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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Shows by Decade»1970s Television
    1970s Television Drama Shows Q 2 Mins Read

    Quatermass

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    1 9 7 9 (UK)
    4 x 50 minute episodes

    This four-part miniseries was written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Piers Haggard and formed the final part of Kneale’s Quatermass saga.

    Professor Quatermass (John Mills) arrives in London to appear on a television programme about a joint Soviet/American space mission. London is little more than a pile of rubble and is on the brink of anarchy.

    Quatermass is mugged by a gang of thugs but saved by Professor Joe Kapp (Simon MacCorkindale). Kapp is an astronomer due to appear on the same show.

    Kapp recognises the famous Quatermass and invites him to his home in the country where he has built a radio telescope and lives a simple life with his family.

    Something very strange is happening though. Contact was suddenly lost with the space mission and young people seem to be congregating at Stonehenge-style sites where they believe aliens will transport them to a better world.

    Nigel Kneale apparently wrote this in the 1960s, which might explain why it seems out of date. The hippie gangs – or Planet People as they are known – congregating at the monuments seem hopelessly anachronistic considering this was transmitted at the tail-end of the punk era. The hippie leader Kickalong (Ralph Arliss) looks like a reject from a Mad Max film

    This was the first Quatermass television adaptation for some time as the BBC declined to produce it in the end despite their early interest. The series was eventually made by Euston Films for ITV.

    A 100-minute theatrical cut of this 200-minute miniseries was released as The Quatermass Conclusion for theatrical release abroad. The theatrical cut is rather incoherent and best avoided.

    Professor Bernard Quatermass
    John Mills
    Joe Kapp
    Simon MacCorkindale
    Kickalong
    Ralph Arliss
    Caraway
    Paul Rosebury
    Bee
    Jane Bertish
    Hettie Carlson
    Rebecca Saire
    Sal
    Toyah Willcox
    Chuck Marshall
    Tony Sibbald
    Clare Kapp
    Barbara Kellerman
    Gurov
    Brewster Mason
    Annie Morgan
    Margaret Tyzack
    Tommy Roach
    Bruce Purchase
    Isabel
    Annabelle Lanyon
    Frank Chen
    David Yip
    Toby Gough
    Neil Stacy
    Alison Thorpe
    Brenda Fricker
    Woman Minister
    Elsie Randolph
    Jack
    Larry Noble
    Edna
    Gretchen Franklin
    Arthur
    James Ottaway
    Jane
    Clare Ruane
    Chisholm
    Donald Eccles
    Debbie, Kapp Child
    Joanna Joseph

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