Quatermass: Nigel Kneale, Hammer and Mid-Century Britain

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As always there are spoilers ahead!

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As mentioned on the podcast here is an outline of the Quatermass offerings: 

FILM

1955: The Quatermass Xperiment AKA The Creeping Unknown (dir, Val Guest)

1957: Quatermass 2 AKA Enemy from Space (dir. Val Guest)

1967: Quatermass & the Pit AKA Five Million Years to Earth (dir. Roy Ward Baker)

1979 The Quatermass Conclusion (recut from TV series, dir. Piers Haggard)

2005 The Quatermass Experiment (Live TV movie, dir. Sam Miller)

Radio

1996: The Quatermass Memoirs

TV Series

1953: The Quatermass Experiment

1955: Quatermass II

1958-59 Quatermass and the Pit

1979 Quatermass (AKA Quatermass IV or The Quatermass Conclusion)

2005 The Quatermass Experiment (Live)

 

Professor Bernard Quatermass was created by British superstar screenwriter Nigel Kneale and aired on the BBC in 1953. The TV series went on to great popularity and Hammer Films eventually came knocking for film rights. 

Nigel Kneale did not have any rights over the character due to being a staff writer at the time but would eventually go on to international fame especially in sci-fi and horror circles with John Carpenter (amongst others) being a vocal fan.

Despite all this many people have not heard of Quatermass. Although there have been many attempts to revive the franchise none have come to fruition.

But that won't stop me seeking out two of the best academics to talk excitedly about their passion for this early TV sci-fi pioneer.

Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.

Matthew Rule-Jones is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Exeter. A doctor of science fiction who likes to write about cinema including the book Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:24 Nigel Kneale

06:28 Rudolph Cartier and changes in TV

08:22 Hammer films and Quatermass

13:09 The many iterations of Quatermass

22:04 The traditional tinkering British scientist

26:47 From TV to Film

32:44 Quatermass 2 and the 1950s

41:30 Aliens!

48:58 Kneale and Victorian influences

52:21 Legacy

57:47 Recommendations

 

Recommendations

Sapphire & Steel (1979-1982, TV series)

Event Horizon (1997)

 

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we take a break from science fiction films to talk to two experts about science fiction and architecture. Then we're heading into 1968 so wish me luck!