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After two previous attempts to release Survivors on video hadn't managed to get past season one, the series might have been regarded as being unable to support a commercial release, but fortunately DD Video thought it worth taking a chance on. They were right to do so. Although it tends to be overshadowed by Terry Nation's most famous creations, the Daleks and Blakes 7, Survivors is a cracking series that still holds up today. In fact, as real-life events have shown, it's perhaps more relevant today than it was nearly thirty years ago. The excellent opening titles set up the series' premise: a Chinese scientist drops a flask, a liquid pours out and then we're in various airports around the world, ending up in London. The series' lead character is housewife Abby Grant (Carolyn Seymour), although initially it appears that she's destined to be one of the plague victims and that her husband David (Peter Bowles) will be the one who survives. However, after contracting "the Death" (as the plague becomes known), Abby recovers to find there's no power, mouldy food on the table and David's body. Burning down her house, she sets out to find her son Peter, a quest that becomes the focus of the early episodes. The two other main characters, secretary Jenny Richards (Lucy Fleming) and engineer Greg Preston (Ian McCulloch) as well as recurring charater Tom Price (Talfryn Thomas) are introduced over the course of the first two episodes, during which we learn that not all the survivors are prepared to settle down and begin anew, as they encounter a self-styled government organisation run by former union leader Arthur Wormley (George Baker). However, while there continue to be shoot ups with rival groups (providing guest roles for Peter Jeffrey in Garland's War and Glyn Owen in The Future Hour), the group eventually move into a country grange, which becomes their home for the second half of the season, and further characters including the slow-witted Barney are introduced. The episodes have all been remastered and look miles better than the UK Gold off-air recordings that I previously had. That alone would have justified buying this set, but DD Video have also put together some extras when they could have simply bunged out a vanilla release. There are two commentary tracks, both moderated by Andy Priestner (whose website dedicated to the series can be found here) - Carolyn Seymour and director Pennant Roberts on The Fourth Horseman and Ian McCulloch and Lucy Fleming on perennial fan favourite Law and Order. I'm not in favour of commentaries being included just for the sake of it, but the two episodes selected are well chosen and the use of a moderator was a sensible decision as some of the participants' memories aren't that great. Also included are individual interviews with all four commentators and Tanya Ronder (who played Lizzie Willoughby), which run to an impressive 40-odd minutes. Two small photo galleries (of BBC publicity stills and Lucy Fleming's own collection of behind-the-scenes shots), 75 seconds of 16mm location footage from A Beginning and a 36-page booklet round out the set. For my money, Survivors is one of the all-time classics of British science-fiction/fantasy television and one that should be on the shelf of everyone who's even remotely interested in these sorts of series. back to the top |
SURVIVORS: |