Thriller (TV Series) The Double Kill (1975) User Reviews

The perfect Thriller

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 4 June 2018]

The Double Kill is everything you want in a thriller, it's clever, twisted, imaginative, it features the perfect game of cat and mouse, and of course there's a fiendishly clever twist waiting for you, one that I certainly didn't see coming.

Series five has been fantastic, The Double Kill is certainly up there with if it's a man hang up, and I would say deserving of the classic status.

The writing is tight and clever, as mentioned it's similar to a very famous plot, Dial M for Murder, but of course Brian Clemens manages to put his own expert spin on it.

Very well produced, it looks and sounds great. Excellent acting also, Gary Collins and Peter Bowles are superb.

It's a classic, I can't give it the perfect ten, as the plot is virtually a carbon copy, but it is a virtually perfect thriller, 9/10

Twist the knife

[analoguebubblebath · 9/10 · 16 September 2005]

'The Double Kill', the second episode in Thriller's fifth series is one of the strongest episodes overall and one which will keep you guessing all the way to the final credits.

Gary Collins makes his second of three Thriller appearances - this time he is Hugh Briant, an intense American who has been hatching a plan to murder his wife, Clorissa, subject to the right opportunity presenting itself. A botched burglary is seen as the ideal means of eliminating her and Briant wastes no time in aiding potential thieves by loudly discussing his valuable collection of antiques and paintings in his local pub to anyone who will listen. Soon afterwards he discovers the clinical Max Burns in his home one evening and blackmails him into agreeing to murder Clorissa. An elaborate plan is formulated and an appropriate alibi put in place.

However things do not pan out as hoped and Briant soon finds himself as chief suspect in his wife's death. It seems that Burns has turned the tables by deviating from the script and the American is prominently in the frame for murder. But are the police keeping something from him? A chance remark from a sympathetic friend leads Briant to Burns' door and following a dramatic meeting, a stunning twist in the narrative ensues.

Excellent.

Deadly Deception

[alanbriscoe · 7 June 2002]

This must rank as one of the very finest of Brian Clemens's splendid "Thriller" series.

Gary Collins plays Hugh Briant, an American married to a rich English woman. He has grown bored with her and takes the opportunity of testing a burglar he disturbs breaking into the house. He wants to see whether the man is prepared to kill. He is not, but later another burglar comes along who is not so principled. Briant blackmails this burglar, called Max Burns, into killing his wife. Burns makes it clear that he is quite happy to do the act.

Briant returns home to see the deed has been done but he has been framed for the murder. Burns is revelling in his deception and a detective seems quite happy to snare Briant. Can he save himself?

This outline does not do justice to the brilliance of this story. There are cracking performances by Collins and by Stuart Wilson as the loathsome Max Burns. The scenes between them are electrifying. Peter Bowles, better known for his later comedy guises, is exceptional as an unorthodox - more accurately unprofessional - detective. The writing and direction are always engaging. Through great writing and acting the viewer ends up rooting for the framed Briant - a man who organised the murder of his wife.

The climax though is utterly superb and really has to be witnessed. Suffice to say there is a remarkable twist ... See this if you can!

Variations on the "Dial M for Murder" Theme!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 12 June 2011]

...of which there have been a few in the "Thriller" series. Gary Collins is back, again playing a man who seems to have everything under control - but things (especially in "Thriller") have a habit of unraveling!!! For an episode toward the end of the whole series, this is amazingly complex and even though we sort of guessed the secret that crafty Supt. Lucas was keeping under wraps, it didn't make it any less surprising.

Hugh Briant (Collins) has a mansion in the country (well his wife has - she is the one with the money) filled with costly antiques but with no security system and he is forever talking about it (loudly!!) whenever he goes to the pub!! Why!! Because he wants to be robbed - but not just by any robber but by someone with enough nerve and steel to cold bloodedly kill his wife.

He has already interviewed one potential candidate but with no success - "But Guv, I don't want to kill you!!" "No, I know you don't, unfortunately!!" Enter Max Burns (Stuart Wilson). He is handsome, cold blooded and amoral and Hugh thinks he has surprised him in the act of robbing the house - but has he?? Where is his bag and tools and he also seems to have come from upstairs, not through the window that Hugh thoughtfully leaves unlatched!!

This is just the start of a darkly played game of cat and mouse - Hugh thinks he is the cat but little by little realises he is the mouse. The next morning he finds his wife dead (she is played ambiguously by Penelope Horner) but things aren't going to plan. The police think he is the guilty one and all the little clues he has left to help incriminate Max (fingerprints on a glass and the knife) are starting to look bad for him!! And Supt. Lucas' offsider occasionally asks him - "it's not ethical" and "Aren't you going to tell him" etc.

Apart from an occasional episode "Thriller" was one show that never let you down. Stuart Wilson was enormously popular at the time - he was a real heart throb and I had a huge crush on him. I can remember watching him as Count Vronsky in "Anna Karenina", the dashing Lopez in "The Pallisers" and as the star of "The Strauss Family", all romantic dramas in the tradition of "Upstairs, Downstairs". Peter Bowles is better known for his comedy teamings with Penelope Keith but he made a good Supt. Lucas whose unorthodox methods keep you guessing until the end.