The Quatermass Experiment (1953)
"Suppose an experimental rocket were sent 1,500 miles above the Earth to make certain observations and then to return. The operation should take only a few hours, at enormous speed. But suppose through some defect in the control system the rocket veered off course and were lost for a considerable time. Suppose after it had completed a vast ellipse of hundreds of thousands of miles into the unknown, control were regained, and it landed. What travellers' tale might then be told? Or what might happen?"
A British experimental rocket orbits the Earth. After being out of contact for 57 hours, the capsule crashes back to Earth in Wimbledon, London. When the capsule is opened, only one member of the three-man crew emerges, Victor Carroon...
Main cast
Reginald Tate: "Professor Bernard Quatermass", head of the British Experimental Rocket Group
Isabel Dean: "Judith Carroon", chief assistant to Quatermass
Hugh Kelly: "John Paterson", Senior Engineer
PAUL WHITSUN-JONES: "James Fullalove", chief columnist of 'Daily Gazette'
DUNCAN LAMONT: "Victor Carroon"
Crew
Writer(s): NIGEL KNEALE
Producer(s): RUDOLPH CARTIER for BBC
Director(s): RUDOLPH CARTIER
Settings: Richard R Greenhough (Eps 1,3,5); STEWART MARSHALL (Eps 2,4,6)
Music: BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Boult (Theme tune: "Mars, Bringer of War" [link to Spotify] from Gustav Holst's The Planets)
Episodes
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1: "Contact has been Established"
Broadcast(s) BBC Television Service: July 18, 1953, 8.15pm
A British experimental rocket orbits the Earth. After being out of contact for 57 hours, the capsule crashes back to Earth in Wimbledon, London. When the capsule is opened, only one member of the three-man crew emerges, Victor Carroon.
The plan was to pilot a manned rocket some 1,500 miles above the earth for observation purposes and then to return. The project looked very reasonable in theory, but in practice...
Additional cast
MORAY WATSON as "Peter Marsh", Assistant Control Engineer
W Thorpe Devereux as "Blaker"
VAN BOOLEN as "Len Matthews"
Iris Ballard as "Mrs Matthews"
NEIL WILSON as "Policeman"
Katie Johnson as "Miss Wilde"
Oliver Johnston as "News Editor of 'Daily Gazette'"
Colyn Davies as "Fireman"
PATRICK WESTWOOD as "First Journalist"
Dominic Le Foe as "Second Journalist"
EUGENE LEAHY as "Police Inspector"
Nicholas Bruce as "BBC Newsreader"
Pat McGrath as "BBC Reporter"
Denis Wyndham as "Reveller"
Macgregor Urquhart as "Sandwichman"
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2: "Persons Reported Missing"
Broadcast(s) BBC Television Service: July 25, 1953, 8.25pm
Victor Carroon is subjected to various tests which indicate that he has taken on the identities of the other two men. Quatermass and Paterson find a gelatinous substance spread around the capsule's interior.
Additional cast
MORAY WATSON as "Peter Marsh", Assistant Control Engineer
John Glen as "Dr Gordon Briscoe"
IAN COLIN as "Chief Inspector Lomax"
FRANK HAWKINS as "Detective-Sergeant Best"
Members of the Crew of BR7
Christopher Rhodes as "Dr Ludwig Reichenheim"
PETER BATHURST as "Charles Greene"
Enid Lindsay as "Louisa Greene"
Oliver Johnston as "News Editor of 'Daily Gazette'"
PATRICK WESTWOOD as "First Journalist"
Dominic Le Foe as "Second Journalist"
Stella Richman as "Hospital Sister"
EUGENE LEAHY as "Police Inspector"
NEIL WILSON as "Policeman"
MAURICE DURANT as "Policeman, Scotland Yard"
3: "Very Special Knowledge"
Broadcast BBC Television Service: August 1, 1953, 8.45pm
Carron is taken back to the crash site and a recording of what happened during the orbit is played back to him, with disturbing results. A group of journalists try to kidnap him, but he, in turn, attacks one of them as he begins to change.
THE MAN BEHIND THE EXPERIMENT
Reginald Tate as Professor Bernard Quatermass, Head of the British Experimental Rocket Group.
Additional cast
John Glen as "Dr Gordon Briscoe"
IAN COLIN as "Chief Inspector Lomax"
FRANK HAWKINS as "Detective-Sergeant Best"
Members of the Crew of BR7
Christopher Rhodes as "Dr Ludwig Reichenheim"
PETER BATHURST as "Charles Greene"
Philip Vickers as "American Reporter"
Edward David as "Indian Reporter"
Katie Johnson as "Miss Wilde"
4: "Believed to Be Suffering"
Broadcast(s) BBC Television Service: August 8, 1953, 8.45pm
Carroon takes refuge inside a cinema (where a spoof film 'Planet of the Dragons', is on screen). He then goes to a chemist where he appears to in pain and his hand is seen to be badly mutated.
