"The Road" | |
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First Night episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 2 |
Directed by | Christopher Morahan |
Written by | Nigel Kneale |
Original air date | 29 September 1963 (UK) |
Running time | 55 minutes (missing) |
The Road is a 1963 British television play by Nigel Kneale. It was broadcast as part of the BBC Television anthology drama series First Night . An Australian remake was aired the following year. No recordings of the production on either video or audio are known to exist. The script for The Road was published alongside those for Kneale's teleplays The Year of the Sex Olympics and The Stone Tape under the title The Year of the Sex Olympics and Other TV Plays in 1976.
It is the late 18th century. A small English village is haunted by ghostly apparitions. Sir Timothy Hassall, accompanied by his friend Gideon Cole, investigate.
"The Road", initially presented as a ghost story, has a science fiction twist ending, making it ultimately a story of science fiction horror. The original 1963 BBC production has been called "one of the great missing masterpieces of British television." [1] Having been wiped by the BBC, it is unknown if a copy of the play exists.
The Road | |
---|---|
Written by | Nigel Kneale |
Directed by | Patrick Barton (Australia) |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Running time | 75 mins (missing) [2] |
Production company | ABC |
Original release | |
Release | 17 June 1964 (Melbourne) [3] |
Release | 26 August 1964 (Sydney) |
Release | 14 October 1964 (Brisbane) [4] |
The play was filmed the following year for Australian TV. As with the original British production, all recordings are thought to have been destroyed after transmission.
Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time and only occasionally produced science fiction. Other examples of Australian science fiction on TV include The End Begins (1961), Tomorrow's Child (1957) and The Stranger . [5] [6]
Of the play, director Patrick Barton said "the utopian rationalism of Cobb matched against the semi credulous tumbling semi scientific mind of Hassall are an example of two forces alive in the 18th century." [3]
The Sydney Morning Herald review complained that the story was "too feeble to stand up to scrutiny". [7]
A BBC Radio 4 audio adaptation, written by Toby Hadoke and directed by Charlotte Riches, aired on 27 October 2018. The production starred Mark Gatiss as Gideon Cobb, Adrian Scarborough as Sir Timothy Hassall and Hattie Morahan as Lady Lavinia Hassall. [8]
Professor Bernard Quatermass is a fictional scientist originally created by writer Nigel Kneale for BBC Television. An intelligent and highly moral British scientist, Quatermass is a pioneer of the British space programme, heading the British Experimental Rocket Group. He continually finds himself confronting sinister alien forces that threaten to destroy humanity.
Thomas Nigel Kneale was a Manx screenwriter who wrote professionally for more than 50 years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay.
Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's Quatermass serials, although the chief character, Professor Bernard Quatermass, reappeared in a 1979 ITV production called Quatermass. Like its predecessors, Quatermass and the Pit was written by Nigel Kneale.
The Quatermass Experiment is a British science fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, it tells the story of the first crewed flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group.
Reginald Tate was an English actor, veteran of many roles on stage, in films and on television. He is remembered best as the first actor to play the television science-fiction character Professor Bernard Quatermass, in the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment.
Quatermass II is a British science fiction serial, originally broadcast by BBC Television in the autumn of 1955. It is the second in the Quatermass series by writer Nigel Kneale, and the oldest of those serials to survive in its entirety in the BBC archives.
Rudolph Cartier was an Austrian television director, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who worked predominantly in British television, exclusively for the BBC. He is best known for his 1950s collaborations with screenwriter Nigel Kneale, most notably the Quatermass serials and their 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
"The Year of the Sex Olympics" is a 1968 television play made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 as part of Theatre 625. It stars Leonard Rossiter, Tony Vogel, Suzanne Neve and Brian Cox, and was directed by Michael Elliott. The writer was Nigel Kneale, best known as the creator of Quatermass.
The Stone Tape is a 1972 British television horror drama film written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Michael Bates and Iain Cuthbertson. It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972. Combining aspects of science fiction and horror, the story concerns a team of scientists who move into their new research facility, a renovated Victorian mansion that has a reputation for being haunted. The team investigate the phenomenon, trying to determine if the stones of the building are acting as a recording medium for past events. However, their investigations serve only to unleash a darker, more malevolent force.
Christopher Chisholm Barry was a British television director. He worked extensively in BBC television drama and became best known for his work on the science fiction series Doctor Who. He also directed the direct to video Doctor Who spin-off Downtime in 1995.
The Road is a 2006 novel by the American author Cormac McCarthy.
British television science fiction refers to programmes in the genre that have been produced by both the BBC and Britain's largest commercial channel, ITV. BBC's Doctor Who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, and has been called the "most successful" science fiction series of all time.
Philip Mackie was a British film and television screenwriter. He was born in Salford in Lancashire, England. He graduated in 1939 from University College London and worked for the Ministry of Information Films Division which began a career in film.
Stormy Petrel is an early Australian television drama. A period drama, the 12-episode serial told the story of William Bligh and aired in 1960 on ABC. It was the first live TV serial from the ABC.
Tomorrow's Child is an Australian television film, or rather a live one-off television play, which aired in 1957 on ABC. Directed by Raymond Menmuir, it is notable as an early example of Australian television comedy and was Australia's first live hour long drama. It was set in the future making it technically Australia's first science fiction drama.
Box for One is a live television play which has been presented three times, twice on British broadcaster BBC and once on Australian broadcaster ABC. It is a drama about a "spiv", and the entire 30-minute drama takes place in a London telephone box. It was written by Peter Brook.
The Astronauts is a television film, or rather a live television play, which aired in Australia during 1960 on ABC. Broadcast originally in Melbourne on 18 May 1960, a kinescope recording was made of the broadcast and shown in Sydney on 27 July 1960. FilmInk magazine said it may be the only Australian drama about the space race and "the first locally written Australian sci-fi drama for the small screen."
The Concord of Sweet Sounds is a 1963 Australian television play starring Stuart Wagstaff, directed by Henri Safran and written by Patricia Hooker. Henry Gilbert played a musical genius. Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.
Wuthering Heights is a 1959 Australian television play adapted from Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. It was directed by Alan Burke and based on a script by Nigel Kneale which had been adapted by the BBC in 1953 as a TV play starring Richard Todd. It was made at a time when Australian drama production was rare.
The End Begins is a 1961 Australian television play shot in ABC's Melbourne studios. Like many early Australian TV plays it was based on an overseas script. It was a rare Australian TV play with a science fiction theme and a black lead actor, although no recordings are thought to have survived.