mrs_emma_peel

The Quatermass Xperiment 2005
BBC4 Tues, 2nd Sept 2008 10.30-12.10am repeated 1.40-3.20am
A rare repeat of this intriguingly atmospheric cult sci-fi drama - which was broadcast live on BBC4 Saturday, 2nd April, 2005 – (repeated on BBC4 in November 2006) an updated adaptation of the brilliantly scripted Nigel Kneale sci-fi classic, originally shown live and quickly became compulsive viewing on BBC in 1953.
Nigel Kneale was highly critical of the subsequent 1955 Hammer film version of the Quatermass Experiment – especially with the casting of Brian Donlevy as Quatermass.

My favourite Quatermass movie is Quatermass and the Pit (1967) with Andrew Keir, James Donald and the lovely Barbara Shelley.

The Quatermass Xperiment 2005
Professor Bernard Quatermass's rocket and crew have made history by travelling further into space than any other human being. But when the rocket lands, it soon becomes apparent that something is terribly wrong.
“Superbly acted … tightly directed” – The Independent


2005 version: Indira Varma as Judith Carroon, Jason Flemyng as Professor Bernard Quatermass, Mark Gatiss as John Paterson and David Tennant as Dr Gordon Briscoe


1953 original BBC TV version starred Isobel Dean as Judith Carroon and Reginald Tate as Professor Bernard Quatermass in The Quatermass Experiment.

BBC Resources: The Quatermass Experiment:
BBC Outside Broadcasts has captured the first live BBC TV drama in twenty years –The Quatermass Experiment. The first episode of the original small-screen sci-fi chiller, which gripped the nation when it first appeared in 1953, was brought bang up to date in a new 100 minute adaptation by Richard Fell for BBC Four’s ‘TV on Trial’ season. The original series led the way for future cult series Doctor Who.

In the drama, a rocket crashes to earth unleashing a terrifying chain of events. The Quatermass Experiment was not just scary for the viewers, but was also a frightening prospect for the cast and crew, who had to deliver 83 scenes, spread out across 9 locations in 1 hour 40 minutes.
BBC Outside Broadcasts captured The Quatermass Experiment in High Definition with their multi-format truck Unit 2 – to ensure the format is future proofed and available for DVD purposes.

“It was a huge logistical operation,” says Dave Chapman, BBC Outside Broadcasts’ Engineering Manager. “We rigged over 4000 metres of fibre optic cable. Normally we would arrive at an event and prepare the cable rig, before installing cameras and sound. In this case, as we were using 8 cameras to cover 26 camera positions across 9 different locations, the logistical operation had to happen live alongside the drama. Each camera cable had to be checked and double checked, number coded to scenes and then we had to consider the provision of spares. There are points within the 1 hour and 40 minutes when cameramen literally have 90 seconds to travel from one location to another to make the next scene – for example from the press conference to the mission control.

The crew was certainly under as much pressure as the cast on the night.”
“BBC Outside Broadcasts recently delivered two plays live from The Globe theatre. We’ve also captured a large number of programmes in HD before – like The Proms, Carols from Kings and the Princes Trust Concert . But Quatermass is a totally unique project. It is the first time the BBC has shot live TV drama in over twenty years. Back then HD didn’t even exist.”
The drama was adapted and brought up to date by Richard Fell, Executive Producer and head of BBC Fictionlab, whose credits include the acclaimed Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore and The Alan Clark Diaries.

Richard says “Quatermass is tense and scary, so the adrenalin, the tension and the excitement generated by it being live as well really suits it. We barely needed to update the characters or story – they are timeless. It’s not that inconceivable today to think that we could bring some deadly virus back from space – or release something by accident. So we just needed to update some of the language and the peripherals around it.”
“And viewers today compared with 1953 are much more sophisticated. People expect more pace and more storyline quicker, so the adaptation reflects this.”

“We had to have a very tight camera script as obviously we couldn’t do any tweaks on the night. Everything was plotted down to the last centimetre. That was the main difference between Quatermass and ordinary TV drama. We needed much more rehearsal time and much more rigorous planning. It’s not some hybrid of theatre and TV drama, it’s a genre all of its own with its own challenges.”

Quatermass was directed by Sam Miller (This Life, Quite Ugly One Morning, Elephant Juice and Among Giants). Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Snatch and Rock Star) plays rocket scientist Professor Quatermass.
The BBC Outside Broadcasts team included Dave Chapman (Engineer Manager) Robin Sutherland (Camera Supervisor), Giles Pritchard (Cameras) and Sam Curtis (Camera coordinator) with Bill Whistin, heading up the sound team.

The Quatermass Experiment was transmitted live on BBC Four on Saturday 2 April 2005 and was repeated on Wednesday 6 April 2005. It achieved the highest viewing figures for an origination on the channel in the past twelve months, with a peak audience of 524,000 viewers. It was the most watched programme in that timeslot across all the non-terrestrial channels and is the second highest performing origination in the channel’s history, beaten only by the acclaimed Alan Clark Diaries starring John Hurt.

