• The World in Danger

• Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater

Created by Gerry Davis and Dr Kit Pedler, Doomwatch set out to explore the world of science and the possible abuses of it that could occur.

The first season began transmission on BBC1 in 1970 with the very first episode, The Plastic Eaters, throwing both the viewers and new employee Toby Wren (Robert Powell) in at the deep end with an investigation into a virus which can break down plastic, and which has seemingly escaped from the laboratory in which it has been developed.

Other leading characters included Dr Spencer Quist (Andrew Paul) — a veteran of the Manhattan project, John Ridge (Simon Oates) — resident action man, and Colin Bradley (Joby Blanshard) — the department's computer expert and information man.

With stories dealing with everything from concerns over genetic engineering through to the dumping of waste at sea and even the threat posed by super-intelligent rats, the series immediately captured the public imagination and it was therefore rather unsurprising that there was a vocal public response to the demise of the popular Wren in the final episode of the season, Survival Code. Unfortunately, this episode no longer exists but it was novelised for the educational publisher Longman as part of Doomwatch: The World in Danger, which was written by Pedler and Davis in 1975, two years after the end of the series.

The following two seasons saw various cast members coming and then going, including the departure of Ridge from the department, even if not from the actual series. Davis and Pedler parted company with the programme at the end of the Season Two.

A movie version featuring only relatively brief apperances by the regular cast was released during 1972 with most of the action being given to Ian Bannen as Dr Dell Shaw who had only recently joined Doomwatch. The series also returned in 1999 for Doomwatch: Winter Angel which starred Trevor Eve as Neil Tannahil, an astrophysicist who is called in by the retired Spencer Quist and ends up battling against a man-made black hole. Sadly it was only watched by 1.62m viewers which was a reasonable figure for Channel 5, although not high enough for any more editions to be made.

As with many British programmes of a similar age, many of the original episodes are no longer held in the BBC's archives, having been wiped in the 1970s after their commercial life was deemed to be at an end. Most of Season Two, however, was returned from Canada in the 1980s. Four of the existing episodes have been released on video, with two of those (The Plastic Eaters / Tomorrow the Rat) also having been re-issued on DVD. Winter Angel has seemingly slipped into the very black hole it featured, not having been seen since in any form since its original transmision.