Nigel Kneale

Writing

Nigel Kneale

Born — Died

1922-04-18 — 2006-10-29

Place of birth

Lancashire, England, UK

Known for

Writing

Credits

44 titles

Thomas Nigel Kneale (18 April 1922 – 29 October 2006) was a Manx screenwriter who wrote professionally for more than 50 years, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. Predominantly a writer of thrillers that used science-fiction and horror elements, he was best known for the creation of the character Professor Bernard Quatermass. Kneale wrote original scripts and successfully adapted works by writers such as George Orwell, John Osborne, H. G. Wells and Susan Hill. Kneale was most active in television, joining BBC Television in 1951; his final script was transmitted on ITV in 1997. He wrote well-received television …

Known for

Halloween III: Season of the Witch poster
5.3

After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

1982

H.M.S. Defiant poster
6.6

Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.

H.M.S. Defiant

1962

Quatermass and the Pit poster
6.7

A mysterious artifact unearthed below a London Underground station proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.

Quatermass and the Pit

1967

Quatermass 2 poster
6.4

In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.

Quatermass 2

1957

Quatermass II poster
6.3

Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group is sought to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind.

Quatermass II

1955

Look Back in Anger poster
6.7

A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.

Look Back in Anger

1959

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Halloween III: Season of the Witch poster
5.3

After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

1982

H.M.S. Defiant poster
6.6

Defiant's crew is part of a fleet-wide movement to present a petition of grievances to the Admiralty. Violence must be no part of it. The continual sadism of Defiant's first officer makes this difficult, and when the captain is disabled, the chance for violence increases.

H.M.S. Defiant

1962

Quatermass and the Pit poster
6.7

A mysterious artifact unearthed below a London Underground station proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.

Quatermass and the Pit

1967

Quatermass 2 poster
6.4

In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.

Quatermass 2

1957

Look Back in Anger poster
6.7

A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.

Look Back in Anger

1959

The Abominable Snowman poster
6.2

A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.

The Abominable Snowman

1957

First Men in the Moon poster
6.3

The world is delighted when a spacecraft containing a crew comprised of the world's astronauts lands on the moon, but are shocked when the astronauts discover an old British flag and a document declaring that the moon is taken for Queen Victoria, proving that the astronauts were not the first men on the moon.

First Men in the Moon

1964

Ladies' Night poster
NR

A tradition-bound gentlemen's club is thrown into chaos when women are allowed in during "ladies' night." One member resents the intrusion of women so much, he resorts to murder.

Ladies' Night

1986

The Woman in Black poster
6.9

A lawyer travels to a small seaside town to settle the estate of a recently deceased woman, but soon becomes ensnared in something much more sinister.

The Woman in Black

1989

Beasts: Buddyboy poster
3.0

When a nightclub owner buys a derelict dolphinarium, he and a young woman seem to be haunted by the ghost of Buddy Boy, the star attraction. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale's "Beasts" horror anthology miniseries.

Beasts: Buddyboy

1976

The Year of the Sex Olympics poster
5.2

Influenced by concerns about overpopulation, the counterculture of the 1960s and the societal effects of television, the play depicts a world of the future where a small elite control the media, keeping the lower classes docile by serving them an endless diet of lowest common denominator programmes and pornography. The play concentrates on an idea the programme controllers have for a new programme which will follow the trials and tribulations of a group of people left to fend for themselves on a remote island. In this respect, the play is often cited as having anticipated the craze for reality television.

The Year of the Sex Olympics

1968

The Moment of Truth poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Moment of Truth

1955

Number Three poster
9.0

A group of nuclear scientists face a moral dilemma when they discover that, as well as making electricity, their government also wants to make nuclear bombs with their products.

Number Three

1953

The Chopper poster
NR

The vengeful spirit of a dead motorcyclist is reluctant to leave his wrecked machine and manifests itself to a woman journalist as motorbike noise.

The Chopper

1971

Beasts: The Dummy poster
4.2

A washed-up actor has a nervous breakdown and believes that he really is the movie monster that he has been hired to play. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Beasts: The Dummy

1976

The Creature poster
10.0

A scientist searches for the Yeti in a Himalayan fastness, and is soon at odds with an adventurer who wants to find the Creature for less exalted reasons.

The Creature

1955

The Quatermass Conclusion poster
4.2

Influenced by the social and geopolitical situation of the early nineteen-seventies and the hippie youth movement of the late nineteen-sixties, Quatermass is set in a near future in which large numbers of young people are joining a cult, the “Planet People”, and gathering at ancient sites, believing they will be transported to a better life on another planet.

The Quatermass Conclusion

1979

Beasts: During Barty's Party poster
9.0

A suburban couple are held under siege by a pack of frighteningly intelligent rats.

Beasts: During Barty's Party

1976

No artwork available
10.0

A young man bitterly regrets his part in an attack on a bank cashier.

Bam! Pow! Zap!

1969

Beasts: Special Offer poster
8.0

A misfit teenage checkout operator has an unrequited crush on her supermarket manager. At the same shop's cuddly cartoon mascot seems to have come alive and is causing havoc. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Beasts: Special Offer

1976

The Entertainer poster
6.2

Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.

The Entertainer

1960

The Witches poster
6.0

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

The Witches

1966

Sharpe's Gold poster
6.5

Spain, 1813. The dashing and heroic Major Richard Sharpe pits his wits against El Casco, a terrifying partisan leader who has a chilling way of dealing with his enemies. Sharpe's mission, to trade guns for deserters, is imperilled by the beautiful and desirable Ellie, who follows him into the hills where there is rumoured to be hidden Aztec gold.

Sharpe's Gold

1995

Mrs. Wickens in the Fall poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Mrs. Wickens in the Fall

1957

No artwork available
NR

Anna is a Jewish girl in Germany. When the Nazis come to power in the 1930s, her family has to flee the country without being able to bring any of their belongings. Even young Anna's pink toy rabbit has been confiscated along with the family's other possessions. Initially the family lives in Switzerland, but even here they come to feel the antisemitism. And when money becomes scarce, and Anna's father can't find work as a journalist and Jew, they move on to France, where they are no long submitted to racial discrimination, but struggle financially. Eventually the entire family manages to go to England.

Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl

1978

Nineteen Eighty-Four poster
7.3

A man who works for 'The Party' (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as 'Big Brother') begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

1954

The World of George Orwell: 1984 poster
7.0

Early adaption of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as part of the Theatre 625 series.

The World of George Orwell: 1984

1965

The Road poster
NR

The road through the wood is said to be haunted; but are the ghosts from the past or the future?

The Road

1964

Beasts: What Big Eyes poster
7.5

An RSPCA officer is horrified when he discovers a pet shop owner has been conducting experiments on a wolf, searching for proof of lycanthropy. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Beasts: What Big Eyes

1976

Gentry poster
7.0

Gerald and Susannah, an affluent young couple, inspect a shabby town house for sale. Gerald has plans to renovate it and sell it on for a big profit. But their expedition quickly turns into a nightmare when three criminals arrive, searching for the money they hid in the building years ago.

Gentry

1987

The Crunch poster
NR

A megalomaniac dictator, in charge of a former colony, installs a nuclear bomb in its London Embassy. He threatens to set it off, unless a huge ransom is paid. The question for the government is whether he will set it off anyway?

The Crunch

1964

The Stone Tape poster
6.1

A research team from an electronics company move into an old Victorian house to start work on finding a new recording medium. When team member Jill Greeley witnesses a ghost, team director Peter Brock decides not only to analyse the apparition, which he believes is a psychic impression trapped in a stone wall (dubbed a "stone tape"), but to exorcise it too - with terrifying results...

The Stone Tape

1972

The Quatermass Experiment poster
5.6

Bernard Quatermass heads the futuristic Experimental Rocket Group whose greatest voyage is coming to an end, but after a dramatic crash landing Victor Carroon begins to metamorphose into a strange, deadly alien, setting off a race against time to save humanity.

The Quatermass Experiment

2005

No artwork available
7.0

In the late 18th century a small English village is haunted by ghostly apparitions. Sir Timothy Hassall, accompanied by his friend Gideon Cole, investigate.

The Road

1963

Kinvig (TV pilot) poster
NR

Lazy repairman Des Kinvig's life changes when he imagines meeting a glamorous alien from Mercury, who looks a lot like his latest customer Miss Griffin.

Kinvig (TV pilot)

1981

Murrain poster
7.5

When a mystery illness infects the pigs of a village farmer and a local boy is also taken ill, the villagers try to convince a veterinarian that it is caused by a curse from a woman they believe to be a witch.

Murrain

1975

No artwork available
10.0

In the year 2050, advances in medicine have resulted in a need for population control. People reaching the age of 100 must submit to a government controlled euthanasia program. The story centers around a 100-year old couple who must now make plans for their funeral.

Wine of India

1970

Beasts: Baby poster
10.0

A young couple move to the countryside and discover a strange mummified animal in the wall of their cottage. The wife increasingly feels that she and her unborn child are in danger. Created as an episode of Nigel Kneale’s “Beasts” horror anthology miniseries.

Beasts: Baby

1976

Wuthering Heights poster
9.5

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

Wuthering Heights

1962