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74-620: Edward and Harry Danziger were American-born brothers who moved to Britain in 1952 and began making television films, using resources at various facilities including London's Riverside Studios , Shepperton , Borehamwood and Nettlefold . In 1955, the Danzigers decided to form their own studio base and founded the New Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire . They converted a former wartime aero-engine testing factory, west of

148-644: A Fugitive (1948) with Trevor Howard , The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) with Alistair Sim and Margaret Rutherford and Father Brown (1954) with Alec Guinness . In 1954, the studios were acquired by the British Broadcasting Corporation for its television service. Renamed The BBC Riverside Television Studios, the building was officially opened on 29 March 1957 by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother . Series 2 to 6 of Hancock's Half Hour (1957–60) were made there, along with other comedy, drama and music programmes, including

222-622: A device that records impressions from the optical centres of the brain, and see the visions for himself. Roney's assistant, Barbara Judd, is the most sensitive; placing the device on her, they record a violent purge of the Martian hive to root out unwanted mutations. Quatermass concludes that in its most primitive phase mankind was visited by this race of Martians. Some apes and primitive pre-humans were taken away and genetically altered to give them abilities such as telepathy , telekinesis and other psychic powers. They were then returned to Earth, and

296-574: A genetic legacy which is responsible for much of the war and racial strife in the world. The serial has been cited as having influenced Stephen King and the film director John Carpenter . It featured in the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , which described it as "completely gripping". The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and Quatermass II (1955), both written by Nigel Kneale, had been critical and popular successes for

370-797: A new play by Jim Cartwright at Trafalgar Studios (2016) and A Christmas Carol with Simon Callow at the Arts Theatre (2016–17). Riverside's digital production team also recorded a number of theatre and dance productions for broadcast by the BBC . Riverside Studios reopened to the public in late 2019. Since then, its stages have hosted such figures as Woody Harrelson , Benjamin Zephaniah , Eddie Izzard , Roger McGough , Andy Serkis , Jenna Russell , Sir Trevor Nunn , Jack Dee , Louisa Harland , Tom Allen , KT Tunstall , Sharon Gless and Dane Baptiste . Performance and rehearsal spaces within

444-580: A reduced revenue stream. The studios operate as normal while the administration process continues. 51°29′17.9″N 0°13′41.1″W  /  51.488306°N 0.228083°W  / 51.488306; -0.228083 Quatermass and the Pit Quatermass and the Pit is a British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It

518-462: A riverside restaurant and café/bar as well as flexible event spaces. As part of the redevelopment, a new riverside walkway connects to the Thames Path alongside the late Victorian Hammersmith Bridge . During the redevelopment, Riverside continued to produce shows including Nirbhaya by Yael Farber at international venues including Southbank Centre and Lynn Redgrave Theatre (2015), Raz ,

592-399: A sufficient mass of iron connected to wet earth may be sufficient to short-circuit the apparition. Quatermass acquires a length of iron chain and tries to reach the "devil" but succumbs to its psychic pressure. Roney manages to walk up to the apparition and hurls the chain at it, resulting in him and the spacecraft being reduced to ashes. At the conclusion of the final episode Quatermass gives

666-462: A television broadcast, at the end of which he delivers a warning directly to camera: "Every war crisis, witch hunt, race riot, and purge... is a reminder and a warning. We are the Martians. If we cannot control the [Martian] inheritance within us, this will be their second dead planet". For the third time in as many serials the title role was played by a different actor, this time by André Morell ;

740-414: A two-part format. It was edited from a 207 minute total runtime down to 178 minutes, largely by trimming comic relief segments. A full, unedited, episodic version of the serial was released on DVD by BBC Worldwide in 2005, as part of The Quatermass Collection box set . Also included were the surviving two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment , all of Quatermass II and various extra features . For

814-479: A variety of international work – including, notably, that of Polish theatre maestro Tadeusz Kantor . In 1978, Riverside hosted the first of many Dance Umbrella seasons, featuring the work of Rosemary Butcher and Richard Alston . Gill also offered residencies to artists including Bruce McLean and Ian Coughlin and companies such as the Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat ). The venue

