Quatermass And The Pit

QUATERMASS AND THE PIT [1958 / 2018] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
An Adventure into the Unknown! From The Classic BBC Television Serial of the Fifties!

André Morell stars as Professor Bernard Quatermass in this landmark television classic. Now available on Blu-ray for the very first time, in a brand new high-definition remaster from the original film elements.

When a strange capsule is unearthed at an archaeological excavation in London, an unexploded bomb is initially suspected. However, with a history of supernatural events in the area going back many centuries and with events at the dig site about to take an unexpectedly alien turn, the origins of the capsule are soon revealed to be far more distant than anyone could have imagined.

When the capsule is finally opened, something is unleashed upon the streets of London that nobody can control and mankind's past and future collide with devastating consequences. Narrated by Alexander Moyes.

FILM FACT: ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ BBC TV 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 by the British Film Institute in 2000, which described it as "completely gripping." The music was credited to Trevor Duncan, a pseudonym used by BBC radio producer Leonard Trebilco, whose music was obtained from stock discs. ‘QUATERMAS AND THE PIT’ used sound effects and electronic music to create a disturbing atmosphere. These tracks were created for the serial by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, overseen by Desmond Briscoe. ‘QUATERMAS 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.

Cast: André Morell, Cec Linder, Anthony Bushell, John Stratton, Christine Finn, Michael Ripper, Harold Goodwin, Clifford Cox, Brian Gilmar, Alexander Moyes, Brian Worth, Richard Shaw, Richard Dare, Kenneth Seeger, Tony Quinn, John Walker, Robert Perceval, Ian Ainsley, Noel Howlett, Edward Burnham, Allan McClelland, Bill Shine, Harold Siddons, Bernard Spear, Patrick Connor, Hilda Barry, Victor Platt, Kenneth J. Warren, Howell Davies, Van Boolen, Michael Raghan, Lionel Ngakane, George Dudley, John Rae, Malcolm Watson, Stanley Vine, Mark Eden, Patrick Maynard, Keith Banks, John Hamblin, Madge Brindley, Arthur Hewlett, Frank Crane, Anthony Pendrell, Ian Wilson, Michael Bird, Janet Burnell, Louise Gainsborough, John Scott Martin, Donald McCollum, Tony Lyons, Anne Blake, Arthur Brander, Fletcher Lightfoot, Anne Bushill, Sydney Bromley, Janet Joyce, Stuart Nichol, Budd Knapp, Nan Braunton, Peter Grisewood, John Barrett, Charles Maunsell, Lee Richardson and Edward Malin

Director: Rudolph Cartier

Producer: Rudolph Cartier

Screenplay: Nigel Kneale

Composer: Trevor Duncan

Cinematography: A. Arthur Englander, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)

Special Effects: Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie

Image Resolution: 1080i / 480i (Black-and-White)

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Stereo Audio

Subtitles: English

Running Time: 207 minutes

Region: Region B/2

Number of discs: 1

Studio: BBC Worldwide Ltd.

Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ [1958] finds Professor Bernard Quatermass [André Morell] is called in when workmen discover a pre-human skull while building in the fictional Hobbs Lane and formerly Hob's Lane, Hob being an antiquated name for the Devil in Knightsbridge, London.  

Dr. Matthew Roney [Cec Linder], a palaeontologist, examines the remains and reconstructs a dwarf-like humanoid with a large brain volume, which he believes to be a primitive man, which appears to challenge conceptions of man's origins. Further digging at the site eventually reveals what appears to be some kind of alien craft. On closer examination, these turn out to be something far more sinister, and when a space capsule is discovered, a series of disturbing events lead Professor Bernard Quatermass and his team to face a deadly Martian threat and consider far darker origin to humanity.

The shell of the alien craft object is so hard that even a boron nitride drill makes no impression, and when the attempt is made, vibrations cause severe distress in people around the object. Professor Bernard Quatermass interviews local residents and discovers ghosts and poltergeists have been common in the area for decades. Even a hysterical soldier is carried out of the object, claiming to have seen a dwarf-like apparition walk through the wall of the artefact, a description that matches a 1927 newspaper account of a ghost.

Following the drilling, a hole opens up in the object's interior wall. Inside, Professor Bernard Quatermass and the others find the remains of insect-like aliens resembling giant three-legged locusts, with stubby antennae on their heads giving the impression of horns. As Professor Bernard Quatermass and Dr. Matthew Roney examine the remains, they theorise the aliens may have come from a planet habitable five million years ago, especially from the Planet 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. Professor Bernard Quatermass and Dr. Matthew Roney find him there, and he describes visions of the insect aliens killing each other. As Professor Bernard Quatermass investigates   the history of the area, he finds accounts dating back to medieval times about devils and ghosts, all centred on incidents where the ground was disturbed and 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.

Professor Bernard 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 the craft fully activate it for the first time, and glowing and humming like a living thing and it starts to draw upon this energy source and awaken the ancient racial programming. Those Londoners in whom the alien evil influence remains strong and everyone falls under the alien ship's influence; where they are made to merge into a group mind and begin a telekinetic mass murder of those without the alien genes, in other words, an ethnic cleansing of those the alien race mind considers to be impure and weak and will the human race finally defeat this alien presence. At the final conclusion Professor Bernard Quatermass gives a television broadcast, where right at the end he delivers a warning directly at the camera, by saying, "If we cannot control the inheritance within us, this will be their [the Martians] second dead planet."

‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ is perhaps the best ever of the QUATERMASS TV franchise and especially featuring Nigel Kneale's hugely successful creation, who was the steadfast scientific genius of Professor Bernard Quatermass. ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ [BBC TV] was also the last, until the character was resurrected for one final appearance in ITV’s ‘QUATERMASS’ [1979]. The BBC TV series of ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ ran over six Monday evenings between December 1958 and January 1959, and was the ultimate not to be missed compulsory viewing.

Although the special effects may appear crude now, the BBC TV series still remains powerful even today thanks to a thrilling and exciting climax and some genuinely thought-provoking ideas. Like many of Nigel Kneale's later works, notably the BBC TV ‘The Stone Tape’ [1972], ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ puts a scientific supernatural spin scenario, in this case suggesting that mankind was visited in its distant past by an evil alien force, which left its mark in our own vicious nature and inspired our ancestors' depictions of demons and devils.

Another interesting feature of the BBC TV serial is the way in which Nigel Kneale uses his creation to attack the military and government's subordination of science, especially to their own ends. The influence of ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ can be clearly seen in the work of author Stephen King, whose novel “The Tommyknockers” which is virtually a rewrite, and John Carpenter’s ‘Prince of Darkness,’ and both explore the so called quasi-Sci-Fi explanations of an evil demon entity. In fact John Carpenter acknowledged his debt by writing the screenplay for the film ‘Prince of Darkness’ under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass.

In the 1950s, screen science fiction, both on television and in the cinema, was still widely seen as a cheap and disposable entertainment fun, but at the same time lacking in any serious intent, whereas the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ changed all that.

When the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ arrived in 1958, it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen on British television, especially at a time when many viewed the small screen as merely an extension of theatre and radio experiences, and the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ dared to be something very different. Directed and produced by Rudolph Cartier, who was a man whose background was in the cinema entertainment genre, especially the Quatermass franchise series, and especially ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ in particular, have a cinematic sensibility, that had simply never existed on British television before. It had helped to invent what we now recognise as modern television drama.

Director and producer Rudolph Cartier was only able to make the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ possible, thanks to the screenplay by Nigel Kneale, which had an intelligence angle, a depth and sophistication, and far beyond what was then expected of its genre at that time. The screenplay by Nigel Kneale for the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ is measured, rigorous and thought-provoking in a way that television fantasy had never been seen before. The BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ was grippingly mounted and subtle in tone, and was massively important chapter in the evolution of British television history and the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ still remains one of the finest television science fiction dramas ever made.   

