Nigel Kneale

Thomas Nigel Kneale (18 April 1922 – 29 October 2006) was a Manx screenwriter who wrote professionally for more than 50 years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. Predominantly a writer of thrillers that used science-fiction and horror elements, he was best known for the creation of the character Professor Bernard Quatermass. Kneale wrote original scripts and successfully adapted works by writers such as George Orwell, John Osborne, H. G. Wells and Susan Hill. Kneale was most active in television, joining BBC Television in 1951; his final script was transmitted on ITV in 1997. He wrote well-received television dramas such as The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968), The Stone Tape (1972) and Beasts (1976) in addition to the Quatermass serials. He has been described as "one of the most influential writers of the 20th century", and as "having invented popular TV". From Wikipedia

Works

Nineteen Eighty-Four

A man who works for 'The Party' (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as 'Big Brother') begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.

Release Date1954-12-16

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Charactersd Telescreen Announcer (voice)

Vote Count36

The Kneale Tapes

Documentary about Nigel Kneale, creator of Quatermass.

Release Date2003-10-15

Charactersd Self

Cartier and Kneale in Conversation

Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Kneale talk about there careers

Release Date2005-01-01

Charactersd Self (archive footage)

Sharpe

Sharpe is a British series of television dramas starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is the hero of a number of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books. Produced by Celtic Films and Picture Palace Films for the ITV network, the series was shot mainly in Turkey and the Crimea, although some filming was also done in England, Spain and Portugal. The series originally ran from 1993 to 1997. In 2004, as part of ITV's new set of drama, ITV announced that it intended to produce new episodes of Sharpe, in co-production with BBC America, loosely based on his time in India, with Sean Bean continuing his role as Sharpe. Sharpe's Challenge is a two-part adventure; part one premiered on ITV on 23 April 2006, with part two being shown the following night. With more gore than earlier episodes, the show was broadcast by BBC America in September 2006.

Release Date1993-05-05

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count33

Out of the Unknown

Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.

Release Date1965-10-04

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Vote Count7

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

A terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked, and at the hospital, babbles and clutches the year's most popular Halloween costume, an eerie pumpkin mask. Suddenly, Doctor Daniel Challis finds himself thrust into a terrifying nightmare.

Release Date1982-10-22

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count1447

The World of George Orwell: 1984

Early adaption of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as part of the Theatre 625 series.

Release Date1965-11-28

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Murrain

When a mystery illness infects the pigs of a village farmer and a local boy is also taken ill, the villagers try to convince a veterinarian that it is caused by a curse from a woman they believe to be a witch.

Release Date1975-07-27

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count3

Ladies' Night

A tradition-bound gentlemen's club is thrown into chaos when women are allowed in during "ladies' night." One member resents the intrusion of women so much, he resorts to murder.

Release Date1986-12-06

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Wine of India

In the year 2050, advances in medicine have resulted in a need for population control. People reaching the age of 100 must submit to a government controlled euthanasia program. The story centers around a 100-year old couple who must now make plans for their funeral.

Release Date1970-04-15

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

The Crunch

A megalomaniac dictator, in charge of a former colony, installs a nuclear bomb in its London Embassy. He threatens to set it off, unless a huge ransom is paid. The question for the government is whether he will set it off anyway?

Release Date1964-01-19

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

First Men in the Moon

The world is delighted when a spacecraft containing a crew made up of the world's astronauts lands on the moon, but are shocked when the astronauts discover an old British flag and a document declaring that the moon is taken for Queen Victoria proving that the astronauts were not the first men on the moon.

Release Date1964-07-01

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count131

Sharpe's Gold

Sharpe is sent on a mission to exchange rifles for deserters with a strange band of Spanish guerillas. He also has to chaperone two women looking for their missing husband.

Release Date1995-04-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count27

The Woman in Black

When a friendless old widow dies in the seaside town of Crythin, a young solicitor is sent by his firm to settle the estate. The lawyer finds the townspeople reluctant to talk about or go near the woman's dreary home and no one will explain or even acknowledge the menacing woman in black he keeps seeing.

Release Date1989-12-24

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count134

Quatermass and the Pit

A team of scientists search for the origin and purpose of a mysterious capsule found on a building site.

Release Date1958-12-22

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count19

The Road

In the late 18th century a small English village is haunted by ghostly apparitions. Sir Timothy Hassall, accompanied by his friend Gideon Cole, investigate.

Release Date1963-09-29

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

The Entertainer

Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.

Release Date1960-07-25

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count50

Quatermass and the Pit

A mysterious artifact unearthed below a London Underground station proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.

Release Date1967-11-09

DepartmentWriting

JobOriginal Story

Vote Count255

Quatermass 2

In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.

Release Date1957-05-24

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count133

Wuthering Heights

Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation.

Release Date1953-12-06

DepartmentWriting

JobAdaptation

H.M.S. Defiant

Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.

Release Date1962-04-15

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count48

Quatermass II

The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind.

Release Date1955-10-22

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count15

Kinvig

Kinvig is a sci-fi comedy television series made for British television in 1981. Ineffectual dreamer Des Kinvig (Tony Haygarth) runs a rundown little electrical repair shop in the small town of Bingleton where he lives with his mumsy, scatterbrained wife Netta (Patsy Rowlands) and oversized pet dog Cuddly. One day his shop is visited by the beautiful, sharp-tongued Miss Griffin (Prunella Gee) who seems at first just another dissatisfied customer. However, after encountering a flying saucer while walking the dog one night, Kinvig discovers she is actually a scantily-clad alien from the planet Mercury who desperately needs the help of the scruffy, bearded Des' "exceptional brain" to stop an invasion of the evil ant-like Xux who are replacing people with robot duplicates. (information obtained from Wikipedia)

Release Date1981-09-04

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count7

Vote Count2

Quatermass

In the near future, a now-elderly Bernard Quatermass investigates the disappearance of his granddaughter and a mysterious cult.

