I think there is a long held belief that series cannot hold
suspense if it has the usual BBC mix of film exteriors and videotaped
interiors. I have heard people say it before and I think they are horribly
wrong with this notion. One great example of this is the 1981 BBC series The Day of the Triffids. This
production is approached in a way that says that this material is special and
important. From the very first scene, there is not only a question of what is
going on but there is some fear in what is happening. It was clear that BBC1
Controller Bill Cotton wanted to make sure this production was handled
correctly. He gave the production over to David Maloney to produce who in turn
gave the directing duties over to Ken Hannam. The partnership of Maloney and
Hannam would give us a visual treat as we learn not only about Triffids but the
human condition confronted by the unknown and impossible tragedy.
Part One TX:
10/09/81
Copyright BBC |
Years later, Bill started working at a Triffid farm for
European Oil. He wanted to give it up but after this last Triffid sting, he had
enough and decided to give it up. We get a great background to the Triffids and
Bill as he is recording his recollections of everything on a tape recorder for
his friend Grant who also works on the Triffid farm. It is a useful and
inventive way to give us back story yet not having to go into so much boring
detail. Bill is starting to get the feeling that something may be wrong. This
episode does a good job of kind of scaring us because we have absolutely no
idea what is going on. While Bill is trying to record more into his tape
recorder, we hear glass shattering somewhere within the hospital. It startled
Bill and to be honest, it startled me. We are in the hospital room with Bill
and even though we can see, we are effectively blind too because we cannot see
outside the room either. The nurses come in every morning at 7am sharp for
Bill, he thinks he must have awoken early but, in reality, it is 10 to 8. Finally,
Bill removes his bandages himself and can see again. He walks around the
seemingly empty hospital until we are startled again as Bill gets grabbed by
someone. It is Doctor Soames and he is blind. More importantly, the action
moves back to the Triffid farm where we get a long panning shot of the Triffids
no longer in their cage and the final shot of the episode is Grant dead from a
Triffid sting.
Part Two TX: 17/09/81
It becomes obvious very quickly that Dr. Soames is not the
only person who is blind. In fact, it looks like everyone is blind. Bill has a
theory in his mind pretty quick. The night before, there was this amazing light
display given off by a passing meteor.
Anyone who watched it had their retina burned out by it. They didn’t
know right away but their eyesight went out overnight so when they woke up,
they were blind. Immediately, we see the consequences of many people blind in
the hospital: people who are stuck in stairwells, older patients who fall out
bed and die. Even people with broken limbs such as a leg is stuck in bed, blind
not knowing what is going on just hoping someone will help him. It is horrible.
Bill goes back where Dr. Soames was only to find he fell out of a window to his
death.
The whole series become depressing real fast. It’s hard not
to see how everyday people who become blind react and not think to yourself
what would you do in that situation? After Bill left the hospital, he almost
immediately finds a young girl playing outside. She is not blind. He follows
her inside to find her dad John who, like everyone else, is blind. It becomes
obvious from the start how bleak the overall situation is for them and everyone
else. John’s wife fell in the bathtub and cracked her head open. She is in bad
shape. John assumes that Bill is from the government and sent over to start
helping people. John says that they can just hear people in the building just
screaming for help. We don’t hear those people screaming but John’s words are
chilling enough. Even though Bill has explained to John that he was not sent to
help but rather was starting to think he was the only person who could still
see, John starts lying to his wife to calm her. He probably doesn’t think she
will live much longer yet wants her not to worry. What becomes worrying and it
is explored to a much greater degree in later episodes is John angling to keep
Bill around because he needs someone who can see and who can help them. Of
course they have their daughter but she is just a kid and a young girl. John
wants someone who is stronger to possibly protect them as being a woman in this
new world could be very dangerous.
The action switches to a young woman named Jo who is trying
to find someone who could help her Dad who has become blind. Jo wasn’t blind
because like Bill, she did not watch the meteor lights. She went to bed early
because she was up for the most of the previous night at a party. Jo is attacked
immediately by a blind man who pulls a switch blade on her. Somehow he binds
her to him and makes her be basically his Seeing Eye dog. Her screams as he
beats her is what alerts Bill to finding her. He takes care of her attacker and
the two of them make a run for it. They take refuge in a pub where they
introduce themselves to each other. They decide to go back to Jo’s father’s
house so they can get him. Once again, I jumped as blind people start hitting
the pub doors. The blind people are almost reduced to the roles of zombies in
this series. The people who can see try to stay away from them because they
don’t know what they will do out of desperation and survival. Look at what
happened with Jo’s attacker. It doesn’t take long for people who are scared to
become unhinged and do things they never would do. People looting just to get
food and there is also rape and other horrible things that go on in this
episode. It quickly becomes humanity at its worse.
