Bernard Quatermass

Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional character, created by the writer Nigel Kneale originally for BBC Television, who appeared in three influential BBC science fiction serials of the 1950s, and made his swansong in a final serial for Thames Television in 1979. A re-make of the first serial appeared on BBC Four in 2005. The character has also appeared in films, on the radio and in print over a fifty-year period. Kneale picked the character's unusual surname from a London telephone directory when stuck for an interesting name for the leading character in the script he was writing. Quatermass is an intelligent and highly moral British scientist, who continually finds himself confronting sinister alien forces that threaten to destroy humanity. In the initial three serials, he is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading up the British Experimental Rocket Group.

Print

In 1959, Penguin Books published the television scripts of the three BBC serials as paperbacks. These were re-released by Arrow Books in new editions in 1979 to coincide with the final television serial. This production, Quatermass, was novelised by Kneale, with some additional material added featuring scenes not broadcast on television.

Related Topics:
1959 - Penguin Books - BBC - Arrow Books - 1979 - Quatermass - Kneale

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