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A while back I was poking around lovefilm.com to choose a few DVD’s to receive, and stumbled upon the DVD of the classic BBC drama, The Day of the Triffids, and have just sat through all six episodes whilst Frances is away for the day on the Waverley (and I wanted to put my feet up after having at last run my first full half-marathon distance, and mowed the lawns!).

What a classic drama it is. All the more so because, as a child, it absolutely terrified me. I have vague recollections of watching some of it when it was broadcast (or, more likely, a repeat: It was first shown in 1981, and I think I was in the cub scouts when it was broadcast, which would mean I’d seen it in 1982 or 1983). Of course, as a 9-10 year old I was - as you might expect - absolutely bloody terrified by the Triffids, all the more so because Christopher Gunning’s incredibly eerie theme music gave me nightmares back then, and even to this day sends a shiver down my spine. If you don’t believe me, I dare you to go listen to it at the BBC’s website…

The basic premise to the story is that the world has been made blind by a strange meteor shower, save for a few people who didn’t, or couldn’t, see. The protagonist, Bill Masen, is in hospital recovering from a minor Triffid sting to his eyes. Much like the film “28 days later” (which borrows many of the themes, and eerie deserted London street ideas), he wanders the streets trying to understand what has happened. Various sighted people are trying different approaches to survive, from helping the blind, to grabbing as much as possible. All classic post-apocalyptic themes, but incredibly well considered. Introduce the strange, carniverous and mobile Triffids, and the situation appears dire for the small outposts of humanity.

It’s classic BBC drama, and I think the production values and quality of the series holds up incredibly well now over 25 years after it was made. The special effects of the triffids might not win any awards now, but they do still work extremely well and do an incredible job of with presenting a sinister and deadly plant. This might be a minority view - most other reviews I’ve read today seem to be rather dismissive of how well the production has held up despite liking the story - but I’d ask what you think a moving carnivorous plant would appear like!? It’s not far off for me!

I suppose I particularly enjoyed it because of the childhood ’scary memories’ it recreated for me. Watching it again didn’t quite have me reaching for the cushions, it’s certainly been enjoyable being able to appreciate it and enjoy it, and still benefiting from tingles of nerves as the tapping of the Triffids is heard off-camera….

The BBC doesn’t seem to approach Sci-Fi in quite the same way these days (I especially can’t take Jekyll seriously with James Nesbitt in the title role), and even Dr Who these days seems a little too reliant on special effects, although series three’s Blink episodes was perhaps the exception, and deliciously creepy.

I’m in the mood to now revisit some of the other classic Sci-Fi series from my childhood, in particular I’m minded to see if I can get hold of a copy of The Tripods, which I remember being quite taken by (and went on to read).