Judy Matheson

 

Judy Matheson: 

One of the classic beauties of the golden era of Hammer horror films, Judy Matheson's most celebrated roles are in the saucy 1971 double-bill of 'Twins Of Evil' and 'Lust For A Vampire'. Other cult favourites of the era include 'Crucible Of Terror' (1971) and 'The Flesh & Blood Show' (1972), non-Hammer and more in the contemporary shocker mould than the gothic excesses of the former.

'The Emergence of Anthony Purdy, Esq, Farmer's
Labourer' a curious 1970 short film made by HTV  

After drama school and some early stage successes she found herself cast, alongside Euro superstar Capucine, in a Spanish giallo-style psychodrama, 'The Exquisite Cadaver', AKA 'Las Crueles' (1969). Although obscure at the time in the UK, it now seems to be partially eclipsing the traditional horrors as her stand-out performance. It's certainly a stylish piece, with the expected giallo tropes of lurid colours, modish fashion-house photography, mild nudity and outlandishly playful shocks. Matheson is very watchable in it, a screen presence not overshadowed by her more senior co-stars.      

         

'The Exquisite Cadaver' 1969

With the always brilliantly loathsome Ronald Lacey
in the lacklustre 'Crucible Of Terror' (1971) 

She made another little-known gem in 'The Emergence of Anthony Purdy, Esq, Farmer's
Labourer' with the great Freddie Jones, a 1970 exercise in rural conjugal awkwardness in grainy black and white. The same year she appeared on television in a documentary about the RSC featuring her friend, a talented young actress called Helen Mirren. Shortly before this,  she was shortlisted for a lead role in the TV sensation of 1969, 'Take Three Girls'. 

An iconic shot with the late great Peter Cushing
from the opening sequence of 'Twins Of Evil' (1971) 

That didn't happen though, and instead the early '70s saw a string of less-than-stellar film and TV offers. She's in a couple of typical Brit sex comedies, 'Confessions Of A Window Cleaner' (1974) and 'Percy's Progress' (1974), and adds some glamour to episodes of 'The Adventurer',  'The Sweeney' and 'The Professionals' before landing a longish stint on the teatime soap 'Crossroads' and a tiny role in a weird costume in 'Blakes 7'. 

 

A 'mutoid' apparently. 'Blakes 7'

From this point she seems to have moved focus to voiceover and continuity announcement work. She was a regular face on my local ITV region, TVS, in the '80s. In fact, she was out of the TV and film loop for 37 years, between 1980 and 2017, with the exception of personal appearances at Hammer fan conventions.

TVS continuity announcer in 1984

Roll on 2017 however, and it seems she's been lured back into the limelight by David Barry, better known as mummy's little soldier Frankie Abbott from 'Please Sir!'. Initially, he created a Fenn Street-meets-Vampires concoction called 'Frankula', followed in 2021 by 'The Lives Of Frankie Abbott'. There's also 'The Haunting of Margam Castle' which, like 'Frankula', features fellow cult horror star Caroline Munro, and 'What Did You Do In The War Mama?' with the similarly celebrated Madeline Smith. An intriguing development that seems likely to get the attention of the Hammer fanbase.

So, a salute then, but watch this space for updates.         

Judy Matheson-imdb

Edward De Souza

Edward De Souza:

Debonair De Souza approached male lead status in the early '60s, appearing in the Hammer films ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ (1962) and ‘The Kiss of the Vampire’ (1962), followed by 'Jules Verne's First Men In The Moon' ( 1964), but somehow he missed that particular boat and moved into character roles, in which he has been a consistent fixture across more than five decades.  There have been a number of relatively high profile film appearances. In 1977 he played Sheik Hosein in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me' and is seen in the fantasy drama ‘The Golden Compass’ (2007).

Propping up the bar of the Rovers Return in 'Coronation Street'

Television, however, has been his bread and butter, with comedy playing a surprisingly large part. From 1961 to 1966, he starred in the sitcom 'Marriage Lines' with Richard Briers and Prunella Scales.  de Souza played the role of Afonso in One Foot in the Grave One Foot in the Algarve (1993). He also appeared in 'Not In Front Of The Children' with Wendy Craig, as well as the underrated office comedy, 'The Squirrels' and the television version of 'After Henry' (1989–90).

In 'Kiss Of The Vampire' (1962)

In TV drama, he was solicitor Bonny Bernard in the first series of ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’ (1978), and in 1982 he appeared in the final ‘Sapphire & Steel’ adventure as "The Man". Farrington. Earlier, he took the part of Soveral (the Portuguese Ambassador to Britain) in ‘Edward the Seventh’, and joined the British soap opera Coronation Street as Colin Grimshaw, in 2008 and 2009. To this we can add a sprinkling of cult fodder stretching from 'The Saint', 'The Avengers', and 'Department S' to 'Strangers' and 'The Sweeney'. Latterly you might catch him in 'Doctors', the 2012 version of 'The Borgias', or 'New Tricks'.  

