Werewolf

Eric Meyers (Sargeant Bullock in Batman: Knightfall, The Human Torch in The Amazing Spider-Man, and David here) went to college in the US with the brother of John Landis (the director of the original 1981 film). He thought it might be a good idea for Dirk Maggs to do the story for radio. Dirk met with John Landis to talk about the project; he was emerging from the Abbey Road studios after recording music and a voice-over for his film The Stupids. With him was veteran actor Christopher Lee, and Dirk got to meet them both for the first time. Initially, Dirk was reluctant to take on what was essentially a recycled movie; it wasn't what he considered his Audio Movies to be all about (people still approach him and say, "You do radio versions of films." which is not the case. There has only been one: this one.). A successful meeting changed Dirk's mind, however. Landis was keen for this to go ahead and gave Dirk permission to flesh-out and extend the story with original material, which eventually ran to more than fifteen percent of the running time. Landis also did everything he could to
push through clearances.

The acting talents of Jenny Agutter, Brian Glover and John Woodvine (Woodvine's rich voice would be perfect for audio book narratives, if he hasn't already added that to his repertoire)
were secured to reprise their film roles and bring continuity to the project. Also turning in stirling performances as David and Jack, the American backpackers, are Eric Meyers and William Dufris (Judge Caligula in Judge Dredd - The Day The Law Died, and the title character in The Amazing Spider-Man) respectively. William Dufris has made it known that this project is one of his career works he's most proud of.

As in the film, the best humour comes courtesy of the conversations between David and his dead friend Jack. For example: "It looks like I'll have to get used to entertaining corpses. Take a seat." "I'd better stand. I seem to leave bits of myself behind when I sit."

When an attendant checks on a new patient at the lunatic asylum, he witnesses the man, Talbot, undergo a horrifying transformation. The attendant is brutally torn apart and Talbot escapes. On the Yorkshire Moors two young American men are backpacking. Hitching a ride to East Proctor, they call at a small pub called The Slaughtered Lamb where a frosty reception awaits them, especially when they question the pentagram and candles on the wall. Unwelcome, they are dispatched back out on to the Moors with only a single warning to stay on the path. Faced with a seven mile walk to the next town in torrential rain, matters deteriorate further when they hear the sounds of a predatory animal circling them. Jack in attacked by a wolf and David is injured before the special constable, George Hackett, one of the unsociables at the pub, kills the beast with a shotgun. Before falling unconscious David sees that what was a wolf is now a naked man.

David wakes up in a hospital in London to be told by Doctor Hirsch and Nurse Alex Price that his friend Jack is dead. He is sedated after becoming hysterical, but later contradicts the police report that the attacker was an escaped madman. As far as David is concerned it was definitely a wolf. The police learn that Talbot's real name was Hackett, the same as East Proctor's special constable. Meanwhile, David's parents are on board an aircraft approaching Heathrow Airport when it is taken over by the people's Liberation Front. When his father tries to protest, he is shot. This scene within a scene turns out to be another in a series of nightmares surrounding death which David experiences in the hospital. To make matters worse his dead friend Jack appears to him in a state of decomposition and tells him they were attacked on the Moors by a lycanthrope, a werewolf. Jack explains that he is cursed to walk the Earth in limbo until the bloodline is broken and the last werewolf is destroyed. David is told he is that last werewolf; he must kill himself.

When David is discharged from hospital, the attractive and sympathetic Nurse Alex gives him a place to stay, and very soon they are a couple. From limbo Jack watches them make love in the shower. He is urged by Larry, one of many undead from the werewolf line, to persuade David to kill himself quickly so that they can pass on. Larry, he discovers, is the werewolf that killed him on the Moors ("I'm really pissed off at you for killing me, Larry!" "I've said I'm sorry, haven't I?"). This time when Jack appears to David, he tells his disturbed friend that the next day at the full moon he will become a werewolf. Needless to say, David thinks he is losing his mind. Intrigued by his ex-patient's werewolf delusions, Dr Hirsch pays a visit to The Slaughtered Lamb pub in East Proctor, where he receives a very cool reception from George Hackett and the other patrons. The urgent warnings of a young villager are abruptly cut off by the special constable.

Meanwhile, David is left alone while Alex goes to work the nightshift at the hospital. He eventually undergoes a hideous transformation and disappears into the night. Dr Hirsch and Alex, concerned about David's mental state, attempt to contact him without success. That night a series of gristly murders are reported in and around Central London. In East Proctor the patrons of The Slaughtered Lamb press George Hackett into taking action, as the dark secret has now extended beyond their community. David wakes up the next morning naked and in the wolf enclosure at London Zoo. After persuading a little boy to lift a woman's fur coat from a park bench, he makes his way back to Alex's flat. He feels fit and invigurated, like a new man.

