Escape Into Night: The Complete Series (1972) (TV series review).
With Network’s demise, I kept a habit of looking for anything I missed and came across ‘Escape Into Night’, a 6-part series from 1972. We lost the colour print, leaving us with only the black and white version from foreign sales. Ruth Boswell wrote the TV script based on Catherine Storr’s novel ‘Marianne Dreams’, following her production of ‘Timeslip’ and prior to ‘The Tomorrow People’. Boswell was capable in both departments, according to her IMdB details. I must have overlooked this series, but I believe its black and white aesthetic perfectly fits the mood, and because it’s a mystery set in the night, I watched it late at night. I didn’t damage any pencils during the viewing of this series.
Actress Vikki Chambers’ character, Marianne Austen, suffers a leg fracture after falling from a horse, necessitating bed rest to prevent a lifelong limp. Consequently, she remains confined to her home for one month. The reason her school friends never pay her a visit remains a mystery, despite her request for them to do so. Her father is away working abroad, and her mother (actress Sonia Graham) entertains her until she is assigned a home tutor, Miss Chesterfield (actress Patricia Maynard), as part of her sick client’s care. She briefly informs Marianne about her other students, including polio victim Mark (actor Steven Jones), who spend an even longer time at home.
Drawing is one of Marianne’s hobbies, but after drawing a house, she dreams, finds herself facing it, and sees a boy in the window who complains that there are no stairs to reach him. When awake, she draws the stairs, and next dreamtime she meets Mark, who explains he can’t walk but doesn’t know how he got there. Marianne knows she has control over her drawing, but they don’t like each other that much at first. When Miss Chesterfield reveals she has a birthday, Marianne arranges for her mother to get her some roses. Her tutor is late, arriving with a larger bunch of roses as a gift from Mark. Marianne wakes; she scribbles over the drawing. Not very happy.
Marianne discovers that she can only create things in her dream reality by drawing them with the pencil her grandmother had given her. The pencil appeared familiar to me, as I own a similar one. It’s a Staudtler Jumbo Pencil No. 119. Her mother’s temporary loss of the drawing pad worsens the situation. Despite Mark’s illness and hospitalisation, he continues to manifest in her dreamworld. Large stones surround the house, appearing to be alive and moving forward. I should point out that Marianne appears inside the house boundary.
Meanwhile, Marianne draws a bicycle to appear on the ground floor of the house, allowing Mark to exercise his legs even if he is unable to walk. I’m uncertain whether a bicycle will remain stationary if it is cycled backwards.
We’re now entering spoiler territory. I’m still puzzling over why Doctor Burton (actor Edmund Pegge), who frequently appears, is giving her medication while she rests, but I guess he was there to make the numbers up.
I did anticipate the ending, mostly because there are only a couple ways it could go, but the last episode felt like a rush. It’s almost as though Boswell was expecting to do the story in seven episodes and had to squeeze it down to six. I had the experience of being sick alone for three months when I was eleven years old, so I can at least understand the effects of isolation. However, during my recovery phase, I kept myself occupied in bed and ensured I didn’t spread the illness. The story comes together cohesively during a period that predated the Internet and the widespread use of phones. We now refer to Marianne’s dreams as lucid dreaming, and this low-budget TV series was likely the pioneer of its kind. Don’t get nightmares.
GF Willmetts
August 2024
(pub: Network. 1 DVD 150 minutes 6 * 25 minute black and white episodes. Price: varies. ASIN: 7953015)
cast: Vikki Chambers, Steven Jones, Patricia Maynard, Sonia Graham and Edmund Pegge
