The Omega Factor (1979)

INTRODUCTION

Pop quiz - identify the TV show from the following synopsis:

A male believer in the paranormal (played by an actor who doesn't believe) works for a government agency and spends his days investigating reported cases of telepathy, demonic posession and other spooky things. He's joined by a sceptical female partner (played by an actress who does believe) and together they battle a pervasive conspiracy which involves members of our hero's family.

If you said The X-Files, minus 10 very big points for lack of originality. If, however, you said The Omega Factor, you're probably as old as I am will harbour dim and distant memories of this short lived BBC drama from the end of the 1970s.

James Hazeldine was cast as Tom Crane, a journalist who, thanks to his natural talents as a psychic, finds himself co-opted to work for Department 7, a shady off-shoot of the British intelligence network that seeks out and investigates cases of the paranormal. Anne Reynolds (Louise Jameson) joins him as the voice of disbelief as they uncover the sinister machinations of Omega, a secret organisation trying to overthrow Britain using super-psychics.

Though it never got involved with UFOs and alien abductions, which became the staples of The X-Files, The Omega Factor covered some of the same ground as that later series and did it remarkably well given the limitations of an early evening timeslot (it was broadcast at 8:10 pm on Wednesdays) and the usual meager BBC budgets of the time.
KEVIN LYONS

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009