There are very few TV programmes that are capable of chilling me to the bone. This is top of that very short list!
The episode begins with news footage showing police dragging a river, looking for the remains of a missing 12 year old girl.
The recently orphaned Sylvia lives a miserable life with her cold and uncaring Grandma. Forced to attend piano lessons each day adds to the misery of Sylvia's lonely life. Returning home from a lesson one day Sylvia become aware of a somewhat seedy man looking at her. She returns home and reports the matter to her Grandma, who instantly dismisses Sylvia's worries and sends her to her room.
After school one day Sylvia boards the bus home, only to be horrified when the same man sits opposite her. As he begins to chat to Sylvia it becomes obvious that she is highly uncomfortable. An elderly lady intervenes and tells the man the has seen 'your type' before and he should leave the child alone. Becoming ever more scared Sylvia gets off the bus, running to a nearby phone box to call her Grandma.
What follows took me totally by surprise. And what the final 'unexpected' twist came I can honestly say that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! I actually had a lump in my throat at Sylvia's pitiful plight.
My teenage sons have since watched this episode and were equally stunned by it. So much so that my eldest son pointed out the story (by Elizabeth Taylor) to his English teacher who had the pupils read it. Roald Dahl states in his introduction that he wishes he'd written this episode because 'it's so neat, and nice and spooky'.
Quite simply this episode should be shown to children throughout schools. 31 years after it's making and it is still chilling viewing. 10 out of 10!
