The first Quatermass BBC TV serial, 'The Quatermass Experiment', shown in 1953, was a phenomenon with five million people tuning in to watch the final episode. This second series ran for six half-hour(ish) episodes in the prime 8pm Saturday slot from 22 October to 26 November and benefitted from the wider availability of televisions with some 9 million people watching the sixth episode.
Professor Bernard Quatermass (John Robinson), head of The British Experimental Rocket Group, reeling from the failure of his latest rocket tests becomes embroiled in an investigation into the appearance of meteorites falling near to where the town of Winnerden Flats has been bulldozed and replaced with a heavily guarded chemical plant.
Like the later Hammer movie version 'Quatermass II' has long been considered the poor relation amongst the various productions, but its impact far outweighs the respect it's given especially in regard to how often shows like Doctor Who ('Spearhead From Space') mined it for ideas. Bernard Quatermass has always been Nigel Kneale's avatar and in his layered allegorical script Kneale comments on post war (re)development, short sighted greed, the inexorable rise of technology, the dehumanising impact of industry and intractable bureaucracy.
Broadcast live, with extra pre-filmed scenes edited in, it suffers from the problems you'd expect - stumbled over lines (especially from Robinson, a last minute replacement as the Professor following the death of Reginald Tate), and lots of emoting while staring enigmatically off camera and it's always funny watching the actors freeze in place at the end of each episode as the credits roll, but it's a glorious achievement that's often surprisingly brutal but shot through with Kneale's dark optimism for the power of science to save us whether we want it to or not.
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According to the website (and subject to possible change) the release includes...
Five discs, including two UHD and three Blu-ray, with the Hammer content duplicated across both formats. English, French, Italian, Spanish, German subtitles on all versions of the film.
The existing episodes from the original BBC television series.
Three iterations of The Quatermass Xperiment: the widescreen 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Version, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version re-titled The Creeping Unknown.
A rigid inner box featuring new artwork by cult favourite artist Graham Humphreys.
A double sided poster of original one-sheets
Eight act cards featuring facsimiles of the original UK cinema lobby cards.
180 page booklet featuring new and reprint articles and reproductions of original publicity.
56-page comic featuring a reprint of the comic strip from legendary 1970s magazine The House of Hammer.
The discs feature:
New commentary with actor and comedian Toby Hadoke, Nigel Kneale’s biographer Andy Murray and Wayne Kinsey, writer of numerous books on Hammer. Stephen R. Bissette, artist and film historian, filmmaker and Hammer expert Constantine Nasr and writer/producer Dr Steve Haberman plus archive 2003 commentary with director Val Guest and Hammer expert Marcus Hearn.
The Legend of Nigel Kneale: The Creeping Unknown. Who was Nigel Kneale? Toby Hadoke investigates the man and his influence in part one of a brand-new two-part documentary.
Unstoppable: Unleashing The Quatermass Xperiment. A close look at the making of The Quatermass Xperiment, with contributions from Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk.
Patient Zero. Award-winning actor and writer James Swanton, who played Carroon in the live, 70th anniversary production of The Quatermass Experiment, examines the life and career of Richard Wordsworth.
Monstrous! Stephen R. Bissette talks briefly about Phil Leakey and the make-up effects used in the film, for a section trimmed from the audio commentary.
The Eric Winstone Bandshow. A musical short from Hammer that played alongside The Quatermass Xperiment at the August 1955 UK premiere.
The Kneale Tapes. A 2003 BBC documentary that explores the career of Nigel Kneale, arguably one of the most significant writers of the post-war generation.
Cartier and Kneale in Conversation. From the 2005 BBC DVD. Writer Nigel Kneale and producer Rudolph Cartier reminisce about their work on the seminal Quatermass series.
Making Demons. From the 2005 BBC DVD. An interview with Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie, visual effects pioneers at the BBC.
Val Guest 2000 interview from the Festival of Fantastic Films archive.
Val Guest 2003 interview from original UK DVD release of The Quatermass Xperiment.
Exhuming The Quatermass Xperiment. A look behind-the-scenes at how the new 4K restoration of The Quatermass Xperiment was made.
Original trailers, foreign titles, Super 8 cut-down versions and the original BBFC censor cards for both The Quatermass Xperiment and The Eric Winstone Bandshow.
Extensive image gallery of stills and publicity material, alongside tracks from James Bernard’s score.
