MM 14th scariest prog in UK

[Guest amnesic]

Radio Times in the UK has voted Millennium the 14th scariest TV program EVER! not bad for a program that only managed one season on terrestrial TV!

[The Old Man]

Wow! Thanks for that! Nice to know someone else still remembers it in the UK!

Graham

[Libby]

Here's the list, at least according to The Sun's website. I'm not sure who wrote the descriptions. I meant to pop into the shop on the way home to buy a copy of the Radio Times, but had a dreadful trek home because of the snow so I just wanted to get indoors in the warm!

1 Stephen King’s It (1990) - killer clown terrorises sleepy town.

2 The X-Files (1993-2002) - detective duo investigate the paranormal.

3 GhosT***ch (1992) - spoof BBC documentary.

4 Tales Of The Unexpected (1979-1988) - short stories with a twist.

5 Sapphire And Steel (1979-1982) - camp British sci-fi series.

6 Twin Peaks (1990) - David Lynch’s surreal drama.

7 Quartermass And The Pit (1958) - Fifties horror about a Martian spaceship.

8 The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) - classic chiller series.

9 American Gothic (1995-1996) - murderous sheriff terrorises a US town.

10 The Outer Limits (1963-1965) - fantasy anthology of spooky stories.

11 The Woman In Black (1989) - adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel.

12 Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) - Sarah Michelle Gellar battles demons.

13 The League Of Gentlemen (1999-2002) – cult comedy series from Royston Vasey.

14 Millennium (1996-1999) - X-Files-style FBI drama.

15 Children Of The Stones (1977) - children’s show about a mysterious stone circle.

16 Survivors (1975-1977) - post-apocalyptic drama about killer virus.

17 Chimera (1991) - engineers create a half-human, half-ape baby.

18 The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil (1986) - spurned wife takes demonic revenge.

19 Thriller (1973-1976) - Saturday night horror series.

20 The Singing, Ringing Tree (1964) – terrifying fairytale.

[Guest Omega]

5 Sapphire And Steel (1979-1982) - camp British sci-fi series.

14 Millennium (1996-1999) - X-Files-style FBI drama.

Sapphire & Steel scarier than Millennium ?????

I'll have a pint of whatever he had before making that list.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

1 Stephen King’s It (1990) - killer clown terrorises sleepy town.

5 Sapphire And Steel (1979-1982) - camp British sci-fi series.

6 Twin Peaks (1990) - David Lynch’s surreal drama.

7 Quartermass And The Pit (1958) - Fifties horror about a

Martian spaceship.

8 The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) - classic chiller series.

9 American Gothic (1995-1996) - murderous sheriff terrorises a US town.

I didn't find "It" to be that scary as a video production. There was too much left out of the story from the book so that some of it wasn't really clear.

I just got a video catalog that's pushing a lot of VHS/DVD collections of older TV series including a lot from the UK, "Sapphire and Steel" is included. Can one of you tell me exactly what the series was about?

Twin Peaks had its share of horrifying details and was always mystifying but the characters were just enough abnormal that I couldn't make the story real. I enjoyed it but it never really scared me.

If "Quatermass and the Pit" is what I think it is, it was shown in movie form on TV here in the US, i.e., it wasn't shown as a series or mini series. I found it to be a very interesting SciFi show for adolescents.

"The Twilight Zone" definitely tended to have scary stories.

"American Gothic" was too short-lived to have ever reached it's true potential as a horror show. I really liked the series and wished they hadn't cancelled it when they did.

[Libby]

Sapphire and Steel was a show made back in 1979. I'm not sure how many series were made. A fan description on imdb.com says this:

"Complex, involved science-fiction series about a special force of interdimensional operatives whose task is to protect the universe from evil forces trying to gain a foothold by disrupting the timeline. The strange energy beings are assigned to cases, when and where needed, and materialise on Earth as humans, each with specialist abilities to ascertain and then solve the problems. The mysteries encountered by Sapphire, Steel and their colleagues include people trapped in photographs, ghosts lost in time, and a dinner party of guests who are all long-dead. Their most-dangerous challenge, innocuous-seeming at first, is a petrol station whose time-line is repeating endlessly - and which turns out to be a major hazard, set by unknown forces, to trap Sapphire and Steel in a closed time-loop forever..."

I remember watching it when it was first shown on UK TV and last year I downloaded a couple of series (remember, this is UK TV where series will often only consist of half-a-dozen episodes).

It starred Joanna Lumley (Ab Fab) as Sapphire and David McCallum (Illya Kuryakin in The Man From UNCLE). When I viewed the episodes last year I thought they were rather slow-moving, and the sets and special effects seemed very outdated, but still pretty compelling. Like Omega, I wouldn't really have described the series as scary. Interesting to watch, though, but it depends I suppose on how much anyone's willing to pay for the DVDs.

[Libby]

Radio Times in the UK has voted Millennium the 14th scariest TV program EVER! not bad for a program that only managed one season on terrestrial TV!

Perhaps this is a good point to tell you all how it came about that I started watching Millennium.

Well, back in 199-mumble, I heard about this other show being produced by the people who made The X-Files. At that time, my offspring and I were watching TXF together (my offspring having introduced me to the show in the first place) and we'd usually have very interesting debates afterwards. When I mentioned Millennium, my daughter (bless her) vehemently recommended that I not!!! watch it, because she felt it was way too violent and scary for me.

Taking her concerns for her dear old mother seriously, of course I didn't watch the show.

A few years later, I caught a few episodes that were being shown very late at night on our local channel.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I have forgiven her. :grin2:

[Guest SouthernCelt]

Sapphire and Steel was a show made back in 1979. I'm not sure how many series were made.

Thanks, Libby, for the info on "Sapphire & Steel." I didn't have the DVD catalog handy when I asked originally but now I see that the DVD set is the entire series, 34 episodes. The catalog blurb says it ran from 1979 to 1982 so there must have been only about 8 episodes per season.

There's another set advertised on the same catalog page, "The Protectors" season one, 26 episodes. Says it stars the other "man from UNCLE" Robert Vaughn. The details of the basic plot are sketchy but this appears to be a spy/action series. Is that right?

Sorry to get off the main thread but there doesn't seem to be a need to start a new one.

[Guest LauraKrycek]

WOOT for MM and XF! As for "The Woman in Black"... is that the same one that the stage play is done from? If so, then it *definitely* deserves to be way up there, because I saw that in London and it is STILL freaking me out. I can't lay in a dark room without having my eyes painfull glued to the corners, frightened that any second, the Woman in Black's face will suddenly appear. NOT FUN! But it rocked the house.

[Raven Wolf]

I can't lay in a dark room without having my eyes painfull glued to the corners, frightened that any second, the Woman in Black's face will suddenly appear. NOT FUN! But it rocked the house.

Sorry, but that mental image has me....