Hammer House of Horror: Charlie Boy

 “I’m going to get YOU…”

This is not the greatest episode so far but, after the misstep that it was its predecessor, it's a solid return of form for this tale of a voodoo curse emanating from a sinister African fetish. Hey, it's 1980: the phrase "cultural appropriation" doesn't exist yet. African art may be valuable and admired, but it's seen to come from a mysterious, exotic and somewhat magical culture.

The way the story unfolds is utterly predictable, but that's exactly what makes the whole thing so enjoyable: we know which characters are going to die, and in which order, so it's a question of when and how. There's a clear influence here from The Omen;  the deaths are all due to pleasingly gory incidents.

The cast is good, too, especially Angela Bruce as the sensible (and Geordie) Sarah, and Marius Goring as the slightly sinister German stereotype Heinz. It's also fun to see a young Jeff Rawls in a minor part.

This episode is good, not great: it isn't going to be one of those episodes that lingers in the mind. But it's a solid and enjoyable piece of telly.

Supergirl (1984)

"I'm considering nothing less than world domination!"

I know that this film, well, isn't exactly good, but, I mean, come on- this is a delightfully quirky bit of '80s silliness which combines the style of the Superman films, generic '80s action films tropes, some delightful silliness and a completely random jolly hockey sticks, Mallory Towers side. It's gloriously bonkers. This is a film which has Peter Cook utter the line "Holy Cow!"- what's not to love?

Then again, so is the character, and I can't help reflecting that the film was made, in glorious Pinewood Studios, the very year before DC killed Supergirl off in Crisis of Infinite Earth, sentencing her to death for the crime of having an overly convoluted backstory. And, well, we see that here- Argo City is a bit of Krypton that survived the planet's destruction for vaguely unconvincing reasons, and all this is because of the new character of Zaltar- played with an acting ability far above the level that the character deserves by the great Peter O'Toole, who accidentally destroys the city (except, naturally, Kara) with the film's main MacGuffin only to die a predictable death and end up as Kara's very own Obi-Wan style British morale-boosting ghost. It was clearly in the zeitgeist.

Helen Slater is more than good enough as the goody two-shoes character she's playing, but is upstaged in the billing by the splendid Faye Dunaway, who is having much more fun chewing the scenery with delightful gusto with wicked witch and baddie Selena. Yes, there's a certain creepiness in the love narrative between the very adult Ethan and the very innocent schoolgirl Kara, which is definitely eeeurgh, but the film is far more fun than its reputation suggests,