Quatermass [1979]

Country of Origin: UK
Date(s) of Broadcast: 24 October 1979 - 14 November 1979
Number of Seasons: 1
Total Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 60 mins [1 x 90 mins version also available]
Format: colour
Ratio: 1.33:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Euston Films presents (opening credits) Made by Euston Films Ltd
Copyright: © MCMLXXVIII
Executive in Charge of Production: Johnny Goodman
Executive Producer: Verity Lambert
Producer: Ted Childs
Associate Producer: Norton Knatchbull

SCRIPT
By: Nigel Kneale
Story Editor: Linda Agran

DIRECTION
Director: Piers Haggard

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Ian Wilson
Gaffer: Alan Martin
Camera: Panavision Cameras and Lenses

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Keith Palmer
1st Assistant Editor: Chris Blunden

MUSIC
Music: Marc Wilkinson, Nic Rowley

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Costume Designer: Michael Baldwin

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Arnold Chapkis

MISCELLANEOUS
Technical Advisor: Dr Richard Clarke
Choreography: Tudor Davies

CAST
Episode One: Ringstone Round
John Mills [Professor Bernard Quatermass]
Simon MacCorkindale [Joe Kapp]
Barbara Kellerman [Clare Kapp]

Ralph Arliss [Kickalong]
Paul Rosebury [Caraway]
Jane Bertish [Bee]
Rebecca Saire [Hettie]
Bruce Purchase [Roach]
David Yip [Chen]
Brenda Fricker [Alison]
Tony Sibbald [Marshall]
Neil Stacy [Toby Gough]
Joy Harrington [TV producer]
Barbara Keogh [make-up lady]
James Leith [1st pay cop]
Luke Hanson [pay police captain]
Charles Bolton [1st mugger]
Chris Driscoll [2nd mugger]
Stewart Harwood [taxi driver]
Rita Webb [charm seller]
Trevor Lawrence [catskin man]
Frederick Radley [medicine man]
Sophie Kind, Joanna Joseph [Kapp children]
Claire Lewis, Paul Easom, Kelvin Omard, Jackie Cowper, David Lynch, Alison Dowling, Cassie McFarlane [planet people]

Episode Two: Lovely Lightning
John Mills [Professor Bernard Quatermass]
Simon MacCorkindale [Joe Kapp]
Barbara Kellerman [Clare Kapp]

and
Margaret Tyzack [Annie Morgan]

Ralph Arliss [Kickalong]
Paul Rosebury [Caraway]
Jane Bertish [Bee]
Rebecca Saire [Hettie]
Bruce Purchase [Roach]
David Yip [Chen]
Brenda Fricker [Alison]
Tony Sibbald [Marshall]
Neil Stacy [Toby Gough]
Joy Harrington [TV producer]
Barbara Keogh [make-up lady]
James Leith [1st pay cop]
Luke Hanson [pay police captain]
Charles Bolton [1st mugger]
Chris Driscoll [2nd mugger]
Stewart Harwood [taxi driver]
Rita Webb [charm seller]
Trevor Lawrence [catskin man]
Frederick Radley [medicine man]
Sophie Kind, Joanna Joseph [Kapp children]
Claire Lewis, Paul Easom, Kelvin Omard, Jackie Cowper, David Lynch, Alison Dowling, Cassie McFarlane [planet people]

Brewster Mason [Gurov]



Toyah Willcox [Sal]
Annabelle Lanyon [Isabel]
Tudor Davies [TV director]
Kevin Stoney [Prime Minister]
David Ashford [Hatherley]
Jan Murzynowski [Russian astronaut]
Elsie Randolph [woman minister]
Larry Noble [Jack]
Gretchen Franklin [Edna]
James Ottaway [Arthur]
Clare Ruane [Jane]
Donald Eccles [Chisholm]
Kathleen St John [Winnie]
Beatrice Shaw [Susie]
Declan Mulholland [security guard]
Ian Price [Torrance]
Chris Quinten [soldier]
Chris Blackwell, Caroline Haigh, Wendy Barry (Barrie?), Bert Francis, Brian Kuhn, Domini Winter [dancers]
Ishaq Bux [Misru]
Lennox Milne [woman researcher]
John Dunbar [Lt-General]
Charles Lamb [orderly]
Brian Croucher [pay police lieutenant]
Ishaq Bux
Sophie Kind
Joanna Joseph
John Richmond
Caroline Haigh

An ageing Professor Bernard Quatermass comes out of his self-imposed exile on a remote Scottish island to search for his missing grand-daughter who has joined a strange hippie cult known as the Planet People. He finds that society has all but collapsed and chaos reigns. Making matters worse, something has targetted the Earth from space and is causing huge crowds of young people to gather together where they are 'harvested' by a powerful beam of energy. Quatermass struggles to find his grand-daughter, make sense of the mayhem around him and find a way to stop the alien cull.

Not universally liked when it was first shown, Quatermass has matured well, its vision of a futuristic Britian in the grip of anarchy and mayhem not dissimilar to the scenes of inner city riots that were to become a depressingly familiar sight during the 1980s and 90s. Despite handicapped by a number of poor performances and a tendency to stereotype, Quatermass is a more than worthy conclusion to the ongoing saga of Britain's greatest fictional scientist.

EPISODES

Ringstone Round [aka: Huffity, Puffity Ringstone Round] [24 October 1979]
Lovely Lightning [31 October 1979]
What Lies Beneath [7 November 1979]
An Endangered Species [14 November 1979]

UK
Video Distributor: TEVP / VCC

UK
Rating: 15

1979
October
24: Ringstone Round - UK television broadcast
31: Lovely Lightning - UK television broadcast

November
7: What Lies Beneath - UK television broadcast
14: An Endangered Species - UK television broadcast

Earth's dark ancestral forces awaken to a summons from beyond the stars [UK video]

The Human Race is Being Harvested. This is the Gathering Time [US video]

The Quatermass Conclusion - 90 minute version title

SEQUEL TO
The Quatermass Experiment [1953]
Quatermass II [1955]
Quatermass and the Pit [1958 - 1959]

SEE ALSO
The Quatermass Experiment [1955]
Quatermass 2 [1957]
Quatermass and the Pit [1967]

WEB LINKS

www.geocities.com / Hollywood / 5144 / quaterma.html

MAGAZINES

Empire no.167 [May 2003] p.152 [UK]
illustrated DVD review [by Kim Newman]

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]

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.56 no.662 [March 1989] pp.94-95 [UK]
credits, synopsis, review

Screen International no.212 [20 October 1979] p.121 [UK]
advertisement

Starburst no.298 [May 2003] p.67 [UK]
illustrated DVD review

TV Times vol.97 no.44 [25 October] pp.4-5 [UK]
article

TV Zone no.161 [April 2003] pp.48-54 [UK]
illustrated credits, article

TV Zone Special no.25 p.10 [UK]
credits, illustrated article

Variety 13 February 1980 p.17 [USA]
credits, review

BOOKS

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

Elliot's Guide to Films on Video p.632
UK video data

The Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction [3rd edition] pp.352, 357-358
episode guide, credits, synopsis, short article

Epi-Log 16 pp.38-39
episode guide, credits, synopsis

Horror and Science Fiction Films II p.318
credits

OTHER SOURCES

British Board of Film Censors Monthly List November 1984 [UK]
note

scientists, social collapse, aliens, human culls, hippies, cults, satellite dishes, space disasters, space shuttles, standing stones, television, london

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007