Quatermass Live

[devilchicken]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/...atermass.shtml

No sooner do I leave the UK when BBC Sci Fi starts to take off again. Now I'm stuck with The Apprentice and fricking American Idol. Bah!

Someone let me know if this is any good!

[devilchicken]

Some good news - the original series is out on DVD

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/cult/...31/18177.shtml

[Blackbeard]

Good news, I have had Quatermass and the Pit on DVD for some time now....but I didn't realise the BBC had all of the first & second series available in their entirety. Definitely worth a purchase. Much better than the Hammer film versions, IMHO.

[David Mosley]

Good news, I have had Quatermass and the Pit on DVD for some time now....but I didn't realise the BBC had all of the first & second series available in their entirety. Definitely worth a purchase. Much better than the Hammer film versions, IMHO.

If I understand your post correctly, it's worth pointing out that while the BBC have the whole of Quatermass II, they only have Episodes 1 & 2 of The Quatermass Experiment in their archive (epds 3-6 were never telecined for technical reasons).

The Quatermass DVD therefore contains QE 1&2, QII 1-6, and QatP 1-6, plus extras.

The Quatermass Live production airing tonight is an compression of the original 6 half hour episodes of QE into one 2 hour adaptation (being broadcast in two chunks with an interval). Still it looks very promising and well worth tuning in for.

Cheers,
David

[xidrep]

'Q & The Pit' is just about my fave bit of TV SF....the Hammer version wasn't bad either, but the 'long' monochrome TV version has the same gradually-mounting, subtle horror that Lovecraft achieved with Mountains of Madness...


Some folk up in Norwich, I think, several years ago put on a live performance of QATP in a quarry - with a JCB digging up the 'machine' during the performance, and using live-action and projection onto the wall of the 'pit'...and I missed it! Dang! Very good, by all accounts.

I want to be Andre Morell when I grow up... :lol:

[Pietro_Mercurios]

Yes! Definitely time to give a rousing cheer for the remarkable work of Nigel Kneale in bootstrapping British television drama into the 20th Century! :D

I'm seriously contemplating lashing out on the new digitally re-mastered DVD boxed set of all that remains of the original three series, at least when it goes to discount. :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/cult/...31/18177.shtml

The makers (Chris Carter) of X Files: The Movie (1998) ripped off the original 1950's Quatermass movies summat terrible. The original Quatermass material was far superior: http://www.the11thhour.com/archives/...ldermass1.html

Nigel Kneale, is, without doubt, one of the Great British Speculative Fiction writers and Professor Bernard Quatermass is one of Britain's most interesting Post War Anti-Heroes.

[devilchicken]

Some folk up in Norwich, I think, several years ago put on a live performance of QATP in a quarry - with a JCB digging up the 'machine' during the performance, and using live-action and projection onto the wall of the 'pit'...and I missed it! Dang! Very good, by all accounts.

I seem to remember that. It was on I think when I was visiting relatives in Norfolk with my family, but we didn't get a chance to go.

I had the original B&W series on VHS - was quite surprised as I remember the only time it was shown on TV they only broadcast the first half - up until the machine is dug up and they find the alien skeletons in there. The second half is really quite frightening - with those people being taken over by the machine's psychic projections.