…Man’s supremacy is not primarily due to his brain, as most books would have one think. It is due to the brain’s capacity to make use of the information conveyed to it by a narrow band of visible light rays….
There have been several cinematic and televisual adaptations based (sometimes exceedingly loosely) on Wyndham's writing.
A surprisingly intelligent children’s programme was based on Chocky, and shown by ITV in the mid-1980’s. Chocky is represented by a triangle and 80’s synthesisers. I was about eight at the time, and fortunate to be just old enough to be thoroughly enthralled by it. For some reason the scene where Matthew does the Rubik’s cube (not in the book) in a World Record beating time, stayed in my mind. The first series stuck closely to the book, and features the old Thames TV intro. The second series branched out into Chocky’s Children, and then Chocky’s Challenge, which was may have been over doing it a bit.
The 1960’s Film version of Triffids is unintentionally amusing, but not one for the Wyndham purists. The triffids themselves are aliens and allergic to seawater, and look suspiciously like men in green costums. The plot bears so spurious a relationship to the original book that one wonders why director Steve Sekely bothered. That said, if 60's B-Movies appeal then you may well enjoy it. This very loose adaptation inspires the 1975 cult hit The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with the lyric:
'And I really got hot
When I saw Jeanette Scott
Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills.'
1960’s Triffids Film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8B_NcamuKQ&NR=1
The only other celluloid adaptation is the 2005 film 28 Days later, which replaces triffids with rage-filled ‘zombies’, but retains much of the plot.
In the early Nineteen Eighties the BBC had a crack at Wyndham’s masterpiece. The three hour (six episodes) televisual adaptation does make some edits and changes. The first half an hour shows Bill Masen, in hospital with a bandaged head, recording his thoughts on triffids, not yet realising that his world is falling apart. This allows the makers to fully explain the ambulatory plants, but misses out on the immediacy of Wyndham's first chapter. Once Masen flees the hospital he finds himself in a stranger's flat, whereas in the book, he understandably visits the pub. The BBC also entirely effaces the chapter involving Stephen Brennel and his small tribe. The helicopter pilot Ivan is also airbrushed from the screenplay.
Nevertheless, to the Beeb’s credit they at least maintain the spirit of the novel. Unfortunately the series suffers one major drawback, the triffids themselves. The special effects department was really not up to the job of re-creating the carnivorous plants, and wires are sometimes visible holding up the large pieces of obviously manmade fibre. Additionally, the budget seems to have restrained the BBC from producing more than a dozen or so of these props, so that any sense of a besieging army of triffids menacing Shirning Farm is lost. Another piece of naff technology showcased is the triffid gun used in episode five.
Britons of a certain age will recognise a host of c-list home-grown actors from the 80’s and 90’s from such productions as Howard’s Way, Two Point Four Children, Drop the Dead Donkey, and The Bill.
BBC 1981 version Chapter 1 Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogAYofZ9ZcU&feature=related
In late 2009 a new BBC rendition was broadcast in Britain is breathtakingly awful. If Danny Boyles' 28 Days Later, was Day of the Triffids without the triffids, then the 2009 reprise is 28 Days Later with triffids. Both manage to rush the opening hospital scene, thus losing most of the tension. The CGI triffids are more convincing then anything that has gone before them, but arguably they are too terrifying. Not only have they gained some extra height, they also grab onto their prey. Yet they also seem to lack the guile of the originals. Whereas in the book, the triffids most sinister qualities are their intelligent design, and ability to bide time, these new plants are genetically tweaked, rather than created from scratch, and behave in the predictable manner of a Horror Film creation. They just want to eat humans, rather than make them extinct. The whole race against time element is extremely patronising, and again misses the menace of triffids.
