With Halloween fast approaching, it's time that those yearly Halloween specials start showing on the television. Shows as varied as the British soap opera Hollyoaks and the classic American cartoon The Simpsons (which is particularly well-known for this) have Halloween-themed episodes around this time of year. But there are also inevitably some great one-off shows on around Halloween - shows that run for either a single episode or over a handful of episodes, but only once, never to be replicated and not part of a long-running or ongoing series - and it's those kind of programmes I'll be focusing on here. As an Englishman, I've watched many great British one-off Halloween television specials and some of them have been highly enjoyable and very memorable. On that note, here are half a dozen great one-off British Halloween TV specials that you should seek out and watch (or watch again, if you've seen them already!)...
6. Frankenstein: A Modern Myth (2012)
Airing as a 60 minute documentary on Channel 4 on the the 31st of October in 2012, Frankenstein: A Modern Myth took a detailed look at some of the many depictions of eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation, including Danny Boyle's sell-out hit at the National Theatre. The film had exclusive access to rehearsals of said show and conducted interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller - who alternated the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the creature - and with Danny Boyle himself. The documentary explains how Mary Shelley was only 19 when she wrote the Gothic masterpiece nearly 200 years ago and it was first published, anonymously, in 1818 when she was just 21. Since then, the monster has been portrayed by actors such as Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Robert De Niro and Randy Quaid, while Victor has been played by the likes of Peter Cushing, Patrick Bergin, Udo Kier and Raul Julia and such portrayals are explored in great detail here. The excellent documentary was narrated by David Bradley and featured contributions from historian of science Phillip Ball, playwright Nick Dear, Mary Shelley biographers Daisy Hay and Miranda Seymour and writer Philip Hoare.