''Chiller'' is a five-part British horror fantasy

anthology television series An anthology series is a written series, radio program, radio, television show, television, film series, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, Season (television) ...

, produced by

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

, that first broadcast on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

on 9 March 1995. Described by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as ITV's "answer to ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...

''", the series was inspired by, but unconnected to, the 1991

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

thriller ''Gray Clay Dolls'', which broadcast under the ''Chiller'' banner, the series featured writing contributions from renowned playwrights

Stephen Gallagher Stephen Gallagher (born 13 October 1954) is an English screenwriter and novelist. Gallagher was born in Salford, Greater Manchester and attended Eccles Grammar School, then graduated from the University of Hull with Joint Honours in Drama and En ...

Glenn Chandler Glenn Chandler (born 12 March 1949) is a Scottish playwright, novelist, producer and theatre director. He has written plays for theatre and radio, original screenplays for television and films, television series, and also novels. His best known ...

and

Anthony Horowitz Anthony John Horowitz (born 5 April 1955) is an English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His works for children and young adult readers include the '' Alex Rider'' series featuring a 14-year-old British boy who spi ...

. Each story involves, to some extent, a supernatural element; and also a number of leading British actors, including the likes of

Nigel Havers Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor and presenter. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielb ...

Martin Clunes Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series '' Doc Martin'', Gary Strang in the BBC sitcom ''Men Behavin ...

John Simm John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in ''Life on Mars'', the Master in ''Doctor Who,'' and DS Roy Grace in ''Grace.'' His other television credits include '' ...

Peter Egan Peter Joseph Egan (born 28 September 1946) is a British actor. He is known for television roles including Hogarth in '' Big Breadwinner Hog'' (1969), the future King George IV in ''Prince Regent'' (1979); smooth neighbour Paul Ryman in the sitco ...

and

Kevin McNally Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He began his acting career in the BBC TV adaptation of ''I, Claudius'' (1976), but is best known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' fran ...

Lawrence Gordon Clark Lawrence Gordon Clark is an English television director and producer, screenwriter, and author, best known for creating the supernatural anthology series ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'', which originally aired on BBC One from 1971–1978, wit ...

, a former showrunner for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

A Ghost Story for Christmas ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' is a Anthology series, strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instal ...

'' strand, acts as executive producer, alongside David Reynolds and Peter Lover. The series' opening episode, ''Prophecy'', was adapted from a story by novelist Peter James. The complete series of ''Chiller'' was released on Region 2 DVD via Network Distributing on 1 July 2013.

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

, copyright holders of the series, uploaded all five episodes to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 31 October 2018 as part of their

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

celebrations, but have since made the videos not available.

Reception

George Bass, writing for ''

'' wrote; "''Chiller'' is worth it for Toby alone, but the other four stories will spook you out too.

appears an overworked and sceptical professional; such characters recur, particularly in opener ''The Prophecy''. We watch as death catches up with a circle of college friends, only one of whom (a young

Sophie Ward Sophie Anna Ward (born 30 December 1964) is a British stage and screen actress, and a writer of non-fiction and fiction from London. As an actress, she played Jocelyn Sheffield in '' The Nanny''; she also played Elizabeth Hardy, the female l ...

) was smart enough to see that there may be trouble ahead after a ouija board delivers the verdict death/death/death." He continued; "It’s a tale that bears astonishing similarities to the ''

Final Destination ''Final Destination'' is an American horror franchise that includes six films, ten novels, and two comic books. It is based on an unproduced spec script by Jeffrey Reddick, originally written for the television series ''The X-Files''. All of ...

'' film franchise. Then there are the blinkered sceptics standing firm against overwhelming evidence, and contrived deaths galore. ''Chiller'' is reminder of a time when networks weren’t afraid of giving horror writers free rein. It also features

as a seriously ill young man, delivering the line: “If it wasn’t for the murders, and all the psychiatric problems, and me breaking into your house and bringing you here, and everything, do you think you could’ve taken to me at all?” In a review of ''Prophecy'', critic David Howe praised the serial as "...the tale of eerie coincidence and death rattled along at a tremendous pace, leaving the viewer breathless. At the end of it, I found myself wondering whether I had just watched a 90 minute film, rather than a 50 minute drama, such was the amount of characterisation and plot that Gallagher managed to cram in." However, Howe criticised the relationship between the widowed aristocrat Oliver Halkin (

) and Fransesca "Fanny" Monsanto (Sophie Ward), under the grounds that Ward was young enough to be Havers' daughter and argued that it was implausible that the young people who attended the seance did not visibly age over the course of the five years afterwards.

Episodes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chiller (Tv Series) 1995 British television series debuts 1995 British television series endings 1990s British crime television series 1990s British drama television series 1990s British anthology television series ITV television dramas British supernatural television shows British English-language television shows Serial drama television series 1990s British television miniseries Television series by ITV Studios Television series by Yorkshire Television 1990s British horror television series British fantasy drama television series