A Derbyshire vet visits a remote farming village where an unexplained livestock disease, a mysteriously interrupted water supply and sundry local aggravations are being blamed on a lonely old woman living in a tumbledown farm, whom the villagers suspect is a witch. When the vet, who's appalled by the irrational prejudice he encounters, pays a visit to the old woman, both his compassion and his rationality are put to the test...
“Murrain” (an archaic term for plague or blight) is a challenging, intelligent, atmospheric made-for-TV drama by Nigel Kneale, about the inexorable spread of irrational fear in a small rural community. It has a few minor problems - some stiff acting in its first fifteen minutes, and the same tendency to shoutiness that also marred Kneale's The Stone Tape - but these are negligible. Written with an open mind, and a willingness to confront both the dangers of superstition and the arrogance of modernity, it's a gripping example of the kind of thought-provoking drama that used to turn up, virtually unheralded, on British television in the 1970s. It was commissioned by ATV (Associated Television, a Midlands-based company with studios in Birmingham and Elstree), and played various ITV regions in 1975 as one of a handful of dramas under the umbrella title “Against the Crowd” (other episodes were written by Fay Weldon, Kingsley Amis, and one of the best scriptwriters for The Avengers, Roger Marshall).
Among the cast, Bernard Lee (a far cry from his signature role as ‘M’ in the early Bond films) is imposing and aggressive as one of the witch-hunting ringleaders, but the real revelation is Una Brandon-Jones as Mrs. Clempson, the old lady whose deeply unhappy personal life has brought her nothing but rejection and hostility from the villagers. Ms. Brandon-Jones pops up in a number of better known films and TV shows (a small part as a farmer's wife in Withnail & I; a supervisor in Mike Leigh's Bleak Moments; a role in the wonderful Hammer House of Horror episode “The House That Bled to Death”) but it's a shame “Murrain” is so little known because this is her chance to really shine. She makes Mrs. Clempson simultaneously pathetic, tragic, mysterious and frightening - it really is a stand-out performance. Doctor Who fans will also enjoy spotting David Simeon as the vet - fresh from playing Alistair Fergus, unctuous TV host of ‘The Passing Parade’ in the classic Pertwee-era story “The Daemons”.
“Murrain” is available as a DVD ‘extra’ with the Nigel Kneale TV series “Beasts” from Network, and is now very cheap to buy at Amazon (under £10). Definitely a good one for spooking friends or relatives with during the forthcoming holiday season...
