Andy Murray

RT @CPXMCR: What delights do we have in store for you this week at the cinema? Well I’m glad you asked! ARROW VIDEO CLUB: WITHNAIL AND I B…

For anyone watching (or unwrapping) The Stone Tape today, here’s a cool festive link. It was commissioned by BBC drama chief Christopher Morahan, whose son Andrew later became a leading director of music videos - including Wham’s Last Christmas. https://t.co/Z4F9G3oV4M

What's that? You'd like to know more - *much* more - about Nigel Kneale's life and career? Well, seeing as you asked... https://t.co/hz1sox4hvp #kneale1984

Kneale's adaptation script, lightly revised, was remade by the BBC in November 1965, as part of the Theatre 625 drama strand. The remake starred David Buck as Winston, Jane Merrow as Julia and Joseph O'Conor as O'Brien. #kneale1984 https://t.co/2MHjIKr0S2

Kneale's Quatermass serials were nominally set a few years beyond the present, but only in the 1979 entry was this strongly evident on screen. Along with his later TV plays The Year of the Sex Olympics and Wine of India, this was his only work set in the far future. #kneale1984 https://t.co/xLdYgFVGbl

Later Goons episodes would go on to lampoon Kneale's TV play The Creature (March 1955's 'Yehti') and Quatermass and the Pit (February 1959's 'The Scarlet Capsule'). They can be heard here: https://t.co/Tdb8IyphJT https://t.co/36pE6olabz #kneale1984

Kneale admired the rado humour of Spike Milligan, and was tickled by a January 1954 episode of The Goon Show entitled '1985' – a freewheeling riff on the Orwell adaptation in which 'BBC' stands for 'Big Brother Corporation'. Listen to it here: https://t.co/C4d1SSp32Q #kneale1984 https://t.co/Mqo7VO7BUn

Kneale's script certainly made changes to Orwell's novel, but they were generally subtle and cosmetic. The one main addition was this scene, introducing the 'Pornorite' machine. It gives Peter Cushing a rare brief break and puts O'Brien and Julia in the same shot. #kneale1984

Over the last months of 1954, while this was in pre-production, Hammer Films were shooting their big screen adaptation of The Quatermass Experiment. Composer John Hotchkis had been scheduled to score both, but ultimately he dropped out of the film job due to illness. #kneale1984 https://t.co/SOH5D2ttcc

The production had been scheduled for Spring 1954, but it was delayed until December when Cartier and Kneale elected to provide a new script from scratch. (In the interim, Kneale took the opportunity to marry his girlfriend, future children's author Judith Kerr.) #kneale1984 https://t.co/rB8AdOB1rQ

“It was wonderful, obliviously wonderful,” Kneale said of Orwell's novel, ”but just to get in on live was a horror. I wrote a script which was very complicated, even for me.” He also declared: “It wasn't just a challenge, it was a dare.” #kneale1984

With a proven track record, Kneale and Cartier were brought in to work on the project, but they were well aware of the difficulties posed by Orwell's novel. “We read the book and we were appalled by the sheer complexity of it,” Kneale said. #kneale1984

The BBC had been considering an adaptation of Orwell's book for some time, initially for radio. A script for a TV version had been penned by broadcaster and angling expert Hugh Falkus, in collaboration with Orwell's widow Sonia Brownell, but it was not well regarded. #kneale1984 https://t.co/aMXyJjc1NG

During 1953, two further radio versions were broadcast - one in the US, one in Canada.. The earliest TV version was American, part of the CBS strand Westinghouse Studio One in September 1953, featuring Lorne Greene as O'Brien. #kneale1984 https://t.co/sJsmgIFYSY

Though it was only published five years earlier, there had already been several other adaptations of Orwell's novel. The first, a one-hour radio version starring David Niven as Winston Smith, was broadcast by NBC less than three months after the book was published. #kneale1984 https://t.co/McY9DgWaZV