At first, the murder of a retired principal of a boarding school seems
to be nothing but a simple mugging gone too far, but when the
investigating inspector Burke (Terry Molloy) finds the victim's dog
drained of blood and sacrificially prepared near the scene of the crime,
he finds it best to call in the preternatural investigation unit
P.R.O.B.E., and namely their only field agent Liz Shaw (Caroline John).
Liz is quick to link the murder to the boarding school the deceased was
principal of, Winterborne, a place with a past steeped in black magic,
Satanism, alchemy and the like. Investigating Winterborne is not too big
a task because most of the students and teachers are away on holiday, only
the principal Purcell (Peter Davison), a wallflowerish teacher (Charmian
May), a retarded but benign gardener (Mark Gattis) and three students
(Daniel Matthews, Reece Shearsmith, Stephen Dolomore) are left behind.
First though, Liz is desperate because there's nothing to find, which is
especially troubling because the minister (Geoffrey Beevers) wants to cut
P.R.O.B.E.'s funding - and then another dead dog is found, also drained of
blood and made up like a Satanic sacrifice. Then one of the students
(Stephen Dolomore) goes missing, and when he returns, he is soon murdered
- and Purcell is found leaning over his fresh corpse. Purcell is hauled
in for questioning, and Liz pretty much forces a confession out of him ...
but once he has confessed, she's convinced he lied - and really, while
he's still in police custody, the wallflowerish teacher is murdered and
the two students have disappeared. It doesn't take Liz long to put two and
two together: Purcell is the uncle and guardian of once of the students
(Daniel Matthews), so it's pretty much a given that he tried to cover for
him. So the nephew must have taken the other student (Reece Shearsmith)
captive - but where to, and why. In a long interrogation, Purcell
finally confesses: Rather as a game, he re-started the Satanic cult the
school's founder had founded (and later been hanged for) 200 years ago,
and eventually he introduced his nephew into the cult - but things got out
of hand when the nephew started to show delusions of grandeur, thinking of
himself as the re-incarnation of the school's founder - and to that end,
he started the whole business with animal and human sacrifices.
Eventually, Liz also gets the location of where he wants to sacrifice his
latest victim out of Purcell (not quite as easy as it sounds, because
Purcell doesn't really know himself) - and Liz, Burke and Purcell manage
to prevent the worst. But when Purcell tells his nephew it was never
supposed to go that far, everything was just a game, the nephew takes his
life jumping off a cliff onto the highway - or does, he, his body is never
found ...? Louise Jameson can be seen as Liz Shaw's department's boss
who tries (but not always succeeds) to have her back. Even
though P.R.O.B.E.: The Devil of Winterborne is officially a Doctor
Who-spin-off, what with the inclusion of Liz
Shaw and all, it's much closer in theme to British
mystery/horror thrillers from the 1960's and 70's, as it dabbles into the
unexplainable and leaves quite a bit unexpained, puts its emphasis on the
mystery rather than its solution, favours atmosphere and a relaxed pace
over spectacle and special effects ... oh, and if features an excellent
cast as only the British seem to be able to drum up for even their low
budget movies - and arguable, the interrogation scenes between Caroline
John and Peter Davison might be some of the best scenes in either actor's
careers. Pretty good, actually.
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