Survivors (BBC)

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

Abby gets sick and her husband (who I mostly remember for being the male lead on To the Manor Born), has to take care of her. You can't help assuming she will die and her husband will be the main character. We see her get sicker and sicker. Then she eventually wakes up, and wanders the house. She sees her husband's dead body on the sofa.

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

was when Abby, Jenny, and the guy with them heard from a local boy and girl about three men who were called "Angels" and were known for doing good deeds. They were very religious men, and when Abby went to meet them, they welcomed her and one of them almost convinced her to believe in God. But they soon fell ill, and Abby realized that since she had had the plague, she'd passed in onto them. There is a sweet scene where one of the men was laughing and joking with the little girl and then it turns very depressing, as after she went to sleep he realizes he's sick. A few days later the little girl goes in to see him and realizes that he, like her entire family, is dead. Abby stays with the Angel who is still barely alive, and who had talked to her the most about religion. She reads from the Bible until he passes on.

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

Edited October 20, 201015 yr by CarlD2