British TV horror help wanted...

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Hive Mind:
Does anyone have a link to any site that details showings of horror films on UK terrestrial TV?

Basically, I've just watched classic Cushing/Lee/Savalas film 'Horror Express'- which I remember being on TV in my youth (between 1978 and 1982 I guess), but which I've always had (I now find) confused with 'The Creeping Flesh'. So now I need to know a) when both those films were shown on TV, and b) were they ever shown in a double-bill. See, I remember my dad watching it downstairs, and the sound of the TV being enough to scare me witless... but from the bits I saw through the crack in the door, it was set on a train (Horror Express) and when my dad explained the plot to me the next day, he told me the story of The Creeping Flesh.
So, did he just get it arse about face? Were they both on that night? Or was he just making shiz up? I need to check listings!

Any links or help gratefully received.

SBT

[Mattofthespurs]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_Double_Bills

As good a place to start as any.

I was a wee nipper but watched many of these.

My own initiation, according to this list, was on the 22nd of August 1981. I did not see 'The Body Snatchers' but I did see 'Theatre of Blood'.

They also used to do a series which featured either a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits followed by a horror movie. My Dad was always asleep by the time the movie started.

[sheridan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_Double_Bills

As good a place to start as any.

I was a wee nipper but watched many of these.

My own initiation, according to this list, was on the 22nd of August 1981. I did not see 'The Body Snatchers' but I did see 'Theatre of Blood'.

They also used to do a series which featured either a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits followed by a horror movie. My Dad was always asleep by the time the movie started.

I think I remember the 1992 one - though I remembered it slightly differently so maybe there was one not appearing in that list.  I fell asleep during one film and woke up during the next, one of which had things going on on the underground - but the films on either side don't match up at all with my experience...

[Mattofthespurs]

I taped the whole of the 1992 all night marathon and spent that entire Saturday working out the timings so I could change the tapes at an appropriate moment.
My good lady stayed up with me and I distinctly remember the Sunday morning when it finally finished.
We had a proper all English breakfast and then fell into bed until tea time.

Oh to be young again.

[Mattofthespurs]

What's especially pleasing to me is that, thanks to DVD and Blu Ray, I can now re-enact every single one of those double bills.

I remember when it was such an event when these films were showing. Now we can watch them (or not) anytime we like.

What a time to be alive!

[Mattofthespurs]

And getting back to the original question, without checking the link I posted, I seem to remember both Horror Express and The Creeping Flesh being films shown on ITV and not the BBC.

[GrudgeJohnDeed]

The Creeping Flesh is awesome, I remember watching that on TV as a young'un. I think it was Channel 4 for me though, having some kind of Horror celebration maybe. Is there any record of that kind of stuff on C4, too? They did a lot I think, I remember they started showing Troma films on the reg at one point, that was great.

Creeping Flesh always makes me think of the Peter and The Test Tube Babies song too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-jiymU0Hhc

[Mattofthespurs]

I watched The Creeping Flesh in the early days of C4 too.

The showings that I remember from ITV are from the early to mid 80's.

Great film though.

Who loves ya baby!

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Thanks for all this. I would have been twelve in when Ch4 started, so I'm thinking I was maybe a bit younger when I was scared by the Horror Express soundtrack resonating up the stairs. I had a feeling it was ITV as well, but have no idea why I thought that...
These old horror double bills/ Twilight Zones on ch4/ bbc2 Sherlock Holmes films on Fridays (?) at 6, they were the stiff of my childhood and teenage years.

SBT

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

For anyone interested, I've found on the BBC Genome site that Horror Express was first shown on bbc1 on 2/1/1980, which was the first showing on British TV. That sounds about right. Now to find out when Creeping Flesh was shown... Sadly I'm informed that it ITV had that one. Be brilliant if it was shown at the same time, and my dad was just switching between the two...

SBT

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I would have thought that The Creeping Flesh and Horror Express make for a really bad double-bill, because they are a bit too similar.

Which made me wonder what these movies were paired with when they originally came out. It seems Creeping Flesh was released with a Mario Bava euro-horror called Hatchet for the Honeymoon whereas Horror Express teamed up with a mobster movie called The Godfather of Harlem.

Hmmm, maybe Flesh and Express are better off seen together after all...

[Hawkmumbler]

Bring back Horror Double bills! Even in an age of DVD, Blu and UHD, theres so many classics that are unreleased and only crop up on Z list channels in crummy quality sandwiched between crap reality show reruns.

[Mattofthespurs]

Bring back Horror Double bills! Even in an age of DVD, Blu and UHD, theres so many classics that are unreleased and only crop up on Z list channels in crummy quality sandwiched between crap reality show reruns.

No argument from me.
Despite having over 2000 films on my shelves on DVD and Blu ray, plus all those I could stream, I still eagerly await the TV listings towards the end of October in the hope that the BBC bring back a season of horror double bills. Even a short one would make me happy.

[rogue69]

I remember that in the 1970's BBC would show a lot of classic B+W horror films late in evening at weekends from what I can recall they mainly films like the Mummy, the Wolfman & Dracula but there was something more leftfield & scarier that I would not be allowed to watch as was too young for them

[Dandontdare]

I also remember a great series of old B/W scifi films in the seventies, 6pm on BB2 I think - that was my first exposure to classics such as The Incredible Shrinking Man, Them! The Time Machine and The Day the Earth Stood Still.