It is the fourth and, to date, final television serial to feature the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass, this time played by John Mills.

The series begins with Professor Quatermass arriving in London to look for his granddaughter, Hettie Carlson, and witnessing the destruction of two spacecraft and the disappearance of a group of Planet People at a stone circle by an unknown force.

Quatermass was originally conceived as a BBC production, but after the corporation lost faith in the project because of spiralling costs, work was halted.

In the meantime Kneale had been coaxed back to the BBC, writing plays such as The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968), Wine of India (1970) and The Stone Tape (1972).

[6][7] Preliminary filming on Quatermass began in June 1973 at Ealing Studios where special effects designer Jack Wilkie and his assistant, Ian Scoones shot model footage for part one of the serial, of a space station with astronauts working on its hull.

[8] At this point the BBC got cold feet about the project; it had become concerned about the cost of mounting the production and had been refused permission to film at Stonehenge, one of the locations at which Kneale had envisaged the Planet People would gather to be reaped by the alien force.

[13] Much of the setting for the story was influenced by contemporary political events such as strikes, power cuts, the oil crisis and developments in the space race, especially the planned Apollo-Soyuz missions and Skylab.

[19] Joe Kapp was played by Simon MacCorkindale, who had previously appeared in "Baby", one of the episodes of Nigel Kneale's Beasts series.

[4] Following Quatermass, MacCorkindale appeared in The Riddle of the Sands (1979), and subsequently moved to the United States where, after playing a few guest roles on television, he secured a part in Jaws 3 (1983) and the lead in the short-lived series Manimal (1983).

[21] Quatermass also featured many familiar faces from British television and film in supporting roles, including Margaret Tyzack, Bruce Purchase, James Ottaway, Brenda Fricker, David Yip, Kevin Stoney, Gretchen Franklin, Brian Croucher and Chris Quinten, as well as the singer (and later television presenter) Toyah Willcox.

[11] Following Quatermass, he directed The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) and the Disney Channel TV series Return to Treasure Island (1985).

[4] She had clashed with Nigel Kneale in 1965 on the BBC arts programme Late Night Line-Up, when he attacked her for making Doctor Who too frightening for children.

[25] Despite this she held Kneale in high esteem, describing him as "a fantastic writer... hugely imaginative... considering the impact his work has had, I think he's undervalued".

[10] Following Quatermass she produced such shows as Danger UXB (1979), Minder (1979–85; 1988–94) and Widows (1983) for Euston before in 1985 forming her own production company, Cinema Verity, which oversaw programmes including G.B.H.

[4] Childs later remarked that Verity Lambert "didn't want to come in and just do the same old routine – the kick bollock and scramble action adventure stuff that made the early name of the company".

[28] He continues to be one of British television's top producers, responsible for such shows as Chancer (1991), Inspector Morse (1987–2000), Sharpe (1993–2006), Kavanagh QC (1995–2001) and Lewis (2006–2015).

[27] Script editor Linda Agran has since acted as producer of such series as Widows, Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–2013) and The Vanishing Man (1996).

"[16] Associate producer Norton Knatchbull noted that the serial "was the first 'art department' picture Euston has ever been involved in, in the sense that major sets had to be built on location".

[30] This led Euston executive Johnny Goodman to joke: "Our biggest problem was finding someone who wanted the two giant telescope dishes after we finished filming.

[15] One aspect where the budget was less than generous was with the model sequences made by Clearwater Films; Johnny Goodman remarked that the cost was less than James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli "would spend on cigars in a week".

[32] ITV intended Quatermass to air in September 1979 as the flagship of its autumn season; advertising posters announced, "Earth's dark ancestral forces awaken to a summons from beyond the stars.

[15] Ratings, averaging 11 million viewers over the four-week run, were below expectations; the serial failed to crack the top 20 programmes in the weeks it was broadcast.

[16] Although Kneale was pleased with the high production values, he was dissatisfied with the casting, believing that John Mills "didn't have the authority for Quatermass".

[30] Kneale disliked the depiction of the Planet People, as his inspiration had been angry punks rather than hippies (as evidenced by his portrayal of Kickalong as a gun-toting lunatic who commits multiple motiveless murders).

[38] Executive producer Verity Lambert's opinion is that it "didn't have the staying power of the originals, but then that's almost inevitable when you try to bring something back in a slightly different form".

[37] From the outset, Euston intended to create two versions of the story; a four-part serial for broadcast on UK television and a 100-minute film, The Quatermass Conclusion, for distribution abroad.

[40] A two disc region 1 DVD of Quatermass was released by A&E Home Entertainment in 2005, and contained both the television and film versions as well as a History Channel documentary about Stonehenge.