I know exactly what you mean about trying too hard with the twins. I think all the related publicity material around them, which I've gradually absorbed over the years, was one of the reasons I expected it to be terrible. But they were better than I expected, conveying the different characters of the two sisters pretty effectively. Meanwhile, obviously Peter Cushing is always great, and the characterisation of Gustav Weil as fanatically puritanical and at the same time hopelessly ineffective in the face of a genuine threat was good.

As for Talking Pictures TV, they seem to acquire the rights to these films in a fairly random order. But they may be about to get a bit more systematic! Their latest email said the following:

"In another scoop, actress Caroline Munro is also filming with us at the moment – the “scream queen” herself is hosting our new show called The Cellar Club. She’ll be introducing A Hammer Season on Friday nights."

Now that sounds promising!