Peter Vaughan Movies

Based on a novel by Constantine Fitzgibbon, this two-part British miniseries was set sometime in the 1990s. Weakened by political corruption, agnosticism, and moral decay, Great Britain is ripe for plucking by the U.S.S.R. -- and the result is a full-scale invasion. Naturally, when this series originally aired in 1962, the notion that the U.S.S.R. itself would have collapsed under its own weight by the end of the 1980s was not only remote, but virtually unthinkable. Still, When the Kissing Had to Stop was a competent bit of dramatic speculation, distinguished by a stellar cast of top British character actors. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Something is seriously amiss in the tiny British village of Midwich. At 11 a.m. one morning, every village resident suddenly falls asleep -- and then, just as suddenly, everyone wakes up, completely unaffected by the phenomenon. Well, not completely: virtually every woman of childbearing years has become pregnant. All the babies are born on the same night, at precisely the same moment. All look the same, weigh the same, and even have the same curious cross-hatched hair and underdeveloped fingernails. Four years later, the children have all prematurely reached the age of nine or so -- and all behave in a weird, conspiratorial manner, comporting themselves more like adults than kids. Resident scientist George Sanders, one of the fathers, surmises that the bizarre manner of the children -- from their zombie-like movements to their cold, staring eyes -- is the result of radioactivity, possibly extraterrestrial in nature. One thing is certain: the children possess powers far beyond those of ordinary mortals. And they must be stopped. One of the most influential science fiction films of the 1960s, Village of the Damned was based on the equally eerie John Wyndham novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The more explicit 1995 remake was widely panned in comparison. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi