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We Are the Martians: The Legacy of Nigel Kneale edited by Neil Snowdon

Hardcover – PS Publishing – Jul 2017 – 479 pages

Thomas Nigel Kneale may not be a household name, but those who know him revere him. And those who don’t know the name, will certainly have felt his influence.

In many ways the ‘father’ of television drama in the UK, he was also, in every way, a successor to H.G. Wells and M.R. James in his impact. The missing link in the genre chain that leads from Wells to J.G. Ballard.

Why is he so little known? Perhaps because he was a screenwriter in the days before TV thought to preserve its output, and because many of his most successful works dealt with Science Fiction and the Supernatural.

But he was a pioneer.

He pushed the medium in a new direction with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, forging a more vivid, more cinematic means of telling stories, with Producer/Director Rudolph Cartier. He demanded more from Television… in terms of style, and content. Filling his stories with ideas as well as emotion. Time after time, he broke new ground, tested the boundaries; provoked as he enthralled, made us think as he made us feel… THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS, QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, THE ROAD, THE STONE TAPE, BEASTS…

In the UK, there’s not a single TV drama dealing in ‘Speculative’ ideas that does not owe him a debt; directly, or by the ripples of influence that preceded them…

Now the authors, critics and screenwriters who have been moved and influenced by his work, come together to celebrate his life, his work, and his extraordinary legacy.