Release Date1979-10-24

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count4

Vote Count16

Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl

Anna is a Jewish girl in Germany. When the Nazis come to power in the 1930s, her family has to flee the country without being able to bring any of their belongings. Even young Anna's pink toy rabbit has been confiscated along with the family's other possessions. Initially the family lives in Switzerland, but even here they come to feel the antisemitism. And when money becomes scarce, and Anna's father can't find work as a journalist and Jew, they move on to France, where they are no long submitted to racial discrimination, but struggle financially. Eventually the entire family manages to go to England.

Release Date1978-12-25

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Look Back in Anger

A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.

Release Date1959-09-15

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count74

The Quatermass Xperiment

The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is first lost from radar, then roars back to Earth and crashes in a farmer's field, and is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.

Release Date1955-08-26

DepartmentWriting

JobTeleplay

Vote Count207

The Quatermass Experiment

Bernard Quatermass heads the futuristic Experimental Rocket Group whose greatest voyage is coming to an end, but after a dramatic crash landing Victor Carroon begins to metamorphose into a strange, deadly alien, setting off a race against time to save humanity.

Release Date2005-04-02

DepartmentCrew

JobCreator

Vote Count15

Beasts: What Big Eyes

An RSPCA officer is horrified when he discovers a pet shop owner has been conducting experiments on a wolf, searching for proof of lycanthropy. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Release Date1976-11-13

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Unnatural Causes

Series of seven psychological dramas concerning death by unnatural causes.

Release Date1986-11-08

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count7

Vote Count2

The Abominable Snowman

A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.

Release Date1957-08-26

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count106

Beasts

Beasts is a series of six television plays by Manx writer Nigel Kneale, unconnected but for a bestial horror theme, made by ATV for ITV in the United Kingdom and broadcast in 1976.

Release Date1976-10-16

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count5

Beasts: During Barty's Party

A suburban couple are held under siege by a pack of frighteningly intelligent rats.

Release Date1976-10-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

The Quatermass Experiment

The story of the first manned flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.

Release Date1953-07-18

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count13

Wuthering Heights

Foundling Heathcliff is raised by the wealthy Earnshaws in Yorkshire but in later life launches a vendetta against the family.

Release Date1962-05-10

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count1

The Witches

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

Release Date1966-11-21

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count59

The Quatermass Conclusion

Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early nineteen-seventies and the hippie youth movement of the late nineteen-sixties, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult, the “Planet People”, and gathering at ancient sites, believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet.

Release Date1979-10-24

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count9

Gentry

Gerald and Susannah, an affluent young couple, inspect a shabby town house for sale. Gerald has plans to renovate it and sell it on for a big profit. But their expedition quickly turns into a nightmare when three criminals arrive, searching for the money they hid in the building years ago.

Release Date1987-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count1

Beasts: Baby

A young couple move to the countryside and discover a strange mummified animal in the wall of their cottage. The wife increasingly feels that she and her unborn child are in danger. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Release Date1976-11-06

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

The Stone Tape

A research team from an electronics company move into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyse the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a "stone tape"), but to exorcise it too - with terrifying results...

Release Date1972-12-25

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count38

Stanley and the Women

The life of Stanley Duke, a fortysomething advertising executive, is thrown into turmoil when his son is diagnosed a schizophrenic. Making matters worse, Stanley's quiet home is suddenly besieged by a plethora of women, among them his past and current wives.

Release Date1991-11-28

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count4

Vote Count1

Kinvig (TV pilot)

Lazy repairman Des Kinvig's life changes when he imagines meeting a glamorous alien from Mercury, who looks a lot like his latest customer Miss Griffin.

Release Date1981-09-04

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Beasts: Buddyboy

When a nightclub owner buys a derelict dolphinarium, he and a young woman seem to be haunted by the ghost of Buddy Boy, the star attraction. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale's "Beasts" horror anthology miniseries.

Release Date1976-10-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count1

Bedtime Stories

Modern-day interpretation of fairy tales, with a contemporary, darker twist.

Release Date1974-03-03

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

The Year of the Sex Olympics

Influenced by concerns about overpopulation, the counterculture of the 1960s and the societal effects of television, the play depicts a world of the future where a small elite control the media, keeping the lower classes docile by serving them an endless diet of lowest common denominator programmes and pornography. The play concentrates on an idea the programme controllers have for a new programme which will follow the trials and tribulations of a group of people left to fend for themselves on a remote island. In this respect, the play is often cited as having anticipated the craze for reality television.

Release Date1968-07-29

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count3

The Road

The road through the wood is said to be haunted; but are the ghosts from the past or the future?

Release Date1964-06-17

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Late Night Story

Late night bedtime stories. Tom Baker reads a series of macabre stories about childhood (season 1), and John Mills reads war stories (season 2).

Release Date1978-12-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count1

Beasts: Special Offer

A misfit teenage checkout operator has an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager. At the same shop's cuddly cartoon mascot seems to have come alive and is causing havoc. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Release Date1976-10-16

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Beasts: The Dummy

A washed-up actor has a nervous breakdown and believes that he really is the movie monster that he has been hired to play. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Release Date1976-11-20

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count1

Bam! Pow! Zap!

A young man bitterly regrets his part in an attack on a bank cashier.

Release Date1969-03-05

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

The Quatermass Experiment

"The Quatermass Experiment" was a 1967 Australian teleplay based on a novel by Nigel Kneale - "The Quatermass Experiment".

Release Date1967-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobNovel