Survivors (BBC)

[DRW50]

Recently I've started watching the original version of the Terry Nation drama, Survivors, which ran for three years in the mid to late 70s. This was remade a few years ago but I haven't seen that yet, as I heard it got mixed reviews and I wasn't sure if I wanted to see a show about a plague. I couldn't resist seeing the original version though, because Terry Nation is so interesting as a writer -- he really had the hang of writing for cult shows, and he also knows how to mix mundane and horrifying in a way which few can do. I have a weak spot for 70s British dramas, because they seem to get that mix of understated and devastating, and I think the cheaper production values just make you focus even more on the characters.

The first episode focuses on Abby Grant, a lady of leisure who lives in the country and has a son in boarding school and a successful husband who commutes from London, and Jenny Richards, a young woman in the heart of London and experiences the plague first-hand. It takes longer to get to Abby, and there's a very effective sense of creeping horror and "this won't happen to me." The first episode also has a very clever twist, as

The characters then make their way through the country, trying to build a new life, and encountering other people who either capitalize from or were scarred by the plague. Sometimes this can seem a little repetitive but some of the episodes really pack a punch. The one which got me the most of those I've seen

Anyway, here's a link to the first episode:

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