What if sound was used as a deadly weapon? RICHARD PHILLIPS-JONES continues series two of his Armchair Thriller episode guide with Fear Of God.
BROADCAST: In four parts 26 February-06 March 1980
STARRING: Bryan Marshall (Paul Marriot), Peter Cellier (Maitland), Helen Cooper (Erica), Madeline Church (Nicola Clay), Peter Settelen (John Aubrey), Garrick Hagon (Walters), Michael Sheard (Colonel Morgan), Chris Jenkinson (Larke), Dave Cooper (PT instructor), Steve Kelley (Electronic man), Susan Sheridan (Rosamund’s voice), Robert Austin (Stapleton), Anne Godley (Lady Diana), Madeline Hinde (Francesca Thornton), Lynn Clayton, Michael Watkins (Cyril) and Alun Armstrong (Trakearne)
WRITER: Troy Kennedy Martin (from a novel by Derry Quinn)
DIRECTOR: Robert Tronson
Armchair Thriller: Fear Of God Review
A young woman, Rosemund takes her own life, jumping from the roof of the building where she has been squatting and a journalist living in the flat below, Paul Marriot finds her diary.
The journal details her time with a strange religious cult, “The Regiment Of God” and her time spent in something called “The Music Room”, seemingly as a form of punishment.
Marriot discovers that the cult is headed by a somewhat extreme former US general and hopes to expose it in a newspaper article. However, higher powers put pressure on his editor to suppress the story and, when Marriot attempts to take the matter up with the Ministry Of Defence he is met with a wall of silence.
At Rosemund’s funeral (which the cult attempts to effectively hijack), Marriot meets her younger sister, Nicola, convinced of the organisation’s part in her sibling’s death and the two later encounter John Aubrey, a man with substance issues who appears to have been working to recruit new members for the sect.
Aubrey reveals what the Regiment Of God has been working on: A sound weapon with which they plan to effectively brainwash the young people of the nation into their way of thinking.
As they get deeper into their investigation, both Marriot and Nicola seem to be in danger of succumbing to the effects of that very weapon…
Another Derry Quinn novel had provided the source for series one favourite The Limbo Connection, so Fear Of God had a lot to live up to and it’s disappointing to report that it doesn’t click together anywhere near as well as that classic entry.
There’s a solid director in Robert Tronson, and Troy Kennedy Martin (The Italian Job, Edge Of Darkness et al) was certainly no slouch in the writing department but it’s as though all concerned were perhaps faced with a dilemma in bringing a pretty lofty concept to the screen, within the show’s budgetary and production limitations – take the larger-than-life, outlandish approach of previous entry Dying Day, or play the whole thing straight?
It seems nobody could make their mind up, as Fear Of God bounces between both options and succeeds with neither, cast performances ranging from relative naturalism, through (to put it charitably) “animated” to downright pantomime villainy.
The production values are somewhat lacking also, with some truly underwhelming sets (what purports to be a nightclub looks like a particularly half-assed job) and visual effects. The moments where the sound weapon is used, which should have been classic end-of-episode cliff hangers, fall decidedly flat.
The third episode is admittedly stronger (if only its tone could have been sustained throughout the story), but the final chapter, despite Thames’ effects team going all-out with the explosive pyrotechnics (perhaps there was a surplus they needed to clear out from Teddington) feels somewhat wanting, both in tension and in cohesion, and the whole enterprise feels somewhat rushed.
None of this is to say that Fear Of God isn’t an entertaining enough time-passer on its own terms, but Armchair Thriller at its best was so much more than that. Having set itself a very high benchmark in its first series, the show was struggling with consistency in its second run.
TRIVIA POINTS: Bryan Marshall previously appeared in Hammer’s The Witches (1966) and Quatermass And The Pit (1967), plus the classic Thriller episode, A Place To Die (1973).
One of the last screen roles of Madeleine Hinde (Incense For The Damned, The Fiend) before she appears to have left the profession.
Peter Settelen later became a voice coach, his clients including Princess Diana – therein lies an interesting story in itself (read more here).
FOOTNOTE: The use of sound as a deadly weapon was a recurring theme over the years in film and television (see also Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense: Last Will And Testament (1984) and Kate Bush’s song and creepy video, Experiment IV (1986)) but the amount of testing and serious research into such sonic weapons would indicate that this is no mere science fiction – read more here.
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Read our Armchair Thriller Episode Guide: 1978-81 Anthology Series
