Early Life
To friends and family he was always simply Tom, as contrary to legend Nigel Kneale only exists on paper, for he was born Thomas Nigel Kneale, assuming his middle name as his pen name. Another myth is that Kneale was born on the Isle of Man. In fact, Kneale is only Manx by parentage, as he was born in Barrow-in-Furness Lancashire on April 22nd 1922.
Kneale's father came from a farming family and with his mother, who his father married in 1920, they moved from the Isle of Mann to Barrow-in-Furness, following the financial collapse of the family farm, to pursue his passion to write. After the birth of Kneale the family moved to Bolton where Tom Kneale senior found work at the Bolton Evening News. However as Kneale's father worked on his success as a writer, the young Kneale was, as described in his own words, a 'sickly creature' having suffered various ailments from an early age. In fact, one bought of illness as child has left Kneale with a life long minor cardiac problem. So, with Kneale's mother's wish to return to the Isle of Mann, coupled with young Kneale's illness, Kneale's father and Uncle bought a run down Manx newspaper, and they moved to back to Douglas in 1928.
It's important to note that the history of the Isle of Mann has influenced Kneale heavily in his work. The island has its own inimitable culture, having been heavily influenced by the Celts and also the Norsemen who landed there on 1098. As a result Kneale grew up steeped in this unique mix of spirituality and superstition, in fact conventional religion has never taken hold on the island.
On June 19th 1930, Kneale’s younger brother Bryan was born. At this time the young Kneale was of school going age and had developed a keen interest in reading, particularly he enjoyed the comics of DC Thompson, of which he would by copious amounts at weekends. Other favourites included the works of H.G. Wells and M.R. James, developing an interested of tales fantastical and imaginative. Clearly this interest coupled with growing up on the superstition soaked Isle of Mann would have a profound influence on Kneale's future work. Indeed it has been said that Kneale's grandmother had a penchant for magic.
As Kneale left St. Ninians High School for Boys in the late 1930s he was, unlike his younger brother who had a clear flare for art, unsure of which direction to take. Kneale comments that he was turned down for military service, so fighting in the freshly broken out World War II was not an option. This military rejection is assigned to the fact that Kneale suffered from a form or photosensitivity, which meant he'd burn after about ten minutes in the sun, something that would be quite unhelpful to a soldier. At this point in his life Kneale had begun to pen his own short stories, but was unsure if he could make a career out of it. With that in mind he turned to studying Manx law with a view to becoming a lawyer. In his spare time Kneale went in for amateur dramatics.
As he continued to study law, he maintained his writing of short stories. Many were influenced by characters that he had known, simply changing names and places to avoid the possibility of being chased through the courts by an unhappy fellow Manxman. But as he penned more and more stories it became clear to the young Kneale that his heart was not set on practising law, but on becoming a writer.
During the early 1940's Kneale's work began to attract the attention of a number of people in London. Publishers Collins had been able to have Kneale's short tales published in a number of short story magazines that were popular at the time. A pivotal moment came when in 1946 Collins submitted one of Kneale's short tales to the BBC with a view to possible broadcast. The BBC was indeed keen and the young Kneale attended the corporation's Manchester studios to record his own reading of Tomato Cain. It was a major step, but still not enough to make Kneale a living. So, it was in 1946 that he left the Isle of Mann and moved to London to study drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
June 1946 saw the BBC re-launch their Television Service, returning after having been de-commissioned in September 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. The infant medium was still considered to be a flash in the pan, by many, including some inside the BBC. But not long after this both the BBC Television Service and Nigel Kneale would collide, producing results that would define the medium to this very day.
Joining the BBC
Kneale graduated from RADA in 1948, and later admitted that this was the only serious education he ever had. But, it was still clear his mind was set on things other than acting, and after a season in Stratford-upon-Avon with the Royal Shakespeare Company he began to have his writings noticed more and more. His first notable port of call was working back at the BBC who, following his successful earlier reading of Tomato Cain, invited Kneale back to read more of his short stories, Zachary Crebbin's Angels and Bini and Bettine. Indeed these readings combined his two talents of being an actor and a writer.
November 7th 1949 saw a major milestone in Kneale fledgling career, with the publication of his first book, entitled Tomato Cain and other Stories. The book saw Kneale awarded the 1950 Somerset Maugham prize, which came with a monetary grant. This money allowed the young Kneale to travel and visit his younger brother Bryan who had been living and studying Italy for some time. Kneale was still unsure about his future, but as he starred in another BBC Radio production Essence of Strawberry, he was making contacts within the BBC which came to fruition the same year with the commissioning and recording of Kneale's very first script The Long Stairs.
