Your landline wants you dead. Julie Walters vs. evil rotary dial. 1985 knew phones were sus.
Julie Walters stars as a single mother seemingly haunted by a sinister telephone system that seems to have become an evil intelligence in its own right.
Acting
Walters makes rotary-dial terror feel Oscar-worthy.
Direction
Millar turns domestic spaces into claustrophobic nightmares.
Production
Gloriously grimy 80s British TV aesthetic, all beige and dread.
Director
Gavin Millar
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of BBC's 'Screen Two' strand, this epitomizes 80s British TV's obsession with technology corrupting working-class life—see also 'Threads' and 'The Woman in Black.'
David Rappaport, who plays Arthur, was a prolific actor with dwarfism who appeared in 'Time Bandits' and tragically died by suicide in 1990. His casting adds uncanny layers to Arthur's ambiguous nature.
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