Casting the Runes (Playhouse)

[4] The drama begins in 1968 with John Harrington walking his dog in the snow-covered landscape when the dog becomes agitated by the presence of something unseen that is silently hunting down Harrington, who has recently written a damning report on an American demonologist and cult figure named Karswell, an Aleister Crowley-like figure and the self-styled 'Abbot of Lufford'.

Prudence Dunning is the producer of an investigative television programme which is critical of Karswell, who in 1969 had written a book called A History of Witchcraft.

A review of the production in Horrified Magazine said: "Exton and Clark work together to create a setting where the characters live in a definably real world that is being intruded by something ancient and unrelenting.

Filtering through a decade of that beguiling, bleak approach the play also has a suitably harsh conclusion as it fades out, the wreckage caused by Karswell extending far beyond the final shot of a devastated Dunning.

"[5] Robert Markworth, reviewing the piece for Spooky Isles in 2022, wrote: "Casting the Runes may lack some of the polish of Clark's BBC films but, despite the slim budget afforded to this presentation, still carries enough of the director's familiar stamp of quality, and cleverly spooky flourishes, to ensure it fits comfortably within his supernatural oeuvre.