Living in London and recording for the BBC Home Service in Manchester was proving to be a chore and indeed rather odd, seeing that Kneale lived very close to BBC premises in London. With television slowly awakening from the war-years, Kneale was keen to pursue this new avenue of interest. Kneale went back to RADA and asked for help. He was put in contact with Michael Barry who was head of drama at BBC Television, who himself had been to RADA, however they did not appear to have much to offer other than odd jobs, with a pay-cheque from the petty cash. But Kneale jumped at the chance, allowing him a foot in the door of the corporation.
Having made himself useful writing for children's shows such as Mr and Mrs Mumbo and Vegetable Village, Kneale was promoted from being an odd job writer to being offered a three month rolling contract with the BBC's Script Unit. Here he would work as part of a two-man team writing adaptations of plays to be broadcast live on the BBC Television Service. An early piece of work came on the production of Albrecht Goes' German novel Unruhige Nacht, which was to be adapted under the English title Arrow to the Heart, and was to be broadcast under the producer-ship of one Rudolph Cartier. It was during this production that Kneale developed a healthy respect for Cartier and his work. After this first meeting with Cartier, who was to play a pivotal role in Kneale's early TV career, Kneale was to make another chance encounter that would change his life. An encounter, in the BBC canteen, with Judith Kerr.
Quatermass, Orwell and Kerr
Anne Judith Kerr was a friend of a BBC production secretary, both of whom happened to be sharing a table with Kneale one lunch time. As Kneale and Kerr began to chat Kneale became enchanted by the young girl. As time passed and they met again they became romantically involved. Kerr was the daughter of Alfred Kerr, a well-respected German-Jew who wrote as a drama critic for a number of German newspapers. As Hitler approached power in the mid 1930's the Kerr family fled Germany, and firstly took refuge in France, later moving onto the United Kingdom. Sadly as war broke out Judith's brother Michael was interned in a Manx prison camp, due to his nationality.
By 1953 Kneale had penned an adaptation of Hugh Walpole's The Cathedral and was working on his own original radio script for the BBC entitled You Must Listen, an unnerving tale of a haunted office telephone line. Further adaptations followed, such as Dorothy Messingham's The Lake, and Anton Chekov's An Actor's End, penned as Curtain Down. But in the summer of that year the BBC Drama dept was in somewhat of a panic. They had discovered a rather glaring six-week hole in their summer schedule, so they turned to their own in-house script department for help. With his colleague George Kerr on holiday, the task of filling these six thirty minute schedule voids fell squarely on Kneale.
Kneale presented a story outline entitled Bring Something Back..! about a three-man rocket crew launched into space on an experimental mission, only to return with two of the men seemingly missing and the third man left with a terrible mystery disease. Head of Drama, Michael Barry, was enthused enough to offer Kneale £250, a sizeable some by the standards of the day. So Kneale set to work at speed and had written the first four episodes of his new thriller drama as the first was due to go on air. Once again teamed with Producer Rudolph Cartier, what was about to be broadcast was one of the most unique projects the BBC had thus far undertaken, one that would change the face of British television, and set the mould for both future writers of tv and thriller fiction.
On Saturday July 18th 1953, the first episode of the now re-titled play, The Quatermass Experiment, was broadcast; itself entitled Contact Has Been Established. Whilst early reaction from the critics was not too favourable, the BBC's own audience research showed that the viewing public was most appreciative of Kneale's innovative new drama. Unbeknownst to the BBC and to Kneale they had spawned a legendary character that lives on in the minds of the public to this very day.
Spring 1954 saw Kneale at a juncture in his work and on May 8th 1954 he married Judith Kerr at Chelsea registry office. Both Kneale's father and brother were witnesses at the ceremony
It was around this time that Hammer studios approached the BBC, keen on making a film adaptation of Kneale’s Quatermass piece. However, much to Kneale's annoyance it was to prove clear that the writer was to play no part in the eventual arrival of this piece on the silver screen.
As 1954 progressed, Hammer, with director Val Guest at the helm, were pressing on with their adaptation of The Quatermass Experiment having cast the veteran US actor Brian Donlevy in the lead. This was something which incensed Kneale, as he felt the actor approached the role with sledgehammer subtlety. It was during this period that it became clear that not only was he being locked out of the production, but that the rights over the Quatermass piece had fallen into a grey area, with the BBC asserting intellectual copyright over Kneale's work as he was a salaried employee of theirs. Kneale felt bitterly led down. This was not the last time that Kneale would come into conflict with the BBC.
