The Quatermass Experiment: The Making of TV’s First Sci-Fi Classic comes from writer Toby Hadoke. 

Written by Nigel Kneale, and broadcast in 1953, The Quatermass Experiment was a genuinely ground-breaking television series.

The landmark production, seen as a predecessor to shows like Doctor Who and Sapphire and Steel, was the first science fiction production made especially for a British adult television audience.

Now, writer and television historian Toby Hadoke has produced a book on the show’s production.

Witness the birth of TV science-fiction!

The six-part serial The Quatermass Experiment — broadcast live from Alexandra Palace in 1953 — was a landmark television event. Unleashed in the wake of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the conquest of Everest, Nigel Kneale’s story of a doomed space flight captivated the burgeoning television audience with high-quality, suspenseful science fiction. The Quatermass Experiment was not cult television; this was mainstream drama which tapped into contemporary concerns.

For the first time, the full inside story of the development and making of this classic programme can be told — pieced together from production paperwork, Nigel Kneale’s private archive and never-before-published interviews with cast and crew, illustrated with previously unseen photographs from the Nigel Kneale Estate.

The book comes with a forward from Peter Harness (Constellation, Doctor Who), and an afterword by writer Jon Dear.

A book series

Four Quatermass serials were made for television, as well as film adaptations and more. Hadoke’s original plan was to write one volume covering them all, but, as he explains (via Instagram)…

It was originally going to be one book, but I’ve amassed (Quatamassed?) so much that each serial is getting its own volume (and there’ll be editions on the films and everything else too).

I started writing to the cast and crew of Quatermass in 1989. So many of them – all now dead alas – wrote back with memories and materials and I have collated so much over the years.

The book is also available as a Limited Edition casebound hardback with cover artwork by Robert Hack.

Launch Events

There will also be two launch events for the book:

Sunday 11th May 2025: 4.00pm (doors open at 3.30pm) 53Two, Arch 19, Watson Street, Manchester.

Tickets £5 from wegottickets.com/event/654142

Monday 19th May 2025: 6.30pm BFI Reuben Library, BFI Southbank, London.

Tickets £6 from whatson.bfi.org.uk

Ten Acre Films publish The Quatermass Experiment: The Making of TV’s First Sci-Fi Classic on 12th May 2025. It’s available to pre order now.