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Into the Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale
Fifty years ago, a series by scriptwriter Nigel Kneale aired on BBC TV. Titled "Quatermass," it was a vast success, and the big-screen adaptation that followed helped place Hammer Films on the international map.
"Quatermass" was but the tip of the iceberg. Kneale's work stands amongst the most original in the history of the medium. Blending elements of horror and science fiction with intelligent, powerful drama, it continues to influence generations of admirers, including John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon, Steven Spielberg, and many others.
This book is the first to examine the work of Kneale, a key figure in popular culture, yet a vastly underrated one. It assesses Kneale's pioneering nature, drawing on interviews with major collaborators and high-profile fans-as well as Kneale himself.
- GenresBiographyFilmNonfiction
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 30, 2021
If I was to draw up my list of the people, fictional and real, who make me feel proud to be British, my choices would be almost stereotypical – Shakespeare, Elgar, Sherlock Holmes etc. However there is one unsung hero who would make my list and perhaps that of few others, and that is Nigel Kneale.
Nigel Kneale is not a household name because he wrote scripts for television and film. Indeed as Into the Unknown makes clear, there are a tantalising number of lost opportunities – scripts that were written in full, and never performed, or dramas that were aired and since deleted by the economically prudent BBC.
Kneale’s most famous creation was Professor Quatermass, and the four stories that he wrote for TV serialisation have been cribbed by numerous other shows and films. There are the obvious ones such as Dr Who, a show that Kneale hated, and which drew extensively on the Quatermass stories. Andy Murray makes a convincing case for mainstream movies such as Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Not all Kneale’s works were a great success. Kneale was at his weakest when he had no sympathy for his subject matter, as in Kinvig or Halloween 3, which Kneale insisted on having his name removed from the scripting credits.
As Murray’s book makes clear, Kneale dabbled in a variety of genres, but he is at his most memorable when writing about the fantastical. While Kneale would dispute words like ‘sci-fi’ or ‘horror’, some of his works can easily be pigeon-holed into these categories.
This partly reflects Kneale’s heritage. While he was not born on the Isle of Man, both his parents harkened from there, and they returned there while Kneale was a child. This isolated outpost of the British Isles is self-governing, and had its own traditions. This even extended to its attitudes towards religion and the supernatural.
Kneale says that his upbringing did not involve Christianity, and that he had no time for it. What did interest him was the many supernatural tales involving his home. Kneale’s first published work was a set of short stories drawing on this folklore, and elements of the supernatural recur in many of his works.
However while Kneale was fascinated by the supernatural, he was still a sceptic, and this is reflected in his work. Quatermass and the Pit and The Stone Tape, two of his best works, begin with apparently supernatural phenomena that are later explained scientifically. Other dramas such as Murrain and Baby are ambiguous, leaving the audience to decide.
One of the sad omissions of Murray’s book is that he tells us little about Thomas Nigel Kneale himself. We gather that he married soon after arriving at the BBC, and lived in apparent happiness with his wife until his death. Kneale’s wife and children had thriving careers of their own, suggesting a nurturing environment.
We have little idea what Kneale was personally like however. Most of the book was written based on conversations with Kneale himself, who naturally presents his own view. Kneale was still alive at the time of the first edition, which may have hampered Murray. Also as a man who rarely made the news, there was little journalistic investigation into Kneale’s private life.
Beyond that, Murray extensively quotes from admirers of Kneale, many of whom never met him. We hear little from actual colleagues who worked with Kneale, and not too much negativity. One point does come across however. Kneale, the radical interpreter of other people’s source material, was precious about people altering his own, and he had a reputation for being difficult.
One reason for this difficulty is that Kneale’s world views were ‘small c’ conservative. He radically overhauled scriptwriting at the BBC, wrote works attacking sexism, referenced the race riots in Quatermass and the Pit, and had some wariness about the power of the state, but he was essentially resistant to many changes. Sometimes this is a weakness in his works.
The Quatermass stories all rest on a paranoid fear that the outsider will be a menace to humanity, no friendly strangers. Quatermass II deals with a secretive state that might be seen as subversive, but reads more like a grumpy man’s hatred of state interference and bureaucracy.
Also while, as Murray argues, Kneale’s works were loved by many people who considered themselves counter-culture, Kneale was certainly not part of this movement. A number of his works show young people taking themselves on the road to ruin, culminating in his 1970s Quatermass series. Kneale shows little understanding of why young people are drawn to dangerous cults or joining gangs, so he attributes it to external alien influence, and it becomes necessary for the old to save the young.
In Year of the Sex Olympics, Kneale tackles the permissive society, with a clear implication that taken to extremes this could lead to mainstream television showing pornography and snuff killings, a slippery slope fallacy.
Most of these works succeed by pure imagination, but a rare failure was Kinvig, Kneale’s attempt at a sitcom. After attending a sci-fi convention, Kneale detested the geeks that he saw there, and Kinvig is his attempt to satirise them. There is the germ of a good idea in here, but Kneale failed to understand that the art of good comedy is often the writer’s ability to identify with his characters.
The writer and audience should feel some sympathy with the comedy anti-hero, though not enough to feel too put out when his plans end in disaster. The only way to write an unsympathetic comic protagonist is to make him so detestable that the audience shares the author’s detestation. Somehow it is hard to feel too much hostility to a couple of out-of-touch sci-fi geeks.
For the creator of Quatermass and The Stone Tape, Kneale showed a surprising hostility to television or film that was excessively scary or violent. It was this which caused him to refuse to write for Dr Who, and to remove his name from the credits of Halloween III.
Andy Murray’s book is a decent enough biography of Kneale. As I say, it is hindered by offering us a limited personal view of the man. There are also a number of grammatical errors and stylistic infelicities. It is a shame that the photographs are all too small and grainy too. However given the low-key nature of Kneale’s fame, it is comforting to feel that one fan of his work managed to get this published.
Nigel Kneale is not a household name because he wrote scripts for television and film. Indeed as Into the Unknown makes clear, there are a tantalising number of lost opportunities – scripts that were written in full, and never performed, or dramas that were aired and since deleted by the economically prudent BBC.
Kneale’s most famous creation was Professor Quatermass, and the four stories that he wrote for TV serialisation have been cribbed by numerous other shows and films. There are the obvious ones such as Dr Who, a show that Kneale hated, and which drew extensively on the Quatermass stories. Andy Murray makes a convincing case for mainstream movies such as Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Not all Kneale’s works were a great success. Kneale was at his weakest when he had no sympathy for his subject matter, as in Kinvig or Halloween 3, which Kneale insisted on having his name removed from the scripting credits.
As Murray’s book makes clear, Kneale dabbled in a variety of genres, but he is at his most memorable when writing about the fantastical. While Kneale would dispute words like ‘sci-fi’ or ‘horror’, some of his works can easily be pigeon-holed into these categories.
This partly reflects Kneale’s heritage. While he was not born on the Isle of Man, both his parents harkened from there, and they returned there while Kneale was a child. This isolated outpost of the British Isles is self-governing, and had its own traditions. This even extended to its attitudes towards religion and the supernatural.
Kneale says that his upbringing did not involve Christianity, and that he had no time for it. What did interest him was the many supernatural tales involving his home. Kneale’s first published work was a set of short stories drawing on this folklore, and elements of the supernatural recur in many of his works.
However while Kneale was fascinated by the supernatural, he was still a sceptic, and this is reflected in his work. Quatermass and the Pit and The Stone Tape, two of his best works, begin with apparently supernatural phenomena that are later explained scientifically. Other dramas such as Murrain and Baby are ambiguous, leaving the audience to decide.
One of the sad omissions of Murray’s book is that he tells us little about Thomas Nigel Kneale himself. We gather that he married soon after arriving at the BBC, and lived in apparent happiness with his wife until his death. Kneale’s wife and children had thriving careers of their own, suggesting a nurturing environment.
We have little idea what Kneale was personally like however. Most of the book was written based on conversations with Kneale himself, who naturally presents his own view. Kneale was still alive at the time of the first edition, which may have hampered Murray. Also as a man who rarely made the news, there was little journalistic investigation into Kneale’s private life.
Beyond that, Murray extensively quotes from admirers of Kneale, many of whom never met him. We hear little from actual colleagues who worked with Kneale, and not too much negativity. One point does come across however. Kneale, the radical interpreter of other people’s source material, was precious about people altering his own, and he had a reputation for being difficult.
One reason for this difficulty is that Kneale’s world views were ‘small c’ conservative. He radically overhauled scriptwriting at the BBC, wrote works attacking sexism, referenced the race riots in Quatermass and the Pit, and had some wariness about the power of the state, but he was essentially resistant to many changes. Sometimes this is a weakness in his works.
The Quatermass stories all rest on a paranoid fear that the outsider will be a menace to humanity, no friendly strangers. Quatermass II deals with a secretive state that might be seen as subversive, but reads more like a grumpy man’s hatred of state interference and bureaucracy.
Also while, as Murray argues, Kneale’s works were loved by many people who considered themselves counter-culture, Kneale was certainly not part of this movement. A number of his works show young people taking themselves on the road to ruin, culminating in his 1970s Quatermass series. Kneale shows little understanding of why young people are drawn to dangerous cults or joining gangs, so he attributes it to external alien influence, and it becomes necessary for the old to save the young.
In Year of the Sex Olympics, Kneale tackles the permissive society, with a clear implication that taken to extremes this could lead to mainstream television showing pornography and snuff killings, a slippery slope fallacy.
Most of these works succeed by pure imagination, but a rare failure was Kinvig, Kneale’s attempt at a sitcom. After attending a sci-fi convention, Kneale detested the geeks that he saw there, and Kinvig is his attempt to satirise them. There is the germ of a good idea in here, but Kneale failed to understand that the art of good comedy is often the writer’s ability to identify with his characters.
The writer and audience should feel some sympathy with the comedy anti-hero, though not enough to feel too put out when his plans end in disaster. The only way to write an unsympathetic comic protagonist is to make him so detestable that the audience shares the author’s detestation. Somehow it is hard to feel too much hostility to a couple of out-of-touch sci-fi geeks.
For the creator of Quatermass and The Stone Tape, Kneale showed a surprising hostility to television or film that was excessively scary or violent. It was this which caused him to refuse to write for Dr Who, and to remove his name from the credits of Halloween III.
Andy Murray’s book is a decent enough biography of Kneale. As I say, it is hindered by offering us a limited personal view of the man. There are also a number of grammatical errors and stylistic infelicities. It is a shame that the photographs are all too small and grainy too. However given the low-key nature of Kneale’s fame, it is comforting to feel that one fan of his work managed to get this published.
June 8, 2025
A useful study, with plenty of UK context.
The sad part is how much the capitalist bureaucracy of the BBC and the film industry served as a roadblock, actively thwarting Kneale as part of it's everyday functioning.
Still, Kneale got half a dozen works made almost the way he wanted.
The sad part is how much the capitalist bureaucracy of the BBC and the film industry served as a roadblock, actively thwarting Kneale as part of it's everyday functioning.
Still, Kneale got half a dozen works made almost the way he wanted.
June 10, 2025
Nigel Kneale was undoubtedly a pioneer in British television drama. In fact, he brought life to a moribund BBC quicker than a rocket from outer space, after an enforced hiatus during WW2 and the years of austerity that followed.
After breaking new ground with 'The Quatermass Experiment' filmed live at Alexandra Palace for BBC TV, he went on to launch Hammer Films as the forefront producer of horror films in the UK with the huge box-office success of 'The Quatermass Xperiment' in 1955.
The author is extremely well-informed and certainly knows his sci-fi and TV drama. This is much more than a biography. It is a homage to a visionary writer who paved the way for 'Doctor Who' and 'The X-Files'.
This truly is a perfect book for anyone who appreciates the iconic moments of TV as it developed in the 1950s onwards.
After breaking new ground with 'The Quatermass Experiment' filmed live at Alexandra Palace for BBC TV, he went on to launch Hammer Films as the forefront producer of horror films in the UK with the huge box-office success of 'The Quatermass Xperiment' in 1955.
The author is extremely well-informed and certainly knows his sci-fi and TV drama. This is much more than a biography. It is a homage to a visionary writer who paved the way for 'Doctor Who' and 'The X-Files'.
This truly is a perfect book for anyone who appreciates the iconic moments of TV as it developed in the 1950s onwards.
September 23, 2017
The life and works of Nigel Kneale. A book written by an enthusiast who interviewed the subject over two years. Most of the book summarizes screenplays, radio plays and stories written by Kneale. An awful lot were never made as is the case in Hollywood and TV. Someone in the BBC needs to read this and grab a script while they can. The story of the many many incarnations of Professor Quatermass are chronicled here. I hadn't realised how complicated it all was!
