Wednesday 12 October 2016

514 The Day of the Triffids


First  viewed  : 10  September  1981

This  was  a  six-part  adaptation  of  John  Wyndham's  science  fiction  classic  and  was  partly  funded  by  Australia's  ABC  although  there  are  no  concessions  to  Oz  in  the  casting.

John  Duttine  ( again )  starred  as  Bill  Masen , a  temporarily  blinded  man  who  misses  a  spectacular  meteor  shower  which  has  left  everyone  who  did  watch  it  permanently  blind. In  the  chaos  a  group  of  genetically  engineered mobile  and  carnivorous  plants  , the  Triffids, have  got  loose  and  started  preying  on  the  incapacitated  humans. Bill  finds  some  other  sighted  survivors  including  Maurice  Colbourne  and  Stephen  Yardley  ( yet  again )  who  argue  about  how  to  rebuild  society  or  whether  it  is  better  simply  to  find  an  island  retreat.

The  show  was   moderately  absorbing  and  the  special  effects  were  quite  good. The  Triffids themselves   were  a  little  Dr  Who-ish   but  then  again  few  plants  look  inherently  terrifying   so looking  like  giant  sticks  of  rhubarb  was  as  good  an  idea  as  anything  else. It  also  suffered   a bit  from  having  a  pre-watershed  slot  ; a  reasonable   injection of  sex  and  violence  would  have  spiced  it  up  a  bit  without  compromising  the  story.

The  series  has  been  repeated  three  times  on  BBC  Four  over  the  past  decade  so  the  Beeb  are  still  proprietorial   over  it   i.e  you  can't  watch  it  on  You Tube  without  coughing  up.




3 comments:

  1. When it comes to Brit sci-fi, I've always been in the JG Ballard school. So this kind of "cosy apocalypse" (can't remember where I read that term) never quite appealed to me.

    That said, I once lived in a dingy bedsit in which weeds from the tree outside and begun to seep in through the ancient window frames, prompting my dad to amusingly claim I would suffer from a Triffid-style death.

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  2. The term is actually "cosy catastrophe" and was coined by Brian Aldiss with Wyndham specifically in mind ( although he exempted "The Chrysalids" from the criticism ).

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  3. Yes. It's a very English way of dealing with the end of the world... "cup of tea, anyone?"

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