Blu-ray Image Quality – BBC Worldwide Ltd presents us with this Blu-ray disc in an upgraded Black-and-White 1080i image presentation, but there is also some scenes in the 480i image presentation and of  course at the time of the broadcast in 1958 it was shown in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and each episode were broadcast with a mix of live studio performances and pre-filmed scenes and then all six episodes were then recorded directly onto 35mm black-and-white film to be preserved for potential future repeat screening. For this new Blu-ray release of ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ an attempt has been made to use only the best quality source material, in a bid to present the highest possible levels of picture quality and the fullest practical edit of the original programme. The remastering process has involved the creation of all new high definition scans from the original fine grain 35mm film elements, yielding excellent levels of detail and dynamic range that surpass any presentation of the drama via previous video releases. These scans have been painstakingly cleaned up by Peter Crocker from the BBC Restoration team, with dirt and scratches removed and any film wobble was stabilised. Additional picture area has also been uncovered and it means that this Blu-ray disc has now been presented with a far greater image clarity that has ever previously been possible. The new Sheila S. Tomlinson edit was a trimmed and lightened version from the original BBC TV serial and with certain small scenes removed so in order to present the best possible image quality, and the original camera negatives were from the 1958 film shoot and were cut directly into the new master. A fine-grain 35mm transmission print was then struck from the edited negative that would retain the cinema-quality of the new Sheila S. Tomlinson edit, is at times significantly higher in quality than it ever was in the 1958/1959 of the BBC TV serial version, which at the time of the broadcast, had used only low-resolution for the “tele recordings” for the edit. The new opening and closing title sequences and credits were even created with an optical printer, to maintain every last drop of image resolution. This level of attention to technical details and effort to preserving optimal image quality was not standard BBC practice in 1958, and the finished 2018 master consequently now contains significantly more image resolution, than what would have been viewed on any television receiver in 1958. This remarkable foresight in future-proofing has been a major factor in making this Blu-ray disc release possible. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.

Blu-ray Audio Quality – BBC Worldwide Ltd brings us this Blu-ray disc with just one standard 2.0 DTS-HD Master Stereo Audio experience and of course a vast improvement over the inferior DVD release. ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ was previously restored and remastered in 2004 by the BBC Restoration Team’s Mark Ayres, especially when it comes to using the same audio master for this 2018 release. However, the reduced compression of this Blu-ray format means that this Blu-ray disc has now been presented with a far greater audio clarity than what has ever previously been possible and it certainly shows how modern technology has brought this famous BBC TV serial series to a modern audience.        

Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:

