Predominantly a writer of thrillers that used science-fiction and horror elements, he was best known for the creation of the character Professor Bernard Quatermass. But it will be an interesting test, today, to go up behind people and whisper 'clip-clop', to find out whether they saw The Woman in Black last night. "[46] It was also included in the British Film Institute's "TV 100" list in 2000, where it was praised for the themes and subtexts it explored. "[38] Doctor Who was heavily influenced by Kneale's Quatermass serials,[88][89][90] in some cases even using specific storylines that were very similar to those from Quatermass.[91][92]. Kneale's career in Television has been retrospectively obscured by the BBC's routine wiping of videotapes, in order to save money (this vandalism continued for years after American television series like I Love … The dialogue/characterisation seemed to consist of a kind of childish squabbling" and Doomwatch: "I was approached to write Doomwatch. "[22], Jason Jacobs, a lecturer in film and television studies at the University of Warwick, wrote in his 2000 history of early British television drama that "It was the arrival of Nigel Kneale ... and Rudolph Cartier ... that challenged the intimate drama directly ... Kneale and Cartier shared a common desire to invigorate television with a faster tempo and a broader thematic and spatial canvas, and it was no coincidence that they turned to science-fiction in order to get out of the dominant stylistic trend of television intimacy. Disney dropped new trailers for "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," "Loki," and a first look at the new Star Wars series, "Andor.". [61] Kneale's first television work to be made in colour—although only a black-and-white copy now survives—the story was based in a future where the majority of the population are kept in a docile state by constant broadcasts of pornography and other low-brow reality television programming. Or in the case of Mr Donlevy, waddle."[38]. [85], High-profile entertainment industry figures have publicly expressed admiration for Kneale's work, including The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr,[87] members of the rock group Pink Floyd[87] and Monty Python's Flying Circus writer/performer Michael Palin. A particular critical success was The Year of the Sex Olympics, broadcast as part of BBC2's Theatre 625 series in July 1968. [34] Specifically designed by the BBC to combat the threat of the new ITV network,[26][30] which launched just a month before Quatermass II was shown,[35] the serial was even more successful than the first, drawing audiences of up to nine million viewers. [59] Kneale did his first work for the ITV network during this time, writing one-off play The Crunch for the ATV company in 1964.[60]. [67] It featured some well-known actors such as Martin Shaw, Pauline Quirke and Bernard Horsfall, but did not gain a full network run on ITV; different regions transmitted the episodes in different timeslots and some in different sequences. [21] Together they would help to revolutionise British television drama and establish it as an entity separate from its theatre and radio equivalents; the television historian Lez Cooke wrote in 2003 that "Between them, Kneale and Cartier were responsible for introducing a completely new dimension to television drama in the early to mid-1950s. [55] Like The Witches, the film version of Quatermass and the Pit took several years to reach the screen, eventually being released in 1967. Much in the vein of his "Beasts" TV series, its a slow burner, but the intelligent dialogue makes the viewing experience a total … [38] It was also his final new collaboration with Rudolph Cartier, although the director did later handle a new version of Kneale's 1953 adaptation of Wuthering Heights for the BBC in 1962. I'm sure if somebody thought that Quatermass was a silly name and changed it, he'd be furious! “Christmas Eve with my mum and dad. [50] Kneale was nominated for the British Film Award (later known as a BAFTA) for Best Screenplay for both films. Wells). [6] The play concerned the population of an 18th-century village who become haunted by visions of a future nuclear war,[3] and was followed by several further one-off dramas for the BBC over the following decade, including two entries into BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand. [81] The horror fiction writer Stephen King has cited Kneale as an influence,[3][31] and Kim Newman suggested in 2003 that King had "more or less rewritten Quatermass and the Pit in The Tommyknockers. [57] The production, Quatermass, was structured to work both as a four-episode serial for transmission in the UK, and a 100-minute film version for cinema release overseas—something Kneale later regretted agreeing to. … [38] Starring John Mills as Quatermass and with a budget of over £1 million[57]—more than fifty times the budget of Quatermass and the Pit in 1958[69]—the serial was not as critically successful as its predecessors. Nigel Kneale was born on April 18, 1922 in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England as Thomas Nigel Kneale. The plot is a condensed but largely … This issue also has reviews of the VHS releases of Quatermass and the Pit (by Petley) and The Quatermass Conclusion (by Kim Newman). Nigel Kneale was born in Barrow-in-Furness, then in Lancashire, but grew up on the Isle of Man. The same year saw the formation of the ... Roy Ward Baker, 1967), easily the best film adaptation of his television work thanks to his own script and a decent budget. [40] Kneale was disappointed that Brian Donlevy also returned in the role of Quatermass. [37] Kneale was not pleased with the film,[6] and particularly disliked the casting of Brian Donlevy as Quatermass, as he explained in a 1986 interview. "[76] However, Kneale's adaptations were by no means always unpopular with the original author. [10] Later that year he left the Isle of Man and moved to London, where he began studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Quatermass’s creator Nigel Kneale did not like this at all. Defiant (1962, from the novel Mutiny by Frank Tilsley)[52] and First Men in the Moon (1964, from the novel by H. G. [71] However, the series was not a success, although Kneale later remained personally pleased with it. [57] Nothing came of this, but seven years later he was commissioned by the BBC to write a new four-part Quatermass serial, based in a dystopian near future world overrun with crime, apathy, martial law and youth cults. "[96], Kneale's younger brother is the renowned artist and sculptor Bryan Kneale, who was Master and then Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy from 1982 to 1990. [77], Kneale also adapted Sharpe's Gold for ITV in 1995, as part of their series of adaptations of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels. "If you like the idea of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide but found its realization tiresomely hysterical you may well prefer Kneale's relaxed wit. 1 month ago. [4], Kerr became a successful children's writer, with the Mog series of books[31] and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which was based on her own experiences of fleeing Nazi Germany in her youth. [27] The Professor's first name was chosen in honour of the astronomer Bernard Lovell. The Year of the Sex Olympics was the brainchild of writer Nigel Kneale. It was 35 years ago. The following year, Michael Barry became the Head of Drama at BBC Television, and spent his entire first year's script budget of £250 to hire Kneale as a full-time writer for the drama department. "[26] Kneale was inspired in choosing the character's unusual surname by the fact that many Manx surnames began with "Qu";[27] the actual name itself was picked from a London telephone directory. Described by The Independent as "one of the few writers not to fall out with John Osborne,"[7] Kneale adapted Osborne's plays Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer in 1958 and 1960 respectively, both for director Tony Richardson. [73] Lynne Truss, reviewing a repeat broadcast of the production on Channel 4 for The Times in 1994, wrote that: "Clip-clop is not usually a noise to get upset about. [40] The film premiered at the end of May 1957,[41] and was reviewed positively in The Times: "The writer of the original story, Mr Nigel Kneale, and the director, Mr Val Guest, between them keep things moving at the right speed, without digressions. [4] (His son, Matthew Kneale, would later win the same award in 1988 for his novel Whore Banquets. In 2000, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association. Kneale wrote original scripts and successfully adapted works by writers such as George Orwell, John Osborne, H. G. Wells and Susan Hill. "[4] He returned to writing for radio for the first time since the 1950s in 1996, when he wrote the drama-documentary The Quatermass Memoirs for BBC Radio 3. [66], Kneale's remaining television work was written for ITV. [17], Following the cancellation of Crow, Kneale moved to work for another of the ITV companies, Thames Television, who in 1977 commissioned the production of the scripts of Kneale's previously abandoned fourth Quatermass serial, to be produced by their Euston Films subsidiary film company. [3] A keen cinema-goer, he believed that the audience being able to see human faces was an important factor in storytelling.[15]. "[42] 1957 also saw the release of another cinematic collaboration between Kneale and Guest, when Kneale adapted his 1955 BBC play The Creature into The Abominable Snowman;[43] in this case, Hammer retained the star of the BBC version, Peter Cushing. Quite. Manx-born author/screenwriter Nigel Kneale was one of the most compelling and influential film writers to come out of England in the '50s. 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