BBC Studios, out now

A remastered and augmented release of Nigel Kneale’s third Quatermass tale.

The simplest version of this review is – buy this now. Even if you’ve got the DVD collection, this is a quantum leap forwards in terms of the presentation of the story, and that’s before you get onto the extras.

Kneale’s third story may be better known for the Andrew Keir movie from 1967 – which  compresses the six episodes very well and, of course, has the benefit of a larger budget and colour – but watching it now, sixty years later, you can see why it’s renowned to have emptied pubs on Monday nights. From the first shots (now in high definition) of the building site to the final impassioned plea by Quatermass not to let the Martians have a second dead world, it’s gripping, with Kneale doling out the supernatural elements and the shocks very carefully, taking his audience with him.

These are relatable people, from the workers who first find the skulls, to the squaddies brewing up a cuppa any chance they get, to Quatermass and his fellow scientist Matthew Roney – even Colonel Breen, the sort of authoritarian military figure that many of the audience would recall from the war. The first “cliffhanger” depends on the audience piecing together what Quatermass is just realising, rather than a crash in of the camera to his face and a dumb recap of the precise situation for those who weren’t concentrating. And Quatermass himself isn’t immune to the effects – maybe not as affected as Christine Finn’s Barbara Judd or Richard Shaw’s Sladden – and future Felix Leiter Cec Linder accordingly has a major part to play.

In addition to the newly restored picture, the soundtrack is beautifully clear, thanks to Mark Ayres, and Toby Hadoke provides a very diverse and intriguing commentary track, combining archive interviews with new pieces as well as some arcane pieces of trivia. There’s also a six minute photo gallery, with many stills I’d not seen before, accompanied by Trevor Duncan’s music, and an archive documentary on Making Demons.

Verdict: Try to ration yourself to one episode a night as you (re)watch this – and you’ll find yourself as eager to know what happens next as that audience 60 years ago… 10/10

Paul Simpson