Rare Christopher Lee Interview Resurfaces For Halloween

It's officially Halloween, and what better way to get into the creepy spirit of the season by listening to the dulcet tones of a genre legend, the late, great Christopher Lee, in the BBC Archive's newly restored episode of 1968 documentary, Whicker's World of Horror aka A Handful of Horrors: I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes.

A special edition of Whicker's World, a series presented by journalist and broadcaster Alan Whicker, Whicker's World of Horror sees Whicker talk to people in the horror industry to find out why we like being frightened. Alongside Lee as interviewees, the episode features Doctor Who Dalek creator Terry Nation, scream queen Barbara Steele (Black Sunday, The Pit and the Pendulum), legendary animator Ray Harryhausen and eccentric musician and politician Screaming Lord Sutch.

While we probably don't need to remind you, dear Fango reader, it is, of course, hard to overstate Lee's impact on the world of horror as we know it – the military veteran (and, later in life, metal musician) stood alongside Bela Lugosi as one of the most classic cinematic Counts, having played Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films including 1958's Dracula and 1966's Dracula: Prince of Darkness. A key Hammer player, Lee also had standout roles in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), The Mummy (1959), The Hands of Orlac (1960) and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966), not to mention his starring role as the enigmatic Lord Summerisle in 1973's The Wicker Man and as Saruman in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Prior to today, the full episode of A Handful of Horrors: I Don't Like My Monsters to Have Oedipus Complexes was only available as a bonus feature on the 2020 Blu-ray release of the Doctor Who serial “The Power of the Daleks”. Check out the full episode below (perfect pumpkin carving watching if you ask us):