The Monsters Episode Four
The final part of this lost BBC serial. The deaths of two people have been blamed on the mythical monsters of Lake Kingswater. Brent and his young bride come face to face with one.
The Monsters Episode Four
Written by Evelyn Frazer and Vincent Tilsley and directed by Mervyn Pinfield.
You will find the previous three episodes elsewhere in this Substack, plus how the serial was developed.
Transmitted Thursday 29 November 1962 at 7.56 pm.
A monster is looming over Brent and Felicity. He drags her back towards the bridge and to the safety of the shore – only to watch the monster smash it to pieces and submerge. They are now trapped on the promontory. They climb down onto a narrow ledge and watch the monster’s wake which is travelling diagonally across the water. They suddenly fall.
Cato prepares a beaker of the antidote to ISA-36 for Smetanov who is reading a list of Cato’s ‘army of distinguished conspirators’ and is impressed by the number of Nobel prize-winners among the list of worldwide agents who are going to drug the entire world’s water supply with ISA-36. Messonier tells Smetanov they have installed water tanks here which will be free of ISA-36, but they will have to move to London by next Monday. On his third attempt, Van Halloren contacts agent 128 in Chicago. The agent blames unexpected visitors for the delay but thinks he won’t be disturbed again. Cato is not concerned. It is too late for anybody to stop them now and Brent will join them now he knows their intent. Smetanov agrees: he joined them because mankind is committed to a destiny science has created for him.
The Brents have fallen a short distance into a cave. Felicity is dazed, but unhurt. Brent uses matches to illuminate their surroundings. He suspects this is an old water course and notes the freak echoes. He suspects there will be more than one way out. He finds dried seaweed, probably washed in when the lake level was once much higher. Felicity is thinking of the monster… ‘We did see them, didn’t we.’ It looked like the one she drew for him, an evolutionary development of Camptosaurus. Felicity believes - knows - they have been brought here on purpose. Brent uses the sea weed to create a small fire. The light reveals smooth walls with stalactites and stalagmites joining to form ‘curiously shaped curtains and pillars.’ There’s driftwood and a small stream. He uses a stick to create a torch. He doesn’t want to wait for the monster to return. As he goes further into the cave, he stops in shock – in front of him is a dead monster. Felicity spots rusty cannisters and beyond them wreckage of the miniature submarine… The monsters must have brought it in here. They did kill Parsons. Suddenly -
Towering above them is a monster. Brent holds his wife and tells her to get back. He’ll chuck fire at it if it comes for them. But she suddenly breaks free of his grasp, looking over his shoulder and he follows her eye line. There are two more monsters behind them. They are trapped – yet the monsters are not moving in for the kill. She drops down to her knees and Brent is at a loss. She stares at the middle monster, and it stares down. The echoes become louder and more bizarre. She is seeing things through its eyes. The shadows and shapes in the water, a powerful peace… But there is something else in the water, and it is frightening. She looks at the submarine. It comes and goes, spreading pain. Blood in the water. They have to kill it! She screams in terror: they didn’t want to kill the man. Brent now understands and the monsters shuffle back, giving them a path back to the cave. Brent uses his torch, examining the monsters as he walks past, trying to remember every detail. They return to the cave where the fire is low, and only the monster’s glowing eyes can be seen in the distance.1
Back on the mainland, Edward and Richard are showing Brent the murals on the priory wall. The medieval drawings of the monster match the ones they have just met. Felicity said they did not speak to her directly, they just let her ‘know’. Last time it was the lead washings from the pit, now they are being poisoned by Cato, and Brent is determined to stop him. Richard and Edward are eager to hear what the creatures are like. Gentle and peaceful, says Felicity, which pleases Richard. Edward sees that they must act in order to survive, but this makes Brent unhappy – how far do you go for survival? Edward sees no limit, and that is what they have done. Brent says not everyone can opt out, but Edward disagrees. People can opt out of the use of violence. Humans have free will and can choose, Richard agrees, but if there is no choice, they are just staying alive. Brent takes his leave, and says if he isn’t back by a certain time - and then stops. It wouldn’t make any difference. As they leave, Richard quotes from the mural: understanding of the creatures was granted to the girl. Edward is troubled. He has a feeling that ‘something very wrong is going to happen.’
