The Orchard End Murder

Invited to a cricket match in Kent a young woman called Pauline Cox (Tracy Hyde) gets bored with the cricket (as you do) and wanders off through an apple orchard where she encounters a garden gnome collecting railway gatekeeper (Bill Wallis) and a disturbed handyman called Ewen (Clive Mantle). A 1981 film featurette set in Kent in 1966 ,and written and directed by the unprolific Christian Marnham ,it's an example of an English psycho horror film (when they were very popular in cinemas) ,apparently loosely based on a real murder in Kent. Despite this the film (well photographed by Peter Jessop) has a distinct comic edge to it ,and linked to this a symbolic element - forbidden fruit in the orchard ,rape and murder among a mountain of apples ,and all taking place in the 'Garden of England'. And it doesn't stop there ,as we have psycho news coming over the radio from the U. S. A. ,South Africa ,and now Kent (with a psycho and a stockbroker both on the loose). All this - and sexual violence against a character made to look and sound like a glamour model - contrasts wildly with the attractive locations (one ironically named Petham) ,and give this film the slight feeling of a nightmarish satirical fairy tale.