By Andy Murray

Headpress, out now

The life of one of the most important figures in British TV genre history – much of it in his own words.

By a happenstance of fate, two key books on Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale are getting new editions this month – Neil Snowdon’s We are the Martians from PS Publishing (and yes, it really is coming this time), and this second edition of Andy Murray’s biography of Kneale. Murray’s book is based heavily around interviews that the author carried out with Kneale about three to four years before his death, and there are some eye-opening perspectives on his work.

Murray doesn’t just concentrate on the key pieces that we all know – Quatermass, The Year of the Sex Olympics, Beasts – but covers everything from short stories to unproduced TV and film scripts. There are times where you might wish he’d challenged Kneale a bit more about some of his assertions, but there’s input from others with whom he worked that presents a more rounded picture. Although there are elements of analysis contained within the text, this is more of a linear account of his career, with certain links drawn.

There is, however, one major problem with this second edition, and while I wholeheartedly recommend this to any fan of Kneale’s work, it has to be mentioned. Rather than update his original text with footnotes and a closing section, Murray has elected to update the main body of the text – but not completely. This means that those who died before the first edition have their comments ascribed in the past tense but the comments of Kneale and others who’ve died since are still given in present tense – so you get the very weird combination of Kneale “says” something about an issue next to a paragraph about something that happened in 2014. Some of the references to others interviewed retain their 2002/2003 setting, others are from a 2017 perspective – so Russell T Davies’ involvement in Doctor Who doesn’t get mentioned till the post script. It is disconcerting, and I hope that this will be fixed for a third edition.

But don’t let that element put you off – even if you know a great deal about Kneale and his work, you’re likely to find much new material here.

Verdict: A fascinating account of a key figure. 8/10

Paul Simpson