Killing Time is the seventh teleplay from the first season of Menace. George Cole plays Douglas Willet. When Supertramp wrote the song 'Rudy' it was about men just like Douglas Willet: Anonymous, lonely, middle- aged men, "...on a train to nowhere, halfway down the line." Mr Cole OBE, was already a household name in the UK and was all over the place from Flash Harry on the big screen in 'The Belles of St. Trinian's' to Max Osborne in 'A Man of our Times'. A few years later he'd go on a 15 year run as Arthur Daley in 'Minder', a role that cemented him into the British consciousness.A svelte Annette Crosbie plays his secretary and looks a treat as she mothers Douglas and urges him to get his work done and stop procrastinating. Ms Crosbie is also one of our national treasures but is probably most widely recognized as Margaret Meldrew in 'One Foot in the Grave' especially on PBS in the USA.The very focused viewer will recognize an uncredited BBC TV segway voice-over done by Jon Pertwee (Dr Who/Wurzel Gummage). It happens around the 42nd minute as Douglas wakes up and goes down the stairs. Don't blink your ears or you'll miss it! I had to play it back twice to make sure it was his voice!The rest of the cast is a delight as this play slowly unfolds and the private yet mundane world of a working class family drive Douglass to act on his madness. There are so many memorable and masterful scenes that it's hard to keep track of them while keeping this review within a reasonable length for casual reading. But the family scenes around the TV in the sitting room are pure fun while the scenes with Douglas in his cellar at work are tense, disturbing and eventually terrifying.SPOILERS from here!Anyone remember the horsey board game Totopoly? In an effort to ingratiate himself into the family where he is renting a room, Douglas offers to play the game with them. But they'd rather watch television and bicker at each other than play a game. It's this moment of rejection when we know something bad is coming. Not long after, Nora's whining in the kitchen about her dirty linoleum floor finally pushes Douglas over the edge and he hacks the whole horrible family to death!The police come around and Douglas manages to cover his tracks well enough but his secretary stumbles onto the truth in the final cellar scene...Why is Douglas so tortured? Well, it's all explained at the end, albeit in a rather mysterious way.George Cole is at his most masterful as an actor here. His outwardly quiet and unassuming manner, occasionally interrupted by his nightmare burden of madness when he's alone is a thing of genius. There is no incidental music for the entire film so every emotional impact drawn from the viewer is taken wholly from what they see on the screen.Well, there are other things I wanted to say in favor of this magnificent production but I've gone on long enough. For fans of 'Thriller' or 'Tales of the Unexpected', this episode of 'Menace' will knock your socks off... and any fan of the late George Cole will want to watch this, too. Truly classic TV.

Many kudos to the great George Cole portraying the principle actor in this remarkable story... This episode is one of a species of horror which should perhaps have been laid out over a two-hour stretch. But I am quite satisfied with what was presented. Even though I sure wished to know more about "Douglas Willet".Picture a lonely man, leading a terrifically boring life. He is not a menace to society. Or so we are usually wont to believe.What transpires might turn off some viewers who want their stories to hit them in the face as fast as possible. Here there is none of that. You cannot assume anything from this slow pace, except that a case is being laid out for you to understand. One step at a time.The hour passes by much too quickly when you finally realize what you have experienced. But I heartily recommend this to anyone who prefers their horror served one dish at a time, until you can finally taste the whole meal.This is BBC television when it was still churning out real masterpieces and truly great acting - not imitations.

Seems a long time ago now but there was an era when the BBC was quite radical in its choice of drama and didn't go chasing ratings. And so, back in 1970, along came this masterpiece of ambiguity. George Cole, best known for his comedic roles but here giving vent to depths I certainly didn't know he possessed, highlights this piece as Douglas Willetts, a shrew of a man, mid-40s, barely able to communicate and renting a bedroom in a typically working-class two up-two down. Only he has a bit of a past. Possibly. For Douglas, every day is just a question of getting through it as painlessly as possible – and that usually means retreating to his bedroom. In order to escape the mundanities of the present? Or to ruminate on his past? I had a feeling something was going to happen in that house and certain now that the author of this piece was well versed in the Lizzie Borden legend! The staid pace of the drama and lack of incidental music, the banal detail highlighted in both the house and Willetts' office, all these are a perfect suburban backdrop for what's really going on in Willetts' mind. His subsequent actions are never truly explained and the drama is all the better for that as the viewer needs to think. And think hard. Such a shame the BBC don't credit we viewers with the same patience these days. Annette Crosbie is excellent as the secretary with just a hint of a crush on a man she senses is as lonely as she, herself is. The Braziers' – who Willetts lodges with – are all splendidly portrayed. The fussy matriarch who can't see past a mucky kitchen table as the ultimate in disaster. The slobby patriarch whose idea of exercise is falling asleep in front of the telly. The slobby lecher of a son who belongs more in the 50s than the swinging 60s. They all meet their comeuppance. The question for the viewer is a simple one – why? All in all, a splendid slice of BBC drama and, with the decor, Totopoly and It's A Knockout on the box, a marvellous curio too!!