PIERS HAGGARD The atmosphere and milieu of fantastic cinema has wound itself throughout Piers Haggard’s career in film and television – a suitable situation given his family background: he is the grandson of H. Rider Haggard, author of She. Aside from Tigon’s tremendous Blood on Satan’s Claw – a magnificent portrait of creeping corruption and insidious evil – he helmed the scarily impressive Venom, with an A-list cast that included Oliver Reed, Klaus Kinski, Nicol Williamson, Sterling Hayden and a murderous black mamba. On TV he helmed episodes of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Callan, plus Dennis Potter’s Pennies from Heaven and The Lifeforce Experiment, from a story by Daphne Du Maurier. And, of course, there was Nigel Kneale’s chilling finale to obsessed scientists, Quatermass, starring Sir John Mills. All together now: "Huffitty puffitty, Ringstone Round…" & ROBERT WYNNE-SIMMONS A poet, playwright, composer and scriptwriter, Robert Wynne-Simmons was just 23 when he delivered the screenplay for Blood on Satan’s Claw – in just three weeks. The film was originally envisaged as three inter-connecting stories, written while still at school, entitled Legends of Torment of Body and Soul but they were eventually transformed into one long-form tale of terror. A bleak, brutal and relentless portrait of the supernatural in 17th century England, it was trashed by critics in the 1970s before finding a new life as a genuine classic of the genre. A follow-up, The Puppetmaster, was written and scheduled for production; alas, it never materialised. Today Robert is working on a wide range of new projects including film scripts, an opera, a children’s novel and a four movement symphony.