Thriller! Thriller! Thriller!
Episode 1.09 The Eyes Have It
Main Cast: Peter Vaughan (Anderson), Dennis Waterman (Frank), William Marlowe (Jeffries), Sinead Cusack (Sally), Leslie Scholfield (Moore), David Jackson (Martin), Micheal Lees (George Mullard), Alun Armstrong (Mike), Colin McCormack (Peter), Catherine Chase (Jenny), Angela Walker (Pat), David Sands (Tom).
First off, what a cast! Some fine character actors and future stars in the making here. Would cost a pretty penny to assemble these days (minus the deceased of course). Anyhoo, a parade is due to head through a place, carrying a person who does a thing – really, it's never clarified who the VIP is, other than “a man of peace” or where the place is. All that really matters is some ne'er-do-wells including Grouty take over a college for the blind with a view towards blowing this “man of peace” away as it overlooks the route of the parade.
You know what's coming next, lots of tense scenes where the unsighted people blunder around the contract killers. Firstly unaware that anything untoward is happening, but later on discovering that the warnings of Sally (well played by Sinead Cusack) weren't 'nerves' but her well honed senses!
The crims bicker, the students blunder, and the plot such as it is, meanders. The ending is well staged, if slightly unlikely, but as you're cheering it on, it doesn't matter too much as the meek inherit the earth.
I have to say this though – the contract killers are rather screamish about violence, especially once the able-bodied folk are out of the way, but I guess I have to remember this is 70's telly.
Solid, but not outstanding. 3 out of 5.
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