I remember this well. It was one of the most bizarre things the beeb ever did. Cavan Kendall played a hard-case mercenary (a truly unsympathetic character) who is recruited by millionaire Nelson to track down those responsible for a terrorist bomb going off in London that killed his daughter. Tallon has reason to believe that the culprit was his own wastrel brother who has joined a semi-Nazi community in rural Scotland. Going undercover at the commune, he learns that it practises free-love (or at least sex - cue a full frontal Carole Mowlam) but has a few inmates who are just social misfits trying a new life. Bernard Horsfall is a devious police detective also trying to track down the man responsible - the Nazi cult leader named Hugo Darbley. His son is undercover at the commune and ends up decapitated and on his Father's fireplace. Horsfall has Kendall brutally beaten up by the local copper until superior Andrew Kier intervenes. In a last minute twist, it transpires that it was Darbley who perished in the explosion - not the wastrel brother. The true baddies of the piece trick Tallon into falling into a fatal ambush but the title hints at the gruesome way his life is saved. Horsfall's character had been killed and buried earlier, but over a badger's set. The annoyed animal digs it up which caused Horsfall's corpse to rise horrifically from its grave - startling the villains and giving Tallon time to get the drop on them. As I said, truly bizarre but oddly compelling.
3 Reviews
A chilling show
mombasa_pete27 October 2006
this was a real thriller, it even has a decapitation scene! It is filmed in Scotland mainly as far as I can remember, and has some really terrific acting and dialogue.
It is about a fugitive from I believe some terrorist gang who hides out up there, I cannot remember too much as it was so many years ago, just that episode 1 ends with a severed head turning up on someone's mantelpiece!!!
Another show the BBC needs to release on DVD.
They must be crazy not to!!!! It came out in 1982/1983 when the BBC Drama was putting out batches of good thriller serials, which made it the best TV station in the world, to this day!
It is about a fugitive from I believe some terrorist gang who hides out up there, I cannot remember too much as it was so many years ago, just that episode 1 ends with a severed head turning up on someone's mantelpiece!!!
Another show the BBC needs to release on DVD.
They must be crazy not to!!!! It came out in 1982/1983 when the BBC Drama was putting out batches of good thriller serials, which made it the best TV station in the world, to this day!
Outstanding
welshNick17 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I would give almost anything to get a copy of this.
A hitman is hired to join a religious cult to find the person who murdered the daughter of the man hiring him.
Incredibly dark and violent. This was some of the outstanding drama that the BBC brought out around this time though I fear like others it is lost forever. I managed to get copies of Blood Money and the Mad Death so perhaps eventually I might be able to get a copy of this.
EDIT: I have recently obtained a copy of this and rewatched it over 3 nights. It is just as good as I remembered with several vicious plot twists at the end. Outstanding.
A hitman is hired to join a religious cult to find the person who murdered the daughter of the man hiring him.
Incredibly dark and violent. This was some of the outstanding drama that the BBC brought out around this time though I fear like others it is lost forever. I managed to get copies of Blood Money and the Mad Death so perhaps eventually I might be able to get a copy of this.
EDIT: I have recently obtained a copy of this and rewatched it over 3 nights. It is just as good as I remembered with several vicious plot twists at the end. Outstanding.
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