Remake of "Survivors" coming to BBC

[Royal Rother]

It appears this news was announced in November last year but I have only just come across it. If this is already common knowledge then my apologies - but iit certainly gave me a little tingle of excitement this morning...

"On 22 November 2007 the BBC News site confirmed that a new series of Survivors will soon enter production, following the successful conclusion of negotiations with the estate of Terry Nation for the rights.

The new series will be made in-house by the BBC Drama Department, and will be executive produced by Sue Hogg. The series will be written by Adrian Hodges whose screen credits include Ruby In The Smoke, Shadow In The North, Charles II and Primeval.

The BBC's 'remake' of Survivors will reset the global catastrophe in the present day, and: "follow a group of individuals as they fight for day-to-day survival."

Head of series and serials at BBC Drama Production Kate Harwood, said: "The opportunity to remake Survivors for a modern generation proved irresistible... I am delighted that one of British television's great cult series will return with original stories packed with adventure and spirit set against the backdrop of our own recognisable world."

Hodges says: "Survivors was one of the bravest and most exciting programmes of its time and I'm thrilled to be involved with re-imagining it for a new audience... Its themes remain as relevant as ever and while we will be staying faithful to many aspects of the original, we will also be bringing the story into the 21st Century and making it accessible to contemporary audiences."

Survivors will be broadcast on BBC1, although no transmission dates for the new series have yet been confirmed."

[Hazel]

Oooh, hubby will be pleased, he loved the original shows.

[My Friend Jack]

I have been re-watching the originals recently - they are still surprisingly good, standing up to the test of time rather better than many other dramas from that period. Hopefully the new series will have the budget to realise the ideas that the original could only dream of.

[David]

SFX gives a rundown of Who-heavy casting:

SFX - Survivors (http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=survivors_cast_announced)

[Royal Rother]

Starts this weekend.

They've kept the original character names which slightly surprised me as I assumed it would be a complete re-write with new plot lines and new characters.

Very much looking forward to this. Hope they do it justice.

[My Friend Jack]

I have been meaning to mention for several weeks that, although they have kept (some of) the original cast names, I think the characters themselves will be significantly different! Max Beasley has been cast as Tom Price who, in the original, was played so brilliantly by Talfryn Thomas... and was killed before the end of series 1.

[Royal Rother]

Well I enjoyed the 1st episode last night.

Could have been a bit / lot bleaker though. I don't think it captured the feeling of utter loneliness and devastation you'd feel if you woke up and found you were one of only a handful of survivors on the planet. They all rather shrugged their shoulders a bit too quickly to my eyes.

But then I suppose the BBC doesn't have the same air-time available the makers of the 1st series had in which to develop that atmosphere so they need to get to the action a bit quicker.

Oh and where's Jenny gone?

Edit: As a sad little footnote I have just discovered that the lovely Celia Gregory who played Ruth in the original Survivors passed away a couple of months back. I'm sure any young men who watched the show back in the 70s would agree with me that she was gorgeous.
http://www.survivorstvseries.com/ruth21.jpg

[David]

Could have been a bit / lot bleaker though. I don't think it captured the feeling of utter loneliness and devastation you'd feel if you woke up and found you were one of only a handful of survivors on the planet. They all rather shrugged their shoulders a bit too quickly to my eyes.
Yes, my thoughts too. It's appropriate to have a character like Abby doing the old stiff upper lip bit at the end, but it wasn't to shake anyone out of despair, it was because none of them was very bothered!

But then I suppose the BBC doesn't have the same air-time available the makers of the 1st series had in which to develop that atmosphere so they need to get to the action a bit quicker.
Well, I have to say I found it a bit slow, actually. Clock-watching is always a bad sign and on a few occasions I found myself seeing how long was left.

I found the whole disease a bit curious. Initially people get the 'flu' and then die, then suddenly one morning everyone simply dies, mostly just where they were sitting, or in corridors etc. (not, of course, that we see corpses everywhere, just in places where they can control the shot, as in the hospital). That didn't really add up.

Oh and where's Jenny gone?
Well initially I thought they'd made quite a canny move by including some reasonably well-known actors and then killing them off, since Abby appeared to bite the dust, then Jenny looked doomed too (ol' Freema's getting a lot of work lately!). Once Abby returned to the land of the living I suppose it made it inevitable that Jenny will turn up somewhere, as will presumably the government minister.

It was okay but I wouldn't rave. I thought the script was quite weak overall and the characters a bit on the hackneyed side. But it was perfectly watchable and I'll stick with it.

[MarkC]

I haven't seen the original but enjoyed this for what it was. By no means a classic and full of holes but diverting enough so I'll carry on watching.


I found the whole disease a bit curious.


That was just wrong, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is understood and accepted in any kind of drama like this but making almost everyone die in 12 hours is a pushing it too far.

Another thing, why do people seem to die while parking their cars near places like hospitals so they are left all higgledy-piggledy but the same thing doesn't on the motorway or major roads?

[Royal Rother]

Indeed!!

As for the evil scientist bit, I suppose it adds a dramatic dimension, but to me the whole notion that this is a "natural" disaster for the Human Race just waiting to happen makes it all seem a lot more bleak. I like bleak.

I liked the idea of the character who was just going to take to the hills, do some fell walking and live off his wits. A whole episode devoted to his adventures / plight would be interesting. Setting traps, catching food, learning new skills, foraging, coping with weather / loneliness, getting sick, going half mad through lack of human contact, eventually killing himself (or coping brilliantly, meeting a wonderful full-breasted passionate woman 20 years his junior, doing their bit to keep the human race going) - all that sort of stuff would be good fun.

I like bleak but I also like improbably happy endings!

[David]

I like bleak.
Oh surely not?!

;)

Setting traps, catching food, learning new skills, foraging, coping with weather / loneliness,
One of the weak script moments that had me screwing my mouth up slightly was the explanation to Abby about how humanity's lost touch with survival skills. It felt very clunky to me as in the midst of all the crisis a sage tutor spends time going through the blinkin' obvious. "We all just push buttons now but don't know how to grow a carrot."

Well duh! I think much of the drive of the programme will be in demonstrating this; it doesn't really need spelling out.

[halloween_john]

They've kept the original character names which slightly surprised me as I assumed it would be a complete re-write with new plot lines and new characters.



The original series was a bit before my time, but I read an article on the new series in the Radio Times.

Someone goes to great lengths to stress that this is NOT a remake...um, so why use the original names?

[David]

I thought the latest episode picked up considerably. I liked the shallow Daddy's girl who coped by fostering dreams still based on money-driven society and we're starting to develop at least a little more depth to the main characters. The gun-toting Range Rover crew was a bit cliched but overall the pace was better.

[Royal Rother]

Tom Price is developing quite well. A nice mixture of simmering nastiness with a dose of something approaching sensitivity and an understanding of the need for solidarity in their little community.

I'd like to see him develop as a strong member of their group but I think we all know that's not going to happen.

[David]

Tom Price is developing quite well. A nice mixture of simmering nastiness with a dose of something approaching sensitivity and an understanding of the need for solidarity in their little community.

I'd like to see him develop as a strong member of their group but I think we all know that's not going to happen.
Mmmm. I half expected him to disappear during the night only for shotgun oik and his pals to be found with broken necks the next day.

I would guess, though, that the inevitable fragmentation that's due for the group won't start with him.

[Royal Rother]

Just watched Episode 3 last night.

Ms Willis was a pretty good shot wasn't she? And with all those people standing behind her!

Tom Price handled the farmhouse family situation rather sensitively didn't he? :confused:

[David]

Ms Willis was a pretty good shot wasn't she? And with all those people standing behind her!
:D

Impressive, wasn't it?! Still, I liked the surprise in her actions and the questions that raised. It could easily have turned into a cliched treatment of the representative of due elected process in the face of society's breakdown.

Tom Price handled the farmhouse family situation rather sensitively didn't he? :confused:
Mmmmm. I think they've been over-keen to pull him back from the murderer we saw at the start. He needs to make a more convincing journey than this.

Still, I'm continuing to enjoy it.

[Jeremy DEagle]

I enjoyed the first one but after the about 10 minutes of the second I gave up.

It was so pathetically cliched that I had to turn it off. The stupid Land Rover gang who just drove round drinking Carlsberg were what did it for me.

That and the fact they were all playing football in the garden after 99 percent of the human population were wiped out.