Object Z – BFI

Director: Daphne Shadwell
Screenplay: Chris McMaster
Starring: Trevor Bannister, Celia Bannerman, Ralph Nossek, Margaret Neale, Denys Peek
Country: UK
Running Time: 150 min
Year: 1965
BBFC Certificate: PG

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of ITV, the BFI are releasing several rarities. This 1965 production from Rediffusion, made for a children’s/family teatime slot is another kidult science fiction story (see also the varius proto-Dr Who Pathfinders serials, City Beneath the Sea, etc), about a mysterious object heading towards Earth. As Jon Dear on the commentary says, ‘it’s so obscure that it doesn’t have a wikipedia page’, though I was aware of it from my much cherished copy of The TV Times Science Fiction Guide. It feels remarkably un-kiddy, as it was written initially for an adult slot, and feels scarcely different from adult drama, with references to suicide and alcoholism. There are no kid characters to act as a surrogate figure for the young audience, apart from perhaps very arguably, young secretary Diana (Celia Bannerman).

Mixing soap opera-ish intrigue involving the entirely non-Scottish crew of a Scottish observatory and intrepid science TV host Peter Barry (Trevor Bannister) the series is remarkably ambitious for a low-budget kids TV drama, in its story of a mysterious object from space heading directly towards Earth. Writer Chris McMaster (better remembered for various Southern TV kidvid serials like Freewheelers) adds things like vox-pops (characters standing in front of a cardboard shopfront) in an attempt to add Knealeian verisimilitude, and mucho stock footage is used. Characters include the British Prime Minister (Julian Somers) and the US president (Robert O’Neil), but romantic leads and astronomers Robert (Denys Peek) and June (Margaret Neale) are utterly bland. Bannister (some years before his household namedom from The Dustbinmen and later Are You Being Served?) is solid as the everyman lead. He feels somewhat indebted to Fullalove, the journalist character from the Quatermass serials. The story goes from Scotland to London to Woomera, Australia to various other parts of the world, but while it is watchable enough by sheer ambition, there is something about it that is lacking. As the story gets more ambitious, it gets a bit more hokey. We get Knealesque voxpops of characters standing in front cardboard shopfronts, and then a trip to a studio-bound Arabia full of brownfaced day players.

However, for fans of telefantasy and archive TV, the set is a recommended purchase. With each episode having a commentary by a different TV expert/historian, There is also a silent extract from Sierra Nine (1963), a similar ITV kids tv series of the era, and info on the now lost sequel series, Object Z Returns.

In a funny irony, while Peter Barry works for the fictional UKTV (or U.K T/V as the logo reads), the televisions on which they broadcast still have the Rediffusion logo, so what kind of world is the ITV system in this world?

Object Z is released today on BFI Blu-ray and DVD (Dual Format Edition).

– Newly remastered in 2K and presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
– Newly recorded audio commentaries on all six episodes: Episode 1 by Jon Dear, Episode 2 by Dick Fiddy, Episode 3 by William Fowler and Vic Pratt, Episode 4 by Elinor Groom, Episode 5 by Kevin Lyons, and Episode 6 by Celia Bannerman and Toby Hadoke
– In Search of Sierra Nine (1963/2025, 7 mins): edited highlights from the sole remaining episode of the Rediffusion science fiction drama Sierra Nine accompany this investigation of a mostly missing television series
– Object Z Episode 1 shooting script
– Image gallery: rarities and curiosities relating to Object Z and its missing sequel series, Object Z Returns
– Illustrated booklet featuring new essays by Jon Dear, Dick Fiddy, Ellie Groom and William Fowler