Wednesday, December 29, 2010

1950’s BBC telly: Quatermass and the Pit

Here's the opening segment of Quatermass and the Pit, a British science fiction television serial originally broadcast live by BBC in December 1958 and January 1959. Set in London in late 1950’s, the storyline revolves around a mysterious archaeological dig, five-million-year-old apemen, an unexploded Nazi bomb, a haunted house, black magic, ancient Latin manuscripts and... Martians! Starring British actor André Morell as rocket scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass, Canadian actor Cec Linder as paleontologist Doctor Matthew Roney, and British actress Christine Finn as Barbara Judd, Dr. Roney’s assistant.


Written by British screenwriter Nigel Kneale, Quatermass and the Pit was published as a novel by Penguin Books in 1960 was published in script form by Penguin Books in 1960.


"Probably the most effective blending of the supernatural with science-fiction themes, Kneale brilliantly explains the roots of magic and superstition via an ancient Martian invasion of Earth.” The Guardian (October 2001).

3 comments:

  1. A slight correction to your post: unless I am very much mistaken, Kneale's book of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT is not a novelisation. It is the complete script of the serial, lightly edited to make it readable. I have never seen the Penguin edition pictured, but I do own a later paperback printing from another publisher.

    I believe the only Quatermass novel Kneale published was QUATERMASS, which was a novelisation of the 1980 revival of Professor Q (when he was played by John Mills). The other Quatermass serials - THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, QUATERMASS II and QUATERMASS AND THE PIT - were published as scripts, not novels.

    - Phil

    www.bradburymedia.co.uk

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  2. Thanks for the clarification, Phil! I've made a correction.

    Love the Penguin cover art!

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  3. I quote like the cover art as well (although I find the character's right arm anatomically challenging...). What is does show well is something that isn't really conveyed properly in the actual TV production (which survives in its entirety, by the way, and is available in full on a beautifully restored DVD), namely the physical relation between the "bomb" in the pit and the houses up above.

    - Phil

    www.bradburymedia.co.uk

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