In his laboratory, Cato demonstrates his worldwide map to Smetanov. All the lights must indicate before he give the final signal for his agents to release ISA-36. Smetanov assures Cato his friends in the Soviet Union will be punctual. Van Halloren reports over the intercom that Brent has returned and has brought with him his wife. Cato is smug. The animals come in two by two... Compulsion will not be necessary to make them stay…
But he is wrong. As Cato pours drinks for the couple who are being shown into the study, Brent gets to the point: he does not agree with the scheme, and regrets he cannot call on the police now they are now under Cato’s control. Brent doesn’t believe Cato has all the answers on how or why a species survives. Cato retaliates with his facts – those living on starvation level – the ‘have nots’ – will have trebled by the end of the century and armed themselves. ‘There isn’t a danger of war before the century is out. It’s a cast iron certainty.’ Life on other planets will train their telescope on Earth and only to find a smoking cinder. Brent is talking about existence, not survival. Cato knows the theory that a handful will come through and start again, but there will be a few thousand contaminated mutants scratching for food in the ruined soil. Survival? Better to be destroyed than doped up, Brent retorts. Then the end of humanity is inevitable, declares Cato. His World Government will set up plans to increase food production and control the population explosion by unanimous consent. It’s the elimination of free will which concerns Brent which Cato dismisses as the cliched talk of an idiot. Felicity is also convinced Cato is wrong. Cato sneers: what they need now is more than a Trafalgar Square protest but courage to admit the enormity of the problem and deliver the answer. She hasn’t got the answer, Felicity says, but the monsters have. Brent quickly stops her - she means a species can survive against the odds by contracting out of the rat race. Cato describes Felicity’s influence as emotional, dragging people down to her level. Brent points out Cato will have to go on doping humanity until the end of time. When will he let go and allow people to think for themselves? Cato reaches inside a drawer and ‘appears’ to think otherwise. He wants to change their minds. He leaves them alone.2
Meissonier is in radio contact with a French speaker in West Africa. Cato tells Van Halloren than Brent will soon be with them. Brent meanwhile is looking at the phial containing ISA 36 in liquid form in the desk drawer as Felicity reminds him that they have to tell Cato the poison dumped in the lake is killing the monsters. She notices Brent’s face: what is it? Smetanov speaks with Russian agent 83 and Cato decides there has been enough time now… On the intercom he orders Brent to come and see him. The intercom tells Brent that he is now completely under his control and will do as he is told. Felicity tells him no – stop it. Cato can hear her hammering on the door and tells Brent she needs a stronger dose. The phial is in the desk drawer. Brent takes out the phial and shakes a few drops onto his handkerchief. Felicity cannot open the door. He is ordered to place the handkerchief on her face… It won’t hurt her… She’ll feel peace. Felicity smashes a window but Brent overpowers her and her struggles subside. Cato tells the others to resume radio testing and leaves.
Cato finds the couple are motionless. He sends Brent back to the lab to ask Van Halloren for another phial. Cato now questions Felicity for the truth about the monsters. She saw them, and one has been killed by the poison which he has been sending down in the submarine. They killed Parsons and destroyed the submarine. ‘They had to. Because you were killing them.’ She saw it in her mind. Cato is unsure what to believe despite her being completely under his spell. To make sure, he plunges a needle into her arm. She does not react. He decides not to send anymore poison down there; it was just a waste production from the making of gas, even though it is of no importance now.
In the lock up at the police station, Superintendent Holt from Special Branch has recovered from his ‘capture’ by the subjugated policemen and is furious to discover he is bound and locked up like a prisoner. His threats to Sergeant Oakroyd make no impression.
In the office, PC Mills reports he cannot find Brent to Chief Constable Colonel Swinton, who then orders him to go to the hotel and wait for Brent’s arrival and to stop him from leaving or using the telephone. Mills is unhappy with these orders. Adamson returns, he is also looking for Brent. Swinton and Hopkins refuses to answer any questions about monsters in the lake. Two other reporters come in, intrigued that Hopkins, a ministry security man, is also looking for Brent.
Hearing their voices, Holt cries for help, and for anyone to call Whitehall and contact Commander – Oakroyd silences him with a gag.
