#modern television drama. a towering creative presence and a fiercely intelligent mind

[mariocki]

Nigel Kneale centenary (28.4.1922 - 28.4.2022)

"I suppose my happiest relationship has been with the director I worked with many times, Rudolph Cartier. We had a lot in common mentally and we got on well, so it was a great pleasure in those days to work on shows where we both knew we were taking risks, and Rudi was ready to take fearful chances technically. I think he was the only person in the BBC who would have attempted or succeeded in bringing off those early Quatermass shows at that time. The director had to carry an awful lot of responsibility. Now, much more is taken by the additional invented personnel, and of course the technical wizardry that surrounds any show. The personal load is less."

"I suppose children did watch and occasionally I'm approached by someone who says 'I remember the first Quatermass and I was three years old and I hid behind the sofa...' and that stuff, and my answer is: 'You shouldn't have been watching, you should have been in bed,' because we did warn. We did our best to see that small people didn't watch them because we knew that we were exciting, or trying to excite, veins of unease in the viewers - and whereas an adult can cope, a small immature mind can't cope with suggestions of that kind. Even background music can give nightmares."

"[On the success of Quatermass:] I suppose it's a help in probably the wrong way. Because what it tends to bring me is people who say, 'Can we do another Quatermass?' or something like that. Also, you get typed. You have a successful career up to a certain point, then you say, 'I want to break away and do something different.' But they go, 'No, do what you've done before. We can sell that, we know we can sell it.' It takes a lot of determination to fight that off."

#nigel kneale #remembrance #centenary #quatermass #the quatermass experiment #quatermass ii #quatermass and the pit #nineteen eighty four #the year of the sex olympics #beasts #the crunch #the stone tape #the woman in black #kinvig #the witches #the road #wuthering heights #look back in anger #a truly unique voice in the history of british tv and‚ with no hyperbole‚ one of the most important writers in terms of shaping #modern television drama. a towering creative presence and a fiercely intelligent mind #nigel was also somewhat awkward; outspoken and generally quite grumpy‚ he made no secret of his contempt for much of the tv sci fi #that followed him (he had a low opinion of Doctor Who and absolutely detested Blake's 7..) #he could be difficult to work with and more than once soured professional relationships that might have furthered his career #notably he hated working with Hammer on the Quatermass films‚ turned down numerous film projects #and infamously had his name removed from the credits of Halloween 3 after producers demanded more graphic violence was inserted #even his career with the bbc was fractious‚ with the much belated fourth Quatermass serial (variously known as The Quatermass #Conclusion or simply Quatermass) sat in development hell for years before Kneale took it to ITV (where he wasn't much happier) #but for all his prickliness and hard headedness in business‚ he was a devoted family man and became wife Judith Kerr's biggest champion as #his work slowed down and her writing for children took off. beloved by many‚ and perhaps one of the greatest influences on pop culture of #any one man (the tentacles of Quatermass have snuck right through the 20th century into every manner of film music tv art..)