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Post by dem on Dec 5, 2007 11:36:10 GMT
Irene Shubik (ed.) - The Mind Beyond: Stories From Irene Shubik's BBC TV Series (Penguin, 1976) Introduction - Irene Shubik
Daphne du Maurier - The Breakthrough
William Trevor - Mrs Acland's Ghosts
Irene Shubik - Stones
Bruce Stewart - The Daedalus Equations
Brian Hayles - Double Echo
Evan Jones - The Man With The Power
William Trevor - The Love Of A Good Woman
David Halliwell - Meriel, The Ghost Girl
Hadn't heard of this book - or the series - until Franklin kindly gave me a copy and I'm wondering if anybody remembers it? Richard Davis dedicates Tandem Horror 2 to Irene Shubik so thought I'd revive this post. KC provided us with a link to a series guide but sadly, Action TV have since moved and the page has been deleted. Why didn't I save a copy? Because I'm thick, that's why! "The cover shows the title graphic" if that's any help? Irene Shubik - Stones seems to have been the best-received of the episodes. Harvey Fenton-Jones, opportunist Minister of Tourism, decides to relocate Stonehenge to Hyde Park and trawl in yet more lovely cash from overseas visitors. The stones are having none of it. Historian Reeves realises that something weird is going on when three children disappear. The single connection between them is that their fathers own the three known surviving copies of Stonehenge Defended (1665). William Trevor - The Love Of A Good Woman: Henry Rideout murders his wife of twenty years by pushing her off a boat. He's far from a callous man: his reason for killing her is that he's fallen for another woman - Emily Troop, proprietor of The Eagle's Nest - and he knows that admitting to the fact would be too much for Mrs. Rideout to bear. Henry hates to inflict pain. A year later, Henry marries Emily. It's not the bed of roses he expected, but a child is born, Margaret-Ann. Unfortunately, she's given to "fits." Worse, she's a reincarnation of Henry's first wife who advises him of the need for expiation.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 5, 2007 13:20:09 GMT
"Stones" is certainly the best of the episodes that I've seen so far, though "Mrs Acland's Ghosts" (which, like "The Breakthrough", wasn't officially part of "The Mind Beyond" series but was from the "Playhouse" stable and led to "The Mind Beyond") is very good, with a lovely performance from John Bluthal. "Stones" probably has the best reputation since it's the most traditionally ghost story-ish one, with antiquarian volumes, standing stones and ancient powers all featuring prominently.
Irene Shubik has adapted the script credited to "Malcolm Christopher", who was, in reality, two writers, Christopher Bigsby and Malcolm Bradbury.
"Meriel the Ghost Girl" starts well, with Donald Pleasence as a psychic investigator, but, despite the interesting notion of presenting four stylistically different viewpoints on the same case - ghost story with Pleasence, film noir investigation, punk documentary with Janet Street Porter and psycho-babble summation - it loses any sense of chill after the initial seance scenes.
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Post by ripper on Jun 7, 2015 12:59:13 GMT
The only story I can remember with any clarity from this series is Meriel the Ghost Girl, with the eerie seance scene. The Breakthrough was also not bad, but as said before, it wasn't actually part of 'The Mind Beyond.'
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Dec 30, 2017 19:35:03 GMT
"Stones and curses go together." A series of strange events connected with Stonehenge lead Professor Reeve, an Oxford historian, to wonder if this superstition is true. An episode of 'Playhouse: The Mind Beyond', broadcast 27th October 1976. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_CeZiwsg48 |
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Post by helrunar on Dec 31, 2017 5:58:55 GMT
It's great that some of THE MIND BEYOND is on Youtube again. That's a particularly interesting episode. Very offbeat ... the kind of programming that would have been quite popular in Scarfolk...
cheers, H.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 10, 2019 11:03:36 GMT
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Post by dem on Apr 20, 2021 16:42:38 GMT
David Halliwell - Meriel, The Ghost Girl: Multiple perspectives on the alleged manifestation of a ghost child during a seance at a house in Cricklewood circa 1968, beginning with that of George Livingston, respected debunker of fraudulent mediums and best-selling author. Livingston's account is reproduced from his fourth and final book, Annals of a Psychic Investigator, published shortly before his death in 1970. Uniquely Livingston was, apparently,satisfied that, on this occasion he witnessed a genuine materialisation, no trickery involved.
Much as it pains him, Sam Nicholls, a self-taught ghost detective inspired by Livingston, reaches the conclusion that, in promoting the Meriel case as authentic, the psychic sleuth ditched his integrity for better sales. Miss Robina Oliver, psychic researcher, publishes a riposte to Nicholls' character assassination - and so it goes on. Other commentators include Major Farndon, a randy old goat and colleague of Livingston in pre-Meriel days; Delany the psychologist, and, penultimately, Muriel herself ...
The ghost detective is perhaps, poorly drawn, but otherwise this is excellent.
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Post by helrunar on Apr 20, 2021 18:34:29 GMT
Hi Dem, the original television version of "Meriel, the Ghost Girl" was in its way brilliant--and when I finally saw it a couple of years ago, I reflected that certain scenes would be very unlikely to be staged today. I'll have to watch it again having read your review of the short story adaptation. I mainly recall it as a send-up of the psychic investigation sub-genre of television program, which I think barely existed in the 1970s--so in some ways, it's a prophetic piece of work, because there's reportedly shedloads of that stuff on the tube these days (a friend of mine recommends "The Holzer Files" but I don't think that one runs in the UK).
cheers, Hel
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