NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR

1954

Remember Nigel Kneale and Rudolph Cartier? They were the ones responsible for The Quatermass Experiment a year before, and so they teamed up again to bring forth this version of George Orwell's seminal post-war novel.

The novel itself was quite recent when this was filmed, and the 1950s saw a no less than three productions adapting the work. This one, an American adaptation for CBS' Westinghouse Studio One done a year before and another American film adaptation in 1956.

Peter Cushing (now, do I really need to introduce him?) plays Winston Smith, the Party member who sees behind the huge Party propaganda machine and eventually enters an illegal love affair with fellow Party member Julia (played by Yvonne Mitchell). It also features André Morell as O'Brien (Winston's friendly torturer) and Donald Pleasence as Smith's friend Syme. Incidentally, Morell would go on to play the lead  in the third Quatermass serial Quatermass and the Pit (which we will examine later on).

The fact that this is live television is most remarkable, and Rudolph Cartier was already a BBC wonderboy for his ability to present a live, televised play to the masses (or is that Party Members?). Even more remarkable is that they did it twice. Once on December 12, 1954 and another time on December 16. Both were live, so they literally did it again with the same sets, costumes, cast and so on. Only the second performance exists in the BBC archives.

Of course, it all looks so "stagey" today, but that's mainly because it was, for all intents and purposes, a filmed play. This sort of BBC way of doing things will loom large in years to come. For my parts, the starkness (and somewhat futuristic) aspects of it fits very well with Orwell's initial vision. The pristine yet functional aspects of the Ministry of Truth (where Winston Smith works) is contrasted with the run-down almost post-apocalyptic feel of London. The teleplay overtly states that the revolutions were brought down by widespread nuclear war in the aftermath of WWII (a detail hinted at but not specifically stated in the novel).

Back in the day, this would have hit right at home with the very real run-down aspects of post-war Britain, who won the war but lost just about everything else. Even more so when Orwell wrote it. One of the major themes of the novel is the culture of deprivation brought on by Party ruler-ship. In Oceania, everything is either on shortage or entirely absent. One of the avowed goals of the Party is to keep everyone in abject poverty. The culture of abundance manifested in post-war America is not only completely absent here, but the Party makes sure that the very notion of abundance has been abolished. There is a definite collusion with rationing post-war Britain, and the rationing of Oceania. The Party is able to exploit the anger and resentment of the people into war-frenzy (the very war which is responsible for the rationing in the first place).

The whole thing seemed to have sent Britain into some kind of a turmoil. According to Cushing's  memoirs, this was the first time someone was seen to be tortured on TV, no doubt bringing the general public unpleasant memories of their Boys being similarly treated in Japanese and German prisoners' camps. Even the government took notice, as there were motions proposed in Parliament to cull down the more sensationalistic aspects of television productions. In fact, Parliament actually voted if they would allow a second performance (the vote was very narrowly won in favour, fortunate since the first performance was not filmed. Therefore we should thank the UK government for our sheer ability to watch this nearly sixty years later).

This was Peter Cushing's first major part. Later in the decade his career would take off with him playing two very different kinds of medical practitioners.