The Day of the Triffids is about to dawn again at the BBC.
The apocalyptic tale of giant, mobile, man-eating plants munching on a human population blinded by one night’s celestial show will find its way to the screen again with an impressive cast including Dougray Scott, Eddie Izzard, Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox, according to U.K. paper The Guardian.
Originally a novel written by John Wyndham, the bleak story packs a timely environmental twist as the deadly plants of its title are created as an alternative fuel source. In the book, humanity goes green, goes blind and then goes away. BBC Radio produced multiple versions of that story in the ’50s and ’60s.
A 1962 Triffids film (trailer above) took a more traditional, monster movie approach to the story — pitting Howard Keel against a blind, bite-size world full of killer alien weeds. British sci-fi fans will note an early appearance by Carol Ann Ford, Doctor Who’s first assistant and The Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan.
A 1981 BBC Triffids miniseries stuck closer to the novel’s gloomy story and symbolic themes. As the trailer embedded at right shows, the production didn’t have deep pockets but it did justice to the original book. The ’80s mini-series was produced by sci-fi legend David Maloney — producer of the original Blake’s 7 and a director of several classic Doctor Who episodes.
The new, two-episode production will be overseen by Julie Gardner, the BBC executive who supervised Russell T. Davies’ 2005 reboot of Doctor Who.
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