Killer Waiting

This trilogy series from 1984 told three individual stories; Killer Waiting, Killer Exposed and Killer Contract. I'd never heard of this before, but as you may gather from the title it involved mystery and the threat of death. They were lucky to find some decent star names to appear in it, such as John Thaw, Diane Keen, Anthony Valentine, Edward Woodward and Wanda Ventham - lucky because I'm astonished that this short lived series even got commissioned. This first story, Killer Waiting, is the best of the trio, but that really isn't saying much for what is a dark, grim series.

It's a shame, as it starts out very promisingly. John Thaw plays Major Peter Hastings, a man who is looking forward to marrying to his young bride Kate Greenwood (Diane Keen) in a few weeks time. He lives in a cottage in the wild Yorkshire countryside with his young son and two dogs and nothing could be happier. However, it then switches to Dublin, where a man called Fuller (Stafford Gordon) enters O'Malley's Hotel and is shown upstairs to a dark room, where an unknown man offers him £15,000 to kill Hastings in five days time on November 8th. He gives little detail at first, other than he says Hastings is responsible for the death of a woman called Rose O'Malley and that of another man. He also gives instruction that he wants Hastings to suffer, but that he mustn't be killed until the 8th.

So off Fuller sets for Yorkshire and the next day Hastings receives a phone call telling him he will die within the next few days. Hastings is perplexed at first and pays little attention to it, though he does go target practicing in his grounds (he has an extensive arsenal of weapons and a firing range), just in case. But while Kate and his son are there the hitman fires at his son and two dogs, killing one of them, as Fuller puts into practice the instruction of making Hastings suffer for his crime. After that it is a game of cat and mouse, as Hastings tries to outwit the hitman while we try and work out why he is being targeted. But as it progresses it becomes apparent that Hastings may know more than he really lets on, and certainly doesn't tell his fiancee anything about the phone calls. He explains away the killing of his dog as a game hunter's stray shot and when she later receives a letter telling her to ask him about a woman in Ireland called Rose, and that of the death of another man out there, he is evasive and arranges so that she is goes away from the cottage for the next few days.

The makers handle the tension quite well as we wonder just what is going on and Hastings attempts to outwit the hitman, and the bleak Yorkshire landscape adds to the unsetting atmosphere and feeling of isolation. But the major drawback in this is that Hastings is not a likable character, despite the casting of John Thaw in the role. When we first see him with his family he is amiable enough, but as the story progresses he begins to show an arrogant and dismissive demeanour towards people that cannot be explained away just by the mysterious threats to his life. In one scene he spots a man up on the hillside and thinking it's the hitman creeps up and threatens him with a gun, only for it to be a birdwatcher. But far from being apologetic, he orders him off, firing a shot at him to frighten him off. And as it continues with the battle of wits between Hastings and the hitman, who comes up with various inventive stunts to frighten and target him, it says something that you end up chuckling at how Fuller keeps outsmarting him. You shouldn't do, but because of Hastings character he ends up a hard person to sympathize with.

As a thriller it does well with the tension right up to the end, and adds an extra positive with the disturbing flashbacks that Hastings begins to suffer with when each phone call reveals more about why he must die and the circumstances about the death of Rose and another man whose death he is accused of causing. But is he guilty or innocent of the accusations? Who were these people? And who is behind the hitman's orders? It culminates with an explosive and exciting finale, but when the twist comes it is utterly absurd. It makes no sense whatsoever, and destroys any credibility it had. It has to be said that both John Thaw and Stafford Gordon give good performances, with Thaw particularly convincing in the suffering he goes through when haunted by his flashbacks to the past, while Gordon is surprisingly likable at the hitman as the thriller plays out. Diane Keen has less to do as the fiancee, but does well in the climatic scenes, but you wonder why on earth she continues to love such a arrogant character as Hastings. But the acting, well handled action scenes and underlying tension throughout this is not enough when it is hindered by an unlikable lead protagonist and an ending that totally ruins this thriller. The fact that this is the best of the trio may tell you everything you need to know about the other two installments. Overall, there is a reason this series is rarely remembered. Once watched, it's one you few would ever wish to see again.