Hopkins tells Swinton that their prisoner is just pretending to be a policeman. He is clearly a ‘mental case’. Swinton agrees and arranges to have him hospitalised and assures the reporters that the man they heard from the lock up is no more a policeman than they are. Adamson takes him at his word, but he still wants to know where Brent is.
The phone rings in Cato’s study. It is Swinton asking about the reporters. Cato tells him not to worry – Brent is with him. He wants Swinton to phone Holt’s boss, Deputy Commander Harris, and tell him that Holt is now back on the train to London because his earlier identification of Smetanov was mistaken. And no one is to leave the hotel.
Swinton now orders Mills to seal off the hotel completely. Shocked, Mills tells Sergeant Oakroyd - who is guarding the wide-awake Holt - about Swinton’s instructions, but is told to go ahead until further notice. The gagged Holt closes his eyes in anguish.
As Mills passes through the front office, he overhears Swinton on the phone to Harris. The Smetanov Holt was chasing was only a small-time crook. Harris speaks to Hopkins and is surprised to discover he is now changing his tune on Cato who he always believed was involved in some kind of conspiracy. Harris explains that the CIA now think something is going on and the Russians are also worried because an MVD man was found dead this morning. He had been investigating Smetanov and his links to an organisation. Hopkins, also under Cato’s control, instantly clears him of suspicion. He hangs up and asks Swinton for reassurance he did well... Swinton says he was very convincing and Cato will be pleased with them.
PC Mills has arrived at the hotel and tells Wilf Marner he cannot leave the hotel by order of the Chief Constable (although he nearly says Cato). He even physically bars Marner’s way, although unhappily. Marner asks for a message to be delivered to his wife. He wants her to remember a snotty nosed ragamuffin who they once caught scrumping apples. They didn’t report him to Oakroyd and instead he grew up to become a policeman, and now Marner can’t come home because otherwise he is liable to get a truncheon! Marner asks Jess Milroy to put him up for the night. Adamson tries to question Marner about what he saw in 1942? Does he know where Brent is? In a temper, Marner declares he doesn’t care if there are monsters in the lake and stomps off.
The sceptical reporters question Adamson on Brent’s credential: does he plays with monsters in the bath? Hotel owner Howard Milroy also has no idea where Brent is. One reporter then spots Esmee and tactlessly asks about her brother’s death. She tells them they will have to wait for verdict from the delayed inquest. She also lies, denying knowing who the second dead man is. Then Esmee discovers she too is also a prisoner. One of the reporters remembers the man kicking up a fuss in the station lock up. Could that have been Brent? They all get the feeling something is wrong. Mills again prevents them all from leaving. As they argue, Esmee goes to the phone, concerned about Brent.
Esmee warns Cato something odd is happening at the hotel. The police have cordoned off the place. From his study, Cato assures her that Hopkins and Swinton are taking their orders from him and she is to do what they say. Felicity wheels out a trolley – she has been told to do the washing up in Cato’s Brave New World, and he points her to the adjacent service room.
Adamson and his fellow reporters are getting angry. They demand to see Mills’ warrant card and do not care who gave him his orders, threatening legal writs for assault. Mills doesn’t know what to do and the group are about to charge past him when Swinton, Hopkins and Oakroyd enter the hotel and block the door. Oakroyd fells Adamson with a savage blow when he tries to push past. Swinton tells Esmee to get away from the phone - Cato’s orders. They are all horrified.
Smetanov is on the radio, sending his regrets to the relatives of Gradski, their agent 96, who has committed suicide. He suspected an MVD man was spying on him and his nerve went. Smetanov thinks they can trust Gradski’s assistant, but he covers a very large area. Cato agrees. Brent is given the list of agents to be contacted next.
In the service room, Felicity has finished the washing up and is piling up crockery, but she is confused by a voice in her mind… She mutters she is John Brent’s wife – what is she doing here? The voice says ‘She must help Cato’. But why? The voice tells her to ‘stop bothering her. She is busy’. Felicity realises she has been forced against her will. But why? ‘To help’. She rubs the back of her hand. It hurts. The loudness of her voice helps her regain something of her senses. She tries to climb out of a window… But a flashing light alarm alerts Cato in the study who runs in and stops her. She screams when he grabs her. All this takes place while Brent is on the radio in the laboratory, calling agents in Canada, South Africa and the USA.3
In his London ministry office, Harris is being asked by Major Ford, an American CIA officer, for any information concerning Cato’s activities. Ford tells him that one of his agents who was investigating Van Halloren is dead but he obtained a list that they are now trying to decode. There is a date – midnight tonight, and a phial of what they believe to be a psychochemical agent. Harris can only report Swinton and Hopkins’ negative report. To Harris’s amazement, the Soviet Colonel Voriskov also arrives. He too is asking for help because they suspect was not kidnapped. However, he is angered to discover Ford is here, and wants to speak with Harris alone. Harris suspects they may have something in common.
At the police station, the phone rings. Neither Swinton nor Hopkins answer it. Hopkins looks into the lock up where Holt is struggling to break free.
The reporters are helping Adamson who is hurt but shouts at the police, demanding to know how much longer this is going on for,
It is 11.30pm. Cato contacts every agent for a final check. Every single light appears on the map. In twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds, their area commanders will each give their instructions. All lines are to be kept open. He pours his assistants drinks in the study, remarking on how calm he feels, which he puts down to nerves. Nothing can stop them now, even if they were discovered. Brent and his wife are under control. He looks towards the service room.
Inside, Brent is holding his wife at gun point and tells her he will kill her if she tries to leave. Felicity looks at the clock.
At the police station, Hopkins again decides to ignore the phone. Swinton agrees.
It is Harris trying to get through. If anything is going to happen at midnight, they are too late to stop it.
Adamson checks the time – 11.40. He isn’t going to spend all night here, he fumes. Oakroyd is watches from the background. The reporters with Howard Milroy plot to overpower the two policemen. Howard has known the sergeant for a long time and won’t be told what to do by him. He goes to offer their guards a pint. Oakroyd declines, but when the reporters creep up on him, he produces a gun. PC Mills is horrified and is told to go over with the group. Mills tries to jumps Oakroyd but he too is clubbed down to the ground. Oakroyd points the gun at the group.
Felicity appeals to Brent but he ignores her. She looks up at the clock – 11.50.
At the priory, Edward is in bed, but is disturbed by the sound of murmuring. By the light of the candle, he goes over to the mural of the monsters. He can’t get out of his head the words ‘the maiden has spoken and we have understood.’
Felicity closes her eyes, lips moving slightly.
In the caves, the monsters slowly rise and move forward…
Felicity can hear inside her head the sound of the cave. Smiling, she drops her head.4
Cato tells the men it is time to take their places. The long wait is over. They move to the laboratory. It is 11.58. Cato goes to the desk and picks up the microphone. Cato calls all agents. Secrecy is no longer necessary. In fifty seconds, each of them will instruct his own area to release its supplies of ISA-36.5
Suddenly, a monster’s head comes in through the ceiling! A claw smashes through the blinds and the laboratory ceiling collapses. A leg breaks through a wall and the monster’s foot stamps on the transmitter. Alarmed, Brent backs down a passage.
Cato tries to reach the door to his study but is struck and trapped by a falling beam. He shouts for Brent who comes to help as the destruction continues and more debris falls. The map indicator lights go out. Cato orders Brent to use the gun on the monsters. Felicity rushes in and knocks the gun from his hand. Brent stands still, unsure what to do. Felicity looks at the monster and says ‘Peace be unto you, great creatures. Peace be unto you. Trouble us no more.’ The monster backs out the way it came. Cato has been mortally wounded. In his agony, he tells Felicity that she would have been burnt at the stake, once.
Swinton removes the gag from a furious Holt. Swinton wants to talk to him. What do they do? There’s been a fire at Wildbeck Hall, some sort of accident. They had been told by Cato not to go near his house. Does he know what they should do? Holt does...
Felicity is kneeling by the dying Cato. She has given her husband the antidote. Cato knows he has no more time left and wishes her luck: ‘By God… you’ll need it.’ He dies in Felicity’s arms. Brent tells her that the other three men are also dead. Holt arrives along with Swinton and Hopkins. Brent tells him there has been an explosion, but he doesn’t know what caused it. The important thing is that there is a list of agents who need to be located. Holt quickly contacts his superior in London.
