Premonition

A young girl is taking ballet-lessons in the grand ballroom of what appears to be a French chateau. While pirouetting under an enormous chandelier, she looks up and becomes fixated on it, as she imagines it crashing down on her, and she collapses to the floor, just as though it had been a real event. Indeed she insists - for years - that it actually was a real event, despite all the efforts of her kindly father (Paul Langton, later of Peyton Place), her doctor, and eventually her fiancé too, to cure her of her obsession.

Even at her engagement party, having reluctantly agreed to dine under that very chandelier, she is disturbed when her guests start asking each other, half jokingly, how they would most like to meet their death. She declares, without a trace of humour, that she already knows how she will meet hers... We can't tell you more. But the ending is not the one you expect.

The 'One Step Beyond' series is meant to be loosely based on true stories ("human record" is the weasel claim), but I guess this one is truer than most. Names and dates are given, which they usually aren't. Some effort has gone into creating a suitable period atmosphere, and a very agreeable one too, with one particular waltz-theme holding the story together. When the pianist's hands are carefully kept out of sight, we can guess that she's not playing for real, but it does rather spoil things when she is seen to be turning a page of the music, while supposedly playing a two-handed melody!

Beverly Washburn stars as a young ballerina named Lisa Garrick, who becomes stricken with fear and mounting dread after she has recurrent visions of a chandelier in her home will one day fall on her and kill her. Her father has the chandelier checked by experts who assure them that it is safely mounted to the ceiling, but Lisa retains her doubts. Ten years later, Lisa(now an adult) must face her fear again at her engagement party, but as it turns out, she wasn't the one in danger after all... Thin but memorable tale maintains interest throughout, and has a most effective twist at the end that viewer may well not see coming.

Whilst having a ballet lesson at her home, young Lisa Garrick has a terrible premonition, that the chandelier is going to detach and crush her. As Lisa ages, her fear never quite goes away.

So, this took two viewings, the first time I was all set to give a fairly mundane review, but after a rewatch, I've got more positive words.

It's clever, it is very smartly conceived. You know what, you just don't know when, you think Lisa is out of the woods....

If I were her, I'd have moved, imagine being haunted by something you live with daily, it's smart.

My main gripe, it's not a good looking production, not a patch on others I've seen. I thought I had a migraine, it seemed out of focus several times, maybe I just had a bad copy.

Persevere with it, it's worth it.

8/10.

A grand chandelier in her mansion haunts young Lisa Garrick.

She has a vision that the chandelier will fall on her and kill her. She refuses to set foot inside the room with the chandelier in it. She believes it is shaking.

Her father tries to reassure her but to no avail. For 10 years Lisa did not enter the room but now she is about to be engaged.

The story moves forward in time. There are three versions of Lisa in this episode, each one older than the previous one.

This is definitely a twist in the tale. You just know that chandelier will come crashing down. It is just a matter of time.

Not bad this Victorian like atmosphere fantasy yarn, showing a little girl having nightmares about a chandelier falling over her head. I don't remember seeing a chandelier with a so strong position in a story since WAR OF THE ROSES, back in 1990. This episode is destined to wider audiences than previous and even further episodes. It may interest anyone in the family, from the young kid till th grand grand mother. It will however frighten a bit the most sensitive. But it is efficient enough to keep you awake. Not the best episode so far, but certainly not the worst either. I recommend it. Good and tense story where you always wonder what will happen in the next sequence. What could you expect more?