The Quatermass Memoirs
THE QUATERMASS MEMOIRS
In a Highland cottage Professor Bernard Quatermass, retired rocket
pioneer and one-time celebrity, is trying to begin his memoirs but not
having much success. Unexpectedly a young woman appears on his
doorstep wanting to interview him. At first Mandy seems to be an
unwelcome intruder but her questions enable him to unlock his memories
and over the next couple of days he tells her the extraordinary truth
of his work in the fifties with the British Rocket Group.
This was the framework for a five part drama documentary
commissioned by Radio 3 as part of its Spring Fifties Season. As the
Professor recalls his adventures his creator, Nigel Kneale explained
what inspired his remarkable stories. Various archive news items were
used to illustrate his narration as well as excerpts from the existing
episodes. Beforehand this formula did not seem promising. Surely
having fictional and documentary material side by side would lead to
both halves weakening the other? Surprisingly though the joins were
almost seamless. Kneale's soft Manx voice worked well on radio.
Since no mention was made of the Professor's grand-daughter Hettie,
it can be assumed that the Memoirs are set before her arrival and
later running away. Before she leaves though Mandy warns her host not
to travel to London, giving an intriguing description of a decaying
capitol that links directly with the one seen in Quatermass. There is
an interesting suggestion that even without the alien harvester of
that story, mankind's own Martian inheritance would have created a
similar world.
Andrew Keir effortlessly resumed the role of the Professor, playing
him with the same integrity, compassion and intelligence he had had in
the Hammer film. However added to this was a world weariness and a
large degree of guilt about the deaths he feels responsible for; not to
mention the perils he had exposed the world to. It is these darker
emotions and his gradual acknowledging of them that gives the fiction
thread its drama and stops it from becoming mere exposition. No major
new information is given about the adventures although we learn that
the events of The Quatermass Experiment were covered up by the
government with a story that the mission had been fouled due to the
astronauts' own incompetence. Also that after the conclusion of
Quatermass II his space capsule landed in the Outer Hebrides and that
his own journey into space subtlely changed his personality. Looking
at Earth from space he truly recognised how precious it was. He also
began to see humanity as greedy, arrogant and destructive. After his
return the dream of space exploration was tarnished, at least as long
as it was entwined with jingoistic ambition and politics. So he fell
increasingly into the safer world of theoretical physics, a change in
emphasis which as Mandy points out, ultimately led to the British
Rocket Group becoming impractical and being taken over by the Ministry
of Defence. What these recollections did add though was more depth to
the events we had seen because they came from a personal viewpoint.
Mandy does not really have any distinct personality. She can be
inferred as being dedicated, ambitious and politically aware but
really she was a cipher, a literary device to ask questions and stop
the Professor talking to himself. However Emma Gregory acts as well
as she is allowed to. Moira (Zulema Dene) appears to be there merely
to establish that the cottage is in Scotland.
Nigel Kneale's contributions were interesting and well informed. As
the series opened he explained that the fifties might have a
reputation for paranoia but it was not an irrational fear. There was
a lot to be worried about: the Cold War, the H-bomb, the apparent
victory of the forces of evil when the popular uprising in Hungary was
so brutally stamped out. All of this contributed to a feeling of
insecurity for the average man so it was these facts that he
indirectly built the Quatermass serials upon. However he denied that
any of them were primarily intended to be symbolic, they were
adventures. In The Quatermass Experiment the creature could be said
to be a personification of the bomb. A destructive force unleashed by
scientists who used atomic power to achieve spaceflight. Symbolically
the only way this threat could be stopped was by the will of the men
who were a part of it. Later the realm of spies and infiltration as
demonstrated, when Kim Philby, Anthony Burges were revealed to be
working for the KGB, provided a springboard for the extraterrestrial
invasion within Quatermass II where it was proved that you could not
trust your local officials. By contrast to these specific influences,
Quatermass and the Pit was inspired by Kneale's general question of
why. Why was man so destructive, aggressive and unhappy? What was
the inspiration for our apparently suicidal behaviour? His answer was
of course the insertion of Martian genes into our natural makeup.
Possibly the most informative element of these programmes were the
fifties BBC recordings. Amongst these a civil defence rehearsal for
coping with a nuclear attack had a element of blackest comedy about it
because it sounded so obviously ineffectual. Similarly the Blair
family receiving their certificates for completing their civil defence
training came across as somewhat twee and patronised rather than
genuinely equipped to survive a holocaust. One wonders if even they
believed they were any more likely to survive a H-bomb. The
news reports from Hungary were undeniably poignant as the rebels
desperately appealed to the international community for help as the
Russian tanks closed in.
Once again "Mars - Bringer of War" was used to provide the music for
Quatermass. The series was promoted in the Radio Times twice.
Firstly as part of Radio 3 fifties season where the British poster for
Hammer's Quatermass and the Pit was printed. Secondly during the
actual week of transmission with a quarter-page preview at the front of
the magazine and a photo of Keir holding a Martian from the TV
version.
As a celebration of a marvellous TV programme, The Quatermass
Memoirs was very effective. Inevitably there is always more that
could have been said but the decision to concentrate on the stories
themselves rather than attempt to cover their actual production meant
that a fair amount of depth could be achieved. Certainly it would be
worth listening to if the BBC decided to repeat it. Perhaps on Radio
4 at an earlier time for a larger audience. Kneale has managed to tie
up all the strings left around the four stories and present them as an
evolving saga.
The Quatermass Memoirs
Transmitted on Radio 3 FM 4 - 8 March 1996
Commentator Nigel Kneale
Professor Quatermass Andrew Keir
Mandy Emma Gregory
Moira Zulema Dene
Researcher Alan Dean
Producer Paul Quinn
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