Roy Ward Baker would direct and Andrew Kier would star as Quatermass. By then both Guest and Donlevy were no longer involved. But for various reasons the production was delayed to 1968. The studio intended to bring the third serial to the screen in 1963 with both Guest and Donlevy returning. He objected to changes to the story by director Val Guest and especially to the casting of American tough-guy actor Brian Donlevy as Quatermass. These were all live television productions, by the way, involving complex staging and extremely ambitious special effects for the time, many done by Kneale himself.īy the time Quatermass and the Pit aired, Hammer Films had already adapted the first two serials into very popular motion pictures.

Its massive success led to two more serials featuring the character, 1955’s Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit (1958). Kneale’s first serial for the BBC was 1953’s The Quatermass Experiment (1953), which introduced the brilliant and philosophical scientist in an exciting story about the first manned spaceflight and its terrible consequences.

In the UK, Kneale and his most lasting creation, Professor Bernard Quatermass, are much more well known. But he remains relatively obscure in the US. His influence is vast and continues to this day. Nigel Kneale is one of those writers whom other writers fawn over, particularly within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

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