Tuesday 23 May 2017

1991: CHIMERA BY STEPHEN GALLAGHER

From 1991: Anyone remember CHIMERA, the Anglia TV drama/ horror based on the Stephen Gallagher novel?  The TV tie-in edition of the original 1981 novel is pictured here.

The four-parter was - apparently - a last-minute commission when a drama gap suddenly opened up in ITV's summer schedules... and Anglia (one of the mid-level companies in the system) were able to step in at short notice.

The first episode is a Hitchcock style bluff that sets things up for the meat of the three parts that follow.  Anglia also produced a shorter done-in-one TV Movie version (which gives you a hint at the amount of padding in the full-length version) which was subsequently 'repeated' on ITV and released on VHS.  It was probably also offered to overseas buyers as an alternative to the full multi-parter.  The edited version sometmes goes under the how-many-meetings-did-it-take title MONKEY BOY.  The original version has been released on DVD and is worth picking up for some undemanding chills... albeit with some dodgy performances and bad dubbing.



2 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if I saw this at the time but I certainly read Stephen Gallagher's novels based on reviews in the STARBURST book column.



    I wonder if he is on record as to what he thought of this adaptation.

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  2. I've only the vaguest memories of this. The BBC's FIRST BORN, about a human-gorilla hybrid, was much more memorable.

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