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888-702: A week, or a second feature in ten days. The site was closed in 1962 and sold to RTZ Metals in October 1965 for warehouse storage. Since the late 1980s, the site has been occupied by the Waterfront Business Park on the A411 Elstree Road. This is a chronological list of films (including television series on film) that were shot at New Elstree Studios. All were produced by Danziger Productions or Danziger Photoplays, except those indicated otherwise. The following films were produced by

962-446: Is eventually consumed by the energies from the craft as it slowly melts away and an image of a Martian "devil" floats in the sky above London. Fires and riots erupt. Quatermass himself succumbs to Martian influence and attempts to kill Roney, who lacks the alien gene and is immune to alien influence. Roney manages to shake Quatermass out of his trance, and remembering the legends of demons and their aversion to iron and water, proposes that

1036-714: The Aldenham Reservoir near the village of Elstree , into a studio with six sound stages and exterior shooting facilities. The 7.5-acre (3.0 ha) site employed 200 and was used mainly for second features and television series, to be sold in both Britain and America. The Danzigers' aim was to produce films as quickly and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality. By the time of the studios' official opening in 1956, over twenty productions had already been filmed there. The studios operated as an assembly line, producing some 60 B-movies and 350 half-hour TV episodes between 1955 and 1961, typically producing two TV episodes

1110-526: The BBC Radiophonic Workshop , overseen by Desmond Briscoe ; Quatermass and the Pit was one of the productions for which Briscoe and the workshop became most renowned. It was the first time electronic music had been used in a science-fiction television production. Quatermass and the Pit was watched by an average audience of 9.6 million viewers, peaking at 11 million for the final episode. The Times ' television reviewer praised

1184-590: The Notting Hill race riots of August and September 1958. Kneale was also inspired by the rebuilding of London in the 1950s . Huge pits were dug in the process of erecting new structures, and the digs found unexploded ordnance from the Blitz and the occasional Romano-British ruin. Kneale thought: "What if they uncovered a spaceship?" Workmen discover a pre-human skull while building in the fictional Hobbs Lane (formerly Hob's Lane, Hob being an antiquated name for

1258-539: The BBC Visual Effects Department, formed by Bernard Wilkie and Jack Kine in 1954. Kine or Wilkie oversaw effects on a production; due to the number of effects, both worked on Quatermass and the Pit . The team pre-filmed most of their effects for use during the live broadcasts. They also oversaw practical effects for the Ealing filming and Riverside transmission, and constructed the bodies of

1332-462: The BBC in 1955, when Cartier worked with the cinematographer A. A. Englander . Pre-filming was also used to show the passage of time in the second episode; the archaeological dig at Ealing was shown to have dug deeper into the ground than the equivalent set at Riverside, enabling a sense of time having elapsed that would not have been possible in an all-live production. Special effects were handled by

1406-624: The BBC recorded the Christmas and New Year Specials of Top of the Pops in Riverside's Studio 1. In 2021, Olly Alexander (formerly Years & Years ) recorded their New Year's Eve concert in Studio 1 with special guests Kylie Minogue and Pet Shop Boys . In April 2022, a BBC Heritage Trail plaque, commemorating Riverside's history as BBC studios, was unveiled by Bob Harris (radio presenter) ,

1480-578: The BBC, and in early 1957 the corporation decided to commission a third serial. Kneale had left the BBC shortly before, but was hired to write the new scripts on a freelance basis. The British Empire had been in decline since the 1920s, and the pace accelerated in the wake of the Second World War . During the 1950s immigration into Britain from the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean

1554-569: The British Rocket Group to prevent the military from disturbing what he believes to be an archaeological find. Quatermass and Colonel Breen become intrigued by the site. Breen has recently been appointed, despite Quatermass's objections, to be nominally his deputy but in reality to lead the Rocket Group. As more of the artefact is uncovered additional fossils are found, which Roney dates to five million years ago, suggesting that

