Nigel Kneale died

There was a little obituary at the end of Newsnight for the television scriptwriter, Nigel Kneale, who died yesterday. Given some of the wonderfully chilling work he wrote, it is probably appropriate that he should die just after Halloween (he had an uncredited involvement in "Halloween III: Season of the Witch", a film unrelated to the other Halloween movies). Indeed John Carpenter, the creator of "Halloween", has repeatedly expressed his debt to the English writer. With his horror, and particularly his science fiction, he was a huge influence on all who followed.

He wasn't confined to horror or science fiction, of course, adapting plays ("Look Back in Anger") and writing all varieties of tv drama, but it was in these genres that he had some of his major successes. The Quatermass movies were particularly notable, especially "Quatermass and the Pit", which has more ideas in ninety minutes than you would normally have in ninety movies (one of my favourite Hammer films). Perhaps now they might broadcast the original television version with Andre Morrell, by reputation even better than the Hammer version. Another television work, "The Stone Tape", is something else I have never seen, but which I hope to one day.

Unlike many science fiction writers of his time, he never settled for an easy story, investing all his work with imagination and intelligence. Even a relatively obscure work like "The Abominable Snowman" is worth seeking out. Although he often denied that he was a science fiction writer and frequently disparaged the genre, it is the one he became most identified with. He'll be missed by this sci-fi fan and he deserves a great deal more appreciation than a little mention at the end of a late night news programme. Thanks Nigel.