Theatre of blood Okay I've left this for a while but it had to come eventually. Like any ensemble film it's a great hunting ground for Collection members but I think really its the best.

I stole this cast list from The Bible for your delight and delectation:

• Vincent Price .... Edward Lionheart
• Diana Rigg .... Edwina Lionheart
• Ian Hendry (I) .... Peregrine Devlin
• Harry Andrews .... Trevor Dickman
• Coral Browne .... Miss Chloe Moon
• Robert Coote .... Oliver Larding
• Jack Hawkins .... Solomon Psaltery
• Michael Hordern .... George Maxwell
• Arthur Lowe .... Horace Sprout
• Robert Morley (I) .... Meredith Merridew
• Dennis Price (I) .... Hector Snipe
• Milo O'Shea .... Inspector Boot
• Eric Sykes .... Sergeant Dogge
• Madeline Smith .... Rosemary
• Diana Dors .... Maisie Psaltry
• Joan Hickson .... Mrs. Sprout
• RenŽe Asherson .... Mrs. Maxwell
• Bunny Reed .... Policeman
• Charles Gray (I) .... Solomon Psaltery (uncredited) (voice)

Any one of these is a Collection member just for being in this fillm but a few deserve more of mention:

Milo O'Shea: Because he's actually rather good in Barbarella (no that isn't in, way too easy)

Dennis Price: Because he was brilliant in everything he did, probably even his last but one(?) film; Vampiros Lesbos (sound track isn't as good as you might be led to believe)

Vincent Price; because he was just a total funkster and seemed to have a sense of humour about everything he did, even his interest in extremely contemporary art

Best line: "It must be Lionheart; only he'd have the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare"

Best scene; Robert Morely is force fed his own pet poodles

The whole film works because its played absolutely straight most of the way through. (Erik Sykes' death is a bit smug and self-conscious, can a death bit self-conscious? Yeah it can; As a comic actor I feel Eric Sykes often belies what he is trying to do, its like he knows that you know that he knows he's being funniy, sort of thing).

Finally it has the best use of tramps I've ever seen!

Okay some swine have put up a slightly more accomplished version of this kind of thing but I remain undaunted, especially as they don't appear to have the likes of Udo, Gunter and Vernon in there.

I shall however mercilessly exploit it as a source of info on Collection members as they have done a lot more research than us.

Man Child

No, not the Neneh Cherry song but an whole sub-collection. Child actors who appear to have had old people's (usually men's) heads glued onto them. And the leader of the pack is.... ?

Alan Barnes. Who? Alan Barnes you fools. You know, the strange man-child who shouts 'Daft Cow!' a lot in Whistle Down the Wind.

Brilliant film. Shame as I was tired when it came on so missed a lot due to comatose type-action but its full of the kind of kitchen sink new wave devices of the time.

These new wavey director guys started working in the post office doing films for them and obviously learnt to paint in very broad brush strokes; lots of very studied moment depicting The Salvation Army band or some other scene of northern life. As a mancunian its hilarious because I can almost hear a an RP accent saying "and heah we see how the northern chappies live".

But then these guys making these PO films obviously left work one evening saw a Truffaut Nouvelle Vague film and decided to combine the two.Result? Quirky B+W films with angry flashes of emotion but wrapped up in a very sentimental nostalgia for a Britain that was fading just as these movies were being made.

But I digress from a collection moment. Alan Barnes did very little after this and purportedly died a short while back.More info and pic if I can find