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The five-part Quatermass Memoirs were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1996. The series blends archive material, adventure
and interviews to reflect cleverly on the creation of Kneale's Quatermass TV series. In the Memoirs, Kneale describes how
Cold War paranoia led him to devise Professor Quatermass in the 1950's.
The scientist, first seen on BBC TV in 1953 in The Quatermass Experiment, was played again in this radio series by Andrew
Keir, returning to the role 28 years after Hammer Films' version of Quatermass and the Pit.
In a Highland cottage Professor Bernard Quatermass, retired rocket pioneer and one-time celebrity, is trying to begin
his memoirs but not having much success. Unexpectedly a young woman appears on his doorstep wanting to interview him. At first
Mandy seems to be an unwelcome intruder but her questions enable him to unlock his memories and over the next couple of days
he tells her the extraordinary truth of his work in the fifties with the British Rocket Group.
This was the framework for
a five part drama documentary commissioned by Radio 3 as part of its Spring Fifties Season. As the Professor recalls his adventures
his creator, Nigel Kneale explained what inspired his remarkable stories. Various archive news items were used to illustrate
his narration as well as excerpts from the existing episodes. Beforehand this formula did not seem promising. Surely having
fictional and documentary material side by side would lead to both halves weakening the other? Surprisingly though the joins
were almost seamless. Kneale's soft Manx voice worked well on radio.
Since no mention was made of the Professor's grand-daughter
Hettie, it can be assumed that the Memoirs are set before her arrival and later running away. Before she leaves though
Mandy warns her host not to travel to London, giving an intriguing description of a decaying capitol that links directly with
the one seen in Quatermass. There is an interesting suggestion that even without the alien harvester of that story,
mankind's own Martian inheritance would have created a similar world.
Andrew Keir effortlessly resumed the role of the Professor, playing him with the same integrity, compassion and intelligence
he had had in the Hammer film. However added to this was a world weariness and a large degree of guilt about the deaths he
feels responsible for; not to mention the perils he had exposed the world to. It is these darker emotions and his gradual
acknowledging of them that gives the fiction thread its drama and stops it from becoming mere exposition. No major new information
is given about the adventures although we learn that the events of The Quatermass Experiment were covered up by the
government with a story that the mission had been fouled due to the astronauts' own incompetence. Also that after the conclusion
of Quatermass II his space capsule landed in the Outer Hebrides and that his own journey into space subtlely changed
his personality. Looking at Earth from space he truly recognised how precious it was. He also began to see humanity as greedy,
arrogant and destructive. After his return the dream of space exploration was tarnished, at least as long as it was entwined
with jingoistic ambition and politics. So he fell increasingly into the safer world of theoretical physics, a change in emphasis
which as Mandy points out, ultimately led to the British Rocket Group becoming impractical and being taken over by the Ministry
of Defence. What these recollections did add though was more depth to the events we had seen because they came from a personal
viewpoint.
Transmitted on BBC Radio 3 FM. 4 -
8 March 1996
Commentator Nigel Kneale
Professor Quatermass: Andrew Keir
Mandy: Emma Gregory
Moira: Zulema Dene
Researcher: Alan Dean
Producer: Paul Quinn
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