"Hay-Fork and Bill-Hook" initially builds up intrigue about witches in modern Wales but quickly bogs down in endless exposition that ultimately leads to a numbingly weak conclusion. Druid stones have stood for 1100 years near the country village of Dark Woods, and the ritual murder of hedge cutter Thomas Watson (Lumsden Hare) has brought Scotland Yard's Harry Roberts (Kenneth Haigh) to investigate with new bride Nesta (Audrey Dalton) in tow. Local authorities like Sir Wilfred (Alan Caillou, here performing double duty as writer and actor) and Constable Evans (Alan Napier) don't seem to be much help, even after the wicker basket burning of an elderly woman in a second killing. Events are discussed rather than seen, the first victim stabbed by pitchfork then a stake driven through his heart and a cross carved on his throat, the locals with a long history of such maniacal doings to dispatch witches (Christopher Lee would enjoy one of his finest screen roles in a Scottish variation on pagan rites, 1973's "The Wicker Man"). Alan Napier and Doris Lloyd make for a frosty mother and son, Audrey Dalton given less to do than in "The Prediction" (her best would be "The Hollow Watcher"), Kenneth Haigh a lackluster lead, soon to share the screen with George Harrison in the Beatles classic "A Hard Day's Night." This was Napier's meatiest part in the series, his lower class characterization at odds with the role of Alfred on TV's BATMAN, a pleasant reminder of his early Hollywood vehicle "The Invisible Man Returns," in which his sniveling colliery foreman was terrorized by Vincent Price's invisible protagonist. He even delivers a choice line with an admirably straight face when Audrey gushes about how well the trees grow: "they have nothin' else to do!" Alan Caillou would go on to script two better entries, "The Terror in Teakwood" and "La Strega," prior to big screen efforts like Bert I. Gordon's "Village of the Giants," George Hamilton's "Evel Knievel," and William Shatner's "Kingdom of the Spiders."