johng Blog

Only realised the remake of Quatermass was on last night after reading an article in The Guardian the morning before. For those who don’t know Quatermass was an old 50s sci-fi show on the BBC that was performed live due to the technology available at the time. So with this week’s one off remake they decided to also perform it live making it the first live TV drama in 20 years.

That alone was enough to get me tuning in last night just to see if they could pull it off and pull it off they did. It gave the whole thing an energy and sharp edge that was very unique as these guys didn’t go out of character in the hour and forty minutes it was on for. Every one was acting their socks off and the outdoor scenes made it even more amazing that it was all done live. This alone carried the somewhat shakey story along, it is after all a slightly rewritten 50s script that shows some naivety towards science.

This was a highly successful production and they were no major hiccups which is quite a feat considering all the things that could have gone wrong while they were performing this live. With more good scripts and great production like this had I would love to see more live drama on TV. It gives it a feel of ‘event’ television and I think if future shows were promoted correctly and not relegated to BBC Four the BBC could have a real ‘appointment television’ hit on their hands.