Quatermass and the Pit Omnibus Titles. From the 2005 BBC DVD. The bespoke titles used for the omnibus repeat edition of the third Quatermass TV series.
TV Series Photo Gallery. From the 2005 BBC DVD. Rare photos of the original BBC productions.
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"Dark matter makes up 85% of the universe. Recent scientific theory suggests dark matter is information—a fifth form of matter—and that we can wake it up. But waking it up can let dark things out.
James Callis is Dr. John Carnack. Five years ago, his dark matter experiments led to tragedy. His redemption is working for the Department of Midnight, investigating dangerous dark matter experiments, trying to prevent further disasters. But there’s a pattern.
I adore audio plays and so one written by one of my favourite authors revolving around the types of themes and settings we champion here on Wyrd Britain is a very good thing indeed. Warren has never been shy of celebrating his influences and the shadows of 'Doomwatch', 'Quatermass' - Nigel Kneale himself the author of numerous wonderful radio plays - and William Hope Hodgson's occult detective Thomas Carnacki loom large here and those with a familiarity with Warren's work will feel the immediate kinship here with the 'Injection' comic series he does - note the present tense, I'm ever the optimist - with Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire that plays with classic British heroic archetypes and folkloric themes.
The cast are perfectly suited, James Callis (Battlestar Galactica) has that perfectly detached post traumatic British persona that mixes duty and weariness with a barely suppressed mania and Alicia Witt (Dune) - obviously I'm only talking about episode one here - is deliciously bonkers entirely inhabiting the role of being entirely inhabitated.
It's a really strong and intriguing introduction to this world, and I'm very excited to see where they take this.
Episode One: The Cold Spot Dr. John Carnack is an investigator for the Department Of Experimental Oversight. Responding to a whistleblower call, he arrives at a lab to discover Dr. Sylvie Bestler’s personal experiment: to see what’s on the other side of the universe. Starring James Callis and Alicia Witt.
Episode Two: Jack in the Box John Carnack’s old friend is being kept in a plastic cell. There’s a contamination issue. He tripped over something when he discovered his employer’s body. But Carnack is concerned that something darker is going on…Starring James Callis and Gildart Jackson.
Episode Three: Song to the Siren On the death of Carnack’s mentor, her daughter asks him to examine the death scene. They find out too late that she died of very unnatural causes. Starring James Callis and Adrianne Palicki.
Episode Four: The Red House The university bought a derelict house out in the middle of nowhere for this experiment. When Carnack arrives to shut them down, everyone thinks he’s crazy, but he knows what the Red House really is. Starring James Callis and Nolan North.
Episode Five: The Devil Runs Out A routine examination of a dark matter lab turns into a race against time, as Carnack is forced to pursue a face from his past intent on human sacrifice. Starring James Callis and Brett Dalton.
Episode Six: Judgement In the season one finale, John Carnack faces the board of the Department of Experimental Oversight, interrogated by a prosecutor. Now he must be held accountable for his actions. And for the sins of his own past. Starring James Callis and Carla Gugino.
All six episodes are included in the playlist below.
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It was only a matter of time before we got to the film that launched - well, revived - a studio and created countless cinematic legends and so here we are in the company of the venerable Professor Bernard Quatermass.
When Hammer released 'The Quatermass Xperiment' in 1955 it was a familiar commodity to the British public with Nigel Kneale's creation having been made as a six part serial by and shown to great success on the BBC just two years earlier.
The story follows the return of the sole survivor of the rocket ship launched by Quatermass' 'The British Experimental Rocket Group' and of the alien parasite that takes over his body leading to one of the most iconic endings in movie history.
Director Val Guest tweaking a screenplay by Richard Landau from the original script by Kneale does a masterful job of building the suspense ably assisted by a sympathetic performance from Richard Wordsworth (great-great-grandson of William) as the doomed astronaut Victor Carroon, a gently comedic performance from Jack Warner as Inspector Lomax and a slightly lumpen but enjoyably brusque performance in the title role from Brian Donlevy, an American brought in to help sell the movie to the US.
The end result is a movie whose impact, beyond the rejuvenating of Hammer studios and the myriad films and careers that flowed from it, still resonates today.
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you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us
continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the
blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
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Consulting detective
Vivek Headland tackles a case involving a stolen ghost, but when human
deli meat causes him to call for help the details of his investigation
reveal a new battleground between humanity and The Injection.