Interview: Producer Alison Willett and director Sam Miller talk about the live re-make:
BBC Four: Of all the classic shows from the early days of television you could have remade, why choose The Quatermass Experiment?
Alison: Quatermass was the first ever sci-fi on British TV and Professor Quatermass was our first TV hero. It has a huge cult following and that provided an interesting challenge for us. It was going to be really dynamic visually and provided an opportunity to put together a fantastic ensemble cast.
Sam: I'm a closet science fiction fan and Quatermass was seminal television. The subject matter was so exciting for people who had just got their TV boxes in the corners of their rooms back then. And what was interesting from reading the scripts was how the themes of the piece - space and the unknown and biological weapons - still feel relevant today.

BBC Four: How close to the original 1953 series are you aiming to get?
Alison: When it went out it was six half-hour episodes. What we've done is abridge those into one 100 minute drama, stripped out a couple of extraneous sub plots and removed allusions to the Cold War. We've used the original scripts and dialogue as much as possible, but in places brought the science up to date. For example, in 1953 the idea of a manned rocket ship going into space was quite inconceivable so we've made it a privately-financed rocket ship, which is far more contemporary.
Sam: The script we're using is unchanged really. What's interesting is seeing how actors today take it. So far we've been really pleased because it feels quite modern and at the same time classic. Instead of looking at it as a modern version of or a nostalgic remake, we want to liberate the piece.

BBC Four: How involved has the original writer Nigel Kneale been in the production?
Alison: Nigel has come on board as a consultant. We have talked to him every step of the way and he has been incredibly informative. It's fascinating to hear how some of the characters first came about and how he conceived the monster and made it work without getting into rubber toy territory.

BBC Four: This will be the first live television drama on the BBC in 20 years. What challenges does this create for you?
Sam: My background is single-camera drama so I was interested in bringing a film mentality to what is a live, multi-camera event. It's been our aim to embrace the live aspect and use it to give the piece a drive and a pulse. I hope that if someone is channel hopping, that would draw them in.
Alison: Quatermass was originally shot live because the technology wasn't there to pre-record. We thought it being live could become a virtue for a project in 2005. Certainly in rehearsals we're finding it's really upping the energy in terms of the dynamics of performance and that ties in with the thriller aspect.

BBC Four: Have developments in audio-visual technology given you any advantages over the original when it comes to pulling off a live event?
Alison: Well, we're using more sophisticated lighting and camera techniques and we're going to have a couple of pre-recorded inserts but because the vast majority is live, you can't rely on special effects. There will be no delay, no nothing!

BBC Four: Tell us about the cast.
Sam: Nigel has written a balanced script, which makes it tricky to cast as each character is integral to the story. We just set out to find aggressive-minded actors who wanted to take it on and are very much of today.
Alison: I am incredibly proud of our principal players. We've been careful to choose actors who have a real body of theatre work behind them as well as film and television so they will be approaching Saturday 2 April as if it was an opening night. Mark Gatiss and David Tennant are also huge fans of the original and we wanted to give Professor Quatermass a modern feel and Jason Flemyng provides that perfectly.

BBC Four: In the context of TV On Trial, what light will the new version throw on whether TV was better in the 1950s or now?
Alison: All I can say is that Quatermass is just as resonant today as it was 50 years ago. The idea of people going up in a space rocket and bringing back a virus from outer space isn't far removed from what could really happen. There is an entrepreneur in Arizona struggling to build the first hotel in space for example, so the drama element still holds strong. It's a very well-constructed piece of work.

Nigel Kneale wrote the screenplays for the excellent Quatermass and the Pit (1967), the superb The Stone Tape (1972) for television, and adapted the brilliant The Woman in Black (1989) for television

Mrs Emma Peel

winsfordtown

I remember Adrian Bower who was playing a reporter completly making muddle of his lines which had the knock on effect of the programme finishing 15 minutes early.

smiler

dreadful version, saw this when it aired. totally without atmosphere, and the pope was announced dead during the broadcast, which distracted me further - as the bbc kept on showing information across the screen every few minutes. i watched the patched up version later on (minus the actor drying up and the other one tripping on a load of broken glass), but it's still a very awkward watch, and that ending to kneale's original was a bad move. kneale even said later that he thought it was a joke, i cannot disagree with him.



btw mrs peel it's spelt 'experiment' - the version with the 'x' and the 'e' dropped from the title is exclusively hammer films own label for their 1955 remake 'the quatermass xperiment'.

mrs_emma_peel

Hi Smiler,
My mistake – you are totally correct about the spelling – should be Experiment not Xperiment - my online DigiGuide TV guide let me down. Should have realised when the BBC web-sites had the correct spelling – should have double checked.

Emma

Mrs Emma Peel

smiler

no worries emma.

Captain Viking

It must have been really bad!

Don't you just hate pontiff-ending programmes?