It is a strange viewing experience for those already familiar with the book. Many scenes resemble passages from the novel, but hardly any are left wholly in tact. Certainly the writers have been inventive, without ever bettering the original chapters. Coker, probably the most complex character, has been dumbed-down, and delivers the worst line: 'I want Bill Masen on our team'. On the other hand Torrence (who pops up only twice in the book, albiet at crucial junctures) is central to the plot from the start. Another low point is when Masen desperately searches for a car, instead of just taking one from a blind/dead owner. A further disappointment is the lack of atmosphere in post-apocalytic London. The lights do not go out immediately, few people are drunk, and civilsation does not seem to have entirely collapsed. However the very worst aspect is the appalling addition of Masen's estranged father. Surely the odds of both father and son separately surviving the celestial blinding would be tiny, but this is not addressed. There then follows some hackneyed dialogoue along the lines of 'you were never there for me when I needed you Dad'. It insults the intelligence at so many turns, but lacks even the charm of the Sixties B-Movie.
Notwithstanding all the many weak points, hopefully some viewers will pick up a Wyndham book for the first time as a result.
The recent BBC 2006 version gave a new leash of life to Wyndham's short story Random Quest. It has a very stylised look, but there is substance to this one-off hour long drama, and it definately captures the spirit of the orignal.
There was also a Ralph Thomas film made retitles Quest for Love (1971), starring Joan Collins, although there is as yet no sign of it on Youtube, which I have been unable to track down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg-Kqb88yeA
Despite changing the name to Village of the Damned, the makers of the 1960 Black and White version stayed generally faithful to the original. The marble-mouthed actors add to the authenticity, and the children are much more convincing than in the Nineties reprise. For many years British censors considered the children's infamous glowing eyes to be too terrifying for the audience, whereas American cinema-goers were deemed mature enough to cope with the horrifying new special effect. Zellaby is played by the late English actor George Sanders, who is best known for his part in the classic flick All About Eve and providing the voice for Shere Khan in Disney's version of The Jungle Book.
Youtube periodically removes the decent 1960 Black and White edition of Village of the Damned, but stay patient and you’ll find it.
Village of the Damned / Children of the Damned [DVD] [1960]
Three years later an unofficial sequel The Children of The Damned was released. Humanity comes into conflict with six children from across the globe (China, Russia, America, Nigeria, India, and Britain). The picture seems as much influenced by The Chrysalids as Midwich Cuckoo, since the telepathic children are very much the victims of a witchhunt.
The Village of the Damned remake sees Midwich crossed the Atlantic. There is a definate Hollywood simplicity, an example being the conversion to humanity of one of the extraterrestrial children, which really misses the point. Mind you there are a few good scenes, making it ten times better than the recent BBC Triffids rehash. The lead character Dr. Alan Chaffee does not appear in the book, and seems to be an amalgamation of Gordon Zellaby and Dr. Willers. Chaffee is portrayed by Christopher Reeve in his last role before his debilitating riding accident. Also stars Kirstie Alley of Cheers fame, and a cameo from Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker.
The Village of the Damned has also been parodied on a number of occasions, most notably in an episode of The Simpsons called Wild Barts Can't be Broken.
Wyndham Archive
Liverpool University proudly acquired the complete John Wyndham archive in the late 1990’s, and this page will surely interest Wyndham fans: http://www.liv.ac.uk/~asawyer/triffid2.html
Wyndham Documentary
'The Invisible Man of Science Fiction' was up on Youtube until a few days before I created this website, so perhaps it will be uploaded again. It’s from a 2005 BBC documentary on John Wyndham, which left me with mixed feelings. On the positive side it’s brilliant to see anything about Wyndham on our television sets, and this is a good introductory biography. However, it still seems slightly dismissive of much of Wyndham’s work, and portrays Triffids and Chrysalids as little more than pulp fiction. It also focuses disproportionally on The Trouble with Lichen and The Midwich Cuckoo, and beware it contains spoilers for both.
Arthurs Classic Novels
Arthur's Clasic Novels is an excellent website containing free e-books. His Wyndham offering includes famous books such as Triffids, as well as rarer tales such as such as The Stare and More Spinned Against, and the John Harris (Wyndham's pre-war nom de plume) novel Stowaway to Mars:http://arthursclassicnovels.com/sf.html#wyndham