Audio Commentary featuring members of the original cast and crew, and presided over by Toby Hadoke: Here we are personally introduced by stand-up comedian, author and actor Toby Hadoke and welcomes us to this special Blu-ray audio commentary, that was recorded between the 23rd August, 2018  and 5th September, 2018. As the audio commentary starts, it is introduced by actor, writer and stand-up comedian Toby Hadoke and welcomes us to this Blu-ray disc audio commentary. Before he gets down to his personal recorded interviews with the different people that were involved in the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT,’ he wants to inform us some background to the people who are not familiar with the BBC TV serial, and as the audio commentary progresses, will be making some observation about scenes were are viewing. First up to be interviewed is the English actor Mark Eden, who played one of the journalists, and reflects that appearing on this BBC TV serial broadcast, and was his first taste of television, whereas before, he was mainly a stage actor, and of course when appearing in the BBC TV serial, it was a live broadcast, so you had to know your lines perfect. Toby Hadoke then asks if he remembers what he was paid at the time, and could not remember, but Toby wrote to Mark asking for his contract and was sent it and had it with him in this recording and pointed out he got paid 14 guineas [£1.05] for rehearsal time and 10 guineas [£1.00] for his live performance, so altogether he got paid 24 guineas [£2.05] and that is why he preferred television, as at the time stage work paid less, also seeing himself in black-and-white suited his profile so much better, than appearing on television in colour. Next up is Production Assistant Ms. Paddy Russell or better known as Patricia "Paddy" Russell (4 July‌ 1928 – 2 November 2017), who worked on the BBC TV series ‘The Quatermass Experiment’ [1953], ‘Quatermass II’ [1955], ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ [1958] as well as the 1954 BBC TV adaptation of George Orwell's novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ and for many years was director Rudolph Cartier right hand woman assistant and eventually was among the earliest female directors at the BBC in her own right, and had a lot of memories, especially with director Rudolph Cartier, who was extremely demanding, never took no for an answer, even if the task was impossible, and had a stubborn streak and had to be demonstrated to except what he felt was impossible to achieve, he also liked to work with the same people, he never said thank you, he always called his actors either mister or miss where appropriate, but in turn they felt very uneasy. When Nigel Kneale was on the set, behind his back they called him Nigel Niggle, because he was always picking up small negative points he was not happy about, and was very precise in his comments in what he felt the productions were needed to improve the scene, especially in terms of props, especially when it related to the future. Ms. Paddy Russell remembers fondly that they were a lovely group of people to work with, and they all worked extremely hard, and had to especially with the director, and all enjoyed the experience, and Paddy felt that what the BBC produced for the BBC TV serial ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ was far superior to the Hammer Horror film ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ [1967] and also Paddy felt this film detracted far too much from the BBC TV production values, and also felt what we viewed on the television, was well worth all the trials and tribulations that went on behind the scenes. By the way Ms. Paddy Russell preferred to send a recording of her experiences, than to be personally interviewed. Next up to be interviewed was Andy Murray is an Author and Biographer of Nigel Kneale and was entitled “Into The Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale” and who met him initially at the Manchester Art Centre, because they annually did screenings of British Horror and was entitled “Darkness Over Britain” and of the showings was ‘The Stone Tape’ [1972] which was a screenplay by Nigel Kneale and of course turned up for a Q&A with the audience and it was a fantastic experience, especially what a vivid memory Nigel Kneale had and was also a great storyteller and raconteur, especially at the time he was 80 years old. As we start with Episode Three, Toby Hadoke mentions that one of the great contributors to the BBC TV serial, was the Designer Clifford Hatts, O.B.R, and was very keen and eager to impart as much background information via an audio cassette recording, like the previous contributor Paddy Russell. First up we get some background information about Clifford Hatts, who Clifford Hatts was born on 10/11/1921 in London to shipping clerk Harold and his gymnast wife Harriet. In 1933 he started to attend Woolwich Polytechnic Junior School of Art and, after war service with the RAF, went on to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1949. In 1955 he joined the then new ITV as a designer, receiving praise for his set for the play 'Mother Courage' and subsequently worked on a variety of television plays from Shakespearean histories to Doctor Who and 'Quatermass and the Pit' and he received a BAFTA award in 1961 and an O.B.E. in 1980. Clifford Hatts was brought into be a Designer for the BBC TV serial, and was allocated 300 man hours for filming at Ealing Studios and 300 man hours for each of the live six episodes in the  BBC's Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London. Clifford Hatts worked a lot with director Rudolph Cartier on lots of different projects, and because the director was Austrian, had a very autocratic attitude, and cultivated it profusely, but when the director got to know you, he was a very kind man and always respected ones talent, and of course you became art of his team., and Clifford got with Rudy very well. Clifford Hatts talks about coming into contact with Nigel Kneale, especially at pre-production stage and with the filming at Ealing Studios, and Rudy loved to take lots of photos. When each episode was broadcast on a Monday evening, it was always a 6:00 am start, so everything was set up for the live 8:00 pm broadcast. Clifford Hatts goes into great detail about the design of the alien Martian spaceship, and especially comments from Nigel Kneale, and did not want the typical upright stand-alone type spaceship, and was via Nigel Kneale’s brother Brian Kneale R.A., who was a sculpture and like natural forms, and over time, came up with the final design of the alien Martian spaceship that you see in the broadcast, and was painted pale blue, because in black-and-white it looks bright white. Clifford Hatts designed all the derelict houses, as well as the studio setting of digging up the alien Martian spaceship, and while viewing the Blu-ray while Clifford was being interviewed, felt it all looked star quality, despite the age of the production, and Clifford still thinks it still holds up well for a modern audience, and on top of all that, Clifford also mentions that working of the BBC TV serial, there were a lot of professional people working behind the scene, but overall Clifford says, “If you want to be a good designer, get yourself a good director, and if you want to be a good director, get yourself a good writer,” and that is where the interview with Clifford Hatts, OB.E., ended. Next up for an intimate interview does actor Keith Banks, who played the investigating reporter Nuttall and talks in detail about his character, and also comments know your lines because of working on the BBC TV live broadcast, and if you fluffed your lines, millions of viewers would see it happening. Keith Banks goes about his long acting career, from 1945 onwards, and in 1960 appeared in “Billy Bunter” at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. Keith Banks also talks in-depth about working with Nigel Patrick, who was a nice person, but could also at the same time, could be a bastard, especially trying to upstage you on the stage. Keith Banks also appeared in the TV series ‘The Army Game.’ But most all, Keith Banks was totally excited in talking about his past acting career, that was very prolific. Now we are at the start of Episode Four, and next up to inform about his work on the BBC TV serial is Bernard Wilkie, who sent a very precise detailed typed notes about his work behind the scene of ‘Quatermass and The Pit,’ whereas his working partner Jack Kline was so much more happy to reveal all via another tape cassette recording, and goes into great detail about his early days in model making in 1937 and eventually got to be employed as a scenic artist for the BBC at Alexandra Palace in London, and earned the princely sum of £2.00 a week, but his career was cut short by ending up in the armed forces in 1939 and eventually the Second World War, and after seven years’ service, came back to England and got his job back with the BBC at Alexandra Palace, which was the start of his love of the job. Then Jack Kline in time was transferred to Lime Grove Studios that was a film, and later television, studio complex in Shepherd's Bush, west London, England, and was employed as a scenic artist, and also worked on the very early start of special effects. In 1954, Jack Kline eventually started to work with Bernard Wilkie by accident and became a great working team together for 23 glorious years, as the exclusive BBC’s special effects crew. Over time they both came into contact Nigel Kneale, who one day walked into their office, and they in turn had a great collaboration together, and Jack Kline thought their work on ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ was a totally wonderful experience. Jack Kline also goes into how the design of the alien Martian spaceship came about, and by roundabout way and was quite interesting how it evolved, and at that point, the audio recording finished and was very interesting hearing his thoughts about his long career. Next up is another interesting audio recording with Nigel Kneale himself, and also gets to talk about the director Rudolph Cartier in-depth and what it was like working with him on ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ and enjoyed working with this Austrian director was a very professional experience and thought the special effects department were superb and also very professional. Next up to be interviewed was Peter Day, who was one of the earliest serving member of the BBC visual Effects Department, and the interview was in Peter’s home, and goes into great detail how he got to work at the BBC and especially with his bosses Bernard Wilkie and Jack Kline, who he really enjoyed working with both of them, and despite working at the BBC, they were allowed to work very independent in being able to work on their own without any interference, but had to also work in a very professional way, because everything they worked on were broadcast live. Even though at the time programmes were broadcast in black-and-white, all the sets and objects were in colour, so when colour broadcast started, they did not have to change what they built, because it was a natural transfer. But eventually his department started work on the early episodes of Doctor Who, that they really enjoyed working on, as they could be over the top with their models and scenic building, and despite at times there was a time limit, they really enjoyed the experience and also had a great deal of fun, and working for the BBC was a great honour. Now we are at the start of Episode Five. And next up to be interviewed is Peter Crocker, who is the Picture Restoration and Match-Grading Department for this 2018 Blu-ray release and Peter Crocker goes into great detail about how the picture quality was achieved and he says that it was a great honour to work on this classic 60 year old BBC Television historic broadcasting event. Peter Crocker also goes into great technical detail of working with the video recording and matching it up with the 35 mm film and trying to match the two elements as best as possible so to try and give as best quality image presentation. Next up to be interviewed is Dick Mills, who was part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop team, especially after its inception in 1958 and worked as a technical assistant, especially cutting discs, which he had to do in total 172 discs, which were on soft acetate discs, and one copy was used for the rehearsals and the other copy was used for the live broadcast and Dick Mills goes into great detail about the technical audio techniques in producing different special sounds for other television programmes, and as time went on in his career, went onto to do the music for the early Doctor Who programme broadcasts and of course the music became totally iconic, which we still hear today, but in a much more modern interpretation. Now we come to Episode Six, the final episode, and here Toby Hadoke gets an intimate interview with Clive Doig, who was a member pf the production’s crew for the BBC TV live broadcast of ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ and during the shoot at the Riverside Studios and his duty was to be a “Cable Basher,” this entailed of making the electrical cables for the TV camera didn’t snarled up or making sure someone did not trip over the cables, and of course it was a very important job and especially having the job he had, even though in general, you were the lowest of the pecking order, and came into the job straight away after leaving school. As his career progressed, he had fond memories of working with the director Rudolph Cartier, and despite negative reports from other people about this director, in saying he was very off putting and very dogmatic in the way he talked to people, not in his inner circle. Clive Doig also goes into great detail about his very varied career on working on different projects, especially of working in Ealing Studios. As we hear the end, Toby Hadoke thanks Clive Doig for his very informative information about his career and especially working on the live broadcast of ‘Quatermass and The Pit’ and Clive Doig thanks Toby Hadoke for letting him reminisce about his varied and interesting career with the BBC, from the early 1960s and right through until he eventually retired and to think that is now well over 60 years that the historic BBC TV live drama serial was broadcast. All in all, this has been a totally brilliant audio commentary and was fantastic how Toby Hadoke was able to get all the people that were involved in the BBC TV broadcast of ‘Quatermass and The Pit.’         