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1628-491: The British Rocket Group, Colonel Breen, become involved in the investigation when it becomes apparent that the object is an alien spacecraft. The ship and its contents have a powerful and malignant influence over many of those who come in contact with it, including Quatermass. He concludes that millions of years in the past the aliens, probably from Mars, had abducted pre-humans and modified them to give them psychic abilities much like their own before returning them to Earth, leaving

1702-514: The Buzzcocks and ITV's Celebrity Juice (2008–2014). In September 2014, Riverside Studios closed for redevelopment. London developer Mount Anvil , working in conjunction with A2 Dominion, redeveloped the old Riverside Studios and the adjacent Queen's Wharf building. Assael Architecture , were employed to design a new building on the site centred around 165 residential flats, with new studio facilities for theatre and television, two cinemas,

1776-562: The Cricot 2 company from Krakow in Poland in 1977. Riverside Studios became fully operational in 1978 with Gill's landmark production of The Cherry Orchard . The venue quickly acquired an international reputation for excellence and innovation with productions including The Changeling with Brian Cox and Robert Lindsay (1978), Measure for Measure with Helen Mirren (1979) and Julius Caesar with Phil Daniels (1980), as well as

1850-734: The Danzigers, and are therefore very likely to have been shot at New Elstree Studios, but it is possible that a small number were shot elsewhere. Riverside Studios Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the north bank of the River Thames in Hammersmith , London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. Having closed for redevelopment in September 2014, Riverside Studios reopened in August 2019 with one of

1924-575: The Devil) in Knightsbridge , London. Dr Matthew Roney, a palaeontologist , examines the remains and reconstructs a dwarf -like humanoid with a large brain volume, which he believes to be a primitive man. As further excavation is undertaken, something that looks like a missile is unearthed; further work by Roney's group is halted because the military believe it to be an unexploded WWII bomb. Roney calls in his friend Professor Bernard Quatermass of

1998-478: The Fendahl share many elements with Quatermass and the Pit : the unearthing of an extraterrestrial spaceship, an alien race that has interfered with human evolution and is the basis for legends of devils, demons and witchcraft, and an alien influence over human evolution. Writer and critic Kim Newman cited Quatermass and the Pit as perfecting "the notion of the science-fictional detective story". Newman said

2072-486: The Martian "Wild Hunt" as an allegory for the recent Notting Hill race riots , but some Black British leaders were upset by the depiction of racial tensions in the first episode, according to The Times ' Birmingham correspondent: "Leaders of coloured minorities here to-day criticized the BBC for allowing a report that 'race riots are continuing in Birmingham ', to be included in a fictional news bulletin during

2146-406: The Martian creatures. Made just before videotape came into general use at the BBC, all six episodes of Quatermass and the Pit were preserved for a possible repeat by being telerecorded on 35 mm film. This was achieved with a specially synchronised film camera capturing the output of a video monitor ; the process had been refined throughout the 1950s and recordings of Quatermass and

2220-406: The Pit was the last original production on which Kneale collaborated with Rudolph Cartier. The music was credited to Trevor Duncan , a pseudonym used by BBC radio producer Leonard Trebilco, whose music was obtained from stock discs. Quatermass and the Pit also used electronic sound effects and electronic music to create a disturbing atmosphere. These tracks were created for the serial by

2294-420: The Pit . The serial was repeated in edited form as two 90-minute episodes, entitled "5 Million Years Old" and "Hob", on 26 December 1959 and 2 January 1960. Unlike many programmes of its era that were lost broadcasts , all six episodes survived. The third episode, "Imps and Demons", was re-shown on BBC Two on 7 November 1986 as part of the "TV50" season, celebrating 50 years of BBC television. Quatermass and

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2368-404: The Pit . The episode "The Scarlet Capsule" was written by Spike Milligan , and used the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound effects made for the television serial. The serial was also parodied by the BBC television comedy series Hancock's Half Hour in an episode entitled "The Horror Serial", transmitted the week following the final episode. In it, Tony Hancock has just finished watching

2442-462: The area for decades. An hysterical soldier is carried out of the object, claiming to have seen a dwarf-like apparition walk through the wall of the artifact, a description that matches a 1927 newspaper account of a ghost. Following the drilling attempt, a hole opens up in the object's interior wall. Inside, Quatermass and the others find the remains of insect-like aliens resembling giant three-legged locusts , with stubby antennae on their heads giving

2516-458: The box set release, Quatermass and the Pit was extensively restored using film from the BBC archives. A process called VidFIRE was applied to the scenes originally broadcast live, restoring the fluid interlaced video look they would have had on transmission, but which was lost during the telerecording process. This was used to digitally remaster scenes for the DVD release. A Blu-ray edition

2590-707: The building are used by a range of community groups and theatre companies including Flute Theatre , who run creative projects for young people with autism. The venue has also has fostered relationships with the appreciation societies of two classic television programmes filmed in Studio 1 in the 1960s; Doctor Who and Hancock's Half Hour . Regular screenings of episodes of both programmes take place in Screen 1 followed by Q&A's with guests who have included Hancock company player Laurie Webb and Who alumni Peter Davison , Julian Glover , Sylvester McCoy , Louise Jameson and original director Waris Hussein . In both 2020 and 2021,

2664-453: The buried artifact is one of the ships that had crashed at the end of its journey. With their home world dying, the aliens had tried to change humanity's ancestors to have minds and abilities similar to their own, but with a bodily form adapted to life on Earth; however, the aliens had become extinct before completing their work. As the human race evolved, a percentage retained their psychic abilities which surfaced only sporadically. For centuries

2738-406: The buried ship had occasionally triggered those dormant abilities, which explained the reports of poltergeists; people were unknowingly using their own telekinesis to move objects around, and the ghost sightings were traces of a racial memory . The authorities, and Breen in particular, find this explanation preposterous despite being shown the recording of Barbara's vision. They instead suggest that

2812-481: The craft fully activate it for the first time, and glowing and humming like a living thing it starts to draw upon this energy source and awaken the ancient racial programming. Those Londoners in whom the alien admixture remains strong fall under the ship's influence; they merge into a group mind and begin a telekinetic mass murder of those without the alien genes , an ethnic cleansing of those the alien race mind considers to be impure and weak. Breen stands transfixed and

2886-528: The craft is a buried remnant from the London Blitz : a Nazi propaganda weapon, with the alien bodies fakes designed to create a panic. They decide to hold a media event to stem the rumours that are already spreading. Quatermass warns that if implanted psychic powers survive in the human race, there could also still be an ingrained compulsion to enact the " Wild Hunt " of a race purge, but the media event goes ahead regardless. The power cables that string into

2960-411: The final episode of Quatermass and the Pit , and becomes convinced that there is a crashed Martian space ship buried at the end of his garden. It is in fact an unexploded bomb, although Hancock claims that the warning "Achtung!" is really the Martian for Acton . This episode no longer exists in the BBC's archives, but a private collector's audio-only recording has been discovered, and released publicly on

3034-415: The first instalment of the new Quatermass television play last night". These themes and subtexts were highlighted by the British Film Institute 's review of the serial when it was included in their TV 100 list in 2000, in 75th position – 20th out of the dramas featured: "In a story which mined mythology and folklore ... under the guise of genre it tackled serious themes of man's hostile nature and

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3108-456: The first television broadcasts from Studio 1 being Channel 4's UK election coverage. In March 2023, the Riverside board announced it was placing the theatre into administration because of debt incurred. In 1933, a former Victorian iron foundry on Crisp Road, London, was bought by Triumph Films and converted into a relatively compact film studio with two stages and a dubbing theatre. In 1935,

3182-410: The impression of horns. As Quatermass and Roney examine the remains, they theorise the aliens may have come from a planet habitable five million years ago - Mars . While clearing his equipment from the craft, the drill operator triggers more poltergeist activity, and runs through the streets in a panic until he finds sanctuary in a church. Quatermass and Roney find him there, and he describes visions of

