Quatermass Logo 'Quatermass II'
(6 Parts)
by Nigel Kneal
Quatermass

When a mysterious swarm of objects from space crash-lands on Earth, Captain John Dillon of the British army defies a government clamp-down and takes one of the meteorites to Professor Bernard Quatermass at the British Rocket Group. Quatermass is intrigued, and returns with Dillon to the crash site at Winnerden Flats, where he finds a huge synthetic-food plant that is inexplicably identical to his recent proposal for a moon-base. After another swarm of meteorites lands nearby, Dillon is infected by gas that emerges from one of the objects, and a strange scar appears on his face. But before Quatermass can help him, Dillon is captured by similarly scarred zombie-like guards, and taken to the plant. Quatermass attempts to find out what happened to Dillion, but is blocked by bureaucracy at every turn; he attends a governmental enquiry into the plant, only to discover that all the commission members also bear the strange scars. Quatermass elicits the aid of two men, Ward and Fowler, and together they break into the plant; but then Ward is burnt to death by a corrosive black substance while investigating inside a food dome. After Quatermass’s colleague, Doctor Pugh, discovers that the meteorites originate from an asteroid, Quatermass teams-up with journalist Hugh Conrad and together they attempt to talk to the villagers that make up the workforce at the plant. As night falls, another shower of meteorites lands in the area; Conrad is infected, and guards arrive to collect the objects. Quatermass gains access to the plant, and sees a hideous alien creature living in the slime that is stored inside the food domes. The workers decide to revolt and, led by Pugh, they attack the refinery, managing to take-over the pumping-room and halt the flow of the poisonous gas to the domes, instead pumping in oxygen. But the guards are able to stop the flow of the oxygen by blocking the pipeline with human bodies, causing a massive build-up of pressure. As the plant explodes, Quatermass only just escapes, and he returns with Pugh to the Rocket Group, only to find that the base has been overrun by Dillon and some of the zombies. Pugh and Quatermass are able to evade capture, and take off for the asteroid in the ‘Quatermass II’ rocket. As the two of them lay explosives which will destroy the alien force, Quatermass discovers that Pugh has also been infected by the gas. Pugh attempts to shoot Quatermass, but he misses, and the blast sends him spinning off into space; Quatermass blows up the asteroid, destroying the alien force, and freeing everyone from its evil influence.

John Robinson (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Monica Grey (Paula Quatermass), Hugh Griffith (Doctor Leo Pugh), John Stone (Captain John Dillon), Brian Hayes (Sergeant Grice), Tony Lyons (Private), Eric Lugg (Fred Large), Hilda Barry (Mrs. Large), Herbert Lomas (Robert), Richard Cuthbert (Landlord), Kim Grant (First Technician), Peter Macarte (Second Technician), Peter Carver (Australian Commentator, Inspector Clifford), Rupert Davies (Vincent Broadhead), Austin Trevor (Fowler), John Miller (Stenning), Wilfred Branbell (Tramp), ichael Brennan (Dawson), Sheila Martin (Child), Michael Collins (Thompson, Laboratory Assistant), Dina Chesney (Secretary), Derek Aylward (Ward), John Cazabon (Doctor), Margaret Flint (Waitress), Ilona Ference (Mother), Sydney Bromley (Father), Melvyn Hayes (Frankie), Trevor Reid (Analyst), Philip Levene (Supervisor), Roger Delgado (Conrad), Michael Golden (Paddy), John Rae (McLeod), Elsie Arnold (Mrs. McLeod), Ian Wilson (Ernie), Tom Clegg (Guard), Martin Lane (Technician), Desmond Jordan (Young Workman), Malcolm Knight (Office Boy), Denton De Grey (Technician), Denis McCarthy (Doctor), Cyril Shaps (Control Assistant), Scott Harrold (Medical Attendant), O’Donovan Shiell (Head of Commission), Malcolm Watson, Robert S. Young, Bernard Dudley, Stephen Dunne, Carl Lacey (Commission Members), Edwin Brown, Brian Moorhead, Dermot Macmahon, Stephen Scott, (Guards), Nickola Sterne, Fletcher Lightfoot, Austin Webb, Claude Bonsor, Manny Michael, Charles Price, Peter Roy Taylor, Reginald Jessop, David Gordon, Michael Bilton, Patrick Carter, Philip Ingram, Queenie Barratt, Bryan Kendrick, Hilda Fenemore (Mother)**, Jack Kine, Bernard Wilkie (Launch technicians)*, Radar Equipment supplied by HM War Office and Territorial Army, Refinery Plant at Shell Haven, Essex filmed by permission of ‘Shell’
*Uncredited
**Not as advertised - Hilda Fenemore replaced Nelly Griffiths shortly before the live telecast

Produced and Directed by Rudolf Cartier

TX - BBC1:
‘The Bolts’ - 22nd October, 1955 @ 8.00pm - 8.30pm
‘The Mark’ - 29th October, 1955 @ 8.00pm - 8.30pm
‘The Food’ - 5th November, 1955 @ 9.15pm - 9.45pm
‘The Coming’ - 12th November, 1955 @ 8.00pm - 8.30pm
‘The Frenzy’ - 19th November, 1955 @ 8.00pm - 8.30pm
‘The Destroyers’ - 26th November, 1955 @ 8.00pm - 8.30pm

Notes:
*Featuring Professor Bernard Quatermass

*The episodes were transmitted live, and were roughly 35 minutes in duration

*A telerecording was made from the transmission, for a repeat showing two days after each original transmission

*All six episodes still exist

*Reginald Tate was due to play Quatermass, but died shortly before transmission; he was hurriedly replaced by John Robinson, and it is very obvious that he is reading his lines from cue cards!

*Episode five has an announcement at the beginning, warning that the programme may be unsuitable for children or those of a nervous disposition