I enjoyed the book which brings some background to the eras in which Kneale wrote. However there are some parts that are a bit too 'fan-ish' and some typos. I also thought it's a shame when spending time including photos not give actors full credits
BUT this must be THE book on Kneale and is really interesting. I now need to grab some DVDs and watch this stuff again!
I enjoyed the book which brings some background to the eras in which Kneale wrote. However there are some parts that are a bit too 'fan-ish' and some typos. I also thought it's a shame when spending time including photos not give actors full credits
BUT this must be THE book on Kneale and is really interesting. I now need to grab some DVDs and watch this stuff again!
July 10, 2025
Endlessly informative and fascinating book, concerning the visionary writer. Kneale will always be remembered for those wonderful Quatermass stories but the likes of The Stone Tape, The Road and The Year of The Sex Olympics are also vital periods of his career.
The author of this book must be congratulated for extensive research and for mixing facts, figures and anecdotal gems into a comprehensive and eminently readable account of Kneale’s life and times.
The sheer amount of curtailed projects, whether it be corporation politics, budgetary concerns or simply being in the right place at the wrong time adds to the wide canvas of an enormously influential figure.
The author of this book must be congratulated for extensive research and for mixing facts, figures and anecdotal gems into a comprehensive and eminently readable account of Kneale’s life and times.
The sheer amount of curtailed projects, whether it be corporation politics, budgetary concerns or simply being in the right place at the wrong time adds to the wide canvas of an enormously influential figure.
August 26, 2019
A must-read for all tv series scriptwriters. To understand that Nigel Kneale was the beginning of EVERYTHING.
[INDISPENSABILE per gli sceneggiatori tv italiani. Per capire cosa si faceva di straordinario ed eccezionale nei decenni passati in UK e quanto dobbiamo ancora recuperare]
[INDISPENSABILE per gli sceneggiatori tv italiani. Per capire cosa si faceva di straordinario ed eccezionale nei decenni passati in UK e quanto dobbiamo ancora recuperare]
October 25, 2022
Sim book but it's the best we'll ever get from a Kneale bio.
July 6, 2014
A fascinating and in-depth look at the life and career of the late, great Nigel Kneale, writer of the Quatermass serials and British TV classics such as The Stone Tape. Murray's biography follows not just those great successes but also projects ranging from his early short stories to lost BBC productions like The Creature or The Road and later works such as his adaptation of Susan Hill's The Woman In Black. The most fascinating material in the book though might very well be the things that might have been including unrealized film and TV projects, Kneale turning down both Doctor Who and James Bond (both of which he seemed to have had a disliking for) and his huge influence on the entire science fiction genre with his praises being sung by the likes of Mark Gatiss and Kim Newman. For anyone interested in British science fiction, I really recommend hunting it down if you can find it, afford it or both for that matter!
February 10, 2022
I thought this was simply extraordinary at the beginning - informative yet with a light prose touch - less so by the end. I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in Kneale and his fascinating work, life and influence (but wish the photos could have been bigger). Unfortunately by the final PostScript chapter, for me personally, it had become a slog to get through the sheer number of unneeded references to where Kneale's ideas have been used by others and the Channel 5-ish proliferation of people talking about his work rather than letting us see more of that work - for example via larger photos. With all respect to Mark Gatiss, there are far, far too many mentions of him in a book about Nigel Kneale. (I imagine Mark Gatiss himself might agree).
So, great on the early years and in the early chapters, not so the later ones. Still worth buying though.
So, great on the early years and in the early chapters, not so the later ones. Still worth buying though.
October 19, 2008
At last, a book worthy of the science fiction master, Nigel Kneale. Up till now all we've had are some interesting references (particularly to Quatermass and the Pit) in Griel Marcus's LIPSTICK TRACES: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE 20th CENTURY. This roots Kneale's work in his life and really rocks. I'm publishing a novel this week that is in essence a tribute to Quatermass and am desperate to track down the executors to Kneale's estate because I want to revive the whole Quatermass franchise for the 21st Century - and I'm serious.
October 18, 2012
A fantastic overview of the life and career of one of the UK's greatest screenwriters. Mr. Kneale's legacy would be guaranteed with just the creation of Quatermass, but add in fantastic pieces of television like The Stone Tape and The Year of the Sex Olympics, and you have an artist who transcended the medium. This book also provides a fantastic look at the early days of the British television industry.
December 2, 2011
Well worth the read, even if you don't recognise his name. Damned good stuff. Lordy, does it need an edit, proofing, and re-typesetting, though.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews