Survivors

Survivors is the first post doomsday drama on British television, echoing the pessimistic world view of 70s science fiction feature films such as The Andromeda Strain, The Omega Man or Planet of the Apes. Of course Survivors obviously also owes a lot to the grandmaster of British Science Fiction, John Wyndham with some dialogues almost verbatim taken from the day of the Triffids. But that does not have an impact on the quality of the programme. Like in Romero's Crazies the bureaucracy just fails terribly and the world becomes overrun by a deadly virus. Helpless attempts at stopping it are made but it all ends with a whimper. So a group of survivors from all different walks of life meet and group together. The disaster brings out the best and the worst in people: the hamprered housewife turns into a leader, the leader into a fascist and a rich woman into the bitch from hell. So a lot of the drama comes from the dynamics between the people and all the dilemmas you face in this situation. For viewers of todaya it takes a while getting used to the much slower pace of narration of the 70s. Long scenes, no hand camera and sparingly used music. That makes it look dated but once you accept it, it really makes very good viewing because the pace matches the helplesness of the people. Theonly drawback for me is that as with a lot of 70s and especially 80s British TV the outdoor scenes and the studio scenes were shot on different material so that as a viewer you experience really harsh differences in term of the picture.

Aside from the occasional inexplicably stupid decision, flares, dubious supporting cast, flares, horrendous interior decoration and flares this is very good BBC SF. The story, if slow, is certainly plausible and is much better than the atrocity of the remake.

This series was first shown on peak-time on Sundays on B.B.C. 1 (the prime channel) and regularly attracted audiences in millions including a precocious ten year old (me!) and his siblings. The reason was simple: it was the best adult oriented S.F. drama series the B.B.C. had ever made. They have never made anything better since. And it was very powerful, very realistic, completely believable, terrifyingly accurate and very scary on a psychological "what if?" level. Characters behaved in the way that people behave in real crises (such as civil wars) when the veneer of civilisation falls away: some try to grab power, some become natural leaders, some want to be led, others give up in despair and kill themselves. The series didn't flinch from showing all that or sugar coat the pill - and was much the better for it. The B.B.C. had the pick of the best T.V. and stage character actors around to cast it, plots never plumbed the depths of cliche, stories and themes were rarely if ever neatly resolved. It made a huge impact on the British national consciousness: episodes were being talked about in offices, factories and school playgrounds for days afterwards. If you consider that it was broadcast before anyone had ever heard of A.I.D.S., H.I.V., B.S.E., C.J.D. or G.M.O.s then I think it fair to say it was way ahead of it's time. And, sadly, like a lot of the finest T.V. produce of the B.B.C. and independent T.V. in Britain of the 1970s and 1980s - nowhere is it available on video.

A plague wipes out 99-point-something percent of the human race and the survivors have to start again from scratch. The quality of the episodes varies but for me it was never less than good and I'd really put the best ones up there with 'I, Claudius' and the original 'Upstairs Downstairs' at the very peak of classic British TV drama - most notably an episode from the first series revolving around capital punishment and one from the third that's like a cross between a western, a horror movie, The 39 Steps and a Breughel winterscape, with philosophical interludes.

It does have flaws. Some interesting characters are written out too soon, and series stars left without their characters being written out, leading to that unsatisfactory situation I remember from other 70s shows where there are rumours of sightings of them and hints that they may return eventually.

Personally I liked that there was a mix of different types of stories, from adventure to character clash to ideas-based to ones based around technical ingenuity and the resolution of simple problems of coping without infrastructure, even that in the second series there were episodes or portions thereof that were almost idyllic where the major conflict was competing visions of the future. Most of the core characters were middle-class, old-school British, optimists, can-do types, planners, builders, and their belief that they could pull things together again, determination to make the best of things, even excitement at the chance for a fresh start helped make things bearable. But there's plenty of tension, menace, challenge, it's downright harrowing at times, and the deprivations the survivors undergo are a salutary lesson in not taking for granted all the things you tend to. I remember the relish with which I ate an egg after watching an episode where they're an incredible luxury.

If you like (surely the wrong word) John Wyndham's apocalypses or are fascinated by Robinson Crusoe daydreams of 'What would I do if...?' this is especially for you. Avoid the remake like the plague.

Saw it about 10 years ago (2011), and was impressed. Seems very appropriate in the age of COVID-19.This series was made in BBC's "golden era" of TV production. All the best Dr. Who episodes were simultaneously filling the airwaves. Anyway, if you're in COVID-19 lockdown, stream this series. Be warned .... it can be graphic and disturbing.