Scorpion Tales – The Great Albert: Occult Summonings and Ambiguity in Suburbia

The Great Albert is an episode of the British anthology drama series Scorpion Tales (1978), which was broadcast by ITV for just one series of six episodes that had the loosely interconnected premise of having “a sting in their tale”, and it has something of a “wyrd” pedigree and background. It was written by John Peacock, who also wrote the And the Wall Came Tumbling Down episode of the 1984 anthology drama series Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, which, in A Year In The Country: Other Worlds (2025), I describe as containing “timeslip folk horror Cold War dread”. While it was directed by David Reid, who also produced Scorpion Tales and who would go on to be the executive producer of the enigmatic genre-melding slipstream-esque supernatural fantasy science fiction series Sapphire & Steel (1979-1982). It also has another connection with Sapphire & Steel as its title music, which, alongside more “funk” orientated aspects, features monophonic minimalist arpeggiated synthesiser tones,…

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