Nigel Kneale

Writer

April 18, 1922 (84 years)

† October 29, 2006

Lancashire, England, UK

Biography

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 Orw…

Filmography

7.2

Theatre 625

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

5.2

The Wednesday Play

An anthology series of television plays which aired on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured.

8.0

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.

7.1

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.

7.3

NET Playhouse

NET Playhouse is an American dramatic television anthology series produced by National Educational Television. NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark, New Jersey to form WNET and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service. American television anthology series of wide range of genres, from history and drama, to fantasy, and science fiction. Fiction novels, stories, stage plays, fairytales, and historic events are dramatized in each episode.

5.2

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital, clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.

6.3

Unnatural Causes

An anthology of seven psychological dramas, each with a different cast and crew, exploring deaths in unusual circumstances.

7.0

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.

6.8

Quatermass

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

N/A

Bedtime Stories

An anthology of six plays, contemporary twists on well-loved tales with dark endings.

7.0

Quatermass and the Pit

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

6.7

The Quatermass Experiment

Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, the story of the first crewed flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group.

6.5

The Quatermass Xperiment

The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is lost from radar before roaring back to Earth and crashing in a farmer's field. The rocket 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.

6.6

Quatermass and the Pit

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

6.3

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.

6.5

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.

6.3

Quatermass II

Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group is sought 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.

6.7

Sharpe's Gold

Spain, 1813. The dashing and heroic Major Richard Sharpe pits his wits against El Casco, a terrifying partisan leader who has a chilling way of dealing with his enemies. Sharpe's mission, to trade guns for deserters, is imperilled by the beautiful and desirable Ellie, who follows him into the hills where there is rumoured to be hidden Aztec gold.

6.5

Stanley and the Women

Stanley Duke's life is thrown into chaos when his son is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and his home becomes a battleground for his past and present wives and other women.

3.0

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.