Thought Destroyed for Decades, This Reportedly Banned TV Episode Is Finally Returning to the Screen
A long-lost piece of horror history that was thought to have long ago been destroyed has been saved from the depths of a historic English theater, and genre buffs will soon have the chance to take it in for themselves.
No Such Thing As A Vampire, the premiere episode of a six-part anthology series that aired on the BBC in the late '60s, reportedly got the permanent boot from the network after viewers complained that it was too scary for television-which, coincidentally, had been Harry Moore's intent all along (the scary part, not the total ban).
The producer once emphasized how much more "effective" he felt horror was late at night, according to Film Is Fabulous, aiming to "screw up the audience's tension" with his series. "We have gone all out to make them really scary. We have great casts and good writers," he said, according to Film is Fabulous. "We have tried to take everyday situations which are believable and given them a horror treatment."
The discovery was "purely by chance," Darren Payne, the founder of Dirt in the Gate Movies, told the organization, which is dedicated to recovering and preserving vintage TV, in a new interview.
A board member of The Regent, a nearly 100-year-old cinema in Christchurch, Dorset, uncovered the film reel in a silver tin in a small storage area of the theater. There isn't much in the way of records for the film, and everything else that was found with it, but Payne noted that "they have certainly been there for several years and were on the verge of being thrown away."
He was called in to check out this particular reel, which had "Late Night Horror" handwritten across its label. As a "passionate horror aficionado," the title "rang a distant bell" for him.
When Payne took the reel home to play on his personal projection set-up, he "had to pinch [him]self" when he realized what had been uncovered. "Lo and behold it turned out to be the long-lost first episode of the Late Night Horror series," he said. "...it was an astonishing and quite emotional moment." Even better, it appears to be in excellent condition.
Now, the long-lost piece of horror history will be screened for the first time in almost six decades later this year at Grindfest 2026, an annual film festival curated by Payne's film company that screens cult, sci-fi, and horror at The Regent. It's also being scanned digitally and returned to the BBC archives.
No Such Thing As A Vampire is based on a short story by I Am Legend writer Richard Matheson. It follows a woman being cared for by her husband while suffering from a mysterious illness. Four of the six parts remain missing, with The Corpse Can't Play, which was recovered only a decade ago, being the only other episode known to still exist.
Fans were more than enthusiastic over the discovery, applauding the preservation team for their work.
"Amazing!!! 🎉🎉 Been waiting for this for years," one admitted, while another agreed, "I remember this well. Great find."
"Honestly, this is just magnificent," someone else marveled, as another called it "genuinely an incredible find."
For those not local to the theater, there is hope yet that you can view the episode, too-the BBC is currently focused on restoring the color to the black-and-white copy of the recording, but Film Is Fabulous is waiting to hear more from the network about potential streaming plans.
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 7:31 PM.