3256-417: The insect aliens killing each other. As Quatermass investigates the history of the area, he finds accounts dating back to mediaeval times about devils and ghosts, all centred on incidents where the ground was disturbed. He suspects a psychic projection of these beings has remained on the alien ship and is being seen by those who come into contact with it. Quatermass decides to use Roney's optic-encephalogram,

3330-483: The journalist James Fullalove from The Quatermass Experiment . The production team had hoped that Paul Whitsun-Jones would be able to reprise the part; he was unavailable and Brian Worth was cast instead. Michael Ripper appeared as an army sergeant; he had been in Hammer Film Productions ' adaptation of the second Quatermass serial, Quatermass 2 , the previous year. The director assigned

3404-447: The longest-serving host of The Old Grey Whistle Test . The event was attended by numerous guests who had worked at BBC Riverside Television Studios including Carole Ann Ford and Frazer Hines ( Doctor Who ) and Anne Reid ( Hancock's Half Hour ). In March 2023 the theatre trust announced that the venue was being placed in administration because of the debt incurred by the redevelopment, coupled with increased operating expenses and

3478-427: The military's perversion of science for its own ends". In a 2006 Guardian article Mark Gatiss wrote: "What sci-fi piece of the past 50 years doesn't owe Kneale a huge debt? ... The 'ancient invasion' of Quatermass and the Pit cast a huge shadow ... its brilliant blending of superstition, witchcraft and ghosts into the story of a five-million-year-old Martian invasion is copper-bottomed genius". Gatiss

3552-515: The object is at least that old. The interior is empty, and a symbol of six intersecting circles, which Roney identifies as a pentacle , is etched on a wall that appears to conceal an inner chamber. The inner chamber wall of the object is so hard that even a borazon boron nitride drill makes no impression, and when the attempt is made, vibrations cause severe distress to people around the object. Quatermass interviews local residents and discovers reports of ghosts and poltergeists have been common in

3626-468: The opening episode the day after its transmission. Pointing out that "Professor Bernard Quatermass ... like all science fiction heroes, has to keep running hard if he is not to be overtaken by the world of fact", the anonymous reviewer went on to state how much he had enjoyed the episode as "an excellent example of Mr. Kneale's ability to hold an audience with promises alone; smooth, leisurely, and without any sensational incident". Kneale went on to use

3700-493: The original serial The Quatermass Experiment in 1953; he turned the part down. Morell's portrayal of Quatermass has been described as the definitive interpretation of the character. Colonel Breen was played by Anthony Bushell , who was known for various similar military roles – including another bomb disposal officer in The Small Back Room (1949) – and preferred to be addressed as "Major Bushell",

3774-525: The part had initially been offered to Alec Clunes , but he declined. Morell had a reputation for playing authority figures, such as Colonel Green in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and had previously worked with Kneale and Cartier when he appeared as O'Brien in their BBC television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954). He had been the first actor offered the part of Quatermass, for

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3848-477: The performance spaces to rehearse. They went on to become The Sex Pistols . Riverside's original policy was to have a combination of in house and visiting company productions of classical and contemporary plays and dance. Running concurrently with the main programme were regular events and activities including a film, music, education, workshop and play reading programme. David Gothard, the founding programming director, brought "The Dead Class" by Tadeusz Kantor and

3922-601: The previous film Quatermass, Brian Donlevy . The film, made in colour , is regarded by many commentators as a classic of the genre for the way it blends science fiction with the supernatural. In the United States the film was retitled Five Million Years to Earth . A script book of Quatermass and the Pit was released by Penguin Books in April 1960, with a cover by Kneale's artist brother Bryan Kneale . In 1979 this

3996-412: The previous two Quatermass serials, the rights to adapt Quatermass and the Pit for the cinema were purchased by Hammer Film Productions. Their adaptation was released as the 1967 film Quatermass and the Pit , directed by Roy Ward Baker and scripted by Kneale. Scottish actor Andrew Keir starred as Quatermass, the role for which he was best remembered and regarded particularly highly in comparison to

