The Most Terrifying Moments From British Kids TV Shows

The Thin Man. Pale and silent, his creeping terror as witnessed in the ill-considered ‘Look and Read’ drama 'The Boy From Space’, could reduce even the rowdiest classroom to a stunned, petrified silence. Played by John Woodnutt (also seen in fantasy scare-a-thon 'Knightmare’), the alien hunter’s arrival in a desolate quarry-like location as he chases Dan and Helen is made all the more freaky by his weird, jerky walking. Horrific.

'Dark Towers’, another doozy from the ‘Look and Read’ series, even managed to be scary despite featuring Christopher Biggins. No mean feat in itself. The Tall Knight’s Folly was perhaps the most chilling, notably when the spectral knight presents himself at the episode’s terrifying conclusion. The tall knight was, incidentally, played by Peter Mayhew – aka Chewbacca.

Mr Noseybonk, the manic, freakish character played by mime artist Adrian Hedley in Clive Doig’s otherwise innocuous BBC show 'Jigsaw’, had the power to make anything frightening. Even nature. In one sketch, he planted seeds in a series of pots, which then grew into huge, phallic noses, just like his. Now we can’t even go near a greenhouse without having a full-blown panic attack. Thanks 'Jigsaw’. No really, thanks a lot.

Sure, Henry the Green Engine is only a train, but crucially, he’s an anthropomorphic train, so we’re kind of invested in what happens to him. Which is horrific, by the way. Not wanting to spoil his new green paint, he goes into a tunnel and refuses to come out. In a fit of mania, the Fat Controller orders him bricked into the tunnel, his face just visible so, tortuously, he can see his train chums coming and going. It’s like he’s been buried alive. He is ultimately released, but the way the episode ends, with Ringo Starr endorsing his punishment, there’s nothing at all to suggest he’ll one day be free. Bleak and haunting.

Forget the Cybermen, forget the Daleks, the Autons, with their horrifying humanoid masks are the genuinely frightening. First appearing in 'Spearhead From Space’ in 1970, during Jon Pertwee’s first outing as the Doctor, these blank-faced automoton killers, controlled by the alien Nestene Consciousness, were bent on infiltrating high office by any means necessary. Like an army of shop dummys crossed with Michael Myers. Nightmare fuel.

Terrahawks had its share of deeply sinister characters, all the underlings of the withered space-crone Zelda. Evil teddy bear Yuri seemed particularly cruel, and the less said about Sporilla the better. But it was MOID (Master of Infinite Disguise) who had us waking in the night in a cold sweat. The scene in his introduction episode 'Happy Madeday’, which he kidnaps Hiro and impersonates him was like something out of 'Tales of the Unexpected’. Shudder.

The Weeping Angels. Absolutely no need for them lot on a Saturday tea time. No need at all. 'Blink’, from the third series of the rebooted 'Doctor Who’ in 2007, during David Tennant’s tenure as the Doctor, found Carey Mulligan pursued by animated statues which can move when unobserved. When Mulligan and Finlay Robertson’s Larry Nightingale are besieged by angels throwing increasingly terrifying shapes, you could almost hear the children screaming across the land.

HTV series 'Children of the Stones’ was deeply unsettling. Brilliant, but frequently creepy. Centring around Professor Adam Brake and his son Matthew as they arrive in the mysterious village of Milbury, which is surrounded by a neolithic stone circle, things soon start getting weird. When the residents - who are oddly docile and take part in odd chanting ceremonies - all begin turning to stone in the final episode, things get a bit Wicker Man. But for kids. The music was truly terrifying too.