When Dr Hirsch learns that David has returned he instructs Alex to bring him straight to the hospital, but when the taxi driver starts to talk about the brutal killings of the night before David realises he was responsible. He separates himself from Alex, telling her he's not safe to be with. Jack makes a final appearance, beckoning David into a seedy Leicester Square porno cinema. David is introduced to his victims from the night before. One more time they try to persuade him to commit suicide, but the full moon rises causing David to under his metamorphosis. Although the police arrive on the scene, the werewolf David breaks through the barriers created at the cinema and causes havoc through the streets around Piccadilly Circus.

Dr Hirsch and Alex arrive at the scene half-believing the werewolf story. Apparently, Hirsch's ancestors from Eastern Europe were very big on legend and superstition. It turns out that 200 years before, the people of East Proctor migrated from Eastern Romania. The werewolf David enters a theatre, but is then cornered in an alley by the police. Alex manages to slip through unseen into the alley, where she attempts to protect the beast. However, George Hackett turns up with a shotgun and puts an end to the curse. With Alex at his side, the werewolf turns back into David. He is dead... and free.

Another example is: "I came to see you." "You've seen me, now go away and decompose somewhere else. I will not be threatened by a walking meatloaf!" In the brand new opening sequence there is a clever exchange between a Inspector Villiers and his subordinates: "There's enough blood. Where's the body?" "Over here. And over there." "Another bit over here, sir." Another powerful moment, particularly because there are no other actors to play off of, is the scene when David is left alone in Alex's flat on the night of his first transformation. He tries out the TV: "ITV - soccer match, BBC1 - insipid documentary, BBC 2 - insipid documentary, Channel 4 - insipid documentary presented by midget transvestites..." And he checks his appearance: "Everything looks the same in the mirror. No insipient werewolf characteristics. Snarl! Growl! Grr!"

Due to the horror content and some bad language, An American Werewolf in London was first broadcast in three-minute
segments in a late night BBC Radio 1 slot, again mixed by Paul Deeley in superb Dolby Surround Sound. To create the gutteral wolf sounds a pig and English badger noises were used in the mix. Eric Meyers was recorded using a stereo capsule on a boom so that there would be the feeling of frantic movement.

The dramatisation was released in its 110 minute entirety on cassette and CD later in 1997 (ZBBC 1994). Sales were respectable, but feedback was surprisingly quiet. However, the industry obviously appreciated the piece as Dirk's script was nominated for the Writers' Guild Award for Best Dramatisation, and the production won the 1997 Talkie Award for Best TV or Film Adaptation. A slightly trunkated version of the complete Audio Movie aired on 13th September 2003 on the BBC World Service as its Play of the Week, during the themed Monster Season. The BBC World Service has a global audience of 150 million.

"This one had nothing to do with the cinematic release of An American Werewolf in Paris, that was pure coincidence. Eric Meyers suggested the idea to me very early on, about 1995, but it took two years to clear. The concession to the nature of the beast was that it aired in the Mary Ann Evans (? apologies to the dj, I can't remember the name) show, late nights weekdays. I do remember I sensed we were coming to the end of our Radio 1 heyday; the people at the
show didn't seem crazy about having to play a three-minute episode every night. Later on they warmed up a bit when they heard it. But Matthew Bannister was leaving the network and I had a feeling - which turned out to be correct - that the new regime was going to dump us. Which was a pity because we were one of the good things they had at that time... we were going places, then they stiffed us.

"Of the original cast I only ever went for Jenny Agutter, Brian Glover and John
Woodvine; they were the important characters and they were accessible. I knew that Eric Meyers and Bill Dufris would play David and Jack really well. Jenny told me she did it only because John Landis told her I was a good bloke, which was sort of reassuring! Jenny was delightful - obviously she's still dead sexy and all that, but she has a great sense of humour and was enormous fun to have around, which isn't true of all actresses who are also big stars.

John Woodvine had a very dry sense of humour. One time I apologised for a slightly clumsy line I had written for him and he said, 'Don't worry Dirk, I'm sure I can improve it somehow!' Of course it was Brian Glover's last ever acting job (I believe), he died a couple of months later. He was terrific, sick as he was; he came to the studio on the bus, refusing a car, said he needed the exercise. And he turned in a very powerful performance. I dedicated the Talkie Award we won to him. A lovely man and a truly great actor.

"For the additional scenes I was looking for a backstory for the werewolf. Who was he before he was killed on the Moors? Why were the villagers in The Slaughtered Lamb protecting him? Brian's character was so vehement about protecting the secret. I reasoned he must have a family connection. But at the same time I thought that Dr Hirsch must have some kind of secret knowledge of the situation. He is such an establishment figure, yet believes in werewolves. How could I reconcile those elements? I though maybe he too came from the area, and I wondered if maybe there could be some kind of Eastern European settlement there - in the style of Transylvanians coming here ... not exactly relatives of Count Dracula, but from the village! And blow me down, as I was starting to write the scripts, on the Today programme there was a piece about Eastern European migrants to the North of England in the 18th Century - perfect! So that gave me a link, which I followed up. It was fun to try and tie these element up a bit."

Review by Ty Power