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Armchair Thriller

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If you were six years old (as I was in 1979), then you are sure to remember "Armchair Thriller". It had really scary opening credits of a horrible, contorted face looming over a blood-soaked armchair. This was show at around 8pm (then repeated in the afternoons). I don't think the TV schedulers were aware that any children might have been watching at the time, and the word "watershed" was obviously foreign to them. Thanks for all the nightmares ITV! How many other young children did your programme terrify?

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Do You Remember Armchair Thriller?

Do You Remember Armchair Thriller?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    I remember this as a Child of 7yrs old. I remember an episode that started with a man looking for his Dog. He found it murdered! I remember that I watched it every week but I can’t remember any other episodes, it was 43yrs ago though and I watched lots of other shows but don’t remember the episodes. I’ve asked lots of people throughout the years and nobody else remembers this programme. They all say “You’ve remembered it wrong, you mean Armchair Theatre?” I’m glad some other people remember it too.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    i also remember armchair thriller and also had nightmares about it
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Dose anyone also remember Hammer house of Horror It came out 2 or3 years after Armchair thriller but did not scare me i would have been about 10 at the time and this was showen later after 9pm I was allowed to stay up as it was at weekends, maybe itv had iernt by then.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    @ retrochick I think the House the Bled to Death was on Hammer House of Horror... I remember that one too!
  • Andrew Dexter
    on
    I rememeber and episode calle 'Rachel in Danger' i too also remember 'quiet as a nun' and 'dogs ransome'the one with the white poodle being kidnapped and eventually killed.
  • Etcha-a-sketch
    on
    Just in case you want to revisit ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYBiTkiwFBM
  • Etcha-a-sketch
    on
    I remember it too!!! And the poodle episode is the one I also remember that stuck with me. They used to show it here in Australia on ABC around 10:30pm and if my mum was out, my dad would let me watch it when I was about 9. I was scary. That poor poodle story has stuck with me forever...and now I know which show it came from :)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Phil, I think the serial killer in the block of flats was actually SATURDAY NIGHT Thriller as oppose to armchair thriller, which was on a couple of years later- I could elaborate about that series, but it'd be off-topic here. Yep, I too was scared by the 'Black Nun' as she was called in the 'Quiet As A Nun' episodes- 'she' turned out to be the villianess's partner-in-crime boyfriend wearing a piece o black velvet over his face in a nun costume (I think they both ended up being killed in a car crash). The series opened with Sister Miriam being murdered in a folly that was in the convent grounds. The 'poodle' one was called 'A Dog's Ransom'- it upset me because the dog's body was later shown floating in nearby docks. That episode provoked a flurry of complaints from the RSPCA and outraged dog-lovers around the country, ITV had to issue a disclaimer explaining that no animals were ever hurt in the filming of the series, and the poodle in the water was the body of a dog that had died anyway of natural causes (though they'd still not get away with this now). 'The Girl Who Walked Quickly' had some scarey moments as well- it focused on a girl who'd been co-opted into a religious cult called the Regiment of God, it fell to her junky boyfriend and her wine-making neighbour from the flat below to rescue her. Didn't 'Dying Day' feature James Bolam as well? His wife walks out on him and is injured when her Mini spins off the road, somehow that results in him being involved in the investigation into the creepy clinic- and I recall it involved having to disinter the remains of an old lady called Mrs. Woldingham.... There was one series of episodes that involved a journalist who is playing back a tape-recording of an interview he had with someone in a bar. To his horror, the recording features a conversation between two men who are plotting to kill him- but when he plays the recording back to his girlfriend, the conversation has GONE and been erased! VERY Hitchcockian- it's then up to this poor guy to convince everybody else that what he heard is true.... Altogether it was a brilliant series of chillers, it should be released on DVD or even reshown on primetime TV!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Finally! It's available to buy on DVD: http:// shop. lovefilm.com/ dvd/ armchair- thriller- the- complete- series-11- disc-box/9993897.html re move spa ces
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Oh and rant over.....does anyone remember, 'The house that bled to death'. I remember the scene where someone wakes up in bed to see a pair of false teeth in a glass. I think the plotline was a couple living in a house with their children, attempting to pull off an insurance scam by reporting ghostly grizzly happenings but it all backfires. Oh i also remember taps being turned on and blood pouring out. cant remember if this was an armchair thriller, Tales of the unexpected or just a one off. Was of the same era ind ilk though.

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