ITV MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE WHICH SETS UP THE POTENTIAL FOR A TV SERIES THAT APPARENTLY NEVER HAPPENED.
That's a shame because the TV movie itself was quite good (with the exception of a few historical boo-boos). Harry Price is the well-known (in the U.K. at least) "ghost hunter" whose most famous case was the Borley Rectory. Price starts out in the film as a hoaxster faking seances but a traumatic event changes his tune and he no longer engages in such shenanigans. Years later, a politician named Edward Goodwin (Tom Ward) has a wife Grace (Zoe Boyle) who is found wandering the streets naked in a catatonic state. She's been seeing ghosts in their stately mansion and political Svengali Sir Charles Harwood (Michael Byrne) asks Harry Price (Rafe Spall) to investigate. Price, a non-believer in ghosts but still a paranormal investigator agrees to find some sort of rational explanation for Mrs. Goodwin's troubles. Skeptical maid Sarah Grey (Cara Theobold) keeps a watchful eye on Price; figuring he's just another con artist out for money. Sarah is an independent woman who doesn't suffer fools (or charlatans) gladly and soon is tagging along with Price on his investigations. Harry and Sarah show up at a London storefront named 'Ogoro's" and walk into the middle of a magicical ceremony being conducted by Albert Ogoro (Richie Campbell) in full voodoo mask cutting the throat of a chicken. It's all a show and the chicken actually has tucked it's head under it's wing and fake blood is used to make the customers feel better that some magic was conducted on their behalf. Sarah is pissed that Ogoro is bilking people but Ogoro says he only does it to make them feel better. Regardless, Harry enlists the help of Ogoro to analyse some strange crystals he's found at the Goodwin house and to assist him with his ghost hunting. Could there be actual hauntings going on or is the tormented Grace Goodwin just unhinged?
The cast here is absolutely superb with Spall and Theobold showing a lot of chemistry as the team of Harry Price and Sarah Grey! Add Richie Campbell as the third member of the team in the form of supremely capable Albert Ogoro and we have the makings of a great TV series pilot. But I guess that never happened. I assume probably because there aren't a lot of bells and whistles happening here; the tone is not of a ghostly jamboree but more of a detective procedural in the vein of THE SUSPICIONS OF MR. WHICHER. I quite enjoyed this one and lament at least one series wasn't produced as a follow-up to this absorbing pilot film.
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