West Country Tales is a largely forgotten anthology series produced by the south west of England branch of the BBC in the early 1980s for broadcast on BBC2 with a fairly unique premise. The BBC invited viewers to submit stories of real-life encounters with the weird and the supernatural which were then dramatised, often cheaply with a narrator largely replacing dialogue. The second series used “made up” series rather than ones based on viewer submissions. It was a series tailor made for tales of “folk horror” and in that respect it didn’t disappoint. It was rarely genuinely scary but was always fun to watch.

The Beast is as good a place as any to start. A never-named narrator (voiced by Jack Watson and played on-screen as an adult by David Gilpin and as a teenager by Jamie Barron, son of actor Keith Barron) recounts how, as a young man in a Cornish village, he had a strange encounter with a strange, Bigfoot-like creature (played by Milton Reid, credited here as Milton Gaylord Reid) in the woods. After 17 years away in the city, he returns to the village at the request of his cousin (Maggie Green) who has taken over the running of the family farmhouse with her husband Bill (Steve Tomlin). The couple have been stalked by the same beast that the narrator encountered in the woods years before…

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The initial encounter with “the beast” is genuinely creepy though the later siege at the farmhouse is rather less atmospherically shot. There are some lovely shots of the countryside and the village which are alternately inviting and sinister, a typical rural environment haunted by something very atypical indeed. Reid’s marauding monster doesn’t seem quite so menacing after its first appearance but that first unexpected glimpse of it lurking in the bushes is an effective jolt.

The story – written by Kevin Crooks – was based on a contribution by one G.R. Parkhouse but as there’s no real-life equivalent of Foxhollies Farm or the nearby Bennett’s Wood easily traceable on any map it’s unclear whether any of this actually happened to Parkhouse or was just made up by Crooks. But it probably doesn’t matter. It’s a neat tale, told in the manner of narrated short story, and that’s probably all that really matters. Fans of cryptozoology film and television will enjoy this very British take on the Sasquatch and everyone else can enjoy the scenery, feel a tad creeped out by the beast and relish Watson’s rather lovely narration.

West Country Tales – which we’ll return to in due course – has rather disappeared into the popular culture ether. All 14 episodes – spread over two series – are still held in the BBC’s archives but the chances that they will ever be repeated are slim. They’re television from a different era, a time when even half-hour dramas could afford to take their time and unfold a pace that might be too leisurely for today’s audiences. Nine episodes have been preserved by viewers and turn up on YouTube which, for the time being, may be your only chance to see them.