Fresh on the back of the success of The Quatermass Experiment, Kneale and Cartier were teamed up again, working on adaptations such as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. However it was the adaptation of the late George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty Four, that was to prove even more powerful than Quatermass had. Cast in the leading role was an actor who would later forever be associated with Hammer Films and the roles of Baron Von Frankenstein and Van Helsing, non-other than Peter Cushing.
Nineteen Eighty-four was broadcast live on Sunday December 12th 1954. The broadcast created a wave of both admiration and applause, but also disgust and damnation. Many viewers bombarded the BBC with letters accusing the producers of being 'sadists' and having 'twisted minds'. Clearly there had never been such a provocative and controversial broadcast made in the UK before. Another live broadcast of the play was made later in the same week, this time it was fronted by a small to-camera introduction from BBC drama's Michael Barry, adopting a conciliatory tone and inviting viewers to make their own minds up over the furore in the press and the discussions in parliament over whether to prohibit the repeat.
Leaving the BBC
Cartier and Kneale moved onto their next projects during 1955 which was to be an original teleplay based on the legend of the Yeti of the Himalayas, entitled The Creature. This was closely followed by an adaptation of Peter Ustinov's The Moment of Truth. But BBC bosses had a large problem on their hands, a three letter problem - ITV. Until ITVs launch in September 1955 the BBC was operating both radio and television in a monopoly state, but the new independent TV channel was about to give the BBC a run for their money. The country had been carved up into regions by the newly formed Independent Television Authority. These regions were to be sold off by franchise to separate televisions production companies, making programmes for both their own area and for the network as a whole. One of the biggest players was to be Associated Television, ATV, headed by Lew Grade, a master of popular musical hall and light entertainment.
The patrician, Reithian BBC knew that this would attract both a whole new audience to TV and also severely dent their viewership. It would also see them loose a lot of their talent to the new companies that between 1955 and 1961 would spring all over the United Kingdom. As part of there plan of attack the BBC, in possibly what was to become the first television sequel, commissioned Kneale to write what was initially titled The Quatermass Experiment Two. It was also around this point that Kneale was awarded a promotion, with long term contract, as a BBC Staff Writer. This came after some lengthy debate where Kneale stuck to his guns and ensured that he would no only see a significant pay rise for his hard work, but also would maintain the film rights over his own original work.
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| Kneale in 1955 |
It's important to note that the history of the Isle of Mann has influenced Kneale heavily in his work. The island has its own inimitable culture, having been heavily influenced by the Celts and also the Norsemen who landed there on 1098. As a result Kneale grew up steeped in this unique mix of spirituality and superstition, in fact conventional religion has never taken hold on the island.
On June 19th 1930, Kneale’s younger brother Bryan was born. At this time the young Kneale was of school going age and had developed a keen interest in reading, particularly he enjoyed the comics of DC Thompson, of which he would by copious amounts at weekends. Other favourites included the works of H.G. Wells and M.R. James, developing an interested of tales fantastical and imaginative. Clearly this interest coupled with growing up on the superstition soaked Isle of Mann would have a profound influence on Kneale's future work. Indeed it has been said that Kneale's grandmother had a penchant for magic.
As Kneale left St. Ninians High School for Boys in the late 1930s he was, unlike his younger brother who had a clear flare for art, unsure of which direction to take. Kneale comments that he was turned down for military service, so fighting in the freshly broken out World War II was not an option. This military rejection is assigned to the fact that Kneale suffered from a form or photosensitivity, which meant he'd burn after about ten minutes in the sun, something that would be quite unhelpful to a soldier. At this point in his life Kneale had begun to pen his own short stories, but was unsure if he could make a career out of it. With that in mind he turned to studying Manx law with a view to becoming a lawyer. In his spare time Kneale went in for amateur dramatics.
As he continued to study law, he maintained his writing of short stories. Many were influenced by characters that he had known, simply changing names and places to avoid the possibility of being chased through the courts by an unhappy fellow Manxman. But as he penned more and more stories it became clear to the young Kneale that his heart was not set on practising law, but on becoming a writer.
During the early 1940's Kneale's work began to attract the attention of a number of people in London. Publishers Collins had been able to have Kneale's short tales published in a number of short story magazines that were popular at the time. A pivotal moment came when in 1946 Collins submitted one of Kneale's short tales to the BBC with a view to possible broadcast. The BBC was indeed keen and the young Kneale attended the corporation's Manchester studios to record his own reading of Tomato Cain. It was a major step, but still not enough to make Kneale a living. So, it was in 1946 that he left the Isle of Mann and moved to London to study drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
June 1946 saw the BBC re-launch their Television Service, returning after having been de-commissioned in September 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. The infant medium was still considered to be a flash in the pan, by many, including some inside the BBC. But not long after this both the BBC Television Service and Nigel Kneale would collide, producing results that would define the medium to this very day.
