Web Page No 2618

21st September 2019

Quatermass

1st Picture. Professor Bernard Quatermass

 2nd Picture. Quatermass and the Pit

 3rd Picture. Quatermass Poster

4th Picture. Quatermass toy

Who remembers hiding behind the sofa to watch The Quatermass Experiment broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 not the re-staged version by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it told the story of the first manned flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group.

When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third – Victor Carroon – is behaving strangely. It becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.

Originally comprising six half-hour episodes, it was the first science-fiction production to be written especially for an adult television audience in Britain. Previous written-for-television efforts such as Stranger from Space (1951–52) were aimed at children. The serial was the first of four Quatermass productions to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979, and was transmitted live from the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace in London, one of the final productions before BBC television drama moved to west London.

The serial was written by BBC television drama writer Nigel Kneale, who had been an actor and an award-winning fiction writer before joining the BBC. He had an interest in science, particularly the idea of 'science going bad' which led to The Quatermass Experiment. The project originated when a gap formed in the BBC's schedules for a six-week serial to run on Saturday nights during the summer of 1953, and the idea was to fill it with "a mystifying, rather than horrific" storyline.

Rudolph Cartier, one of the BBC's best-regarded directors, directed the serial. Kneale claimed to have picked his leading character's unusual last name at random from a London telephone directory. He chose the character's first name, Bernard, in honour of astronomer Bernard Lovell in fact Kneale had not finished scripting the final two episodes before the first episode was transmitted. The production had an overall budget of just under £4000.The theme music used was "Mars, Bringer of War" from The Planets.

Each episode was rehearsed from Monday to Friday at the Student Movement House on Gower Street in London, with camera rehearsals taking place all day on Saturday before transmission. The episodes were then transmitted live—with a few pre-filmed 35mm film inserts shot before and during the rehearsal period at the BBC's original television studios at Alexandra Palace, it was one of the last major dramas to be broadcast from here.

The Quatermass Experiment was transmitted weekly on Saturday night from 18^th  July to 22^nd  August 1953. Episode one was scheduled from 8.15 to 8.45 p.m.; episode two 8.25–8.55 p.m.; episodes three and four 8.45–9.15 p.m.; and the final two episodes from 9.00 to 9.30 p.m. Due to the live performances, each episode overran its slot slightly, from two minutes (episode four) to six (episode six). The long overrun of the final episode was caused by a temporary break in transmission to replace a failing microphone.

The BBC intended that each episode be telerecorded onto 35mm film, a relatively new process and sale of the serial had been provisionally agreed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes were recorded before the idea was abandoned, although the first of these was later shown in Canada. It is very unlikely that material from the third to sixth episodes will ever be recovered to the BBC's archives. The two existing episodes are the oldest surviving examples and some of the earliest existing examples of British television drama at all.

In 1963, one of the existing episodes was selected as a representative of early British programming for the Festival of World Television at the National Film Theatre in London.

Along with his laboratory assistants, Professor Bernard Quatermass anxiously awaits the return to Earth of his new rocket ship and its crew, who have become the first humans to travel into space. The rocket is at first thought to be lost, having dramatically overshot its planned orbit, but eventually it is detected by radar and returns to Earth, crash-landing in Wimbledon.

When Quatermass and his team reach the crash area and succeed in opening the rocket, they discover that only one of the three crewmen, Victor Carroon, remains inside. Quatermass and his chief assistant Paterson investigate the interior of the rocket, and are baffled by what they find: the space suits of the others are present, and the instruments on board indicate that the door was never opened in flight, but there is no sign of the other two crewmen.

Carroon, gravely ill, is cared for by the Rocket Group's doctor, Briscoe who has been having a secret affair with Carroon's wife, Judith. It is not just Quatermass who is interested in what happened to Carroon and his crewmates; journalists such as James Fullalove (and Scotland Yard's Inspector Lomax are also keen to hear his story. Carroon is abducted by a group of foreign agents whose government wants the information they believe he has obtained about travelling in space. It is clear that there is something critically wrong: he appears to have absorbed the consciousness of the other two crew members, and is slowly mutating into a plant-like alien organism.

As the police chase the rapidly transforming Carroon across London, Quatermass analyses samples of the mutated creature in a laboratory, and realises that it has the ability to end all life on Earth if it spores. A television crew working on an architectural programme locates the monster in Westminster Abbey, and Quatermass and troops of the British Army rush in to destroy it in the hour before it brings about doomsday. Quatermass convinces the consciousness of the three crewmen buried deep inside the creature to turn against it and destroy it; this appeal to the last remains of their humanity succeeds in defeating the organism.

Following the success of The Quatermass Experiment, Nigel Kneale became one of the best-regarded screenwriters in the history of British television.

Quatermass was played by the experienced Reginald Tate, who died two years later, while preparing to take the role of the Professor again in Quatermass II.

Appearing in a small role as a drunk was Wilfrid Brambell, (Albert Steptoe) who later appeared as a tramp in Quatermass II.

The Quatermass Experiment achieved favourable viewing figures in 1953, opening with an estimated audience of 3.4 million for the first episode, increasing to 5 million for the sixth and final episode, and averaging 3.9 million for the entire serial

Viewers' responses were generally positive. Letters praising the production were sent to the Radio Times, while the writer and producer were also applauded by readers of TV News magazine, which nominated them for one of the publication's "TV Bouquet" awards.

The Quatermass Experiment frightened the life out of a vast new generation of television viewers whose sets had been acquired in order to watch the Coronation… Quatermass was one of the first series on British television to make life seem potentially terrifying."

Peter

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News and Views:

On this day 21st September 1960-65:

On 21/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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