Quatermass (also known as Quatermass IV, or The Quatermass Conclusion for its limited international theatrical release) is a 1979 British television science fiction serial. Produced by Euston Films for Thames Television, it was broadcast on the ITV network in October and November 1979. Like its three predecessors, Quatermass was written by Nigel Kneale. It is the fourth and, to date, final television serial to feature the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass, this time played by John Mills.
Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early 1970s and the hippie youth movement of the late 1960s, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult known as the Planet People who gather at prehistoric sites, believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet. The series begins with Professor Quatermass arriving in London to look for his granddaughter, Hettie Carlson, and witnessing the destruction of two spacecraft and the disappearance of a group of Planet People at a stone circle by an unknown force. He investigates this force, believing that Hettie may be in danger. As the series progresses, it becomes apparent that the Planet People are being harvested by an alien force rather than transported.
Quatermass was originally conceived as a BBC production, but after the corporation lost faith in the project because of spiralling costs, work was halted. The scripts were acquired by Euston Films and Kneale, who was commissioned to rewrite the scripts into two versions: a four-part television serial and The Quatermass Conclusion, a 100-minute film, intended for international theatrical release.
Despite ITV making the series its flagship premier for its 1979 autumn schedule, the four-part serial was met with lukewarm reviews. Reasons were blamed on the plot, casting and character development. The cinematic edited version, The Quatermass Conclusion, was given a limited release due to lack of interest from distributors.
Series
Cast
John Mills ... Prof. Bernard Quatermass Simon MacCorkindale ... Joe Kapp Ralph Arliss ... Kickalong Paul Rosebury ... Caraway Jane Bertish ... Bee Toyah Willcox ... Sal Rebecca Saire ... Hettie Carlson Tony Sibbald ... Chuck Marshall Barbara Kellerman ... Clare Kapp Margaret Tyzack ... Annie Morgan Brewster Mason ... Gurov Bruce Purchase ... Tommy Roach Annabelle Lanyon ... Isabel David Yip ... Frank Chen Neil Stacy ... Toby Gough Tudor Davies ... TV Director
Production Development Professor Bernard Quatermass was created by Manx writer Nigel Kneale in 1953 for the serial The Quatermass Experiment. Its success led to two sequels, Quatermass II (1955) and Quatermass and the Pit (1958). These three Quatermass serials are seen today as seminal 1950s television productions. Kneale, however, became disenchanted with the BBC and went freelance in the late 1950s, producing scripts for Hammer Films and Associated Television.Murray, Into the Unknown, passim.
The notion of bringing Professor Quatermass back for a fourth adventure dated back to at least 1965 when producer Irene Shubik asked Kneale to contribute a new Quatermass story for the first season of the science fiction anthology series, Out of the Unknown.Pixley, The Quatermass Collection – Viewing Notes, p. 39. Nothing came of this but the prospect of Quatermass making a reappearance arose again when, following the success of the film version of Quatermass and the Pit in 1967, Hammer was in discussions with Kneale for a new Quatermass adventure.Screen, Production Notes, Disc 1. Again, this did not progress beyond the initial negotiation stage. In the meantime Kneale had been coaxed back to the BBC, writing plays such as The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968), Wine of India (1970) and The Stone Tape (1972). Following completion of The Stone Tape, Kneale was commissioned on 21 November 1972 by BBC head of drama serials, Ronnie Marsh, to write a new four-part Quatermass serial.Pixley, All the Rage of the World, p. 48.
Assigned to produce the serial was Dixon of Dock Green producer Joe Waters.Pixley, All the Rage of the World, p. 50. Preliminary filming on Quatermass began in June 1973 at Ealing Studios where special effects designer Jack Wilkie and his assistant, Ian Scoones shot model footage for part one of the serial, of a space station with astronauts working on its hull.Garrard & Houldsworth, Fantasy Flashback: Quatermass, p. 15. At this point the BBC got cold feet about the project; it had become concerned about the cost of mounting the production and had been refused permission to film at Stonehenge, one of the locations at which Kneale had envisaged the Planet People would gather to be reaped by the alien force. Kneale recalled that Stonehenge "had become Big Business and the place was like a factory with tourists there from dawn to dusk... they weren't going to let anyone go near it". Kneale also felt that the BBC was unhappy with the script believing it "didn't suit their image at that time; it was too gloomy".Murray, Into the Unknown, p. 120. In the end, it was decided during summer 1973 that for financial reasons the BBC would not proceed with the production. However the BBC still had an option on the script until 1975, and retained this until it expired.
