Doomwatch

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

Season 1 began transmission on BBC1 in February 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 could break down plastic, and which had seemingly escaped from the laboratory in which it had been developed.

Other leading characters included Dr Spencer Quist (Andrew Paul), a veteran of the Manhattan Project; John Ridge (Simon Oates), the 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. 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. Sadly, this episode no longer exists but it was later 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 going, including the departure of Ridge from the department, even if not from the actual series. Davis and Pedler themselves parted company with the programme at the end of the Season 2.

The series finally came to an end in August 1972 after a shorter than usual season, which became even shorter when the decision was taken not to screen the final episode, Sex and Violence. For many years it was assumed that this was due to scenes of a genuine execution which had been included in the programme, although in recent years the possibility has been raised that it was actually due to the similarity between a number of characters and their real life counterparts.

But between the transmission of Seasons 2 and 3, audiences had the chance to go and see a movie version of Doomwatch, although it only featured relatively brief appearances by the regular cast, with most of the action being given to new character Dr Dell Shaw (Ian Bannen), who had only recently joined Doomwatch. Needless to say, when Season 3 arrived on television Dr Shaw was nowhere to be seen.

To date, the most recent outing for Doomwatch was 1999's Winter Angel, a one-off TV movie for Channel 5 which starred Trevor Eve as Neil Tannahil, an astrophysicist who is called in by the now retired Spencer Quist (Philip Stone) and ends up battling against a man-made black hole. Sadly, it was only to be watched by 1.62m viewers — a respectable figure for Channel 5 at the time, although not quite high enough for any more editions to be made.

One final item concerning the programme need mentioning at this point and that is the second episode of BBC Four's 2006 documentary series The Cult Of.., which was entirely devoted to Doomwatch. Should the series ever get released on DVD, this would be an ideal overview of the series, and the equivalent episodes for The Tripods and Survivors have already been released in this manner.