Kinvig

Kinvig
The original DVD cover with Kinvig and Miss Griffin
Genre	Science Fiction
Directed by	Brian Simmons
Starring	Tony Haygarth Patsy Rowlands Prunella Gee Colin Jeavons
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	London Weekend Television
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	4 September (1981-09-04) – 16 October 1981 (1981-10-16)

Kinvig is a sci-fi comedy television series made by London Weekend Television 1981.

Des Kinvig (Tony Haygarth) runs an electrical repair shop in the small town of Bingleton. One day his store is visited by Miss Griffin (Prunella Gee), who is from the planet Mercury and in need of Des' help. Kinvig's friend Jim Piper (Colin Jeavons) is a lifelong UFO watcher and is consumed by jealousy when he discovers that Kinvig has encountered extra-terrestrials. It is left intentionally ambiguous whether Kinvig's experiences with aliens are real or the product of an overactive imagination.

The show was produced by LWT, and only ran for one series of seven episodes. It was written by Nigel Kneale (more famous for Quatermass), directed and produced by Les Chatfield, with original music by Nigel Hess.

Around the time of original transmission, Kinvig was positively reviewed by The Times, the preview stating that "Cast splendid, direction deft". However, to later TV historians, Kinvig is not considered to be one of Kneale's better productions. The Guinness Book of Classic British TV claims that apart from Jeavons' performance, Kinvig was "a huge disappointment".Peter Nicholls also criticised the program, saying the scripts "lacked the precision required for decent farce". Nicholls also noted that some viewers objected to Kneale's depiction of science-fiction fans as being the same as UFO enthusiasts, and states Kinvig is notable for its "contemptuous treatment" of the leading characters.