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The familiar strains of the "Salute To Thames" ident waft forth from the tv speaker... but something is not right. Instead of the usual cheery daytime shot of St Paul's, the Thames river is steeped in eerie moonlight. As the image fades, a stuffed armchair of the type found parked in front of millions of television sets appears framed within a halo of darkness. And then, out of nowhere, a shadow encroaches across the room towards the chair - but its owner never arrives. Instead, the shadow turns and takes its place in the chair, as the ethereal music wells up and darkness engulfs the screen.

This is the memorable way in which Thames Television's suspense series Armchair Thriller made its debut on British tv screens in February 1978. Blessed with an inspired title sequence, and possibly the creepiest signature tune ever written (by Andy Mackay of Roxy Music), it offered a tantalising array of specially commissioned scripts and serialised adaptions of novels by the likes of Antonia Fraser, Derry Quinn and Patricia Highsmith.

With fine writing, acting and direction, the series found extra strength in its tense portrayal of ordinary people trapped in a frightening web of events beyond their control. Many of the stories revolved around abductions and ransom demands - however there was usually some twist that took the situation out of the realms of the ordinary. The series kicked off in style with "Rachel In Danger", a gripping tale which told of a terrorist assassin who murders a man and takes his place, only to receive an unexpected complication when the dead man's 10 year old daughter turns up to spend the holidays with the father she has never met. This compelling piece of television derived much of its impact from the depiction of innocence amidst utter evil, a theme that would be revisited later in the series. A few weeks later "A Dog's Ransom" related the chilling events surrounding the abduction of a poodle from its devoted owners. Told over six episodes, this riveting adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel relocated the action from Manhattan to Chelsea, and succeeded in creating a disturbing thriller full of frightening images that linger in the memory long after.

The series continued with "The Girl Who Walked Quickly", the story of a young man kidnapped by terrorists who "program" him through brainwashing to bomb various London targets without his conscious knowledge. However, it was with the next serial "Quiet As A Nun" that the series really hit its peak. Relating the investigations of a famous tv journalist/presenter, it sees Maria Aitken as 'Jemima Shore' return to her old school, The Convent Of The Blessed Eleanor.  There she surreptitiously looks into the apparent suicide of one of the nuns, who was in fact an heiress who was planning to donate the convent to an infamous left wing organisation. Miss Shore finds many things amiss at her old school, with rumours of murder and persistent tales of a menacing apparition dubbed by the girls 'The Black Nun'... whom Jemima soon has the misfortune to encounter (click here to relive this classic moment).

The first series ended with "The Limbo Connection", a super-tense story of a demoralised writer (played by James Bolam) searching for his missing wife. Her last port of call was the Meadowbank Clinic, an apparently respectable private hospital for elderly women. But, as in "Quiet as A Nun", disturbing local rumours that all is not right at the clinic lead him to believe that she has met with foul play at the hands of the staff. Fighting his own alcoholism and depression, he teams up with an old flame and together they embark in a race against time to expose the clinic and find his wife. With this story the ratings for the series went through the roof, reaching 17 million viewers for episode 1.

With the high standard set by the first series, it would have been difficult for the follow-up run to match it. The second series in 1980 was still very good, but lacked some of the vivid impact of the first. One of the stories shot for the second series - a six parter based on the Lionel Davidson novel "The Chelsea Murders" - was postponed in favour of two independently filmed productions by Southern Television: "Dead Man's Kit" and "High Tide" (although both still utilised the Armchair Thriller titles, now re-shot with the use of animation). "Fear Of God"  starred Bryan Marshall and dealt with fanatical religious sects and  sound weapons (a subject popular at the time and also tackled in an episode of the BBC's contemporary thriller The Omega Factor), while "The Circe Complex" was an adaptation of the Desmond Cory novel and told of a gaolbird manipulated for no good end by his scheming wife. Perhaps the best episode though was "Dying Day" with Ian McKellen, in which a lonely, isolated man comes into possession of a cassette tape which he is horrified to discover contains a conversation detailing his impending murder. Enlisting the help of the police, he finds to his bewilderment and embarrassment that the cryptic message has vanished from the tape. Nevertheless, he pursues the matter himself... with alarming consequences.

The second and final series came to an end on April 10th that year (with "The Chelsea Murders" later transmitted in1981), although in late '80 and '81 many of the stories were repeated in an early afternoon slot (which did little to help the atmosphere, no doubt!) At a later point, the episodes found their way onto the fledgling "Superchannel" satellite service, which at that point was still run by ITV.  Unfortunately, the series has never been repeated or released in the UK since that time, although episodes are occasionally screened at Kaleidoscope events. The series was also shown complete in Australia (where it last aired in1985) and partially in the United States (where "Quiet As A Nun", "The Limbo Connection" and "Dying Day" aired in '82/'83 as part of the PBS Mystery! slot with Vincent Price introducing, while others were re-formatted into movies and shown on The Mystery Channel in the 90s). Fortunately, many of the original novels are still in print or available second hand.

With its eerily-memorable opening titles and wealth of frightening and dramatic moments, Armchair Thriller remains a vivid - if disturbing - memory for many... especially a generation of young children whose parents were foolish enough to let them sit up and watch it!

FOR THE COMPLETE, LAST-WORD GUIDE TO ALL THE ARMCHAIR THRILLER STORIES, INCLUDING PICTURES AND VIDEO CLIPS, VISIT THE ARMCHAIR THRILLER WEBSITE ARMCHAIRTHRILLER.SHORTURL.COM