The Circe Complex

Introduction

Armchair Thriller was a twice-weekly TV series ran by London Weekend Television between 1978 and 1980, a series that was based on bringing a mix of commissioned scripts and novel adaptations to the small screen. Each story consisted of half hour episodes (with ad breaks, obviously) and the famous LWT opening sequence was amended to a night version to suit the suspenseful tone of the series - the only occasion I believe that this happened.

The Circe Complex was a six part story, adapted from a novel by Desmond Cory (that Amazon.co.uk helpfully have listed as The Circle Complex). The origins of Circe in Greek mythology give away the plot to this story so I won't spoil it for you.



Tom (Trevor Martin) is jeweller serving a long stretch for the murder of a policeman and is rumoured to have stolen circa £½ million in jewellery that no one can find. Psychiatrist Ollie (Alan David) and his lover Val (Beth Morris), who just happens to be Tom's wife, want the jewels so that they can run away together and come up with a plan to spring Tom from prison and find the location of the hidden loot before disposing of him. To do this, they need a scapegoat and find one in young Cat (Dick Turpin's Michael Deeks), just released from the same prison that Tom is serving in. Cat isn't too keen to get involved in the caper, but Ollie persuades Val to use her feminine wiles to seduce him.

Quickly Cat agrees and the plan is in motion, but will Ollie and Val find the missing jewellery? Will Cat go down? Will detective Dave (James Hazeldine) see through the plan and…

Visual

There are artefacts on the print, but it is still in pretty good condition considering its age. The most obvious difference is the big contrast in quality between location and on-set shots.

Audio

Eerie and unsettling but memorable theme tune was provided by Roxy Music's Andy McKay, who already had composer credits for Rock Follies and would also provide the theme tune to the Terry Venables-penned Hazell in the same year that he provided this one. The rest of the soundtrack, which is on mono, consists of a mix of the kind of jazzy jangly guitar that was typical of series in those days (see The Professionals amongst others) and moody analogue synths - all provided courtesy of Kenyon Emrys-Roberts. There are no subtitles.

Overall

Armchair Thriller has one of the most memorable theme tunes and opening sequences I can ever remember seeing. That said, there's only one serial in this series that I can remember and that is the Jemima Shore story Quiet As A Nun which scared this 12 year old rigid at the time. That one is due for release in November and I'm hoping to get hold of a review copy of that one for definite. Still, back to the matter at hand.

The Circe Complex is a little long, true it's adapted from a novel but could have done with some tightening up in editing as it feels stretched across six 20 minute episodes. Not being overly familiar with the Greek mythology I mentioned in the intro or remembering this story, I only realised what was happening at around the half way point and then it was a bit predictable but enjoyable nonetheless. There is very obvious telegraphing with clock watching, close up shots and instant moody music to let you know that you should be wary of something happening.



Some of Alan David's acting is slightly over the top as well, but when you see where he ends up then you can appreciate what he was trying to achieve - it just seemed a little melodramatic for the most part though. Beth Morris is rather cute as the naïve and trusting wife/partner-in-crime Val, but sadly only seems to have minor roles according to iMDB - maybe it was the dodgy Welsh accent here…

This was quite enjoyable albeit too long, but fans of the series (and there will be plenty) might just enjoy the trip down memory lane - and at just shy of £13 for 150 minutes of drama, you can't complain too much.

Me? I'm waiting for Quiet As A Nun.