Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense


Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense is a short-lived anthology television series produced in Britain in 1984/85 by Hammer Studios. Though similar in format to the 1980 series Hammer House of Horror, the Mystery and Suspense series had feature-length episodes, usually running around 70 minutes without commercials.
The series was a co-production by Hammer Studios with 20th Century Fox Television, and is known in the United States as Fox Mystery Theater. It was first aired in the UK by ITV in 1984, though it was shown in different timeslots throughout the various ITV regions.

Episodes

TitleUK Transmission Date
Written byDirected byCast
Mark of the Devil5 September 1984Brian ClemensVal GuestDirk Benedict, Jenny Seagrove, George Sewell, John Paul, Tom Adams, Burt Kwouk, James Ellis, Reginald Marsh, Alibe Parsons, Hugh Morton
Last Video and Testament12 September 1984Robert Quigley
Roy Russell 		Peter SasdyDeborah Raffin, Oliver Tobias, David Langton, Clifford Rose, Shane Rimmer, Robert Rietti, Norman Mitchell
Child's Play8 October 1984Graham WassellVal GuestMary Crosby, Nicholas Clay
The Corvini Inheritance15 October 1984David FisherGabrielle BeaumontDavid McCallum, Jan Francis, Terence Alexander, Stephen Yardley, Paul Bacon, Leonard Trolley, Johnnie Wade
In Possession22 October 1984Michael J. BirdVal GuestCarol Lynley, Christopher Cazenove, Judy Loe, David Healy, Bernard Kay, Brendan Price, John D. Collins
Paint Me A Murder29 October 1984Pat Silver & Jesse Lasky Jr.Alan CookeMichelle Phillips, James Laurenson, David Robb, Alan Lake, W. Morgan Sheppard, Richard LeParmentier, Tony Steedman, Gerald Sim, Neil Morrissey
A Distant Scream5 November 1984Martin WorthJohn HoughDavid Carradine, Stephanie Beacham, Stephen Greif, Stephan Chase, Fanny Carby, Ewan Stewart, Lesley Dunlop, Bernard Horsfall, Edward Peel
Black Carrion12 November 1984Don HoughtonJohn HoughSeason Hubley, Leigh Lawson, Norman Bird, William Hootkins, Oscar Quitak, Forbes Collins, Christopher Ellison
The Late Nancy Irving26 November 1984David FisherPeter SasdyCristina Raines, Marius Goring, Simon Williams, Tony Anholt, Zienia Merton, Tom Chadbon, Michael Elwyn, Derek Benfield, Lewis Fiander
Czech Mate3 December 1984Jeremy BurnhamJohn HoughSusan George, Patrick Mower, Roy Boyd, Richard Heffer, Peter Vaughan, Robert Russell, Pam St. Clement, Christopher Robbie, Steve Plytas, Hana Maria Pravda
The Sweet Scent of Death17 December 1984Brian ClemensPeter SasdyDean Stockwell, Shirley Knight, Michael Gothard, Carmen du Sautoy, Robert Lang, Alan Gifford
And the Wall Came Tumbling Down4 July 1985John Peacock & Dennis SpoonerPaul AnnettBarbi Benton, Gareth Hunt, Peter Wyngarde, Carol Royle, Brian Deacon, Patricia Hayes, Ralph Michael, Robert James
The Tennis Court27 June 1985Michael Hastings
Andrew Sinclair 		Cyril FrankelPeter Graves, Hannah Gordon, Ralph Arliss, Isla Blair, Jonathan Newth, Cyril Shaps, Peggy Sinclair, Marcus Gilbert

1London region transmission date unknown, but screened on ITV's Television South West on 17 December 1984.
Two of the episodes, "A Distant Scream" and "In Possession", were remakes of stories that had been made for the fourth season of the BBC anthology series Out of the Unknown.

DVD release

The series was released as a six-DVD set in the UK in 2006, currently out-of-print. In Germany, a four-DVD set was released in March 2018 under the title Vorsicht, Hochspannung!.