Quatermass II

Quatermass II
The opening title sequence of Quatermass II.
Created by	Nigel Kneale
Starring	John Robinson Monica Grey Hugh Griffith John Stone
Opening theme	"Mars, Bringer of War" by Gustav Holst
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer(s)	Rudolph Cartier Danny Bowie
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Approx. 30 mins per episode
Release
Original network	BBC
Picture format	405-line black-and-white
Original release	22 October – 26 November 1955
Chronology
Preceded by	The Quatermass Experiment
Followed by	Quatermass and the Pit

Quatermass II is a British science-fiction serial, originally broadcast by BBC Television in the autumn of 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel Kneale, and the oldest of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives.

The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind.

Although sometimes compared unfavourably to the first and third Quatermass serials,Quatermass II was praised for its allegorical concerns of the damaging effects of industrialisation and the corruption of governments by big business. It is described on the British Film Institute's "Screenonline" website as "compulsive viewing."

On 22 September 1955 the ITV network was launched in the UK, bringing commercial television to Britain for the first time and ending the BBC's broadcasting monopoly in the country. The new network's creation had been established by the Television Act 1954, and the BBC had known in advance that they would need programmes to combat the new rival for television audiences. Referring to the 1953 science-fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment in a memo written in 1954, BBC Television's Controller of Programmes, Cecil McGivern, noted that: "Had competitive television been in existence then, we would have killed it every Saturday night while [The Quatermass Experiment] lasted. We are going to need many more 'Quatermass Experiment' programmes."