film directed by Robert Butler

八十年代早期，Hammer影业公司为英国电视台拍了一部电视连续剧——《步步惊心》。本剧播出了13集。与恐怖电影不同的是，剧中主角往往是难逃恐怖的魔爪——从虐待狂的店主到女巫甚至撒旦教派等等。剧集的标志是它浓重的黑色讽刺、恐怖的主题音乐和将恐怖情节与日常生活的混合。

Malcolm Shanks is a sad and lonely man, deaf, mute and living with his cruel sister and her husband, who delight in making him miserable. His only pleasure, it seems, is in making and controlling puppets. Thanks to his skill, he is offered a job as a lab assistant to Dr. Walker, who is working on ways to re-animate dead bodies by inserting electrodes at key nerve points and manipulating the bodies as if they were on strings. When the professor suddenly dies one night, Shanks gets the idea to apply their experimental results to a human body, and then to start exacting some revenge.

When one of Regan's snouts complains that his girlfriend's recent suicide was murder, the flying squad detective feels compelled to investigate. He uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the government, and finds himself fitted up, suspended and under the scrutiny of Special Branch.