Joining the BBC
Kneale graduated from RADA in 1948, and later admitted that this was the only serious education he ever had. But, it was still clear his mind was set on things other than acting, and after a season in Stratford-upon-Avon with the Royal Shakespeare Company he began to have his writings noticed more and more. His first notable port of call was working back at the BBC who, following his successful earlier reading of Tomato Cain, invited Kneale back to read more of his short stories, Zachary Crebbin's Angels and Bini and Bettine. Indeed these readings combined his two talents of being an actor and a writer.
November 7th 1949 saw a major milestone in Kneale fledgling career, with the publication of his first book, entitled Tomato Cain and other Stories. The book saw Kneale awarded the 1950 Somerset Maugham prize, which came with a monetary grant. This money allowed the young Kneale to travel and visit his younger brother Bryan who had been living and studying Italy for some time. Kneale was still unsure about his future, but as he starred in another BBC Radio production Essence of Strawberry, he was making contacts within the BBC which came to fruition the same year with the commissioning and recording of Kneale's very first script The Long Stairs.
Living in London and recording for the BBC Home Service in Manchester was proving to be a chore and indeed rather odd, seeing that Kneale lived very close to BBC premises in London. With television slowly awakening from the war-years, Kneale was keen to pursue this new avenue of interest. Kneale went back to RADA and asked for help. He was put in contact with Michael Barry who was head of drama at BBC Television, who himself had been to RADA, however they did not appear to have much to offer other than odd jobs, with a pay-cheque from the petty cash. But Kneale jumped at the chance, allowing him a foot in the door of the corporation.
Having made himself useful writing for children's shows such as Mr and Mrs Mumbo and Vegetable Village, Kneale was promoted from being an odd job writer to being offered a three month rolling contract with the BBC's Script Unit. Here he would work as part of a two-man team writing adaptations of plays to be broadcast live on the BBC Television Service. An early piece of work came on the production of Albrecht Goes' German novel Unruhige Nacht, which was to be adapted under the English title Arrow to the Heart, and was to be broadcast under the producer-ship of one Rudolph Cartier. It was during this production that Kneale developed a healthy respect for Cartier and his work. After this first meeting with Cartier, who was to play a pivotal role in Kneale's early TV career, Kneale was to make another chance encounter that would change his life. An encounter, in the BBC canteen, with Judith Kerr.
Quatermass, Orwell and Kerr
Anne Judith Kerr was a friend of a BBC production secretary, both of whom happened to be sharing a table with Kneale one lunch time. As Kneale and Kerr began to chat Kneale became enchanted by the young girl. As time passed and they met again they became romantically involved. Kerr was the daughter of Alfred Kerr, a well-respected German-Jew who wrote as a drama critic for a number of German newspapers. As Hitler approached power in the mid 1930's the Kerr family fled Germany, and firstly took refuge in France, later moving onto the United Kingdom. Sadly as war broke out Judith's brother Michael was interned in a Manx prison camp, due to his nationality.
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| On the set of 'The Quatermass Experiment" |
Kneale presented a story outline entitled Bring Something Back..! about a three-man rocket crew launched into space on an experimental mission, only to return with two of the men seemingly missing and the third man left with a terrible mystery disease. Head of Drama, Michael Barry, was enthused enough to offer Kneale £250, a sizeable some by the standards of the day. So Kneale set to work at speed and had written the first four episodes of his new thriller drama as the first was due to go on air. Once again teamed with Producer Rudolph Cartier, what was about to be broadcast was one of the most unique projects the BBC had thus far undertaken, one that would change the face of British television, and set the mould for both future writers of tv and thriller fiction.
On Saturday July 18th 1953, the first episode of the now re-titled play, The Quatermass Experiment, was broadcast; itself entitled Contact Has Been Established. Whilst early reaction from the critics was not too favourable, the BBC's own audience research showed that the viewing public was most appreciative of Kneale's innovative new drama. Unbeknownst to the BBC and to Kneale they had spawned a legendary character that lives on in the minds of the public to this very day.
Spring 1954 saw Kneale at a juncture in his work and on May 8th 1954 he married Judith Kerr at Chelsea registry office. Both Kneale's father and brother were witnesses at the ceremony
It was around this time that Hammer studios approached the BBC, keen on making a film adaptation of Kneale’s Quatermass piece. However, much to Kneale's annoyance it was to prove clear that the writer was to play no part in the eventual arrival of this piece on the silver screen.
