TV MEMORIES # 3 - DOCTOR TERROR'S VAULT OF HORROR - THE BBC'S OWN HORROR HOST.

Halloween night 1992.

On BBC 1 that cold October night, the British television audience had just had their collective trousers turned brown by the fake documentary Ghostwatch. Ghostwatch was a drama that was posing as a real life live tv broadcast. It featured real tv presenters investigating a haunted house and a family being terrified by the murderous ghost of a peadophile. Large swathes of the British public thought it was real. People where genuinely terrified and the BBC's switchboards where jammed with calls from concerned, frightened and angry viewers. Ghostwatch was banned from ever being shown on British television again.

In the aftermath of this classic hoax, over on the next channel - BBC 2 - was aired a night of horror movies and documentaries to celebrate Halloween. This theme night was hosted by Britain's very first fully fledged horror host  - Dr. Terror.

Only, he wasn't called Dr Terror that night, for his first appearance he was called Dr Walpurgis. The good doctor was played by Guy Henry in absolutely stunning demon makeup (it still holds up well today). The Doctor would introduce each item on the night's menu in a sarcastic and witty style (his scripts where written by horror author Kim Newman), he was very much in the "old school" mold of horror characters - he would talk in fond admiration of "the classics" like Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man and be a bit sneery about the "pizza faced freaks" that populated modern horror films.

On that first Halloween appearance Dr Terror/Walpurgis showed several great movies into the early hours of the morning  - the network television premiere of Stephen King and George A Romero's Creepshow, Hammer's The Curse Of The Werewolf, the Universal classic The Bride of Frankenstein, the cannibals on the London Underground classic Death Line and Universal's horror comedy Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.

In-between each movie was a series of specially commissioned documentary shorts dealing with everything from E.C. horror comics, special effects right through to exclusive interviews with big names in the early 90's horror industry like Dario Argento, Clive Barker and many more. 

The entire evening was excellently put together and is exactly the sort of packed themed night of programming that the BBC used to do so well back in the 90's (thier modern day counterparts would do well to take a leaf out of thier book, you sadly just don't get stuff like this on British TV anymore). The Vault Of Horror coupled with the legendary Ghostwatch over on BBC1 was probably THE best celebration of the Halloween season ever seen on television bar none, we will never see it's like again.

I personally didn't see it at the time. I was 18 and this wonderful tv marathon happened to fall on a Saturday night, this meant I was out down Mansfield - seduced by the bright lights, cheap watered-down beer, busy nightclubs and scantily clad girls. Nowadays if Halloween falls on a Saturday you would get lots of people out in fancy dress but back then (tv celebrations aside) Halloween was a lot less of a big deal in the UK than it is now. As a result there was nobody out in fancy dress - it was just the usual cheap "designer" shirts and centre partings that you would see paraded around town on any given Saturday night of the year. If anything it was quite a subdued night by Mansfield's dubious standards, I can remember it was quite cold and chilly so not that many people seemed to be out.

Me and my friend Kempi where stood in the upstairs bar of a grotty old nightclub called "The Village", it was a pretty run down affair by that point but the beer was cheap. As I said, it was fairly quiet that night. On one wall of the bar was a tv, usually it showed things like Football or Boxing - tonight it was showing Ghostwatch. This was my first inkling that I was missing something brilliant and would have been having a better time if I'd have just stayed home. It was a scene where one of the young girls living at the haunted house has just received scratches all over her face after being attacked by the peado poltergeist. That image stayed with me throughout the night - just what was I missing out on by being stood in this shitty bar ?

However, even though I now knew I was missing something great, the one fact that did comfort me was that I'd asked my Mum to tape Vault Of Horror for me over on BBC 2. This was when I was going through my heavy Stephen King phase so it was more for Creepshow than anything else but I at least knew I'd be getting some other good stuff as well. The night went on. Kempi and me got slightly drunker. We didn't pull. We got a taxi home.

The next night I got to watch Vault Of Horror due to the magic of VHS. Creepshow was every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be and I loved all the mini-documentaries as well. I'd been a big fan of BBC2's Mystery Train the year before, so I particularly enjoyed Doctor Terror/Walpurgis being our host and hoped that he would return to our screens again one day. I was not to be disappointed...

The night was obviously a success ratings wise (at least it didn't get as many complaints as Ghostwatch) for our friend the Doctor did indeed return the following year. Now called just Dr Terror and promoted to BBC 1 on Friday nights, the Vault Of Horror returned for a (lucky for us horror fans) 13 week run in September 1993. This time Dr Terror would be introducing us to a series of double-bills starting with Vamp and The Mask of Satan on Friday the 10th of September.

Pretty much the same pattern was to follow as happened the previous Halloween night. I would go down town on Friday night, Mum and Dad would tape Dr Terror for me (tape space permiting), I would watch Dr Terror on Saturday morning or the earliest available time when the TV and VCR where free. Standout films I remember from that season where seeing Hammer's Twins Of Evil for the first time (aired on 15th October) and the double bill of The Lost Boys and I was a Teenage Werewolf (on 12th November). 

Probably the biggest highlight though was them showing Cat's Eye, a Stephen King anthology film on 19th November (we didn't have enough tape to record the preceeding film in the double bill - April Fool's Day - so King won out). I loved the story Quitters Inc. It told the tale of a man desperate to give up smoking who joins an organisation run by ex-Mafia men who use Mafia style enforcement methods to ensure our hero doesn't go back to the evil weed. It was darkly comedic, ridiculous and slightly surreal. Perfect fare for an increasingly cynical 19 year old to be watching.

Dr Terror returned yet again the following year. This time he was presenting his movies in the middle of a creepy fairground at night (actually I think it was probably Blackpool Pleasure Beach). This season had a great opening sequence where we see Dr Terror riding on a ghost train. I loved the cheesy fairground atmosphere, it really suited Dr Terror and his sinsisterly camp activities and presentation style.

This time round though Dr Terror only presented a single film, only on the final week did we get a double bill. This felt like a bit of a backwards step to me - from an entire night of horror films, to double bills and now just one film a night ? Maybe the Vault was getting a bit bare...

I definitely watched the first week - The Fog (9th September) but after that I didn't see much. I'd found my first proper girlfriend that summer so I was...ahem...busier doing other things on Friday nights...

In 1995, Dr Terror failed to show up. It seemed I'd been right the previous year, the law of diminishing returns had kicked in and it appeared that the Vault had indeed closed it's doors for good.

BUT... In 1996 Dr Terror was back !!!

Rebranded as "Dr Terror Presents" our increasingly genial host bounded back onto our screens on Friday the 27th of September with a showing of The House of Seven Corpses.

This time round Dr Terror wasn't in the Vault or a fairground but was instead spoofing various gameshows in his introductory sections. For me at least these gameshow spoofs didn't have the same charm as his earlier appearances. Dr Terror was always silkily smooth and sardonic, he was camp but still menacing. Now he was just a figure of fun - bounding on stage wearing silly wigs and spouting one-liners like a bad stand up comedian. He'd been given a stay of execution, a second chance, but it was clear the writing was on the wall for our gracious host.

By that time I had just started my second year at Staffordshire University doing a Film Studies degree. I was living in my first shared house at Stoke-on-Trent. Very often we where out on Friday nights either down the pub or in the student union bar or at least at friend's houses. At that time there was only one video player in the house and that belonged to my friend Nick who wasn't really into horror. So much of this final season I missed out on.

I can remember I was back in Mansfield on the weekend of 11th October visiting my parents. I came home after a night down the pub to find them watching The Asphyx which was that week's Dr Terror movie, they said they where tapeing it for me as they thought I'd like it. So that Saturday morning I watched The Asphyx over breakfast and they where right - I did like it.

That was my last brush with Dr Terror and it was a good ending for me I think. It at least sticks in my mind as a vivid memory. 

On the 14th of December - Dr Terror hosted his final show - a double bill of Nothing But The Night and The People Under The Stairs (at least he got to go out on a double feature). I'm not sure why he was cancelled, I'm guessing the concept and the character had simply run it's course, but (barring the year off) he had a good run I suppose. It's just a pity we don't get stuff like this on terrestrial tv these days. They where good days... I miss them.