The Book Tower
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Stone circles, strange cults, mankind in danger and an alien menace. For a twelve year old boy, need they be tempted any more? At that age I absolutely relished the Euston Films adaptation of Quatermass starring John Mills. Broadcast in four weekly instalments, I fought – and won – battles with my parents to be allowed to stay up and watch it in the post-watershed slot…

Written by Nigel Kneale in the late 60s, we had to wait until the late 70s before the screen realisation of this bleak future. A society run down and practically ground to a halt where England is classed as a third world country with motorways empty, the population either dead, fled or in hiding and corrupt armed police roaming the deadly streets of London. It all appeared to suit perfectly in pre-Thatcher Britain.

At least these were my memories of Quatermass, until I was able to relive my enjoyment of the series when it was repeated recently on ITV4. Minus my nagging parents this time round – although my wife quizzed me about my enthusiasm for yet another TV drama from the 1970s…

Rarely does a film or television series live up to fond or chilling memories, but John Mills as Quatermass did just that. The series was set in an unspecified future Britain. There are little clues to the not so distant date; graffiti demanding “Kill HM the King!” sprawls across a viaduct. As I’ve hinted, this is a bleak future, but it’s kept as a subtle subplot to the main storyline. The empty motorway contains the occasional corpse, a Victorian-looking market includes a stall with “books – good for burning!”, all television stations have shrunk into one main channel, BTV, desperately trying to keep together a strict diet of soft porn. The commissionaires have taken to hiding behind sandbags with machine guns to avoid the numerous snipers.

It is really as ugly as all that and this is why it stays in my mind; no way would you find such a desperate vision of Britain in the future on UK peaktime television these days. We’re given some hope, however, by an excellent and sympathetic performance by John Mills, his skill as an actor keeping you glued. He’s on his own mission, to find and save his missing granddaughter. Surely he’ll save us all?

The Plot

The young of Britain have dispersed into either violent street gangs or the hippyish Planet People, who cling onto a belief that they will be taken from the sick and dying Earth to a new and fresh world. They’re mostly met with scorn by the older generation, but still gather in their hundreds at the nearest stone circle – Ringstone Round – to await their transport. And that’s when it happens…

Anyone who has seen this before, and vaguely remembers it, will probably now recall the shocking conclusion of the first episode when a huge beam of light appears to come down from space and take them away. Quatermass isn’t convinced, but the young of the Earth begin to join the Planet People, including the street gangs, to gather at every convenient stone circle and popular gathering place, such as Wembley Stadium, to be delivered to their new planet.

But hang on here – Quatermass is good at sorting this sort of thing out. Isn’t he? At least he was in the 50s TV series and the Hammer film adaptations that followed. The chilling conclusion of this fantastic premise is that the young of the world are indeed being taken, although not in quite the way they think. Only an essence of humanity is sampled. A scent. A perfume, perhaps. Nectar for the Gods, possibly. The depressing reality is that nobody is going to a new planet…

The History

As I’ve said, Nigel Kneale wrote this last Quatermass story in the late 60s when the hippy-like Planet People were a contemporary feature. In the late 70s they probably appeared anachronistic, but time’s moved on and they now appear believable and realistic again. The series was filmed in 1978 and first broadcast in 1979 by Thames Television. There is a truncated film version called The Quatermass Conclusion , with the full 200 minutes condensed to 102 minutes. Both versions are available on DVD.

The Credits

Directed by Piers Haggard, a descendant of H.Rider Haggard. As well as John Mills, the cast includes Simon MacKorkindale, Margaret Tyzack and Brenda Fricker. If you enjoy spotting recognisable faces, there’s Gretchen Franklin (EastEnders), Toyah Willcox (sometime pop star and ‘celebrity’), Chris Quinten (Coronation Street) and James Ottaway (forgotten character actor) in supporting roles.

The Conclusion

Quatermass has aged very well thanks to its expensive budget and being filmed entirely on location. Similarly themed dramas from the period that are partly studio-based, such as Survivors, now look incredibly dated. Years of being saturated with expensive films makes it very difficult to watch anything filmed in studios; just compare Doctor Who from the mid-70s with the current series.

Some of the scenes are still effectively horrific; the ‘spillings’ from the stone circle visitors who don’t quite make it and the carefree violence of the street gangs. Most disturbing of all is the blind girl rescued from the alien light who levitates to shatter in a thousand pieces and the very chilling nursery rhyme that frames the whole thing, “huffety, puffety, Ringstone Round…”

File under apocalyptic fiction.

Thanks to www.nigelkneale.cwc.net and the rather excellent Screen Online.

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