In the Wednesday Play 'The End Of Arthur's
Marriage', with the late Ken Jones

 Trivial treat: In 1965, he appeared as the lead in the Doctor Who story Mission to the Unknown – the only story ever broadcast in the series not to feature the Doctor in any capacity. He took on Valentine Dyall’s trademark role as the ominous sounding 'Man in Black' on BBC Radio 4 between 1988 and 1992.

Not quite stealing the limelight in 'Kiss Of A Vampire' (1962)

Edward De Souza-imdb

Jennifer Daniel

Jennifer Daniel:

† May 23 1936 – Aug 16 2017

In the era of the dolly-bird actress, Jennifer Daniel radiated a seriousness and intensity that set her aside from other attractive blondes of the period. She was often cast in roles in thrillers and horrors that required a lot more reaction to disquieting situations and creeping paranoia than swinging a plastic bag down fun-loving, fancy-free Carnaby Street.

Early television roles included literary fare such as her portrayal of Ophelia in the 1961 ITV version of 'Hamlet' opposite Barry Foster, and as Dolly Varden in the previous year's 'Barnaby Rudge'. Her dignified good looks also found her playing Beauty in 'Beauty and the Beast' and Lady Edith in 'Richard the Lionheart'. As the '60s rolled on, there were more cop shows and ITC action series like the almost forgotten 'Ghost Squad' as well as 'Gideon's Way', 'Adam Adamant Lives!' and 'The Mask of Janus' with her then-husband Dinsdale Landen. She was also the female lead in the Francis Durbridge-penned detective serial, 'A Man Called Harry Brent' of which nothing seems to have survived*.


In the 'Thriller' episode 'Spell of Evil'

The British film industry's mini-boom of the '60s saw her appear in Hammer favourites like 'The Kiss of the Vampire' (1963) and 'The Reptile' (1966) in which she represented the opposite of her sensually dangerous co-star Jacqueline Pearce. As often seems to be the case with Hammer's female stars, a long period in the film wilderness followed, and perhaps persists, despite recent roles in the Juliette Binoche 'Wuthering Heights' (1992) and the film version of Ray Cooney's farce 'Run for Your Wife' (2012) with (shudder) Danny Dyer and Denise van Outen.

As Mrs Lennox, bewildered by Hyacinth in 'Keeping Up Appearances'.

As the '60s gave way to the '70s, a slew of middlebrow and mid-table TV appearances came and went, including: 'Doomwatch', 'Softly, Softly'-spinoff 'Barlow', 'Duchess of Duke Street', the interesting boarding-house drama 'Rooms', and the RF Delderfield's wartime saga 'People Like Us'. Less prestigious were her regular role in the medical soap 'General Hospital' and hectic kid's favourite 'Here Come the Double Deckers!'

More recently she's been seen in the Customs & Excise drama 'The Collectors', 'Keeing Up Appearances' and 'Rumpole of the Bailey'. She still seems to be working and I'm surprised she hasn't been snapped up by the 'Game of Thrones' or 'Downton Abbey' machines for her diamond-edged gravitas. Maybe that will come. 

Jennifer Daniel - imdb

(* update, Feb 2023, these stories are available on DVD. See comments below.)   

Pauline Challoner

Pauline Challoner:

Slightly ashen and spooky doll-faced actress with a high forehead and expressive eyebrows, unmemorable except perhaps as the spoilt Catalina in 'The House that Screamed' (1970), where she got on the wrong side of sadistic finishing school head Lilli Palmer in full-on Joan Crawford mode. She was another bratty type in 'The Gates of Paradise' (19  ), with a young Jenny Agutter as her put-upon counterpart. In 'Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush' (1968) she was in more conventional dolly-bird territory as Gloria, one of Barry Evans's passing fancies. 

Whining again, in the Crusades drama 'The Gates of Paradise' (1968)

As the daughter of Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna) in
'Carve Her Name With Pride' (1958) 

After a few cherubic child roles in the late '50s (her sister Carla was also a child actor), Pauline seems to have found jobs a little thin on the ground. Perhaps her slightly disconcerting good looks were a bit out of step with the fun-loving mini skirted girls who populate the swinging output of the following decade, although she does appear in 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush' (1968) with the cheeky, pre-'Mind Your Language' Barry Evans. But rather as Barbara Steele found success in the Italian horror market, Pauline Challoner seems to have appealed to the makers of lurid thrillers in Spain, and her last f'ilm appearances include the aforementioned 'The House That Screamed' (aka 'La Residencia', 1969), 'La Ultima Viage' (1974), and 'Tocata Y Fuga de Lolita' (1974). After that, she appears to have given up acting altogether.  

'The House That Screamed' (1974)

Pauline Challoner-imdb