The Quatermass Memoirs
Encyclopedia
The Quatermass Memoirs is a British radio
drama-documentary
, originally broadcast in five 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 Quartermass 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.
coverage of key events of the times in which they were made, such as the Cold War
, the advent of nuclear weapon
s 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.
producer Paul Quinn with an idea for creating a drama-documentary about the character as part of a season of BBC radio programming looking back at the 1950s. Quinn told Dreamwatch
magazine, "For many people who remember the seminal experience of hiding behind the sofa
when the Quatermass serials came on the television, Quatermass was the 1950s. His adventures [...] have gone down in popular cultural history." Kneale was intrigued by the idea, and agreed to write new dramatic material of Quatermass relating his memories which Quinn could then combine with archive clips from the existing episodes of the various Quatermass television serials. Kneale saw the older Quatermass of this new serial as "the same very concerned scientist who is now, in retrospect, horribly worried about what he may have done to the world through his encounters with various lifeforms that were better not contacted". It was Kneale's first radio work since he had written the play You Must Listen for the BBC in 1952, and his first work for the BBC in any medium since the mid-1970s.
The programme was commissioned in July 1995, with the original working title of Quatermass and the Ultimate Conspiracy. When Quinn discovered that some of the soundtracks of the Quatermass episodes were considered to be of too poor a quality to use, the idea for the series was re-shaped to add the new elements of Kneale's monologue and archive news reports. Kneale, however, later denied that any of the news stories which The Quatermass Memoirs suggested had inspired parts of his work had ever been in his mind at the time. He said that he had used a degree of creative licence when "explaining" these apparent inspirations in his monologue sections.
A further problem for Quinn was that none of the actors who had played Quatermass for BBC Television
in the 1950s were still alive. This was solved by employing Andrew Keir
, who had played Quatermass in the Hammer Film Productions
version of Quatermass and the Pit
in 1967, a performance which Kneale had liked. Keir was happy to take the part, but somewhat concerned about only being used as a "link man" and not in a fully dramatic role. The clips that were used from the original BBC episodes were all carefully edited so that the actors playing Quatermass were never heard, and thus the differences between their voices and Keir's would not confuse the audience. Also in the cast were Emma Gregory as the journalist, Mandy, and Zulema Dene as Quatermass's housekeeper, Maire.
The five episodes, each of approximately twenty minutes, were broadcast across one week from 4 to 8 March 1996, as part of The Fifties season of programming. The serial was promoted in listings magazine Radio Times
with an article by Kneale about Quatermass and his opinion of other science fiction programmes. Episode one was transmitted at 10.32pm on the Monday (originally scheduled for 10.05pm but delayed by a live concert broadcast beforehand); episode two at 9.30pm on the Tuesday; episode three 9.00pm on Wednesday, episode four 10.15pm on Thursday and episode five at 9.40pm on the Friday. The production was made and transmitted in stereo
. It was Andrew Keir's final professional performance; he died the following year.
The digital radio
station BBC7 has repeated the series on several occasions since October 2003. In 2006 it was released on CD by BBC Audio
as part of their Classic Radio Sci-Fi range, with cover artwork by Chris Achilleos
.
Reviewing the first episodes of both The Quatermass Memoirs and In the Fifties—another programme running as part of The Fifties season—The Times
s reviewer Peter Barnard was impressed. Despite thinking that such a season of programming was "a necessarily premature commemoration", he felt that both series had "demonstrated how radio's better moments often take conventional pegs and hang some original clothing on them".
The Independent
s radio critic Robert Hanks was unimpressed with Kneale's script for the dramatic sections, but praised the performance of Andrew Keir in the title role. "Lesser actors would treat Kneale's downbeat script with a certain detachment, but Keir is prepared to charge even the most banal lines with a terror that's both a treat and a lesson." Hanks also felt that The Fifties season as a whole, as demonstrated by The Quatermass Memoirs, had a somewhat misleading focus. "You get the sense that a vogue for science fiction is being interpreted as the spirit of the Fifties, with emphasis being put on a handful of sci-fi films. If you really wanted to read the age through its movies, you'd have to include Dean Martin
and Jerry Lewis
, late Ealing
and early Norman Wisdom
, Marilyn Monroe
and Elvis Presley
. It's a lot to accommodate; perhaps sticking to terror is just less intimidating."
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
drama-documentary
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
, originally broadcast in five episodes on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
in March 1996. Written by Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale
Nigel Kneale was a British screenwriter from the Isle of Man. Active in television, film, radio drama and prose fiction, he wrote professionally for over fifty years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and was twice nominated for the British Film Award for Best Screenplay...
, it was born out of his Quatermass
Quatermass
Quatermass may best be known as the surname of the title character of a British science fiction franchise of several television serials and films, and a radio production...
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
Bernard Quatermass
Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist, originally created by the writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading up the British Experimental Rocket Group...
who, albeit older than in the previous series, is "the same very concerned scientist" but worried about his previous decisions. Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...
, who had played Quartermass in the 1967 Quatermass and the Pit
Quatermass and the Pit (film)
Quatermass and the Pit is a 1967 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions it is a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors it is based on a BBC Television serial – Quatermass and the Pit – written by Nigel Kneale...
, was chosen to voice the character. Later, Nigel Kneale himself became dismissive of the serial, but critics gave the production relatively positive reviews.
Overview
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 newsreelNewsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
coverage of key events of the times in which they were made, such as the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the advent of nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s and the embryonic Space Race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
; 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
Quatermass and the Pit
Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial, originally 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 character would reappear in a 1979 ITV production simply entitled Quatermass...