4070-479: The problem is resolved using cold iron. After Quatermass and the Pit Kneale felt that it was time to rest the character. By the early 1970s he had decided there were new avenues to explore, and the BBC planned a fourth Quatermass serial in 1972. The BBC did not proceed with the project, and Kneale's scripts were produced in 1979 as a four-part serial for Thames Television titled Quatermass . As with

4144-535: The programme was an influence on horror fiction writer Stephen King , saying that King had "more or less rewritten Quatermass and the Pit in The Tommyknockers ". Newman also wrote that both the 1976 novel The Space Vampires and its 1985 film adaptation Lifeforce were closely inspired by Quatermass and the Pit ; they feature a malicious alien influence on humanity, are set largely in London, and

4218-550: The rank he held during the Second World War. Roney was played by Canadian actor Cec Linder , John Stratton played Captain Potter, and Christine Finn played the other main character, Barbara Judd. Finn went on to provide the voices for various characters in the popular 1960s children's television series Thunderbirds . For the first time, Kneale used a character from a previous serial other than Quatermass himself,

4292-592: The same company in Waiting for Godot . Under Gothard's direction, there were performances by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Le Cirque Imaginaire, Eckehard Scall and the Berliner Ensemble, The Market Theater of Johannesburg, Cricot 2 of Krakow, Collectivo De Parma, and independent dance collaborations with Merce Cunningham and John Cage and members of the Judson Church. In November 1987, a 200-seat cinema

4366-409: The science-fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59), Dixon of Dock Green , Six-Five Special , The Old Grey Whistle Test , Z-Cars , Top of the Pops (1965), and the children's programmes Blue Peter and Play School . (1964–68) Episodes of Doctor Who were made at Riverside between 1964 and 1968, and Studio 1 was where First Doctor William Hartnell 's regeneration scene

4440-553: The studios were taken over by Julius Hagen (then owner of Twickenham Studios ) with the idea of using Riverside for making quota quickies . However, by 1937 his company had gone into liquidation. Between 1937 and 1946, the studios were owned by Jack Buchanan and produced such films as We'll Meet Again (1943) with Vera Lynn and The Seventh Veil (1945) with James Mason . In 1946 the studios were acquired by Alliance Film Studios (then owners of Twickenham Studios and Southall Studios ) and produced films including They Made Me

4514-420: Was Rudolph Cartier , with whom Kneale had a good working relationship; the two had collaborated on the previous Quatermass serials, as well as the literary adaptations Wuthering Heights (1953) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954). The budget of £17,500 allocated for Quatermass and the Pit was larger than that of the previous Quatermass productions. Pre-production began in September 1958, while Cartier

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4588-583: Was Riverside's Exhibitions Director from 1982-1986) was nominated for The Turner Prize . From 1980, David Gothard directed the performing arts program and invited Michael Clark to become Riverside's first resident choreographer. He made 16 original pieces at the studios before establishing his own dance company in 1984. Also in 1980, Samuel Beckett directed the San Quentin Theatre Workshop's rehearsals of his play Endgame in Studio 2, returning to Riverside four years later to direct

4662-486: Was a scriptwriter for Doctor Who , a programme that had been particularly strongly influenced by the Quatermass serials throughout its history. Derrick Sherwin , the producer of Doctor Who in 1969, acknowledged Quatermass and the Pit ' s influence on the programme's move towards more realism and away from "wobbly jellies in outer space". The 1971 and 1977 Doctor Who serials The Dæmons and Image of

4736-410: Was also used by the BBC for some television recording, including a 1979 episode of Parkinson for which host Michael Parkinson interviewed former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger . Art exhibitions (including 'Prints' by Howard Hodgkin , 1978) had initially been curated by Milena Kalinovska in Riverside's foyer, but following Gill's departure in 1980, a purpose-built gallery space

