Hammer Films Announce The Quatermass Experiment Boxset

 

Hammer Films have announced what may just been the definitive boxset for their 1955 adaptation of Nigel Kneale's The Quatermass Experiment. The release will be the first ever on 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray for the film in the UK and does not hold back on extras and goodies.

The limited edition will contain fives discs (two UHD and three Blu-rays) and hold three iterations of the movie: The widescreen 1.66:1 UK Theatrical Version, the fullscreen 1.37:1 As-Filmed Version and the Widescreen 1.85:1 US Theatrical Version retitled The Creeping Unknown. The films will also have brand new 5.1 audio mixes for the UK Theatrical and fullscreen versions alongside the original mono film soundtrack.

The release will come packaged in a leather-feel slipcase with debossed titling and a rigid inner box featuring new artwork by Graham Humprheys. Also included in the limited edition is a double sided poster of the original one-sheets, eight cinema lobby cards, 180 page booklet with new and archive essays and reproductions of original publicity material. Also included is a 56-page book reprinting the comic book adaptation from the The House of Hammer magazine. 

As well as containing the existing episodes of  BBC TV series of the story the discs are bursting at the seems with extras. There are four audio commentaries including a 2003 track with director Val Guest and three new commentaries: Nigel Kneale experts Toby Hadoke and Andy Murray are teamed with Wayne Kinsey on one track, film historian Stephen R. Bissette handles duties on the next and Hammer expert Constantine Nasr and Dr Steve Haberman on the third. 

Documentaries are also well served. The Legend of Nigel Kneale: The Creeping Unknown sees Toby Hadoke investigate the man and his influence in part one of a brand new two part documentary. Unstoppable: Unleashing The Quatermass Xperiment is a detailed look at the making of the film with contributions from Jon Dear, Stephen Gallagher, Toby Hadoke, Wayne Kinsey, Andy Murray and Stephen Volk. Patient Zero is hosted by actor and writer James Swanton, who played Caroon in the live 70th anniversary production of the story, who looks at the life and career of Richard Wordsworth. 

Archive retrospective material includes The Kneale Tapes, a 2003 BBC production that looks at the career of Nigel Kneale, alongside Cartier and Kneale in Conversation (2005, BBC) and Making Demons - a 2005 BBC interview with special effects designers Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie. The extras continue with a 2003 interview with Val Guest from the original UK DVD release of the film and another Guest interview from 2000 courtesy of the Festival of Fantastic Films archive. Exhuming the Quatermass Xperiment  is a look at how the 4k restoration was made. 

Other extras include The Eric Winstone Bandshow, a Hammer musical short that played alongside the film at it's 1955 Uk premiere, and Monstrous! Stephen R. Bissette discusses make up artist Phil Leakey and the effects he deployed during the filming. 

There are also numerous trailers, photo galleries and other ephemeral materials to explore. 

This sumptuous release will be released on 9th June, 2025 and can be pre-ordered from 25th April, 2025 from Hammer
https://hammerfilms.com/products/the-quatermass-xperiment-limited-collectors-edition 

An Outside Broadcast at the End of the World: Free online talk about the work of Nigel Kneale

 On Saturday, 9th August, 2025 Bronte Schiltz will be exploring the work of Nigel Kneale in a free online talk entitled An Outside Broadcast at the End of the World. 

The event is part of Romancing the Gothic, an independent online education project run by Dr. Sam Hirst. Whilst free attendees will need to book a ticket. This can be done at
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-outside-broadcast-at-the-end-of-the-world-introduction-to-nigel-kneale-tickets

Nigel Kneale and Horror: Medium, Time, Culture and Genre edited by Derek Johnston

 

A new academic study of Kneale's work has been published by Liverpool University Press. The book is edited by Derek Johnston, lecturer in media at Queen’s University Belfast, and is the author of Haunted Seasons: Television Ghost Stories for Christmas and Horror for Halloween.

This collection focuses on Kneale’s horror writing, particularly in film and television. Taking a number of different academic perspectives, the chapters approach questions of medium, adaptation, genre, and style, emphasising the role that time plays in Kneale’s horror, and how he connected to wider cultural concerns. The work covered includes more famous productions, such as the Quatermass serials, The Woman in Black and Nineteen Eighty-Four, as well as some that have received less attention, including the social horror of Kneale’s film adaptations of Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer, ‘lost’ productions such as ‘The Chopper’ and Bam! Pow! Zap!, and unproduced work such as The Big, Big Giggle. Drawing on archival sources, including Kneale’s own archives, alongside the productions themselves, the collection portrays Kneale as a writer deeply concerned with society and social change, with the potential and responsibility of the media, and not as a horror writer, but a writer deeply concerned with the horrific.

At the moment the book is only available in a budget bursting hardback edition, but will hopefully come out in paperback at some point.

For more details and a look at the contents head over to https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781836243519

The Quatermass Experiment: The Making of TV's First Sci-Fi Classic by Toby Hadoke

You can now order Toby Hadoke's book on the making of The Quatermass Experiment TV series which will be published on 12th May, 2025.

For the first time, the full inside story of the development and making of this classic programme can be told — pieced together from production paperwork, Nigel Kneale’s private archive and never-before-published interviews with cast and crew, illustrated with previously unseen photographs from the Nigel Kneale Estate. With a foreword by Peter Harness and afterword by Jon Dear. 

Toby Hadoke has been researching Quatermass and the works of Nigel Kneale for over 30 years. He is also an award-winning writer, actor, comedian and broadcaster, regularly contributing to The Guardian and Radio 4 Extra.

Toby explained on Instagram "It was originally going to be one book, but I’ve amassed (Quatamassed?) so much that each serial is getting its own volume (and there’ll be editions on the films and everything else too).

I started writing to the cast and crew of Quatermass in 1989. So many of them – all now dead alas – wrote back with memories and materials and I have collated so much over the years."

Trade Paperback: 156mm x 244 format; 320 pages in black and white, plus 36-page photo insert.

The book can be pre-ordered from https://tenacrefilms.bigcartel.com/product/the-quatermass-experiment-the-making-of-tv-s-first-sci-fi-classic

The website also contains details and links to book launches and signings taking place in Manchester and London during May.