The terrifying scientific thriller that tapped into our darkest fears
Michael Hogan picks the TV classics that you can now rediscover
DOOMWATCH ( 1970-72)
It first aired on this day 50 years ago, but the cult thriller Doomwatch still has the power to chill. With storylines ripped from the headlines, it took cutting-edge science and imagined its harrowing worst-case scenarios. Goodnight, viewers. Don’t have nightmares. Actually, do.
Commissioned in an era of rapid tech advances and apocalyptic paranoia, Doomwatch had close ties to Doctor Who, then in its Jon Pertweestarring pomp. Dr Kit Pedler, the scientific adviser and Gerry Davis, its story editor, previously created the Cybermen, the Time Lord’s silvery foes, and now collaborated on their own BBC drama. In spirit and production values, Doomwatch recalls classic Who crossed with Tomorrow’s World.
The uncannily prescient series was set inside a fictitious government agency, the Department for the Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work, led by Dr Spencer
Quist (played by John Paul) – a Nobel Prize-winner haunted by guilt about working on the first atom bomb. Each week, Quist’s team investigated a new threat, from toxic waste to sonic terrorism, from mind control to mysterious plane crashes, from killer viruses to genetically mutated rats. There was even a plot about the perils of lead in petrol.
As an early environmental activist, Pedler’s demand for authenticity drove Doomwatch into scarily plausible areas – even if the special effects didn’t always convince and the flimsy sets wobbled. By tapping into viewers’ “it could really happen” fears and styling itself not as sci-fi but sci-fact, it earned itself ratings of 13.6 million.
Only 24 of the 38 episodes still exist. The rest were wiped – standard
BBC practice back then. Among those that survived the cull was a controversial instalment, Sex and Violence, in which the team tackled “moral pollution”. It was never aired due to its libellous send-ups of public figures including Lord Longford, Cliff Richard and Mary Whitehouse (memorably played by June “Dot Cotton” Brown).
Did you know? As heart-throb chemist Toby Wren, actor Robert Powell became the breakout star. When he left the show at the height of its popularity, the BBC received more letters about his character’s shock death than on any other subject since the Second World War.
On DVD from Simply Media for £12.99