A cryptic message from a dying man leads to mystery in a small coastal town. Armchair Thriller continues its second series as RICHARD PHILLIPS-JONES looks at High Tide.
BROADCAST: In four parts 11-20 March 1980
STARRING: Ian McShane (Peter Curtis), Wendy Morgan (Celia), Kika Markham (Helen), Terence Rigby (Matthews), John Bird (Cyril), Malcom Terris (Maxwell), Mike McKevitt (Fenton), Toby Salaman (Smith)
WRITER: Andrew Brown (from a novel by P.M. Hubbard)
DIRECTOR: Colin Bucksey
Armchair Thriller: High Tide Review
Peter Curtis has been recently released from prison, convicted for the accidental killing of a man who ran over his dog.
Travelling alone, he stops off at a country hotel for some much-needed rest but is pestered in the beer garden by a man named Mathews, who has questions about the man Curtis killed. It seems the deceased had a weak heart and was uttering a message as he died, but Curtis is unable to recall it.
Mathews leaves, but the vague memory niggles at Curtis who is now struggling to recall the message until it finally comes to him: “High tide at 9:52″.
Some research into tide charts reveals that the man’s intended destination was the Devon coastal town of Yealmouth and, accompanied by a hitchhiker named Celia, Curtis heads there by boat. Trusting nobody, he takes a long, convoluted route.
In Yealmouth, Celia leaves when confronted about her reasons for being on board. Curtis is then befriended by local character Cyril who invites him for dinner with his wife, Helen, who immediately displays a clear attraction towards their dinner guest, which is mutual.
Next morning, Curtis scours the area to establish why the dead man had been heading there, finding an old house which is only reachable by water during high tide. The house is under armed guard and Curtis is not welcomed.
It becomes apparent that Helen has a connection to the house and might be in danger, but what is her connection to the dead man, to Mathews, to Celia and to a shady figure named Maxwell, who soon makes his presence felt?
As with Southern Television’s other effort for Armchair Thriller, High Tide wouldn’t normally meet the remit of this site were it not for its inclusion under the series’ umbrella, although a nasty death in unstable mud flats in the final episode does make for one of the show’s more memorable and unpleasant kills.
It’s notable that High Tide is also the only entry to be scripted by Armchair Thriller’s creator, Andrew Brown so it’s a shame to report that it’s a muddled affair which, after a strong start becomes somewhat meandering and fails to keep up its early momentum.
Director Colin Bucksey makes the most of the locations (see footnote), adding an effective dream-like ambience to the production and seems to be striving for a feel of classic film-noir, an aspiration which High Tide occasionally reaches in its best moments but seems frustratingly unable to sustain – one can only wonder if a tighter re-edit could have helped.
Ultimately, it’s the presence of Ian McShane that salvages High Tide, an Armchair Thriller entry which nevertheless languishes in the “could have been a lot more” file. The show was back home at Thames next time, for what would be its final story – or was it?
TRIVIA POINTS: Colin Bucksey (who helmed both of Southern’s Armchair Thiller entries) has since had a long and successful career in international television, on shows as varied as Holby City, Miami Vice, House M.D., Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and Fargo.
Worth noting: The music in the opening scene, which seems, shall we say “heavily influenced” by Bernard Herrmann’s score for Psycho (1960).
Neither of Southern’s contributions to the series feature the familiar Armchair Thriller theme on their end credits, nor the distinctive series two break bumpers. This begs the question of whether they had originally been intended as standalone productions.
FOOTNOTE: Viewers in Southern’s home patch would have enjoyed spotting familiar locations in the area, chiefly around Lymington and Lyndhurst in the New Forest during the first episode. It was a bit of a running joke locally that the company never took a film crew too far out of Southampton if they could help it, but they did venture as far as Newton Ferrers, Devon for High Tide’s later episodes.
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Read our Armchair Thriller Episode Guide: 1978-81 Anthology Series
