Peace with Terror

Peace with Terror

1963 - United Kingdom

Frederick James Parsons is fanatical, dedicated, sincere; with his willing but slow-witted accomplice, Harry Warblow, he has planned a crime so sensational that it will surely call world-wide attention to his aims. Confidently he sets the wheels in motion, and then events take charge.

Peace With Terror, first of the new Television Playhouse series which was broadcast on Friday 21 September 1962, had originally been scheduled for a June showing. But ITV decided that Peter Cushing's performance was so strong and the production more suitable for a weekday rather than Sunday night, that is was decided to hold it over. Cushing himself said at the time, "I had lots of letters, and many kind people stopping me in the street, asking where I'd got to that Sunday that I felt quite guilty." 

Cushing plays Parsons, a text-quoting religious fanatic who heads a far-out sect called The Union for Peace. With the help of a hired accomplice, Harry Warblow (Brian Wilde), he evolves a sort of latter-day "Gunpowder Plot." But his objective is to blow up, not Parliament, but the War Office. There, he believes, lurk the "war-mongers"-and only by killing them off can he hope to preserve the peace of the world. 

Peace With Terror was an ATV Network Production. Sheila Manahan also starred as Alice Parsons. The play was produced by Quentin Lawrence. After it finished at 10.45pm ITV transmitted the first of a brand new programme in which teams of students from all over Britain met in a contest of general knowledge: University Challenge.    

Published on April 4th, 2020. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Morecambe and Wise - Top Ten Guests

Over the years, Morecambe and Wise entertained some of the most famous top-name celebrity guests performing sketches and comedy dance routines. Here are ten - they’re all the right guests, just not necessarily in the right order

Also starring Peter Cushing

The Close Prisoner

"We are all conceived in close prison: in our mother's wombs, we are close prisoners all...and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death..." John Donne.

Also tagged Single Play

Porridge TV series

Festive laughter inside the walls of Slade Prison, in the company of Norman Stanley Fletcher and Lenny Godber.

Also starring Brian Wilde

Burkes Law

Millionaire police officer heads LAPD's murder squad to solve high profile cases.

Also released in 1963

Tales of the Unexpected

Introduced by Roald Dahl, Tales of the Unexpected was a weekly, dark suspense filled anthology series with a different cast every week. Each story, with an unexpected and quirky twist in its tail had a moralistic message

Also starring Peter Cushing

Dumb Martian

Earthman Duncan Weaver on a solo tour of duty on one of Jupiter's moons buys a Martian woman as a companion. He mistreats her, assuming her to be just a "dumb Martian." He learns, to his cost, that she has more intelligence than he gives her credit for.

Also tagged Single Play

The Human Jungle

A Harley Street psychiatrist devotes his time to helping the not so well-off.

Also released in 1963

After the Funeral

When Alun Owen's play 'After the Funeral' was read by Sydney Newman, head of drama for ABC Television, and William Kotcheff, the television director, they were so taken by his conception of Wales and the Welsh, they decided to see for themselves.

Also tagged Single Play

Wyatt's Watchdogs

Major Wyatt, well retired from his military days, has taken it upon himself to form a Neighbourhood Watch scheme in the quiet and affluent village of Bradly.

Also starring Brian Wilde