The Woman In Black And The Genius Of Nigel Kneale

Nigel Kneale like Dennis Potter and Ken Russell emerged from the talent factory of the 1950s BBC.Television was a new medium  and young creative talent was attracted to it and allowed to make programs which were highly innovative.Nigel Kneale initially became famous through his Quatermass science fiction serials and also his adaption for television of George Orwell's 1984 which created a major stir due to its violence which led to questions in Parliament.The early 1950s version with Peter Cushing as Winston Smith and Andre Morell as O'Brien is still probably the definitive one .I prefer it to the Michael Radford  version with John Hurt and Richard Burton which was actually released in the year 1984 itself.Inspired by Orwell and also Aldous Huxley Kneale went on later to produce his own dystopian visions in particular The Year Of The Sex Olympics, Wine Of India and the apocalyptic vision of a broken Britain in The Quatermass Conclusion.However the dystopian visions came second to his reputation for being a master of the spooky and weird television serial and play.In particular three stories involved a mixture of science fiction and the supernatural which included novel theories about ghosts.I thought of these stories when watching the 1989 adaption of The Woman In Black .The three stories were Quatermass and the Pit 1958,The Road 1963 and The Stone Tape 1972. It Is these stories I will deal with in my next posting