Isabel Dean plays the part of Judith Carroon, assistant to Professor Quatermass.
Additional cast
John Glen as "Dr Gordon Briscoe"
IAN COLIN as "Chief Inspector Lomax"
FRANK HAWKINS as "Detective-Sergeant Best"
Oliver Johnston as "News Editor of 'Daily Gazette'"
Philip Vickers as "American Reporter"
Katie Johnson as "Miss Wilde"
LEWIS WILSON as "Walters"
Darrell Runey as "Photographer"
JACK RODNEY as "Ramsey"
Anthony Green as "Boy"
RICHARD CUTHBERT as "Chemist"
LEE FOX as "Cinema Manager"
JANET JOYE as "Cinemagoer"
Keith Herrington as "'Space Lieutenant'"
Pauline Johnson as "'Space Girl'"
5: "An Unidentified Species"
Broadcast(s) BBC Television Service: August 15, 1953, 9.00pm
Quatermass picks up Carroon's trail and believes that the mixture of chemicals he has taken will accelerate his metamorphosis. Meanwhile, the killing starts - and Westminster Abbey a pulsating mass is revealed clinging to the building.
Duncan Lamont on the right, plays Victor Carroon and Reginald Tate the Professor
Additional cast
John Glen as "Dr Gordon Briscoe"
IAN COLIN as "Chief Inspector Lomax"
FRANK HAWKINS as "Detective-Sergeant Best"
RICHARD CUTHBERT as "Chemist"
Anthony Green as "Boy"
Bernardette Milnes as "Usherette"
Christie Humphrey as "Janet"
JOHN STONE as "Ted"
Frank Atkinson as "Park Keeper"
REGINALD HEARNE as "Police Inspector"
WILFRED BRAMBELL as "A drunk"
JOHN KIDD as "Sir Vernon Dodds"
Of a Television Outside Broadcast Unit
Tony Van Bridge as "Producer"
Neil Arden as "Commentator"
Josephine Crombie as "Secretary"
6: "State of Emergency"
Broadcast(s) BBC Television Service: August 22, 1953, 9.00pm
A state of emergency is declared and the army is brought in. Quatermass plays the creature the rocket tapes and appeals to the last vestiges of humanity left in Carroon to fight what he has become. The creature finally dies, just before it is due to spore.
THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT
Viewers will remember this scene at the beginning of Nigel Kneale's serial that ends tonight with 'State of Emergency'
Additional cast
John Glen as "Dr Gordon Briscoe"
IAN COLIN as "Chief Inspector Lomax"
FRANK HAWKINS as "Detective-Sergeant Best"
Of a Television Outside Broadcast Unit
Tony Van Bridge as "Producer"
Neil Arden as "Commentator"
Josephine Crombie as "Secretary"
JOHN KIDD as "Sir Vernon Dodds"
KEITH PYOTT as "Cabinet Minister"
Factfile
The Quatermass Experiment was the first television science fiction serial written specifically for adults.
The serial was transmitted live - with a few pre-filmed inserts - from the BBC's studios at Alexandra Palace in north London, and was one of the final productions before BBC television drama moved to Lime Grove Studios in west London.
This serial introduced heroic scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group and would be the first of four Quatermass productions to be screened on British television between 1953 and 1979.
The BBC intended that each episode be telerecorded and sale of the serial had been provisionally agreed upon with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and producer/director Rudolph Cartier wanted the material available to use for trailers and recaps. Only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes were recorded before the idea was abandoned. They are the oldest surviving examples of a multi-episodic British drama production, and some of the earliest existing examples of British television drama at all, with only a few earlier one-off plays surviving. During the telerecording of the second episode, an insect landed on the screen being filmed, and can be seen on the image for several minutes. It is very unlikely that material from the third to sixth episodes of the serial will ever be recovered to the BBC's archives.
Quatermass was played by the experienced Reginald Tate, though the part was originally offered to André Morell, who declined the role. However, Morell did later play Quatermass in the third instalment of the series, Quatermass and the Pit.
The popularity of The Quatermass Experiment gained the attention of the film industry, and Hammer Film Productions quickly purchased the rights to make an adaptation. It was released in 1955 (as The Quatermass Xperiment), and starred the American actor Brian Donlevy as Professor Quatermass.
The BBC was also pleased with the success of The Quatermass Experiment and, in 1955, Quatermass II was broadcast, but with John Robinson in the title role after Tate died while preparing to play the Professor again. This was followed in 1958 by Quatermass and the Pit, and both serials also had feature film versions made by Hammer. The character returned to television in a 1979 serial, simply titled Quatermass, for Thames Television.
The production had an overall budget of just under £4000.
The theme music used was the BBC Symphony Orchestra's 1945 recording of "Mars, Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's The Planets, conducted by Adrian Boult.