Armchair Thriller 5: The Girl Who Walked Quickly (Review)
Friday, 12th September 2008, 00:18

I know I’m nearly a month late posting this review, but its birth has been a long and painful one. It’s not often I’m stuck for words writing a review, but this one has been a real stinker. I like to pad out a review with plenty of background information normally, but finding decent information about this series has been a struggle. Thank goodness for Google, I say.

I’m repeating much of the material between The Girl Who Walked Quickly and Fear Of God, purely because of the lack of decent information I’ve been able to find about the series. If this was Brian Clemens’ Thriller series for ATV, there would be no problem, but this is Thames Television’s 1978/80 series.

Armchair Thriller was a primetime serial strand shown by the ITV network from February 1978, produced by Andrew Brown and Jacqueline Davis and script edited by Robert Banks Stewart, who would go on to create Bergerac for the BBC. A twice-weekly slot (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8.30pm), the series used the classic cliffhanger format to keep viewers on the edges of their seats and regularly attracted audiences of 15 million. In spite of the success of the first series, there was a two year gap between the first and second series. The second series was produced by Brenda Ennis and script-edited by Doctor Who maestro Robert Holmes.

The show has a wonderfully creepy and atmospheric animated title sequence with a theme by Andy McKay of Roxy Music. Combined with a special Thames logo employed just for the show, it makes for a very memorable start to the show.

The Girl Who Walked Quickly comes from the first 1978 season and was a four-parter by Ray Jenkins. It stars Dennis Lawson as a student with acute claustrophobia being used by a group with a sinister agenda as a subject for brainwashing. Also starring Clive Merrison as his tutor Godolt, the story has strong modern-day parallels with the hapless David (Lawson) planting bombs at the behest of the terrorists. The situation deteriorates as David’s programming falters and he and his terrorist control (the Girl – Anna Nichols) hide from the manhunt in a deserted suburban house.

The shows are presented in their original 4:3 aspect ratio. Made in the standard 1970s/1980s way – studio videotape and location 16mm filming, the series has that soft look of vintage television. Made in the days before Nicam Stereo, the show has a basic mono soundtrack.