(1958–59), and shortly before those of the fourth and final serial, Quatermass
Quatermass (TV serial)
Quatermass is a British television science fiction serial produced by Euston Films for Thames Television and broadcast on the ITV network in October and November 1979. Like its three predecessors, Quatermass was written by Nigel Kneale...
(1979). Continuity is maintained with the 1979 serial by presenting Quatermass living in seclusion in the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, while the final episode reveals that the social collapse foreshadowing the events of the final story has already begun.
Production
Kneale had brought Quatermass's story to a close in the 1979 serial Quatermass, and for many years saw no reason to revisit the character. However, in 1995 he was approached by BBC radioBBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
producer Paul Quinn with an idea for creating a drama-documentary about the character as part of a season of BBC radio programming looking back at the 1950s. Quinn told Dreamwatch
Dreamwatch
Dreamwatch was a British magazine covering science fiction and fantasy films, books and television programmes.Published monthly by Gary Leigh and then Titan Magazines , it was a leading genre entertainment magazine, competing with SFX and Cinescape in the genre magazine market.-Overview:The...
magazine, "For many people who remember the seminal experience of hiding behind the sofa
Behind the sofa
"Behind the sofa" is a British pop culture phrase, used as a metaphor to describe the actions that a state of fear may drive a person to — e.g., a child hiding behind the sofa to avoid a frightening television programme...
when the Quatermass serials came on the television, Quatermass was the 1950s. His adventures [...] have gone down in popular cultural history." Kneale was intrigued by the idea, and agreed to write new dramatic material of Quatermass relating his memories which Quinn could then combine with archive clips from the existing episodes of the various Quatermass television serials. Kneale saw the older Quatermass of this new serial as "the same very concerned scientist who is now, in retrospect, horribly worried about what he may have done to the world through his encounters with various lifeforms that were better not contacted". It was Kneale's first radio work since he had written the play You Must Listen for the BBC in 1952, and his first work for the BBC in any medium since the mid-1970s.
The programme was commissioned in July 1995, with the original working title of Quatermass and the Ultimate Conspiracy. When Quinn discovered that some of the soundtracks of the Quatermass episodes were considered to be of too poor a quality to use, the idea for the series was re-shaped to add the new elements of Kneale's monologue and archive news reports. Kneale, however, later denied that any of the news stories which The Quatermass Memoirs suggested had inspired parts of his work had ever been in his mind at the time. He said that he had used a degree of creative licence when "explaining" these apparent inspirations in his monologue sections.
A further problem for Quinn was that none of the actors who had played Quatermass for BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
in the 1950s were still alive. This was solved by employing Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...
, who had played Quatermass in the Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
version of Quatermass and the Pit
Quatermass and the Pit (film)
Quatermass and the Pit is a 1967 British science fiction horror film. Made by Hammer Film Productions it is a sequel to the earlier Hammer films The Quatermass Xperiment and Quatermass 2. Like its predecessors it is based on a BBC Television serial – Quatermass and the Pit – written by Nigel Kneale...
in 1967, a performance which Kneale had liked. Keir was happy to take the part, but somewhat concerned about only being used as a "link man" and not in a fully dramatic role. The clips that were used from the original BBC episodes were all carefully edited so that the actors playing Quatermass were never heard, and thus the differences between their voices and Keir's would not confuse the audience. Also in the cast were Emma Gregory as the journalist, Mandy, and Zulema Dene as Quatermass's housekeeper, Maire.
The five episodes, each of approximately twenty minutes, were broadcast across one week from 4 to 8 March 1996, as part of The Fifties season of programming. The serial was promoted in listings magazine Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
with an article by Kneale about Quatermass and his opinion of other science fiction programmes. Episode one was transmitted at 10.32pm on the Monday (originally scheduled for 10.05pm but delayed by a live concert broadcast beforehand); episode two at 9.30pm on the Tuesday; episode three 9.00pm on Wednesday, episode four 10.15pm on Thursday and episode five at 9.40pm on the Friday. The production was made and transmitted in stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
. It was Andrew Keir's final professional performance; he died the following year.
The digital radio
Digital radio
Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...
station BBC7 has repeated the series on several occasions since October 2003. In 2006 it was released on CD by BBC Audio
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
as part of their Classic Radio Sci-Fi range, with cover artwork by Chris Achilleos
Chris Achilleos
Chris Achilleos is a painter and illustrator who specialises in fantasy artwork and glamour illustration. Born in Famagusta, Cyprus, his family emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1959, where he currently resides....
.
Reception
Nigel Kneale himself was largely dismissive of the serial in the years following its broadcast; "God knows it wasn't a very important sort of thing," he told his biographer. "The BBC didn't care tuppence about what they were doing, because they really don't know what they're doing, certainly not in radio... [Andrew Keir] must have been pretty ill when this nonsense was going on."Reviewing the first episodes of both The Quatermass Memoirs and In the Fifties—another programme running as part of The Fifties season—The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
s reviewer Peter Barnard was impressed. Despite thinking that such a season of programming was "a necessarily premature commemoration", he felt that both series had "demonstrated how radio's better moments often take conventional pegs and hang some original clothing on them".
The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
s radio critic Robert Hanks was unimpressed with Kneale's script for the dramatic sections, but praised the performance of Andrew Keir in the title role. "Lesser actors would treat Kneale's downbeat script with a certain detachment, but Keir is prepared to charge even the most banal lines with a terror that's both a treat and a lesson." Hanks also felt that The Fifties season as a whole, as demonstrated by The Quatermass Memoirs, had a somewhat misleading focus. "You get the sense that a vogue for science fiction is being interpreted as the spirit of the Fifties, with emphasis being put on a handful of sci-fi films. If you really wanted to read the age through its movies, you'd have to include Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
, late Ealing
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
and early Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. It's a lot to accommodate; perhaps sticking to terror is just less intimidating."