Quatermass and the Pit

Quatermass and the Pit
The opening titles of Quatermass and the Pit
Created by	Nigel Kneale
Starring	André Morell Cec Linder Anthony Bushell John Stratton Christine Finn
Opening theme	"Mutations" composed by Trevor Duncan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	Six
Production
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Approx. 35 mins per episode
Release
Original network	BBC
Picture format	405-line black-and-white
Original release	22 December 1958 (1958-12-22) – 26 January 1959
Chronology
Preceded by	Quatermass II
Followed by	Quatermass

Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials, although the chief character, Professor Bernard Quatermass, reappeared in a 1979 ITV production called Quatermass. Like its predecessors, Quatermass and the Pit was written by Nigel Kneale.

The serial continues the loose chronology of the Quatermass adventures. Workmen excavating a site in Knightsbridge, London, discover a strange skull and what at first appears to be an unexploded bomb. Quatermass and his newly appointed military superior at the British Experimental Rocket Group, Colonel Breen, become involved in the investigation when it becomes apparent that the object is an alien spacecraft. The ship and its contents have a powerful and malign influence over many of those who come in contact with it, including Quatermass. It becomes obvious to him that the aliens, probably from Mars, had been abducting pre-humans and modifying them to give them psychic abilities much like their own before returning them to Earth, a genetic legacy responsible for much of the war and strife in the world.

The serial has been cited as having influenced Stephen King and the film director John Carpenter. It featured in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, which described it as "completely gripping".