DB7

BBC to remake seventies cult drama Survivors

Published Thursday 22 November 2007 at 15:55 by Matthew Hemley

Seventies drama Survivors is to be remade by the BBC after the Corporation acquired the rights to develop it from creator Terry Nation’s estate.

Set in the present day, the new series will be penned by Primeval and The Ruby in the Smoke writer Adrian Hodges and will be broadcast on BBC1.

The original drama, which also played on BBC1, focussed on a post-apocalyptic world in the aftermath of a plague that has wiped out most of mankind and a group of individuals trying to survive.

It was launched in 1975 and ran for 38 episodes over three series.

Hodges said the theme of the drama was as “relevant as ever”, adding that his version will stay faithful to many aspects of the original, whilst being “accessible to a contemporary audience”.

BBC head of series and serials Kate Harwood said: “The opportunity to remake Survivors for a modern generation proved irresistible. After months of negotiations, I am delighted that one of British television’s great cult series will return with original stories packed with adventure and spirit, set against the backdrop of our own recognisable world.”

Steve Crook

As with most remakes, one has to ask "Why?"
It was very much of its time with a lot more interest in self-sufficiency at the time as well as the initial "wipe out 99.9% of the population" type of scares that we had to live with back then

Steve

HIPPIEDAVE

As a big fan of Survivors, and someone who penned story-lines to continue the series, but at the time (90s) fell on deaf ears with the BBC,not sure a remake would work, as most do not have the ambiance of the era.D

Pip

Agree with the others - we don't need this excellent series re-written. Why not revisit the Survivors 30 years on - how have they progressed (or regressed?). I'm sure many of the original actors would love to reprise their roles.

A plague on the re-writer mentality!!!!

Pip

Chevyman

Not yet another vehicle for David Tennant I hope

I think the original series should remain in our memories for what it is; where it was shot; when it was set and the very talented cast who made it memorable?

Harleybloke

One day we'll have great headlines like........................

.......'Beeb to make completely new and original drama series......................'

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

HIPPIEDAVE

Yes, new BBC Drama, about a bunch of mindless idiots with no talent working on yet another reality show-aagh.D

monkie56uk

I enjoyed the first time around and im sure would like to see how this would be remade.

Steve Crook

But do you think it needs to be remade? What would a remake add to it?

Steve

johng

I agree with what has been said. How many films and TV series have been remade and they are not a patch on the original. It rarely ever works.

Look at Randolph and Hopkirk! One TV series which did work was Maigret. From what I now can remembe of themthey were brilliant - and so really was the remake with Michael Gambon

johng

blacknorth

Could be they're anticipating a renewed interest in disaster programming once M Night Shyamalan's new film comes out...

Why don't they go back and adapt one of the great British disaster novels like The Death Of Grass or The Tide Went Out? Anything by John Christopher or Charles Eric Maine or Fred Hoyle.

It's not like there's a lack of material. I don't understand. I'm beginning to suspect the generation currently at the BBC haven't done their reading and don't know these things exist.

Steve Crook

I doubt if they do. They aren't usually taught that sort of thing on the one short media course that is all that most of them seem to have done, or Daddy didn't tell them about it when he got them the job

As for M Night Shyamalan's The Happening, is that expected to be much different to all the other Hollywood disaster movies of the last few years? They've had big storms, tidal waves, meteors, alien invasion and just about everything else and it's nearly always the same - the world is saved by Bruce Willis in a vest or Will Smith looking cool

There are no "real people" involved. The only people involved in any major way are already star names and well known faces and even the "general public" are all beautiful people.

That was why I thought that Threads was so much better than The Day After. Threads showed how a disaster affected real people like you and me. The Day After only showed a bunch of movie & TV stars and how they would react to a problem.

The main thing about Survivors wasn't the disaster itself. No need for any big special effects. It was how people would cope with the aftermath. That's what made 28 Days Later... such an interesting film

Steve

blacknorth

Yes, absolutely right about Hollywood films where a story of global catastrophe is reduced the the story of an actor showing off in a series of spectacular set-pieces. The British approach to such subjects has always been more low-key, spot-on in the literature, from Wyndham on through. Fred Hoyle was the Astronomer Royal - we got A For Andromeda from his pen, but he has many other equally effective books, The Black Cloud, or Fifth Planet.

There's an old disaster novel called A Wrinkle In The Skin, by British SF author John Christopher - it's about an earthquake which destroys much of Britain and possibly the rest of the world (though we never get to know that, as we wouldn't). In it the main character sets out to search for his daughter and spends much of the novel walking across the now drained and empty English Channel. It contains some great cinematic imagery, and of, course, he never finds his daughter. I compare it to the awful Day After Tomorrow which is simply pyrotechnics and heroics with a happy ending for one man tacked on. Similarly British SF author Barrington Bayley's story Man In Transit which was reduced to the awful sentimental gloop of Terminal.

Threads was indeed much more effecive than The Day After though I think it drew from the template of The War Game for that.

The bits and pieces I've read about the Happening claim its going to be different from most usual Hollywood flicks of that ilk, in that it's going to make a thematic nod to the spirit of WW2 post-war apocalyptic fiction. Perhaps a cross between Triffids and The Death Of Grass. But I guess we won't know until we see it.

Funny you should speak about nepotism at the BBC - I thought it was all a myth given fair employment legislation and all that, but I met a friend of a friend who worked in the BBC archives dept and who was planning to move on to other things. Guess who replaced him? His brother. I could hardly believe it, and still can't in a way.

Steve Crook

The Dimbleby and other well known dynasties are only the public face of it
The BBC aren't the only ones though, it happens in many big organisations, not just media companies. Just look at parliament or the EU commissioners and how many of those manage to employ members of their family

Steve

GRAEME

There is a film version of Cormac McCarthy's very effective post-apoclyptic novel The Road in production at the moment.

If they stick to the novel - it could be quite something!

If...