The BBC airs the second episode of Nigel Kneale’s trend-setting science fiction series The Quatermass Experiment, starring Reginald Tate as Prof. Bernard Quatermass. Broadcast as a live play with minimal footage from other sources played back during air, this is one of the earliest BBC drama productions archived on film, though BBC technicians opt not to preserve any further episodes of this series.
The Metropolitan Police get involved in the investigation of what happened to Quatermass’ space rocket and its now-mostly-missing crew, and Quatermass is outraged when they begin to treat Victor Carroon as a murder suspect. Police and press alike swarm the crash site in Wimbledon before Quatermass has even had a chance to determine what happened aboard the vehicle. All that is known is that it an electrical component failed, sending the rocket further than the orbit the moon before the vehicle returned to Earth in a long, looping arc. And inexplicably, Carroon now understands and speaks perfect German – a language he never spoke prior to the mission – but he can offer no answers about the whereabouts of his missing crewmates, Charles Green and German rocket engineer Dr. Reichenheim.
written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not creditedCast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Moray Watson (Peter Marsh), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Christopher Rhodes (Dr. Ludwig Reichenheim), Peter Bathurst (Charles Greene), Enid Lindsey (Louisa Greene), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Patrick Westwood (First Reporter), Dominic LeFoe (Second Reporter), Stella Richman (Hospital Sister), Eugene Leahy (Police Inspector), Neil Wilson (Policeman, Wimbledon), Maurice Durant (Policeman, Scotland Yard)
Notes: This is the second and last episode of The Quatermass Experiment to be preserved via BBC telerecording, and the primitive nature of the technology involved shows: an insect lands on the television screen being filmed by the film camera and remains there for several minutes! Dissatisfied with the technical quality of the telerecordings of the first two episodes, the BBC opted to stop doing them, which also nixed a planned rebroadcast of The Quatermass Experiment on Canadian TV; episodes three through six are lost forever. Sadly, the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts, off-screen photos taken at the time of broadcast, and remaining production paperwork.