In 1950 Thomas Nigel Kneale won the Somerset Maugham Award for his prose collection TOMATO CAIN & OTHER STORIES.
In 1953 he changed the face of British Television with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT. Public houses across the country emptied as each installment of this thrilling new story went out live to the nation. Never before had a television drama become a national event, and few enough have had such an impact since.
His adaptation of NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR would raise questions in Parliament, such was its power, while original dramas like THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS accurately predicted, and indicted, the sensationalism of ‘Reality TV’ and the passivity of the society that produced it.
In the years that followed QUATERMASS & THE PIT, THE STONE TAPE, MURRAIN, BEASTS, THE WOMAN IN BLACK and more, would influence successive generations of authors, film makers and screenwriters. From Russell T. Davies to The League Of Gentlemen, John Carpenter to Stephen King, Chris Carter, Peter Strickland, Ramsey Campbell, China Mieville and more…
Jacques Derrida may have coined the term, but it is Kneale – in his style, themes, and the unique tone of his work – who provides a touchstone for the Hauntological movement which has pervaded our culture in recent years.
To mark the launch of WE ARE THE MARTIANS, a new book of essays about Kneale and his work from Spectral Press, The Miskatonic Institute presents a unique celebration of the work of Nigel Kneale.
A rehearsed reading of Kneale’s lost drama THE ROAD will be followed by an in depth discussion of Kneale’s work and influence by some of the book’s authors, including screenwriter Stephen Volk (GHOST WATCH, AFTERLIFE, THE AWAKENING), author and critic Kim Newman (ANNO DRACULA, NIGHTMARE MOVIES), author and editor Mark Morris (ALBION FAY), stage, screen and comics writer Maura McHugh (SIR EDWARD GREY: WITCHFINDER, JENNIFER WILDE), author and critic David Pirie (A HERITAGE OF HORROR), author Stephen Laws (THE MIDNIGHT MAN), author, screenwriter and playwright Jeremy Dyson (THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, BRIGHT DARKNESS: THE LOST ART OF THE SUPERNATURAL HORROR FILM) and WE ARE THE MARTIANS editor Neil Snowdon.
And, just to add even more excitement, here’s the cast line-up for the reading:
Big Jeff – David Morley Hale
Lukey Chase – Michael Shaw
Sam Towler – James Swanton
Sir Timothy Hassall – Jason Morell (son of Quatermass actor Andre Morell)
Tetsy – Annabel Bates
Jethro – Clarence Smith
Gideon Cobb – Mark Gatiss
Lady Lavinia Hassall – Claire Louise Amias
narrator / director – Jonathan Rigby
Author of ‘A Heritage Of Horror’, the seminal text on British Horror Films, David Pirie is also an author and screenwriter of repute. His first TV play ‘Rainy Day Women’ was directly inspired by aspects of Nigel Kneale’s ‘Quatermass II’. Later work includes the acclaimed ‘Murder Rooms’ series of novels and TV which explored the origins of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, an adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Woman In White’ for TV, uncredited work on Lars Von Trier’s ‘Breaking The Waves’, and ‘Murderland’ starring Robbie Coltrane.
