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Miss Hartley (Joanna David) is just moving into the mansion of Mrs
Brympton (Norman West), where she starts her new job as lady's maid,
when she sees a ghost, who will turn out to be Mrs Brympton's deceased
former maid Emma (June Brown) eventually. As for Mrs Brympton: She is an
extremely nice but ailing woman sufferng from a heart condition, but her
huband Roger (Ian Collier) is a nightmare, a mostly drunk, rude brute who
seems he couldn't care less about his wife. Fortunately, though, he's away
most of the time. Whenever hubby's away, a neighbour, a certain Mr Ranford
(Roger Llewellyn) keeps her company. Everybody seems to prefer to believe
Mrs Brympton is not having an affair though. The ghost of Emma
wants to show Miss Hartley something that has to do with Ranford, but Miss
Hartley just can't figure out what. Also, Miss Hartley has a bell in her
room connected directly to Mrs Brympton's room, but Mrs Brympton never
rings it - and yet, it is mysteriously rung every time there is danger,
like when Mrs Brympton has a light heart attack and needs medication, or
when Mr Brympton returns home unexpectedly, and Miss Hartley has just enough time to warn her employer - turns out she just
ha a date with Mr
Ranford, and Ranford can only escape thanks to Miss Hartley's timely
intervention and another apparition of Emma. Mrs Brympton though has a
heart attack, one from which she won't recover. Right after his wife's
burial, Mr Brympton leaves her mansion for good. A creepy
costume drama, that's at times too (intentionally) old-fashioned and slow
moving to really work, but it's pretty atmospheric all the same and has
its moments. However, the ending is a definite letdown: Point is, the
story leaves all sorts of clues left and right, then comes up with a
sudden ending that leaves half of these clues untouched and fails to
properly tie up too many loose ends. Now this might work in written
form (and no, I have not read the source story), but it simply fails in
the context of a 50 minute TV-show. Too bad, because as a whole, this
one's ok - but it could have been good.
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