingly bizarre. The series came to an end with a script from Alan Garner, much revered among fans of British telefantasy thanks of the adaptation of his novel The Owl Service (1970) and his original Play for Today script Red Shift (1978). It started with an Auction where the kids discover an old civil war helmet which starts glowing, or something to the limit of the LWT effects department. Brilliantly directed by John Woods and nudging the series into folk horror territory, The Keeper is the most sophisticated and densely packed of the stories, repeated viewings revealing layers of complexity that had previously eluded us. Born in Cheshire and brought up in Alderley Edge, his work is rooted in the landscape and history of the area.

Throughout this they discuss the nature and causes of hauntings, whether it’s people that generate them, the places themselves or a combination of both. Don’t Let Me In is a scary text story about a boyfriend who sends text messages to his girlfriend in the middle of the night, warning her not to open the door for him. I forget most of it but I remember the boy is told not to go through a certain set of doors or he’ll lose his mind. Over the course of the seven series, four actors who would play the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) appeared, Patrick Troughton, Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant and Peter Capaldi. There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there during the day,’ Elizabeth drones menacingly, doing her best to make comfort as unsettling as possible.

Set to accompany the highly acclaimed ITV 'Dramarama' plays they are a clever, beautifully produced example of an increasingly fondly remembered mini genre. Having spent my childhood, and most of my adult life haunted by a particular episode of Dramarama it was wonderful to watch them all again.

Spooky aired shortly before the main series was broadcast exploring the supernatural vein that would appear throughout Dramarama s run. Then afterwards, all seems to be well, the corpse is removed and the room converted into another bedroom, until one day the poltergeist activity starts up again. After dressing as a frankly alarming bat at the world’s worst fancy-dress party (where everyone else, for licensing reasons, is clad not as a character from films or books but as unidentifiable horrors from a Ray Bradbury nightmare), she decides to exorcise the demon ‘Amelia’ from inside Amy – only to promptly be revealed (to no one’s surprise) as the baddie after all. Although I'm more than old enough to remember this series, I never saw it first time round so my review is not clouded by nostalgia. If you want something a little darker for children I recomend Shadows Series 1 (Series 2 is awful) Children of the Stones and King of the Castle.DEAF ANGEL: More kids sneak into a wrestling arena to try and get a glimpse of eponymous masked wrester.