User Reviews

Barbara King is trying to get over a broken love affair so has a holiday on the English Coast . One night she is awakened and finds a man standing over her bed

After the outstanding Girl Of My Dreams the series returns to being somewhat generic . The Last Visitor isn't a classic from JTTU but neither is it in anyway bad . As the previous commentator has stated the plot revolves around " Who is stalking Ms King " and the main suspect , Mr Plimmer is far too obvious which means the only other suspect is .... well you'll probably work it out before it's revealed on screen

As ShadeGrenade has pointed out the story owes a lot to PSYCHO but is nowhere as violent and as sensationalist as the Hitchcock classic and this shouldn't be taken as a criticism because it means while The Last Visitor isn't a classic episode it does have a high degree of credibility to it . I also believe it's the only episode in which nobody dies

Barbara King, a young American woman, checks in at the Beach Hotel, Hastings. Unfortunately, her hopes for a peaceful holiday ( she is recovering from a breakdown brought on by over-work and a failed romance ) fade almost immediately. As she sleeps, a mysterious figure in hat and glasses enters her room, and approaches the bed.

By the time she has attracted help, the stranger is gone. Suspicion falls on Mr.Plimmer, a middle-aged man staying with his wife. But the Plimmers move out a day later.

Barbara learns that the husband of the hotel's owner, Joan Walker, went insane years ago and had to be put away. Could he be lurking somewhere about the house, possibly hiding in the permanently locked room next to the linen cupboard?

Written by Alfred Shaughnessy, later to write for 'Upstairs, Downstairs', this is a suspenseful episode, benefitting from nice location work and good performances, especially the late Kay Walsh as the alcoholic landlady, and Geoffrey 'Catweazle' Bayldon as creepy 'Mr.Plimmer'. Its never explained though just what Barbara is doing in England in the first place. Patty Duke gives an adequate performance.

Spot The Future Star; 'Peggy' the maid is played by Sally James, she of 'The Almost Legendary Pop Interviews' from the '70's children's show 'Tiswas'. Its tempting to think the Phantom Flan Flinger might be the stalker, but that theory does not hold water ( rather like the buckets Sally and Chris Tarrant used to wield ).

The denouement is not really much of a surprise ( not many suspects on view for a start ), and the final wrap-up scene evokes 'Psycho'.

The title refers to the fact that Barbara is the last visitor of the holiday season.