In the first Injection collection we briefly met the various folks who made up the 'Cultural Cross-Contamination Unit' in the run-up to doing something, if not necessarily bad then definitely ill-conceived. we also meet them some years down the line having had time to experience the repercussions of their actions and to know that the new surge of activity is a very bad thing.
Warren Ellis
Concentrating for the most part on Professor Maria Kilbride and 'cunning-man' Robin Morei volume one was a thoroughly Quatermassy experience filled with British folk legends, crusading scientists and embittered magicians - all the things that make Wyrd Britain feel all warm inside. This time we're across the Atlantic and in the company of consulting detective Vivek Headland for an entirely Sherlockian ride as Headland is hired by a high flying financier to investigate the disappearance of a photograph containing the ghost of his mistress. Into the mix are thrown a European esoteric militia called 'Rubedo' who want something the financier has - and it isn't his photo.
Declan Shalvey & Jordie Bellaire
(photo by Pat Loika)
At first Headland seems a cold sort of chap but over the course of the story we get to see the humanity in him and with the arrival of the other two ex-CCCU members we get to see the love he has for his friends and just how much values them. Of those other two ex-colleagues, Simeon and Brigid, they are very much supporting cast here but there is a big, beautiful splash page - massive kudos to the art team here who are strong throughout but here they excel - that tells us, in no uncertain terms, down which Wyrd Britain road we'll be travelling next - happily it's my favourite.
So, two volumes in with hopefully many more to come and this is already the book I look forward to the most each year. I do love it when Warren gets stuck into an idea and starts to take his time to wander around, grows his world and allow each of his characters space to do their thing in their own way. It's something so few writers, especially in comics, take the time to do and it's one of the things that makes his work just so damn good.
The new Sainsbury's Xmas advert (which I'm not going to link to) features the misadventures of a cat called Mog.
Mog was the star of a series of books written by Judith Kerr who was married to Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale.
Now how about a Xmas ad based on one of his characters.
Maybe the Victor Caroon alien rampaging through Tesco, or a giant
Martian devil appearing out of the Hob(bs Lane)nobs in Morrisons or maybe an
Asda full of Planet People being harvested.
In 1979 TV (in the guise of original Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert) finally got around to letting Nigel Kneale loose on another Quatermass TV series.
It's set many years on from the three classic serials / movies and finds a retired Quatermass (John Mills) forced to return from his solitude in Scotland to search for his missing granddaughter. He finds himself in a Britain he no longer recognises. One of anarchy, mob rule, violence, poverty and devastation. The elderly are forced to hide and fend for themselves, rival gangs wage war in the streets and groups of young people - Planet People (sort of violent, punky, hippies) - roam the countryside driven to search for the sacred sites that will allow them to be transported to a better life on another planet.
Quatermass is a witness to one of these 'transportations' and redoubles his efforts to find his granddaughter, helped by astronomer Joe Kapp (a pre-Manimal Simon MacCorkindale) who, along his family and colleagues, operate a radio telescope in the country. From there he finds himself drawn further and further into the fantastic events that are impacting on, not just the UK but, the whole planet.
At it's release the series was generally regarded as a bit of a flop
but for me it has always been a most glorious addition to the good
Professor's life. John Mills portrayal is perhaps lacking in the gruff,
professorial gravitas of his predecessors but his Quatermass is a
broken man forced to confront a world he has little interest in or
knowledge of having finally turned his back on the trials and travails
of his previous existence. Over the course of the series we see him
somewhat regain his previous stature and his place as the pre-eminent
scientist of the age.
Kneale is at his most bitter here. It is savage in it's portrayal of a society in terminal decline; written at a time of huge social upheaval and political unrest in the UK and screened mere months after the UK election victory of the extremely right wing Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher. It is equally savage regarding the blind obedience of the Planet People to a violent and domineering leader, Kickalong (Ralph Arliss), and their willingness to march headlong and unheeding in his wake. It is a lot more sympathetic to the plight of the older residents of this world whose 'Blitz Spirit' maintains them against the uncaring selfishness of the rest of society and eventually allows them to reclaim and redefine the world.
With it's melding of science fiction, folk horror and it's unerring belief in the power of science it touches on many familiar tropes of Kneale's work and is perhaps a little heavy handed in how it presents itself but for me it is the ending that the Quatermass story needed in order to bring his tale to a satisfying close and one I find myself returning to as often as I do any of the others.