As 1954 progressed, Hammer, with director Val Guest at the helm, were pressing on with their adaptation of The Quatermass Experiment having cast the veteran US actor Brian Donlevy in the lead. This was something which incensed Kneale, as he felt the actor approached the role with sledgehammer subtlety. It was during this period that it became clear that not only was he being locked out of the production, but that the rights over the Quatermass piece had fallen into a grey area, with the BBC asserting intellectual copyright over Kneale's work as he was a salaried employee of theirs. Kneale felt bitterly led down. This was not the last time that Kneale would come into conflict with the BBC.
Fresh on the back of the success of The Quatermass Experiment, Kneale and Cartier were teamed up again, working on adaptations such as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. However it was the adaptation of the late George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty Four, that was to prove even more powerful than Quatermass had. Cast in the leading role was an actor who would later forever be associated with Hammer Films and the roles of Baron Von Frankenstein and Van Helsing, non-other than Peter Cushing.
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| 'Nineteen Eighty Four' |
Leaving the BBC
Cartier and Kneale moved onto their next projects during 1955 which was to be an original teleplay based on the legend of the Yeti of the Himalayas, entitled The Creature. This was closely followed by an adaptation of Peter Ustinov's The Moment of Truth. But BBC bosses had a large problem on their hands, a three letter problem - ITV. Until ITVs launch in September 1955 the BBC was operating both radio and television in a monopoly state, but the new independent TV channel was about to give the BBC a run for their money. The country had been carved up into regions by the newly formed Independent Television Authority. These regions were to be sold off by franchise to separate televisions production companies, making programmes for both their own area and for the network as a whole. One of the biggest players was to be Associated Television, ATV, headed by Lew Grade, a master of popular musical hall and light entertainment.
The patrician, Reithian BBC knew that this would attract both a whole new audience to TV and also severely dent their viewership. It would also see them loose a lot of their talent to the new companies that between 1955 and 1961 would spring all over the United Kingdom. As part of there plan of attack the BBC, in possibly what was to become the first television sequel, commissioned Kneale to write what was initially titled The Quatermass Experiment Two. It was also around this point that Kneale was awarded a promotion, with long term contract, as a BBC Staff Writer. This came after some lengthy debate where Kneale stuck to his guns and ensured that he would no only see a significant pay rise for his hard work, but also would maintain the film rights over his own original work.
Quatermass II as it was to become was broadcast over October and November 1955. Sadly just days before production the original TV Quatermass actor, Reginald Tate, collapsed and died outside his home in Battersea. This lead to the re casting of the role and actor John Robinson taking the lead. This somewhat set the mould for what o far has been seven actors who have played the role on TV, film and radio. The serial was another huge success, so much so that both The Daily Mail and The Daily Express were hounding Kneale to write a small piece for them. With The Daily Express having succeeded, Kneale penned a cartoon adaptation of Quatermass II. Interest also piqued once more at Hammer, this time Kneale had the rights and he was sure to make good use of them.
The year 1956 saw Kneale’s contract with the BBC come to an end. He was not to renew it. On New Years day 1957 he was a free man, free from the BBCs regiment of script writing and adaptations with what was a meagre salary compared to that which he could obtain for film scripts. Kneale teamed up with Val Guest at Hammer and worked very closely on adapting the six 35 minute TV scripts of Quatermass II for film. The resultant film bears far more resemblance to its TV cousin that the first film had to its.
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| Title from 'Quatermass II' |
Very quickly Hammer moved on to an adaptation of 1955's The Creature, released in the autumn of 1957 as The Abominable Snowman, with Peter Cushing cast in the leading role. Kneale provided his own script adaptation that varies very little from the TV version of some years before. But Kneale was keen not to spend too long simply re-penning his BBC script for Hammer and was looking to write something original.
Freelance and the Film World
Before the viewing public were to see Professor Quatermass on the screen again, Kneale penned a play very different from his genre work entitled Mrs Wickens in the Fall about an older American tourist in France. Despite some troubles over the leading lady's performance, critic Kenneth Tynan, already known to Kneale, had seen the play and invited Kneale to join him in reviving the fortunes of Ealing Films. But sadly, despite working on a number of adaptations, Ealing films went bust before any of them could reach production. But this had opened doors, with Kneale also scripting an adaptation of the stage play, Look Back In Anger. This also was to remain on the shelf, but Kneale had been noticed and went on to adapt the 'The Entertainer' for director Tony Richardson. The work came at an opportune time as Kneale's wife gave birth to their first child, Tacy Deborah, in January 1958.
