Come Back Lucy (1978)

"Classic Stuff"

Wasn't 1970s TV great? You could understand all the dialogue, the music wasn't intrusive, and you didn't have to grab the remote every five minutes to turn it up to understand what people were saying or turn it down because the music and sound effects were too loud. Those who have been nodding at that will no doubt be amongst those delighted to learn that Network are releasing a plethora of obscure British TV goodies from that period in time for Halloween, so it's time for HMC to chill out, leave the remote alone, and kick off with 1978's COME BACK LUCY.

Like a number of kids' ghost stories filmed during the period, we begin with a character being orphaned. Young Lucy (Emma Bakhle) has been living with her Aunt Olive and embracing the somewhat archaic Victorian lifestyle Olive has practised. When Olive dies, Lucy has to go and live with other relatives who are decidedly more modern (for the late 1970s), almost to the point where her new Aunt and Uncle (Phyllida Law and Royce Mills) could be the inspiration for Viz's 'Modern Parents' characters.

Their three kids are 'modern' too but never obnoxiously or irritatingly so. One of the things UK TV of this period was excellent at was creating well-rounded sympathetic child characters and COME BACK LUCY is no exception. The new house Lucy comes to live in has a ghost. A spiteful, spoilt child of around her own age called Alice, and Alice wants nothing more than for Lucy to be her playmate forever, even if it means Lucy has to die for that to happen.

Less well-known than classics from HTV like CHILDREN OF THE STONES or KING OF THE CASTLE, if you liked those then this ATV production is going to be a must as well. Acting is decent, the story doesn't ever drag across its six episodes, and Ken Jones' music theme is so listenable I stayed for the end credits of each instalment. Big kudos to the writing team (and I'm guessing the source novel as well) for wrapping everything up at the end in a way that keeps you thinking about all that's happened.

Extras are on a second disc and consist of 'Coming Back' - a good retrospective making of that lasts 68 minutes and features interviews with some of the key personnel involved including director Paul Harrison, adapters Colin Shindler and Gail Renard, and actor Francois Evans. 'Through the Mirror' is a 53 minute podcast from Jill Nolan and Becky Darke who both admit at the beginning that they usually cover the Point Horror series of books. Actually this makes them ideally placed to discuss Pamela Sykes' novel both in terms of themes and relevance to fiction that came later. Finally there's the German title sequences and a set of German episode title cards. Here's a trailer:

COME BACK LUCY is out on DVD in a two-disc set from Network (order at networkonair.com) on Monday 17th October 2022