Special Feature: Alternate Title Sequences [1959/1960] [1080i/480i] [1.33:1] [7:46] Roughly a year after its original transmission, ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ was broadcast for a second time in early January 1960. For this repeat transmission, a slightly trimmed edit of the programme was prepared by director Rudolph Cartier. The new edit was broadcast across two ninety-minute omnibus episodes on the 26th December, 1959 and the 2nd January, 1960. New opening title sequences were made for both of these episodes, together with new closing credits for the first episode. These sequences are presented in this special feature. In 1986, ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ was released on home video by BBC Video. Again, a new edit was prepared. This time a single 78 minute feature, The edit was made with participation of director Rudolph Cartier and writer Nigel Kneale. New opening and closing titles were produced for this version too.

Special Feature: Photo Gallery [2018] [1080p] [1.78:1] [6:33] This is a newly compiled photo gallery, includes black-and-white images of a number of previously unreleased images from the show’s original production Design Sketches. We also get to view a comprehensive Promotion Photographs gallery that were taken during the production of the BBC TV series ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ between late 1958 and early 1959. Many of these images have never been seen or released before and draw on a variety of private collections in the UK and overseas. The Photo Gallery was Curated and Produced by Toby Hadoke. While viewing this special feature, we get to hear in the background the composed music by Trevor Duncan.

Special Feature: Making Demons [1991] [1080i] [1.66:1] [7:08] Jack Kine [Visual Effects Supervisor] and Bernard Wilkie [Visual Effects Supervisor] discuss their work on the BBC TV series ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ in this special featurette, that was recorded at the Lime Grove Studios complex in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England in July 1991. They originally were involved in the BBC TV live 1954 broadcast of ‘NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR’ and they were given £50.00 to come up with the crude special effects, especially using an ex-government wind up motor, with a torched attached, that was used for the Big Brother viewing screen. The dead Martian model for the BBC TV series ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT,’ was a cross between a Grass Hopper and a Lobster, and they had to make a clay model and was cast in fibre glass, and the eyes of the Martian were blown up condoms, and the Marian model was made in total secrecy, but were only revealed on the night of the live broadcast. They both also made the original Doctor Who TARDIS, and the two model makers Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie, when wanting a crafty cigarette, use to hide in in the TARDIS, and when the two enter the TARDIS, and with a bit of trick photography, the TARDIS disappears. We are informed that Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie were interviewed by John Bush for the “Lime Grove Story” [1991].        

Special Feature: ROM Content: A variety of paperwork related to the original production, and including a full set of archive shooting scripts is available to view by accessing with this Blu-ray disc via a home computer disc drive.

BONUS: Includes an 8-page collector’s booklet and contains a short synopsis about the BBC TV serial series ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT.’ We also have in-depth information about the Blu-ray disc RESTORATION. Also in-depth Information about the AUDIO COMMENTARY, SPECIAL FEATURES. Plus an in-depth explanation entitled A NOTE ON THE ASPECT RATIO.

Finally, the ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ BBC TV series that was broadcast in 1958 and 1959, was shown over a six weeks period that gripped the public in the United Kingdom, especially the last episode, and in early 1959 the BBC organisation brought its involvement in the Quatermass franchise stories to a close. In doing so, they lived up to that by saying that producing what remains one of the most imaginative and brilliantly crafted pieces of science fiction to ever be put on a screen either big or small. For starters there is of course the excellent cast, as the third actor to play the role of Professor Bernard Quatermass was André Morell for the BBC, gives what might very well be the definitive Professor Bernard Quatermass and from the moment he appears, takes on the role and makes it his own with his excellent line delivery and very human reactions to the situations around him, and especially with the rest of the excellent cast, helped to make this one of the scariest BBC TV series ever, which was also helped with the excellent screenplay by the brilliant Nigel Kneale and Rudolph Cartier. In short ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ BBC TV series is television science fiction at its best. The production values are full of fine performances, good special effects, very fine spooky atmospheric music and a totally brilliant script. It might be well over fifty years old, and only shown in black-and-white and especially filled with excellent dialogue delivery, but you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way, because it makes ‘QUATERMASS AND THE PIT’ BBC TV series still today to be totally brilliant for today’s modern audiences and if people are watching it in a darken room on their own, it will scare the living daylights out of them and I suspect they will especially be looking over their shoulder, especially if they hear any strange noises or things that go bump in the night. Very Highly Recommended!

Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado 
Le Cinema Paradiso 
United Kingdom