Survivors: "Revenge"

It's 2 July 1975, and time for another episode of Survivors.

While the community of survivors head out to make hay for livestock, Vic (Hugh Walters) finds himself increasingly despondent at his failure to contribute. His depression hits a peak with a failed suicide attempt - at which point the community is visited by Donnie (Robert Tayman) and Anne (Myra Frances), the woman who left a crippled Vic to die six months earlier.

Writer Jack Ronder returns to Survivors with a much stronger instalment than his last effort ("Starvation"), and a third and final instalment to Vic's loose trilogy of episodes. When we first met him in "Genesis" his legs had been crushed by a rolling tractor, and Anne's deceit led Greg (Ian McCullough) to unwittingly leave Vic to die. In "Spoil of War" Greg found Vic still alive in the quarry where he'd been left, and brought him back to live with the community. Now Vic finally gets to come face to face with the woman who abandoned him, and precisely at the point when his emotional state is at its most pressured and unstable. It is a strong recipe for character drama.

Survivors: "The Future Hour"

It's 25 June 1975 and time for another episode of Survivors.

Greg (Ian McCullough) and Paul (Chris Tranchell) come across a well-stocked trader named Huxley and his gang, who are trading goods and food for gold - in the hopes of getting rich once civilization is restored. At the same time Huxley's pregnant wife has escaped his clutches and seeks sanctuary at the commune. When Huxley comes to reclaim her, events spiral to a violent conflict between the two parties.

Creator Terry Nation returns to the series with this blandly superficial and generally quite tedious little potboiler. There is some potential in the basic storyline, but it is squandered by weak characterisation and dialogue and an incredibly convenient ending that doesn't just simplify this episode in isolation but also stops one of the more interesting ongoing story elements in its tracks. After the stunning quality of "Law and Order" just one episode earlier, this is a jarring step down in quality. It's a deep shame.

Survivors: "Law and Order"

It is 18 June 1975, and time for another episode of Survivors.

The commune finally seems to be functioning, although with so much farming to do and so little time before the rains it will take everyone's collective efforts to get the fields planted in time. To boost morale the survivors hold a party. The following morning one of them lies dead in her bed, and the horrifying realisation dawns that one of the group has murdered her. Finding the killer is one problem - what to do with them in a world without police or prisons is another.

Quite frankly if Survivors never had another episode the series' existence would be justified by "Law and Order". This is one of my favourite episodes of any British telefantasy series. It presents a starkly horrible situation without any easy solution or escape, and refuses to pull its punches from beginning to end. The script by Clive Exton (writing as M.K. Jeeves) is bold and provocative, and the series cast - there are no guest stars here - uniformly rise to the occasion. I first saw this episode about 20 years ago. I have never forgotten it.

Survivors: "Spoil of War"

It is 11 June 1975, and time for another episode of Survivors.

The commune begins to grow, meeting both a young man named Paul (Chris Tranchell) and a pompous former businesman named Arthur Russell (Michael Gover) - who comes accompanied by his secretary Charmain Wentworth (Eileen Helsby). When Tom (Talfryn Thomas) and Barney (John Hallett) go missing while collecting supplies, the attempt to find them leads to an unexpected reunion with a man presumed dead.

After the fairly dreadful "Starvation", Survivors bounces back with a much better episode. While not faultless, it is a step back towards the sort of darker, more cynical episodes from the series' beginning. It also does something I have been wanting the series to do from the outset - actually go back and revisit characters encountered in earlier episodes.

Survivors: "Starvation"

It's 4 June 1975, and time for another episode of Survivors.

Greg (Ian McCullough), Jenny (Lucy Fleming) and the kids find themselves trapped in a van surrounded by a pack of hungry dogs. Meanwhile Abby (Carolyn Seymour) meets two more survivors of the plague - and has another encounter with the shift Welshman Tom Price (Talfryn Thomas).

Then the money ran out. I am assuming that is what happened at any rate. Survivors had until this point balanced its shoot between studio recordings on videotape and location shoots using 16mm film. Now the exterior scenes are shot using outside broadcast video, which on the one hand gives the episode a more consistent visual texture but on the other makes the whole enterprise look an awful lot cheaper. The lower budget affects the episode in other ways too. The sound quality is variable. The performances feel rushed and under-rehearsed. A pack of wild dogs, which should in theory be a terrifying threat to the characters, is represented by a small collection of remarkably sedate and friendly group of pets.

Survivors: "Garland's War"

It's 21 May 1975, and time for more Survivors.

When Abby (Carolyn Seymour) hears word of some boys living in a nearby country estate, she abandons her friends in the night and drives to find out if one of them is her missing son. Once there she stumbles into a violent conflict between the group of men who have assumed control of the estate and Jimmy Garland (Richard Heffer), the charismatic army veteran who actually owns it.

