3-2-1 : Horror (1978)

3-2-1 : Horror (1978)

'3-2-1 : Horror' certainly lives up to its name,  but not in the way the makers intended perhaps.
This edition comes from the first series in 1978 and you can tell that Yorkshire TV are still feeling their way around the format.

One big change from the later series is the fact that the winners of the quiz round don't go on to play in the rest of the show, but are in fact stuck in the audience and come back the next week to play again.

We are now six episodes into the series and the returning contestants (Chris and Roger from Essex) have won £1700 so far. In this edition, they'll up this total by another £500, which is pretty good going for a week's work by 1978 standards.

This may account for the fact that most of the sketches only feature the show's regulars, (Debbie Arnold, Duggie Brown and Chris Emmett aka The Dis-Repertory Company) as the show seemingly cannot afford many major guest stars.

We do get Bill Simpson (Doctor Finlay from 'Doctor Finlay's Casebook', but soon to be seen in 'Kidnapped') and Barry Sheene who is wheeled on without being called upon to do anything remotely entertaining.

Bill Simpson is playing Doctor Jekyll in what amounts to a monologue as he takes his potion and turns in a vaguely hairy Mister Hyde.

We also see Duggie Brown as a Herman Munster-like monster called Boris in the first sketch (about The Horror Family, whoever they are), which also features Debbie Arnold as a Lily Munster-like character with a strange American accent and Patsy Ann Scott (one of Ted Roger's Gentle Secs and the future Mrs Eddie Large) as Marilyn-like Zelda.

We also get Chris Emmett as Dracula as played by Larry Grayson and a stripping mummy achieved with some basic CSO.

There is also the sight of the contestants trying to burst Balloon Spiders with a spike on an executioners mask while their partner answers questions on the Horror Family sketch.

A sketch with the witches from Shakespeare's  'Macbeth' is over before it's even begun and seems to feature Chris Emmett as Jimmy Young.

This edition also features the last appearance of Duggie Brown who is going off to do the sitcom 'Take My Wife' with Elisabeth Sladen. He is replaced in the next episode by Bernie Clifton thankfully sans ostrich.

Our video about 'Horror' can be seen here.

(Written by Lisa Parker)