At the request of many of our regulars, Ivan Kirby, who recently did a talk, ‘Captain Birdseye in the Nude’, has kindly drawn up his top ten of UK sexploitation/horror films from the 60s/70s.

1. Blood on Satan’s Claw (1970)
A sordid tale of Satanism in a 17th century English village. Amongst the village’s possessed youngsters is Michele Dotrice, later Frank Spencer’s long-suffering wife Betty in Some Mothers Do ‘ave ‘em.

2. Psychomania (1972)
Zombie bikers, Beryl Reid, frogs. What more could you reasonably ask for from a cinematic experience? Magnificently absurd and possibly the ultimate British cult film.

3. Konga (1960)
Hilarious bargain basement King Kong rip-off from the always wonderfully tacky producer Herman Cohen. Ends with the awesome spectacle of a man dressed as a gorilla destroying downtown Croydon.

4. Scream and Scream Again (1969)
Thoroughly groovy psychedelic horror/sci-fi weirdness with Vincent Price creating crazed human duplicates for a new world order. Supporting cast includes Peter Sallis of Wallace and Gromit fame. Please don’t expect it to make any sense.

5. Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1969)
‘Revolting black comedy for sadists showcasing the British cinema at its lowest ebb’. Halliwell’s Film Guide. Frankly that’s all you need to know to realise it’s worth watching.

6. Secrets of Sex (1969)
A thoroughly weird sex/horror/art cinema collision from William Burroughs collaborator Anthony Balch consisting of several stories ranging from the disturbing to the pointless, and lots of bare flesh in between. Narrated by an Egyptian mummy.

7. The Wife Swappers (1969)
A phantasmagoria of late 60s grottiness and one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. A sternly disapproving psychiatrist narrates as several bored suburbanites broaden their sexual horizons in a number of seedy ways (including being fondled by future Captain Birdseye Larry Taylor).

8. Zeta One (1969)
Sexploitation film lifted to surreal heights by the presence of comedy stars Charles Hawtrey and James Robertson-Justice as the villains.

9. Corruption (1967)
Peter Cushing as a homicidal maniac, cutting out various women’s pituitary glands to restore his girlfriend’s acid-ruined looks. It’s also got Kate O ‘Mara in it, and Cherie Blair’s dad.

10. Frightmare (1974)
The best of Pete Walker and David McGillivray’s brilliant 70s horror movies. Sweet, elderly Dorothy Yates (an astounding performance from Sheila Keith) isn’t quite as free of her cannabilistic tendencies has her family would like to hope & Andrew Sachs is one of her victims.