4810-439: Was celebrated for its double bill programmes and the variety of international film festivals which took place annually. In 1996, television production returned to Riverside when TFI Friday with Chris Evans took up residence in Studio 1 (until 2000). CD:UK was broadcast from Riverside between 2003 and 2006, while later TV projects included Channel 4's T4 (2006–2009), Popworld and The Last Leg , BBC's Never Mind

4884-473: Was established by the resident Architect Will Alsop and John Lyall along with Technical Director Steven Scott. The directorship of Jenny Stein established the first exhibition and showed works by the painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch . Subsequent exhibitions included David Hockney (Paintings and Drawings for Parade, 1981), Antony Gormley (New Sculpture, 1984), Louise Bourgeois (Recent Work, 1990) and Yoko Ono (In Facing, 1990). In 1985, Kalinovska (who

4958-482: Was filmed. The facility remained in regular use until the BBC left in 1974. In 1974, a charitable trust formed by Hammersmith and Fulham Council took control of the building, and two large multi-purpose spaces designed by Michael Reardon were created from the studio's two main sound stages. While preparing Riverside's opening festival in 1976, the venue's first Artistic Director Peter Gill permitted an amateur West London music group called The Strand to use one of

5032-496: Was on the increase, causing resentment among parts of British society. At the time Kneale was working on his scripts, black communities in Nottingham and London came under attack from mobs of white Britons . Whilst Kneale disdained most science-fiction works of the 1950s as escapist, he preferred to base his plots on current events. Thus Kneale developed the serial as an allegory for the emerging racial tensions illustrated by

5106-656: Was opened by the actress Vanessa Redgrave . In 1990, jazz veteran Adelaide Hall starred in the movie Sophisticated Lady , a documentary about her life, which included a performance of her in concert recorded live at the Riverside Studios. William Burdett-Coutts (also Artistic Director of Assembly ) was appointed Artistic Director of Riverside Studios in 1993 (a position he held until June 2020). While Riverside continued its multi-arts programming (hosting companies such as Complicite , The Wooster Group and Howard Barker 's The Wrestling School), its 200-seat cinema

5180-701: Was predominantly live from Studio 1 of the BBC's Riverside Studios in Hammersmith , London. The episodes were rehearsed from Tuesday to Saturday, usually at the Mary Wood Settlement in Tavistock Place , London, with camera rehearsals in the morning and afternoon of transmission. Not every scene was live; a significant amount of material was on 35 mm film and inserted during the performance. Most filming involved scenes set on location or those too technically complex or expansive to achieve live. The latter were shot at Ealing Studios , acquired by

5254-400: Was re-published by Arrow Books to coincide with the transmission of the fourth and final Quatermass serial on ITV; this edition featured a new introduction by Kneale. The theatrical company Creation Productions staged a live adaptation of Quatermass and the Pit in a quarry near Nottingham in August 1997. The BBC made Quatermass and the Pit available to buy on VHS videotape in 1989 in

5328-414: Was released in 2018 to mark the show's 60th anniversary. For this edition, some material trimmed from the DVD box set version for technical reasons was reinstated, and a set of audio commentaries prepared by Toby Hadoke , based on his interviews and archival audio recordings by various members of the cast and crew. A 1959 episode of the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show parodied Quatermass and

5402-643: Was still working on A Tale of Two Cities and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the BBC. As the two previous Quatermass serials had been scheduled in half-hour slots but, performed live , had overrun, Cartier requested 35-minute slots for the six episodes of Quatermass and the Pit . This was agreed in November 1958, just before the start of production on 24 November. The six episodes – "The Halfmen", "The Ghosts", "Imps and Demons", "The Enchanted", "The Wild Hunt" and "Hob" – were broadcast on Monday nights at 8 pm from 22 December 1958 to 26 January 1959. Each episode

5476-581: 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 serial continues the loose chronology of the Quatermass adventures. Workmen excavating a site in Knightsbridge , London , discover a strange skull and what at first appears to be an unexploded bomb. Quatermass and his newly appointed military superior at

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