The Day of the Triffids (1981): Part Four

 "I'm like a drug they give to patients to keep them going a bit longer."

The fourth episode further develops the existing themes and takes a darker turn; Bill, separated from Jo, is kidnapped by Coker's people and forced to help blind friends to find food. He's kind, helpful even when no longer forced, and a gentleman in that he refuses to sleep with a girl whose motive is to persuade him to stay. Yet it's all futile. The blind are doomed. As Bill knows and no one else will get past their cognitive dissonance, no cavalry is coming.

Yet things are worse. A plague is developing, and only plot armour really prevents Bill from catching it. There are nasty people with guns. Worst of all, there are Triffids. Their menace is finally coming to the foreground, as presaged by much of Bill's dialogue in earlier episodes.

The desperation has increased. I quite like the fact that I've long since forgotten how the novel ended so I don't know what to expect. This is a superb adaptation.

The Day of the Triffids (1981): Part Two

 "There's nothing we can do!"

This second episode is even more brilliantly horrific than the first. We begin in the hospital, with Bill realising firstly that a patient is blind and then realising the blind doctor, such a comforting authority figure the night before, has jumped to his death.

Outside, things are no better. Looting, pretty much explicitly implied rape, the slow collapse of society. It's all made plain as Bill finds a blind couple with a sighted daughter.And the father is no fool, realising, like Hobbes, that civilisation has gone, and that life is set to become nasty, brutish and short. And his suggesxtion- that Bill stays to protect the block- has merit, I think. Bill can't save everyone. Why not save whom he can?

But Bill travels on, and finally meets posh drunkard Jo, who was saved from blindness by a hangover. There's a rule here, kids: teetotalism is bad, m'kay?

Unfortunately, we then find with full force, so are Triffids, and they've got into the house and killed Jo's father. In the kingdom of the blind, the Triffid is king. It's all out war for survival.

Except humanity, unlike Triffids, is hardly united. And is just as scary, as the cliffhanger shows...

The Day of the Triffids (1981): Part One

 "If it were a choice of survival between a blind man and a Triffid, I knoew which I'd put my money on."

Obviously, being the sort of chap, I've read the John Wyndham novel several times, although probably not since John Major was prime minister, so it's been a while. Suffice to say I loved it, but was a wee slip of a lad at the time. And still am, of course, at a mere forty-five years.

This is the first adaptation I've seen, and I'm impressed. It's incredibly cheap so far, of course, very close to being a one-hander with John Duttine as Bill, other characters appearing only in flashback, and relativrly few sets in this all but studio bound production. Only on brief occasions do we have the building entirely surrounded by film.

The tape recorder is a bit obvious as an excuse for exposition, but I'll admit the premise is well-introduced and the storytelling is clear, as we feel throughout the tension building for both the world, as we slowly realise what has gone wrong, and Bill, whose worries for his eyesight are shared by us.

And those Triffids avtually look bloody terrifying.

I'm very impressed indeed so far.