Forgotten BBC Horror That Terrified Britain Unearthed After 50 Years
British television history has coughed up another ghost from the archives, and for fans of vintage horror broadcasting this is the kind of discovery that borders on mythical. A supposedly lost 1968 BBC production from the notorious anthology series Late Night Horror has resurfaced after five decades.
According to reports covered by the BBC, film collector and cinematic engineer Darren Payne has uncovered what is believed to be the last surviving copy of No Such Thing as a Vampire, a long-missing episode from the six-part anthology. The rediscovery was announced by film preservation group Film is Fabulous!
Originally broadcast in 1968, No Such Thing as a Vampire quickly became infamous among viewers of the era. At a time when British television was still largely associated with family entertainment and relatable drama, Late Night Horror pushed audiences into much darker territory. The anthology specialised in unsettling psychological horror and gothic storytelling, airing late at night to unsuspecting audiences who were unprepared for the programme’s grim atmosphere and disturbing imagery.
The vampire episode in particular developed an almost legendary reputation. Contemporary reports claimed the broadcast horrified viewers so intensely that complaints flooded into the BBC. The backlash became so fierce that stories emerged suggesting the episode had effectively been buried, feeding rumours that the BBC wanted the programme forgotten entirely. While many of those stories have undoubtedly become more exaggerated with time, the controversy surrounding the series was very real.
For decades, No Such Thing as a Vampire existed largely as a whispered piece of television folklore among horror historians and collectors. The episode’s reputation only intensified because almost nobody had actually seen it since its original transmission. Like the missing episodes of Doctor Who or the wiped broadcasts of early British television, the film became part of the wider tragedy of archive destruction during the 1960s and 1970s, when tapes were routinely erased or discarded to save storage costs.
That is what makes Darren Payne’s discovery so remarkable. Payne, described as a passionate enthusiast for vintage British cinema and television preservation, reportedly located the surviving print after years of searching. Speaking through Film is Fabulous!, Payne expressed his desire for the episode to finally be seen again by modern audiences who have only heard stories about its reputation.The rediscovery also shines a spotlight on how influential Late Night Horror truly was, despite its short lifespan. Though often overshadowed by later anthology classics such as Tales of the Unexpected or Hammer House of Horror, the series was one of the BBC’s earliest serious attempts at adult-oriented televised horror.