As 1958 dawned Kneale sat down to work on the provisionally titled Quatermass III for the BBC. This time he was not working as BBC employee, but as freelance, and was guaranteed the intellectual copyright over his work. Teamed up once again with Cartier, the decision was taken early on with Robinson busy elsewhere to replace him with a new actor. After a handful of options were excised Cartier returned to ask his original choice, Andre Morell who accepted the part. With a much bigger budget of over seventeen-thousand pounds an episode and access to the BBCs state of the art Riverside studios, this was to be the biggest Quatermass serial yet. Broadcast over Christmas 1958 and New Year 1959 the serial was to attract huge audiences by the standards of the day. Notably within a number of weeks the serial was spoofed by both The Goons on the Radio, and Tony Hancock on his BBC TV show with an edition entitled The Horror Serial. This production was a fitting climax to the collaboration of Kneale and Cartier as this was the end of the working relationship.
As the last year of the 1950s began, Kneale proceeded to work on preparing his TV scripts of The Quatermass Experiment for publication by Penguin books. On the back of the success of this publication both Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit followed in the same script-book format the following year. 1960 was also to see another addition to the Kneale clan when their son Matthew was born on November 26th.
Over the course of the next few years, Kneale concentrated mostly on screenplays, adapting plays and novels for the cinema. Notably film producer Harry Saltzman approached Kneale with a view to scripting a project he was working on to adapt Ian Fleming's James Bond novels for the cinema. However not being a fan of Fleming's work Kneale declined the offer. Further adaptations were to come with work on H.M.S. Defiant in 1962 adapted from the novel Mutiny by Frank Tilsley, closely followed by First Men in the Moon, in 1964, from the novel of the same name by H. G. Wells. During this period Kneale worked on a number of the other projects which were not to bear fruit, including Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Kneale returned to writing for the BBC for the first time since Quatermass and the Pit when his play The Road was produced and broadcast in September 1963. The play centred round the population of an 18th century village who become haunted by visions of a future, initially centring around a heavy trunk road seen through the trees in the forest. This was later to reveal a terrible further future, that of nuclear war. At this time Kneale was also working his first play for ITV, namely The Crunch which was produced in 1964 by ABC.
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| Title from 'H.M.S. Defiant' |
By this time Hammer Film Productions beckoned once more and Kneale found himself working on the film The Witches, an adaptation of Norah Lofts' 1960 novel The Devil's Own. This was a return to the project for Kneale who he had first worked on it back in 1961, picking up where he had left of as he was to do later in 1965 when he re-commenced his work on adapting Quatermass and the Pit into a film for Hammer,.
Quatermass and the Pit was also to eventually reach the screen in 1967, directed by Roy Ward Baker, and starring Scots actor Andrew Keir as the eponymous professor. Kneale was far happier with this adaptation than he had been the previous two Hammer Quatermass films. After the success of the third Quatermass film, Hammer was keen to pick up on Kneale’s outline for a fourth. However this was not to be, as it would be another fifteen years or so before the project would come to the screens.
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| 'The Year of the Sex Olympics' |
Kneale has been hailed as having enormous prescience in the writing of The Year of the Sex Olympics with its almost foretelling of shows such as Big Brother. Despite being one of Kneale first works for television to be made in colour, sadly the play now only survives as a black and white film recording.
His work for the BBC continued for the next few years, with both the 1968 play Bam! Zap! Pow! and the 1970 play Wine of India both part of the BBC’s The Wednesday Play strand. The latter concerned a near future where people, with aid of wonder drugs, could live almost forever in a state of prolonged youth. The only drawback of accepting these drugs was that at a pre ordained date everyone had to have an appointment with death. Starring Annette Crosbie, the play sadly no longer exists in the BBC archives. Kneale was also to contribute a script entitled Chopper for BBC2’s Out of the Unknown anthology series.
The next play is perhaps one of Kneale most appreciated and remembered works outside of the Quatermass canon. The Stone Tape, a scientific ghost story broadcast on BBC2 on Christmas Day 1972. The tale concerned an old manor house converted into a research centre by an electronics company. The first team to arrive at the house find a storeroom where builders refused to work due to tales of haunting. When one of the team experiences the ghost ‘walk’ the team decide to throw all their technology at the phenomenon in an attempt to find out what it is and how it works. However, this leads to the discovery of a deeper, older, more malevolent force being revealed underneath.
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| Jane Asher in 'The Stone Tape' |
His final work for the BBC was adapting traditional fairytales with a grown up bent for an adult audience, as part of a series entitled Bedtime Stories. The script, Jack and the Beanstalk, was transmitted on 24th March 1974, and thereby marked the end of his writing career at the BBC. Kneale's remaining television work would be for ITV.
ITV and Hollywood
The first script for ITV was in 1975. A one-off play entitled Murrain, made by the network's Midlands franchise ATV, part of their Against the Crowd dramas. The play is a horror piece based around witchcraft in a small remote and superstitious community. This led the following year to the anthology series Beasts, a six part programme where Kneale wove six different character based tales of horror and terror, with well remembered episodes such as Baby and During Barty’s Party. Sadly this series was not afforded a full network broadcast and shunted around the schedules in the different ITV regions.