At this stage Kneale was working primarily at ITV, having written the play Murrain (screened in the anthology series Against The Crowd, 1975) and the anthology series Beasts (1976) for ATV. In May 1977, Euston Films—a subsidiary of Thames Television best known for The Sweeney (1975–1978)—picked up Kneale's unmade Quatermass scripts. This new production, known either as Quatermass or Quatermass IV, would consist of a four-part serial to be broadcast by ITV which would be recut as a 100-minute film, titled The Quatermass Conclusion, for release in North America and Europe.Murray, Into the Unknown, p. 135. Kneale was dubious about having to craft both a television serial version and a film version of his tale, feeling that "in the end we had two versions, neither of which was the right length for the story".Pixley, All the Rage of the World, p. 51. During the rewrites, Kneale transplanted the action at the conclusion of part three from Stonehenge to the more easily available Wembley Stadium. When asked about what differences there were between the Euston Films version and the version originally envisaged for the BBC, Kneale remarked that "the BBC version would have been much more in the studio, whereas the Euston Films version was entirely shot on 35mm film with a great deal of it outside. Much more lavish than either the BBC or I had contemplated".Pixley & Kneale, Beyond the Dark Door.
Writing Kneale began writing the scripts, working to a delivery deadline of February 1973.Pixley, All the Rage of the World, p. 49. Much of the setting for the story was influenced by contemporary political events such as strikes, power cuts, the oil crisis and developments in the space race, especially the planned Apollo-Soyuz missions and Skylab.Murray, Into the Unknown, p. 119. Writing in the listings magazine TV Times to promote the serial, Kneale said: "Quatermass is a story of the future – but perhaps only a few years from now. There are some clues already in the most obvious places: the streets. Pavements littered with rubbish. Walls painted with angry graffiti. Belfast black with smoke and rage. Worst of all, the mindless violence".Screen, Production Notes, Disc 2. Concerns about the state of society, especially the "dropout" culture of the youth movement, had been a theme of Kneale's writing for some time. This was seen in such works as The Big, Big Giggle, an unmade play about a teenage suicide cult; The Year of the Sex Olympics, about the consequences of a world with no censorship or inhibitions; and Bam! Pow! Zap! (1969), about teenage delinquents, all of which fed into the world depicted in the new Quatermass serial.Murray, Into the Unknown, p. 137.Rigby, Ancient Fears, p. 53. Kneale said: "I looked at the alarming aspects of contemporary trends. Since then, we'd seen 'flower power' and hippies, so all I did was bring them into the story. It was written in 1972 and it was about the sixties really". Another theme that had crept into Kneale's writing at this time—as seen in Wine of India, about compulsory euthanasia for the elderly, and later the Beasts episode "During Barty's Party", about an elderly couple terrorised by rats—was the consequences of growing old. Kneale later recalled: "The theme I was trying to get to was the old redressing the balance with the young, saving the young, which I thought a nice, paradoxical, ironic idea after the youth-oriented 60s".Rigby, Ancient Fears, p. 52.
Following Quatermass, writer Nigel Kneale developed the sitcom Kinvig (1981) for London Weekend Television. During the 1980s he was courted for scripts by admiring Hollywood directors and producers such as John Carpenter, John Landis and Joe Dante, but with limited success. Returning to television, he adapted Susan Hill's novel The Woman in Black (1989) and wrote episodes of Sharpe and Kavanagh QC. He died in 2006.
Casting and crew John Mills was chosen to play Quatermass (the fourth different actor to play the role in four serials on television), who had appeared in significant roles in many high-profile British films, including The Way to the Stars (1945), Great Expectations (1946) and Ice Cold in Alex (1958), and had won an Academy Award for his role in Ryan's Daughter (1970). Mills, whose only previous television credit at the time was The Zoo Gang (1974), was reluctant to take the part but was persuaded by his wife, who liked the script. Following Quatermass he appeared in Gandhi (1982), Martin Chuzzlewit (1994) and Hamlet (1996), working right up to his death in 2005.
Joe Kapp was played by Simon MacCorkindale, who had previously appeared in "Baby", one of the episodes of Nigel Kneale's Beasts series. MacCorkindale was delighted with the part of Joe Kapp, finding it a break from the typecast romantic roles he was used to playing. Following Quatermass, MacCorkindale appeared in The Riddle of the Sands (1979), and subsequently moved to the United States where, after playing a few guest roles on television, he secured a part in Jaws 3 (1983) and the lead in the short-lived series Manimal (1983). He was then a series regular in Falcon Crest (1984–86), Counterstrike (1990–93) and Poltergeist: The Legacy (1999). He then returned to the United Kingdom, where he played the character of Harry Harper in Casualty between 2002 and 2008. MacCorkindale died in 2010.
Barbara Kellerman, who played Claire Kapp, had previously had a regular role in 1990 (1977–78) and would later portray the White Witch in the BBC adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (1988).
Quatermass also featured many familiar faces from British television and film in supporting roles, including Margaret Tyzack, Bruce Purchase, James Ottaway, Brenda Fricker, David Yip, Kevin Stoney, Gretchen Franklin, Brian Croucher and Chris Quinten, as well as the singer (and later television presenter) Toyah Willcox.
Director Piers Haggard, who was the great-grand-nephew of author H. Rider Haggard, had been directing since the 1960s. Prior to Quatermass, he had directed the acclaimed Dennis Potter drama serial Pennies from Heaven (1978). Commenting on the script, Haggard described it as "a tremendous re-assertion of the importance of people, ordinary people, and how necessary they are in fighting evil". Following Quatermass, he directed The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) and the Disney Channel TV series Return to Treasure Island (1985).