The Mad Death (1983)

Concept and creative process

Opening titles for “The Mad Death’, a 3-part drama serial based on the novel by Nigel Slater. The series examined the effects of an outbreak of rabies in the United Kingdom after a French visitor smuggled her cat into Scotland. The title sequence comprised a montage of foxes faces, distorted by their reflection in the disturbed surface of water, which symbolised the irrational fear of water, a symptom of rabies in humans. The powerful effect of the distorted animal faces was augmented by the soundtrack of a voice whispering the opening lines of the popular hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.