In the mid-1970s Kneale made his only attempt at writing a stage play. Called Crow, it was based upon the memoirs of real-life Manx slaver Captain Hugh Crow. Kneale struggled to find financial backing for the play, so he sold the script to ATV who were keen to produce the play for television. However, before filming could commence it was vetoed by Lew Grade, the owner of ATV. Kneale was never told why.
Kneale moved on to form a relationship with Thames Television who through their wholly owned film subsidiary, Euston Films, commissioned Kneale to complete his so far unmade fourth Quatermass serial. The production Quatermass was structured to work both as a four- one hour long episode serial for transmission in the UK, and a 100-minute version for cinematic release and overseas sales, entitled The Quatermass Conclusion. With a budget of over £1m, fifty times that of Quatermass and the Pit back in 1959 the drama went into production in 1978. It eventually hit the screens in October 1979, the week ITV returned after a seventy five day strike by technicians had kept the channel off air. No less inspired than his earlier science-fiction essays for the BBC, Quatermass did not have the impact on the viewers or the press that his previous three Quatermass works had done the 1950s. Kneale returned to the tale when he penned his only full-length novel, Quatermass, a novelisation of the serial for Arrow books in 1979.
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| Tony Haygarth as 'Des Kinvig' |
Initially John Landis had approached Kneale with a view to work on the screenplay for a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon which eventually never progressed, but this was not before Kneale met the director Joe Dante. Dante invited him to script the third film in the successful Halloween series. After some thought Kneale agreed, but on the proviso that it would be a total departure to the previous two films in the franchise.
Kneale was required to write the script in only six weeks, but his treatment met with approval from John Carpenter. However, the film’s backers, Dino De Laurentiis, insisted the film include more graphic violence, something for which the canon has become renowned. This resulted in Tommy Lee Wallace making re-writes to the scripts, something Kneale was not happy about. This lead to Kneale’s request to have his name removed from the credits for the film.
It was clear that Carpenter admired Kneale greatly, for when Carpenter came to write the screenplay for his 1987 film Prince of Darkness he did so under the pseudonym of Martin Quatermass. This clear homage was to be repeated once more with naming of the faculty featured in the story as Kneale University. The storyline itself also owes a lot to Kneale, with the ‘ancient evil’ aspects of both Quatermass and the Pit and 1979s Quatermass, featuring heavily in the plot.
In 1985 Kneale teamed up with a newly set up cable company. The idea was to produce a drama which owed something to 1972s The Stone Tape but would have more of the anthology based feel of 1975s Beasts. The project entitled Push the Dark Door was to centre on a team of scientists in the employ of a rich international businessman who was nearing the end of his life. Through the rich man’s investments the team investigates the nature of life and death, but along the way the encounter reported haunting and paranormal activity. Sadly by 1986 finance was lacking and the project was dropped.
At this point Kneale had not penned anything that had made it to the TV screen for nearly five years. His producer of 1979s Quatermass, Ted Childs, was now head of drama at Central TV working with producer Nick Palmer, who had produced both Murrain and Beasts back in the mid 1970s. Palmer approached Kneale whilst he was putting together a TV series entitled Unnatural Causes, a series of physiological dramas to be broadcast in December 1986. The series was to feature works from authors such as PJ Hammond, Lynda La Plante and Paula Milne. Kneale agreed and penned Ladies Night, a tale about a gentlemen’s club and the misogyny of such places. The next drama, Gentry, again for Central TV, saw Kneale again working with both Ted Childs and Nick Palmer. This piece, transmitted in July 1988, was a one off play about the less than salubrious activities on the property market, starring lead singer of The Who, Roger Daltry.
