Witching Time

David Finch is a composer of music for horror films - complete with his own home recording studio in the farmhouse he shares with his wife. One evening though, when he's working alone, a freak thunder storm interrupts his work - and summons forth a witch who has seemingly escaped in time over 300 years into the future, to evade her impending execution at the stake. Is she real, or is serial-workaholic David hallucinating? His wife, and also his doctor (embroiled in their own secret affair), soon come to David's aid, but could it be the Lucinda's powers are more than even they bargained for...

This episode made a memorable start to the much-anticipated Hammer House of Horror back in the Autumn of 1980, and makes for an effective introduction to the new series. Rocky Horror Show actress Patricia Quinn is in her element as the scheming, bewitching and sexy Lucinda - and Prunella Gee is also a worthy opponent for her as David's wife.

Look out too for Lennard Pearce as the local parish priest - a year before he found fame as Grandad in Only Fools and Horses.

There's a fair bit of nudity in this episode - I'm not sure if this was to draw the adult audience of 1980 more into the show, as was the fashion back then - but it certainly works within the context of the story, with its shades of eroticism.

All in all, a very solid start to this classic and well-loved series - and of course, there was even better to come over the coming weeks!

In the isolated Woodstock Farmer, the workaholic composer David Winter (Jon Finch) is depressed because he feels that his wife, the actress Mary (Prunella Gee), is unfaithful. In a stormy night, Lucinda Jessup (Patricia Quinn), a witch from the Seventeenth Century and former dweller of the farm, arrives in the barn and possesses David. Mary fights against Lucinda trying to recover David.

"Witching Time" is a reasonable short story of the "Hammer House of Horror" show. The screenplay and mainly the characters are not well developed and the viewer never knows, for example, the motives why Mary is having an affair with Charles, if she seems to like David. Or what happened with the dog Billy? In spite of the flaws, it entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Tempo de Bruxaria" ("Witching Time")

Note: On 30 July 2020, I saw this film again.

Although the photography and art direction don't hold a candle to Hammer Films' vintage productions for the cinema the very commonplace nature of the settings aid the impact of the story.

In such a prosaic setting Patricia Quinn as a seventeenth century witch with her frizzy titian mane and gleaming Gaelic eyes really stands out, as she gazes in wonder at modern conveniences and gleefully switches lights on and off.

The episode is doubly effective as until the very conclusion (SPOILER COMING:) the viewer is kept in doubt as to whether she ever really existed or was just a figment of the hero's imagination.

Composer David Winter (Jon Finch) is under stress. Working on some music that he needs to finish. His wife Mary (Prunella Gee) is always working late. In fact she is having an affair with his doctor.

Suddenly David discovers a strange woman in his barn. She is Lucinda (Patricia Quinn) and claims to be a witch from the seventeenth century. She managed to escape the witchfinders.

Is David going mad? Lucinda wants David for herself and away from his cheating wife by mesmerising him.

Mary is having none of it even if she thinks her husband is hallucinating.

It was strange to see a cheating spouse truen heroine and come to the rescue of her husband. You do think that David might be hallucinating Lucinda.

There is an unhinged performance from Quinn, something she rather specialised in. It is not the strongest of episodes in the Hammer Horror season.

While I can't say that I was especially looking forward to this series – considering the undeniable drop in quality during Hammer's last years (I did, however, catch at least one memorable episode from its follow-up, HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE [1984]) – this one certainly sets it off to a pretty good start. Incidentally, it was unusual to have nudity in a TV show of the era, even if – by now – this was pretty much a Hammer requisite. Here, we get a predictable but well-handled plot involving a strained relationship accentuated by the intervention of the supernatural. The 'attacks' on the heroine by the jealous witch and the latter's influence on her husband (causing his descent into near-madness) are, again, par for the course – as is, needless to say, the witch's eventual come-uppance by virtue of the elements (water and fire). The opening episode of this particular series is helped a lot by good casting (notably Patricia Quinn as the witch – alternating between hysteria, sensuality and menace) and the remote countryside setting.