So...
Huffity, puffity, Ringstone Round,
If you lose your hat it will never be found,
So pull your britches right up to your chin,
And fasten your cloak with a bright new pin,
And when you are ready, then we can begin,
Huffity, puffity, puff!
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If you were to ask me now which of the Quatermass is my favourite I don't think I'd be able to to chose between the full length TV series edit of the John Mills one and '...the Pit'. In actual fact it'd be a close call between all of them but I think those two have the edge.
Adapted from the TV serial of the same name 'Quatermass and the Pit' is a 1967 Hammer movie with American actor Brian Donlevy stepping aside from the title role and Scotsman Andrew Keir taking up the mantle.
The story finds Quatermass investigating a strange object found during excavations in a London tube station named Hobbs End where, with the help of paleontologist Dr Matthew Roney (James Donald) and around the hindering presence of Colonel Breen (Julian Glover), he uncovers an uncomfortable truth about humanity's past and unleashes a force that could ensure it has no future.
It's a classic piece of British sci-fi and Keir is perfectly cast as a gruff and exasperated Quatermass at odds with the beauraucrats around him and embroiled in events that are soon spiralling out of control. It's beautifully constructed with the tension building right from the off until the electrifying climax.
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That esteemed home of dry facts and vile commenting IMDB tags X the Unknown with the rather marvellous one sentence synopsis, 'Radioactive mud-like creature terrorises a Scottish village during the 1950's.' It's not entirely accurate but in essence pretty much sums up this little gem.
X the Unknown was made in 1956 by Hammer initially intended as a follow up to The Quatermass Xperiment (can you spot the similarity) but were denied use of the title character by Nigel Kneale. Continuing regardless with both the movie and also with the practise of casting an American in the title role, Dean Jagger here and Brian Donlevy in the first two Quatermass movies, in order to hopefully widen the appeal of the film to US audiences regardless of whether the presence of an American working in a Scottish nuclear research testing station or even running the British Experimental Rocket Group was at all incongruous.
The Unknown X of the title is a large blob creature from the dawn of time that feeds on radiation. It is drawn to the surface by soldiers conducting Geiger Counter field tests and soon begins to hone in on rather more sumptuous feasts including the experiments and workplace of our Bernard Quatermass substitute, Dean Jagger's Dr. Adam Royston.
Jagger has far too little charisma to hold his own at the centre of the film but is ably assisted by a strong supporting cast that includes Edward Chapman (more famous for his role as Mr. Grimsdale opposite Norman Wisdom), Leo (Rumpole of the Bailey) McKern and Anthony Newley in a short but sweet role as Lance Corporal "Spider" Webb whose delivery of the word 'Tea' (and his short scene that follows) is just perfect.
There's a reason X the Unknown isn't as fondly remembered or celebrated as the Quatermass movies, it just isn't as good but few things are. It does however maintain a fairly breathless pace throughout, has some nice set pieces and isn't afraid to let things get a little gory and intense (the lustful radiographers melting face being the main thing that springs to mind here). It has it's charm and it has it's fans (including me) and at only 75 minutes is a great way to while away an afternoon.
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Nigel Kneale
(BBC Audio) First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1996, this is a mix of original TV soundtrack and drama-documentary, in which Nigel Kneale reflects on the 1950s fearful atmosphere in which he wrote the classic 'Quatermass' TV serials. The programme mixes the factual story with a dramatic narrative, in which the now-retired Professor Quatermass (played by Andrew Keir) reluctantly recounts his past exploits to a female journalist. This in turn is interweaved with soundtrack footage from the Quatermass TV dramas.
What a strange little artifact this turned out to be. I’m really not sure what it’s meant to be; part documentary, part drama, part reminiscence / retrospection. Throughout the two discs Nigel Kneale talks about the influences on each of the Quatermass TV series and attempts – rather clumsily – to put each into a socio-political context. Interspersed with this is an odd little dramatisation featuring Andrew Keir reprising his portrayal of the now aged, retired and even crankier Quatermass who is ‘pushed’ into reminiscence of the events of his past by a young researcher turning up at his door.
It was a pleasure to hear Keir and the Kneale sections were diverting enough in their way but on the whole this was a bit of a non event. The attempt at the very end to bring in a set-up for the world of the 1979 TV series was a nice little conceit but, much like the rest of it, rather clumsily done.
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