On initial inspection "Garland's War" seems like a great episode of Survivors. It throws Abby into the middle of an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between Garland and the group of men that have violently supplanted him from his own home. It provides some action, a few surprising twists, and even a light touch of romance between Garland and Abby. Unfortunately the moment the viewer begins to think about what they've seen the entire episode falls apart.

Survivors: "Gone to the Angels"

It's 14 May 1975, and time for more of Survivors.

Abby (Carolyn Seymour) wants to re-visit her missing son's school, to see if any boys have returned. On the way she, Jenny (Lucy Fleming) and Greg (Ian McCullough) find two orphaned children - Lizzie and John - as well as a paranoid, anxious man named Lincoln (Peter Miles). They also hear word of a group of Christian hermits nearby known as 'the Angels', and wonder if they might have seen or met Abby's son.

Things do not get any cheerier in this fifth episode of Survivors. Within minutes the episode has led to a pair of children sharing a house with the corpse of one of their grandmothers, and soon after a terrified Lincoln stumbles upon Greg and shoots him in the arm. By the time Abby leaves Jenny and Greg to go visit the Angels there is already a pall hanging over the episode - what dreadful thing is inevitably going to happen when she gets there?

Survivors: "Corn Dolly"

It's 7 May 1975 and time for the fourth episode of Survivors.

Abby (Carolyn Seymour) remains intent on looking for her son. On the way to her old house she, Jenny (Lucy Fleming) and Greg (Ian McCullough) meet Charles (Denis Lill), an idealistic survivor attempting to build a permanent community at a nearby farmhouse. With the potential for a proper home and base of operations, Abby is sorely tempted to join Charles' growing village - but is it too good to be true?

Well of course it's too good to be true. We may only be four episodes into the series, but if there's anything the first three have taught us it's that Survivors is a bleak and uncompromising experience. It has a remarkable penchant for dangling hope in front of its three protagonists - only to snatch that hope away and leaving them back where they started. To its credit "Corn Dolly" sustains the hope for a lot longer than I had expected, making it an increasingly uneasy case of trying to work out not if something awful is going to happen but rather what form the awful turn towards despair the episode will take.

Survivors: "Gone Away"

It's 30 April 1975, and time for the third episode of Survivors.

Now travelling together, Abby (Carolyn Seymour), Greg (Ian McCullough) and Jenny (Lucy Fleming) set about finding a permanent home base and sourcing supplies. When they find a well-stocked and abandoned supermarket, they think their problems are solved - until they're confronted by an armed militia working on the orders of regional despot Arthur Wormley.

It's a relief to see the Wormley plot thread set up in the second episode actually get carried over to the third, with a small posse of gunmen led by Wormley's violent-minded lieutenant Dave Long (Brian Peck). There's a really effective sense of tension in these episodes: each time the protagonists encounter somebody new the paranoia ratchets up. Are they friendly? Hostile? Are their intentions open and honest? Will they betray the heroes at the first step? It's been running like this for three episodes running and shows no sign of letting up.

Survivors: "Genesis"

It's 23 April 1975, and time for more Survivors.

With most of the planet's population wiped out by a mystery virus, the few remaining survivors begin making plans for the future. Abby (Carolyn Seymour) stumbles upon a former union leader now establishing himself as a feudal style overlord. Jenny (Lucy Fleming) continues to wander alone through the countryside. Engineer Greg Preston (Ian McCullough) encounters two strangers in a quarry: one a rich socialite out of her depth, the other a badly injured survivalist who may be crippled for life.

Terry Nation's portrayal of post-apocalypse Britain continues in this fairly bleak second episode that benefits from some stark, quite shocking moments of selfishness and greed but suffers from disconnected and somewhat haphazard plotting. Altogether it's a worthwhile hour of television, but does feel more than a little like its author was making the script up as he went along.

Survivors: "The Fourth Horseman"

Terry Nation will long be remembered for his contributions to British television, chiefly for his creating the Daleks for Doctor Who but also for creating and writing Blake's 7. In between he also created the 1975 post-apocalyptic drama Survivors. It's not quite as well known as his other two creations, most likely because - if we're to be frank - it's not quite as good. It does have much to recommend, however, and as I've enjoyed watching through both Blake's 7 and fellow 1970s BBC series The Omega Factor it seemed reasonable enough to give Survivors a rewatch as well.

So it's 16 April 1975, and time for Survivors.

The first episode, "The Undiscovered Country", shows the sudden and catastrophic collapse of human civilization after a fast-spreading plague-like virus sweeps across the planet. It's told from the perspective of two women: twentysomething Londoner Jenny Richards (Lucy Fleming) and rich country wife Abby Grant (Carolyn Seymour).