At the hotel, the reporters question Brent over the miniature submarine and how it affects his monster theory. He fences with them on the basis of his previous statement to Adamson. He claims he was completely misled by circumstantial evidence – or wishful thinking, counters a reporter. Brent shrugs. Esmee comes to say goodbye, and a friendlier Felicity asks her to visit them in London. Brent is sorry for Cato’s death, and she admits he was a great man - once. She wishes Brent hadn’t told her what he was doing. She leaves. On the phone, Adamson dictating his report to his newspaper explaining that the wake on the lake was caused by Cato’s submarine being used to drop cannisters of a poisonous waste product. Brent’s words were that he was ‘misled by circumstantial evidence’.
A delighted Voriskov reports in person to Harris that the Soviets have arrested every single agent. He is pleased that cooperation between both sides is not impossible. Harris agrees. Major Ford comes in and says his side has managed to get to the agents before a single drop was released. Perhaps Cato achieved something after all, but not what he expected. Before they get too smug, Harris plays them Cato’s tape recording [which he recorded in Episode One], which had been rescued from the hall. Cato’s voice can be heard… Self-destruction faces mankind… A doomed species sharing the fate of the dinosaurs… the misuse of science… the brink of tragedy which must be stopped, and that if he fails with his plan, this is his final testament. Ford hopes the tape won’t be released. Harris agrees: ‘That wouldn’t do at all.’
The Brents are looking at the lake from their hotel room for the last time. He thinks the monsters are an example of convergence - where two separate lines of evolution meeting up. Sea animals that have evolved into something amphibious looking like the Camptosaurus. Felicity says he’ll never know. Brent admits he doesn’t really care, something she doesn’t really believe but she knows what he has given up. It’s up to them now, he says. ‘Let them stay there in peace.’ Felicity echoes peace.
And we close on a shot of the lake in the sunlight: the surface is still and peaceful.
The End
Joining the cast this week
John McLaren (Ford), Alexis Chesnakov (Voriskov), Clifford Earl (Reporter C), Rodney Cardiff (Reporter B), Malcolm Ward (Reporter A) and William Holland (Policeman).
Music composed by Humphrey Searle and played by members of the Sinfonia of London Orchestra.
Producer George Foa. Designer Stewart Marshall. Special Effects by Bernard Wilkie and Stewart Marshall.
Crew 10. Lighting Johnny Summers. Sound Peter Wilson. Technical Operations Manager Tommy Claydon.
Film Cameraman John McGlashan. Film Editor Keith Latham.
Production Assistant Joan Marlowe. Assistant Floor Manager Chris D’Oyly-John. Assistant Gwen Conn. Floor Assistant Tony Austin.
Photographs and radio recordings David Brown.
No attempt has been made to infringe the copyright of the authors or their estates in the presentation of this article.
NEXT TIME
How the lost 1969 Softly Softly episode ‘General Post’ marked the beginning of the end for Wyvern’s Regional Crime Squad before the series switched into colour, changed its cast, swapped counties and became Thamesford’s Task Force. And Inky!
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This section of the scene featuring the monsters was filmed at Ealing. No cast list mentions who may have been inside the monster suits, suggesting it was one of the eight Visual Effects team employed by the BBC at the time. They had been known to operate various Doctor Who monsters from time to time, such as Bertram A Collacott who wore the dinosaur suit seen in ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’. Courtesy David Brunt.
‘A giant rubber monster reared up out of the water like an excessively well-trained circus animal… The Monsters was off to a splendid start,’ wrote Dennis Potter in the Daily Herald the next day. He found the rest of the episode with its debates and too many threads disappointing and once more raised the spectre of Quatermass and the Pit, which did science fiction ‘so much better’.
The next section intercuts between various sets during phone conversations. Rather than have a tedious series of one liners, I’ve grouped them together, but with italics to differentiate between them.
Felicity’s inner voice was pre-recorded.
The monsters were on film and superimposed over Felicity’s features.
The next section has been shot on film. Telecine S, as they were all ‘numbered’ in the camera script by a letter.