The Quatermass Memoirs - Production

Production

Kneale had brought Quatermass's story to a close in the 1979 serial Quatermass, and for many years saw no reason to revisit the character. However, in 1995 he was approached by BBC radio producer Paul Quinn with an idea for creating a drama-documentary about the character as part of a season of BBC radio programming looking back at the 1950s. Quinn told Dreamwatch magazine, "For many people who remember the seminal experience of hiding behind the sofa when the Quatermass serials came on the television, Quatermass was the 1950s. His adventures have gone down in popular cultural history." Kneale was intrigued by the idea, and agreed to write new dramatic material of Quatermass relating his memories which Quinn could then combine with archive clips from the existing episodes of the various Quatermass television serials. Kneale saw the older Quatermass of this new serial as "the same very concerned scientist who is now, in retrospect, horribly worried about what he may have done to the world through his encounters with various lifeforms that were better not contacted". It was Kneale's first radio work since he had written the play You Must Listen for the BBC in 1952, and his first work for the BBC in any medium since the mid-1970s.

The programme was commissioned in July 1995, with the original working title of Quatermass and the Ultimate Conspiracy. When Quinn discovered that some of the soundtracks of the Quatermass episodes were considered to be of too poor a quality to use, the idea for the series was re-shaped to add the new elements of Kneale's monologue and archive news reports. Kneale, however, later denied that any of the news stories which The Quatermass Memoirs suggested had inspired parts of his work had ever been in his mind at the time. He said that he had used a degree of creative licence when "explaining" these apparent inspirations in his monologue sections.

A further problem for Quinn was that none of the actors who had played Quatermass for BBC Television in the 1950s were still alive. This was solved by employing Andrew Keir, who had played Quatermass in the Hammer Film Productions version of Quatermass and the Pit in 1967, a performance which Kneale had liked. Keir was happy to take the part, but somewhat concerned about only being used as a "link man" and not in a fully dramatic role. The clips that were used from the original BBC episodes were all carefully edited so that the actors playing Quatermass were never heard, and thus the differences between their voices and Keir's would not confuse the audience. Also in the cast were Emma Gregory as the journalist, Mandy, and Zulema Dene as Quatermass's housekeeper, Maire.

The five episodes, each of approximately twenty minutes, were broadcast across one week from 4 to 8 March 1996, as part of The Fifties season of programming. The serial was promoted in listings magazine Radio Times with an article by Kneale about Quatermass and his opinion of other science fiction programmes. Episode one was transmitted at 10.32pm on the Monday (originally scheduled for 10.05pm but delayed by a live concert broadcast beforehand); episode two at 9.30pm on the Tuesday; episode three 9.00pm on Wednesday, episode four 10.15pm on Thursday and episode five at 9.40pm on the Friday. The production was made and transmitted in stereo. It was Andrew Keir's final professional performance; he died the following year.

The digital radio station BBC7 has repeated the series on several occasions since October 2003. In 2006 it was released on CD by BBC Audio as part of their Classic Radio Sci-Fi range, with cover artwork by Chris Achilleos.