Reaching Retirement
As the decade progressed Kneale continued writing scripts for British television, notably an adaptation of Susan Hill's novel The Woman in Black. Produced for ITV it was broadcast on Christmas Eve 1989. This adaptation nearly went unmade as Kneale had penned his adaptation in under ten days but under counsel from this agent waited before submitting it to the producers Central Television so that they would not think he had rushed the job. Three weeks later when the script dropped on the doormat at Central Kneale discovered that ITV had been about to drop the production on the assumption that Kneale, then 67, had not been able to complete the work due to his age. It is noted that Susan Hill was unhappy with Kneale’s adaptation of her book, feeling that he changed to many aspects of the story. Sadly The Woman in Black has rarely been seen since its original broadcast, with a Canadian DVD release currently changing hands for well over one hundred pounds on internet auction sites
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| DVD Artwork for 'The Woman in Black' |
In 1996 Kneale was to return to his most original of creations that of Bernard Quatermass with he penned the five twenty minute editions of the The Quatermass Memoirs for BBC Radio 3. Broadcast during ‘Fifties Week’ the drama based documentary comprised of Kneale looking back over world events that shaped the mood of the UK populace in the 1950s which influenced the writing of the original three Quatermass serials. Using archival material to illustrate Kneale’s musing, new dramatised scenes were also recorded, with Andrew Kier returning almost thirty years after playing the professor for Hammer films. The plot runs along the lines of the old professor retired in his Scottish cottage, attempting to write his memoirs, and being visited by a young journalist from London keen to write about the professor’s history. Cleverly Kneale set the drama at a point in time just before the ITV Quatermass serial. This was only the second time an actor had reprised the role of Quatermass.
However, despite having killed him off once before, there was perhaps life after death for Quatermass, or perhaps even life before. Whilst making a recording for a DVD audio commentary in 1997, Kneale speculated about his ideas for a Quatermass prequel set in 1930s Germany. These ideas where not greatly expanded upon but the Independent newspaper later speculated that this was to have seen the young Bernard becoming involved in German experiments in rocketry, and helping a young Jewish woman to escape the country during the Berlin Olympics of 1936.
By 1997 With Kneale now having passed his seventy-fifth birthday, his contributions to the world of television were coming to end, but not before he was to write his final original TV script for the ITV legal drama Kavanagh QC, starring John Thaw. The episode Ancient History about a Jewish woman, who during the Second World War had been locked up in a concentration camp and subjected to horrific experiments, was broadcast on 17th January 1997. It closed Kneale’s writing career almost fifty years after his first works to be published, Tomato Cain and other Stories, were released in the late 1940s.
Despite now being over eighty and his health failing, Kneale continued to give interviews and appeared in a number of television documentaries, and also recorded audio commentaries for the release of some of his works on DVD.
In 2004 he was the subject of an edition of BBC Four’s Time Shift programme entitled The Kneale Tapes. This retrospective took a look at Kneale’s TV work from the 1950s through the 1990s and featured a number people who are said to be influenced by his work, such as author and critic Kim Newman and actor and author Mark Gatiss.
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| Kneale in the mid 2000s |
At the age of 84, after a series of small strokes, Kneale passed away on 29th October 2006.
The Kneale Legacy
The more we examine the work of Nigel Kneale the more we find his work has both influenced and affected those who have and still do work in the fields of television, film and genre fiction. Writers such as Russell T Davies, Mark Gatiss, and Stephen King, directors and producers John Carpenter, Dan O’Bannon and comic writer Grant Morrison have all cited Kneale as being an influence and inspiration.
In 2006 at the time of this death, Mark Gatiss wrote about Kneale for BBC News Online; "He is amongst the greats—he is absolutely as important as Dennis Potter, as David Mercer, as Alan Bleasdale, as Alan Bennett, but I think because of a strange snobbery about fantasy or sci-fi it's never quite been that way”
In 2003, three years before his death, Nancy Banks-Smith wrote about The Year of the Sex Olympics, feeling that Kneale was one of the few television writers whose work was particularly memorable.
"Once upon a time, Lord Hailsham, proceeding to the chamber of the House in black stockings and full-bottomed wig as Lord High Chancellor, spotted a friend and cried lustily, "Neil!" They say a whole party of American tourists fell to their knees. At the name of Kneale, I feel, every knee should bow. How much TV do you remember from last night... last year... last century? Quite. Curiously, I can remember clearly the first time I saw The Year of the Sex Olympics by Nigel Kneale. It was 35 years ago."
Mark Gatiss went on in the Independent Newspaper;
"Kneale was by no means the only author to have been largely wasted by television, and to have seen his status overtaken by soap opera hacks. But his place is secure, alongside Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, John Wyndham and Brian Aldiss, as one of the best, most exciting and most compassionate English science fiction writers of his century."
These are fitting tributes to a giant of TV; to a man once described as ‘the Grandfather of British Television Sci-Fi’, whose profound influence in the shaping of British television cannot be denied.
Thomas Nigel Kneale, born 22nd April 1922, died, 29th October 2006.
© 2007
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Kneale's comments are referenced from 'Into the Unknown, The Fantastic Life Nigel Kneale' by Andy Murray. Available from Headpress publishers.
We'd like to thank Andy Murray for his co-operation in the penning of this work. Many of the facts, figures, dates and events would not have been been available for inclusion had it not been for Andy's research and resultant book. Thanks also to Ian Greaves, Andrew Smith.
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