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When Nigel Kneale was hired as one of the BBC’s first two television staff writers in 1951, he had barely any familiarity with the medium. Having grown up on the Isle of Man, which did not receive television transmissions until that year – fifteen years after regular broadcasts had begun on the British mainland – the technology was as alien to him as artificial intelligence is to many of us today. But, as it transpired, this made him the ideal candidate for the role.
Across his 55-year career, Kneale repeatedly probed the very industry in which he worked,from The Quatermass Experiment (1953), in which crowds gather at a site of apocalyptic threat because ‘a million people saw it on their television sets’, to the original script forHalloween III (1982), in which an occultist advertising firm undertakes a mass sacrifice ofchildren via television advertising, and beyond. In doing so, he both reflected on television’s past – Quatermass and the Pit (1958-9) presents a scathing critique of Britain’s colonial history and ongoing racist ideologies, which influenced foundational BBC policies – and offered warnings on its future trajectory – The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968) predicts both the rise of reality television and its human costs, realised in the 40 recorded suicides associated with participation in the genre.
This talk offers an introduction to Kneale, examining his role as one of the most influential figures in the history of horror and the Gothic on television in British history, and his ongoing relevance today.
