The Quatermass Memoirs
Cover of the CD release
|
|
| Genre |
Drama-documentary Science fiction |
|---|---|
| Running time | c. 20 minute episodes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Home station | BBC Radio 3 |
| Starring |
Andrew Keir Emma Gregory Zulema Dene |
| Written by | Nigel Kneale |
| Produced by | Paul Quinn |
| Air dates | 4 to 8 March 1996 |
| No. of episodes | 5 |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Opening theme | "Mars, Bringer of War" by Gustav Holst |
The Quatermass Memoirs is a British radio drama-documentary, originally broadcast in 5 episodes on BBC Radio 3 in March 1996. Written by Nigel Kneale, it was born out of his Quatermass series of films and television serials, which had first been broadcast in the 1950s. The idea for the show appeared as BBC radio intended to create a season of programming looking back at the 1950s, and it was the final piece of writing Kneale completed relating to the character.
The show is centered on the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass who, albeit older than in the previous series, is "the same very concerned scientist" but worried about his previous decisions. Andrew Keir, who had played Quatermass in the 1967 Quatermass and the Pit, was chosen to voice the character. Later, Nigel Kneale himself became dismissive of the serial, but critics gave the production relatively positive reviews.
The series mixes three different strands: a new monologue by Kneale in which he discusses the genesis and development of the Quatermass serials and their main character; archival material from the television productions, and from documentary and newsreel coverage of key events of the times in which they were made, such as the Cold War, the advent of nuclear weapons and the embryonic Space Race; and the dramatised strand, in which the Professor discloses his reasons for reclusion and discusses his demons with a persistent reporter who invades his hermitage (and ultimately becomes his friend). This third element is set several years after the events of the third serial, Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59), and shortly before those of the fourth and final serial, Quatermass (1979). Continuity is maintained with the 1979 serial by presenting Quatermass living in seclusion in the Scottish Highlands, while the final episode reveals that the social collapse foreshadowing the events of the final story has already begun.
...
Wikipedia