Quatermass II [1955]

Country of Origin: UK
Date(s) of Broadcast: 22 October 1955 - 26 November 1955
Number of Seasons: 1
Total Number of Episodes: 6
Average Episode Running Times: 30 mins
Format: black and white     broadcast live
Ratio: 1.33:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC Television
Producer: Rudolph Cartier

SCRIPT
Script: Nigel Kneale

DIRECTION
Director: Rudolph Cartier

PHOTOGRAPHY
Film Camera: Charles de Jaeger

MUSIC
Music: Gustav Holst [Mars]

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Bernard Wilkie, Jack Kine

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Stephen Taylor

MISCELLANEOUS
Radar Equipment: HM War Office and Territorial Army

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Refinery Plant at Shell Haven, Essex filmed by permission of "Shell".

CAST
John Robinson [Professor Bernard Quatermass]
Monica Grey [Paula]
Hugh Griffith [Dr Leo Pugh]
John Stone [Captain John Dillon]
Brian Hayes [Sergeant Grice]
Tony Lyons [Private]
Eric Lugg [Fred Large]
Hilda Barry [Mrs Large]
Herbert Lomas [Robert]
Richard Cuthbert [landlord]
Kim Grant [1st technician]
Peter Macarte [2nd technician]
Peter Carver [Australian commentator]
Nikola Sterne
Fletcher Lightfoot
Scott Harrold
Austin Webb
Rupert Davies [Vincent Broadhead]
Austin Trevor [Fowler]
John Miller [Stenning]
Wilfred Brambell [Tramp]
Peter Carver [Inspector Clifford]
Michael Brennan [Dawson]
Sheila Martin [child]
Hilda Fenemore [mother] *
Michael Collins [Thompson]
Dina Chesney [secretary]
O'Donovan Shiell [Head of Commission]
Malcolm Watson, Robert S. Young, Bernard Dudley, Michael Dunne, Carl Lacey [members of Commission]
Edwin Brown, Brian Moorehead, Dermot MacMahon [guards]
Claude Bonsor
Derek Aylward [Ward]
O'Donovan Shiell
John Cazabon [doctor]
Margaret Flint [waitress]
Ilona Ference [mother]
Sydney Bromley [father]
Melvyn Hayes [Frankie]
Trevor Reid [analyst]
Philip Levene [supervisor]
Scott Harrold [medical attendant]
Stephen Scott [guard]
Manny Michael
Charles Price
Dermot MacMahon
Peter Roy Taylor
Reginald Jessup
David Gordon
Michael Bilton
Patrick Carter
Philip Ingram
Roger Delgado [Conrad]
Michael Golden [Paddy]
John Rae [McLeod]
Elsie Arnold [Mrs McLeod]
Ian Wilson [Ernie]
Tom Clegg [guard]
Martin Lane [technician]
Desmond Jordan [young workman]
Malcolm Knight [office boy]
Queenie Barratt
Charles Price
Bryan Kendrick
Michael Golden
John Rae
Desmond Jordan
Ian Wilson
Denton de Gray, Martin Lane [technicians]
Denis McCarthy [doctor]
Cyril Shaps [control assistant]

* Not as advertised - Hilda Fenemore replaced Nelly Griffiths shortly before the live telecast.

Professor Bernard Quatermass uncovers a plot to invade the Earth by a race of aliens that are hiding in a factory for synthetic food based on the designs created by Quatermass for a Moonbase. But the aliens have already infiltrated the upper ecehelons of power within British society and Quatermass no longer knows who he trust.

The second of Kneale's Quatermass serials must have come as something of a shock to contemporary viewers, with its veiled suggestions of government duplicity and possible collusion wit the invaders. Very much ahead of its time, this was another hit for Kneale and provoked the same response in viewers as The Quatermass Experiment [1953]

EPISODES

The Bolts [12 October 1955] - 31 mins 58 sec
The Mark [19 October 1955] - 30 mins 10 sec
The Food [5 October 1955] - 33 mins 27 sec
The Coming [12 November 1955] - 29 mins 26 sec
The Frenzy [19 November 1955] - 31 mins 29 secs
The Destroyers [26 November 1955] - 33 mins 53 secs

1955
October
12: The Bolts - television broadcast
The Mark [19 October 1955] - 30 mins 10 sec
The Food [5 October 1955] - 33 mins 27 sec
The Coming [12 November 1955] - 29 mins 26 sec
The Frenzy [19 November 1955] - 31 mins 29 secs
The Destroyers [26 November 1955] - 33 mins 53 secs

SEQUEL TO
The Quatermass Experiment [1953]

SEQUELS
Quatermass and the Pit [1958]
Quatermass [1979]

REMAKE
Quatermass 2 [1957]

SEE ALSO
The Quatermass Experiment [1955]
Quatermass and the Pit [1967]

MAGAZINES

Epi-Log 16 p.37 [USA]
episode guide, credits

Journal of Popular Film and Television vol.30 no.3 [Autumn 2002] pp.158-165 [USA]
illustrated bibliography, article ["Bring something back" - The strange career of Professor Quatermass by Dave Robinson and Nick Cooper]

Starburst no.58 [June 1983] p.40 [UK]
illustrated article with Nigel Kneale [TV Zone by Richard Hollis]

Time Screen 7 [revised] p.23 [UK]
note

TV Zone Special 25 p.10 [UK]
illustrated note

BOOKS

British Television [2nd edition] p.52
illustrated note

The Complete Directory to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Television Series p.635
episode guide, credits

The Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction [3rd edition] pp.354-355
episode guide, credits, short note

Serials on British Television 1950 - 1994 p.16
episodes, credits

aliens, alien invasion, scientists, politicians, possession, synthetic food, factories

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007