Bill and Jo make their way back to her father’s house and
see immediately that he and the housekeeper are dead. They have been stung by
Triffids. Remember them? It’s funny because they are hardly in Part Two at all. In fact, the story is
so engaging, they are not missed. As I mentioned earlier, the blind people are scarier
than the Triffids. Yet, when the Triffids return on screen, they return in a
big way. Jo and Bill are almost surrounded by them. Jo even works out that the
stump rattling actually are the Triffids communicating with each other. Bill is
able to kill one and smash it then they escape. It’s funny, seeing Bill
smashing the one always reminds me of cutting into a green pepper because of
the sound and consistency. Plus the insides almost looked like it had seeds
like a green pepper. It is Bill’s intention to drive out to the Triffid farm to
get some Triffid fighting gear. As Jo and Bill drive down a street, they confronted
by a mob of blind people. They slowly try to drive around so the blind people
would not be able to detect them but they are now trapped as the blind people
are pounding on the car. Funny enough, this is led by legendary BBC director
Morris Barry!Click to enlarge |
The story was dramatized for BBC radio in 1957 with Patrick Barr as Bill Masen and Monica Grey as Josella. People may remember her as Paula Quatermass in the 1955 BBC serial Quatermass II. In 1963 Allied Artists Pictures released the film version of The Day of the Triffids starring Howard Keel. I have not seen the film but from everything I read makes it sounds like one of the usual 1950s sci-fi films/alien invasion type films. In 1968 another BBC radio adaptation is broadcast this time with Gary Watson as Bill Masen and Hammer favourite Barbara Shelly as Josella. This is a great piece of radio. I don’t know if the 1957 version exists but this version appears to be identical to it.
Finally, as mentioned at the top of this article, Bill Cotton who was controller of BBC 1 wanted to adapt this story for television and called upon veteran Producer David Maloney to produce it. Maloney was at the end of his run on Blake’s 7. The series was coming to an end at the end of Series 3 and Maloney was ready to take on this challenge but a couple of things happened. Blake’s 7 did not end its run with Series 3 is was given the go ahead for a fourth series. Maloney was no longer interested in producing Blake’s 7 but Cotton wanted to hold off production of The Day of the Triffids because he wanted to procure more money. He was able to get financing from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and the US cable network RCTV. RCTV intrigued me as I have never heard of it before. To be able to throw funding at this production, RCTV had to be in the same league a Showtime, HBO or even Spectrum. Anyone remember Spectrum?
Douglas Livingstone wrote the screenplay and Ken Hannam directed it. Originally, before the series was pushed back, Peter Cregeen who directed series such as Out of the Unknown, The Onedin Line, Colditz, Wings, and The Sandbaggers.
Christopher Gunning composed all the music for the series
including the haunting opening theme which gives the whole series a depressing
apocalyptic feel. Douglas Burd created the title sequence. Until you get into
the series, it’s hard to understand the imagery of the title sequence. It’s
people looking up at the sky inquisitively. There are shots of lights
dispersing but until you actually get into the series, you don’t realize those
are the meteor lights that eventually blind everyone. The sequence ends with a
young woman looking up (possibly blind) getting a Triffid stinger right in her
eyes. The whole effect is simple but extremely disturbing and effective. It
only helps to set up the horror that is still to come.
Information used in this article comes from Paul Thompson
who is a massive fan of all things Triffid and his website can be found at: http://triffids.wuthering-heights.co.uk/index.htm
Some other information came from the DVD Viewing Notes booklet written by
Andrew Pixley from 2005.
Next week: We
continue on with The Day of the Triffids
as we look at Part Three and Part Four of the series. I also will
look at the Triffids themselves; how they looked in other adaptations of this
story and what were their motivations as a dominate species on the planet
Earth.
Have a great week!Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com
4 comments:
Another great series that I have never seen, but at least it is on the wishlist. Definitely sounds like an excellent production and I look forward to the next article.
And yes, I do remember Spectrum. It was only around the Twin Cities for a few years in the mid 80s, but I remember seeing it scrambled on ch23 and wondering about it. Ahh, memories of the good old days.
It's a little over four pounds at Amazon UK, otherwise 20 bucks on Amazon US. It is well worth the time to watch. It's atmospheric and well made. It's long overdue for you to see it. Plus it has a DVD viewing book by Andrew Pixley.
Greg
The only thing better than a viewing book by Andrew Pixley is to have him sitting on your couch commenting as you watch. With a tasty pizza.
That would be a lovely prize in a contest. His Viewing Notes for the Blu Ray of The Prisoner are definitive. It is probably a tad unfair to call something Viewing Notes when the page count comes in at 285 pages. Viewing Book is more like it and I love it! :)
Greg
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