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.

Television

The character was originally created for the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment. He was played by the experienced film and television actor Reginald Tate, and the character immediately became highly popular amongst a television audience who had not seen adult-orientated science-fiction on their screens before. The serial also benefitted from being transmitted only a short while after the televising of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, which had earned television its first mass audience and encouraged millions of households to purchase sets. The character of Quatermass quickly became one of television's first made-for-the-medium heroes and iconic characters.

Related Topics:
1953 - BBC Television - Serial - The Quatermass Experiment - Reginald Tate - Coronation - Queen Elizabeth II

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Kneale was called up and happy to write a second serial, Quatermass II, in 1955. However, Tate died only shortly before production on the serial was due to begin, and he had to be replaced at short notice by John Robinson. Although the serial was again a success, neither Kneale nor director Rudolph Cartier were particularly happy with Robinson's performance, so for the third serial - Quatermass and the Pit (1958-59) they replaced him with André Morell.

Related Topics:
Quatermass II - 1955 - John Robinson - Rudolph Cartier - Quatermass and the Pit - 1958 - 59 - André Morell

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Quatermass and the Pit became an iconic piece of television science-fiction, pioneering many of the hidden alien legacy themes that would go on to inform such programmes as The X-Files many decades later - indeed, Kneale was even approached by producer Chris Carter to write for The X-Files in the 1990s, although he declined the offer. It was the final Quatermass serial to be broadcast by the BBC, although the character did return one final time over twenty years later in 1979, with a serial simply entitled Quatermass for ITV.

Related Topics:
The X-Files - Chris Carter - 1990s - 1979 - Quatermass - ITV

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Here he was played by John Mills, and in this final, expensive serial Kneale brought the character's story to an end. An alternative TV movie version, titled The Quatermass Conclusion, was released to overseas markets.

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Quatermass returned to the BBC on April 2 2005, when digital channel BBC Four broadcast a new live adaptation of the original 1953 scripts. Adapted by Richard Fell and directed by Sam Miller, with Nigel Kneale acting as a consultant, the production was the BBC's first live drama for over twenty years (not counting a 2003 broadcast of Shakespeare's Richard II, which was a televised stage play rather than a made-for-TV drama). The climax was shifted from Westminster Abbey to Tate Modern. In this production, the Professor was played by Jason Flemyng, portraying a slightly younger interpretation of the character than had previously been the case.

Related Topics:
April 2 - 2005 - BBC Four - Richard Fell - Sam Miller - 2003 - Shakespeare - Richard II - Stage - Tate Modern - Jason Flemyng

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