it was good science-fiction, it was good drama- it was good science-fiction, it was good drama. it was good science-fiction, it was aood drama. ., ., good drama. tell me, though, how did it no good drama. tell me, though, how did it to down good drama. tell me, though, how did it go down with good drama. tell me, though, how did it go down with the good drama. tell me, though, how did it go down with the actual it go down with the actual audiences? we talk about people in the pub,? audiences? we talk about people in the ub,? ., ~ ., , ., ., , the pub,? talking millions, how many eole the pub,? talking millions, how many people actually the pub,? talking millions, how many people actually have the pub,? talking millions, how many people actually have televisions? - people actually have televisions? most people actually have televisions? most people, and it goes from 3.5 million to 5 million in the course of six weeks, which when you consider how many people had televisions
you can see the full list of candidates on your screen now. for more information please go the bbc website. tonight marks a very special moment in the history of british television and science fiction. exactly 70 years ago, the first episode of the quatermass experiment aired on the bbc, the only television service in the uk at the time. written by nigel kneale and produced by rudolph cartier, the serial gripped the nation with imaginative storytelling and bold, inventive production techniques. tv sequels and film adaptations followed. the rest, as they say, is history, with a host of science fiction programmes for ever in the debt of the quatermass serials. in a moment, i ll be speaking to quatermass historian the writer and performer toby haydoke. first let s travel back in time.
good evening, thank you forjoining us. i mean it was extraordinary, pioneering television, wasn t it? i mean, nigel kneale practically invented television drama as we know it. because at the time it was like film theatre, casts from west end plays would sometimes go to ally pally on a sunday and take a bow and it was three very heavy cameras on a flat picture, and what they did was, they crashed a spaceship and did very fast, for the time, fast moving and terrifying as well, because it was embedded in the time. 1953 was an optimistic year, the coronation had just happened, westminster abbey had just happened, westminster abbey had been on television, everybody got a television to watch had been on television, everybody got a television to watch westminster abbey, the next time westminster abbey, the next time they saw westminster abbey on they saw westminster abbey on television it was being taken over television it was being taken over by an alien. everest had just been by an alien. e
1953, the queen s coronation at westminster abbey. but there was another important visitor to the abbey that year. the quatermass experiment was a british tv first, so bold in scope and ambition that the still stuffy bbc television service had to be catapulted into this new world of rockets and alien menaces. what did it do to them? in this first serial, an astronaut returns to earth possessed by an alien parasite and mutates into a creature that the bbc had no idea how to make. so writer nigel kneale had to come up with something himself. this is the original special effect made by my father. my mother sat with her hands in a pair of gardening gloves. you can still see the cuff there. and my dad stuck all sorts of bits of leather and tendrils and made it into a creature which they then put
a second serial was made in 1955. this time the alien invaders were already among us. the demons. the series reached new heights at the end of the decade with quatermass and the pit, a stunning production for its time with the added benefit of audio effects from the new radiophonic workshop. it s got an indefinable magic to it, and also nigel kneale s touch of genius. he was the hg wells of his time, i think. we may not have recordings of the whole of that first series, but the quatermass experiment lives on through the sci fi tales it inspired and through a pair of gardening gloves that once terrified the nation. i m joined now by the actor and writer toby hadoke, whose book about the quatermass experiment is being published later this year. he s also part of the cast led by mark gatiss who ll be performing those quatermass scripts at alexandra palace in september.