Sleepwalker
(ITC Movie title "Sleepwalker")
Original UK transmission: 10th April 1976
Original US transmission: 7th October 1975
WRITTEN BY: Brian Clemens
DIRECTED BY: Alan Gibson
PRODUCED BY: Ian Fordyce
MAIN CAST: Darleen Carr (Katey Summers), Robert Beatty (Dan
Summers), Michael Kitchen (Ian), Ian Redford (Barnstaple), Basil
Lord (Parsons), Elaine Donnelly (Esme), Eileen Peel (Suzy), Harry
Webster (Hopcroft), John Challis (Peter), Desmond Jordan
(Telson), Jane Williams (Louise), George Herbert (Pearson)
Teaser
Sequence
To the sound of hypnotic music, the camera slowly descends the
staircase in an ordinary house to where a dinner party is taking
place below. The guests are probing their American host as to why
he is staying in England, and one demands "But why are you
really here - another book in the offing?" while another
baits "As sensational as the last?" The man protests
that he is simply on sabbatical with his daughter, whom he
explains is sleeping upstairs. A moment later the girl appears in
the doorway in a trance-like state; she crosses to the table and
picks up a knife, wielding it in a threatening manner. Gently,
her father wakes her as she panics "Did I do anything? Did I
do anything bad..?"
Plot
Summary
Katey Summer's sleepwalking
has become so bad of late that her writer father Dan has had to
have a gate installed on the staircase. Despite the precaution
however, the young girl's night time wanderings continue and she
begins to be troubled by strange and lucid nightmares: standing
high upon a library gallery in a old fashioned room, Katey dreams
of an elderly man performing a bizarre ritual over a bible. As he
kisses his fingers and appears to bless the book, he intones
greedily 'I'm rich - a fortune that no-one suspects!' A
few nights later, she once again dreams of the old man and
watches horrified as he is murdered by a younger man in 19th
century costume. Katey comes to believe that she has dreamt of an
actual murder and that the key to solving it lays in the
symbolism of the dream itself. And when the young man actually
turns up on her doorstep and claims to be having the same dream,
she becomes convinced that they have together experienced a
psychic precognition of death. Unfortunately, Katey cannot guess
at the frightening truth of the matter, and that she herself is
in mortal danger.
Comments
Another imaginative tale of amazing inventiveness, with the dream
sequences being some of the most memorable moments in the show's
history. The two central characters, Katy and Barnstaple, are a
likeable pair and provide an anchor of normality amongst the
surrounding weirdness. What could have been a run of the mill
mystery drama has been transformed by Clemens' master touch into
a colourful and evocative piece of television. Michael Kitchen
had previously appeared in "Once The Killing
Starts", while Ian Redford had a bit part in "The Next
Voice You See". Highly recommended.
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