A NEW DOCUMENTARY on Survivors first aired on BBC4 on Tuesday 5 December 2006 at 8.30pm as part of a series of programmes celebrating the history of British literary and small-screen science fiction — Science Fiction Britannia, which was launched on Monday 13 November.

Featuring new on-screen interviews with Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards), Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston), Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant), Survivors director Pennant Roberts, and scriptwriter Martin Worth, The Cult of... Survivors explores the behind-the-scenes story of the making of the show and the reasons for its enduring popularity. Five other shows in the Cult of... series focused on Adam Adamant Lives (Tuesday 14 November), The Tripods, Star Cops, Survivors-progenitor Doomwatch (Tuesday 21 November) and the Terry Nation-created Blake's 7.

Download a detailed review of The Cult... of Survivors (.pdf format, 325K)

The listing for the Cult of... Survivors on the Science Fiction Britainnia web site

Interviews with Fleming, McCulloch, Roberts and Worth were filmed in August at studios in Farringdon in central London, with Seymour's interview recorded later by an American crew based in Los Angeles, where she has lived for many years.

Although the December 2006 edition of SFX magazine reported that each of the Cult of... documentaries would be followed by an episode from the featured series, BBC4 opted not to schedule showcase episodes of all the shows under scrutiny. Although episodes of both Adam Adamant Lives and Doomwatch were broadcast ahead of their respective Cult of... documentaries, neither Star Cops nor Survivors benefitted from similar treatment. The documentary itself was scheduled for several repeat showings: on Wednesday 6, Thursday 7 and Friday 8 December, in various evening and early morning slots. The final December repeat included sign language interpretation on-screen; and was followed in due course by a further double repeat in February 2007.

Other highlights of the Science Fiction Britannia series included the three-part documentary on the history of British sci-fi The Martians and Us (which broadcast between 13-27 November, and which was previewed on the SFX site ahead of time), and a new 75-minute drama Random Quest, adapted from a John Wyndham story.

The Cult of... Survivors documentary is included in the Region 2 three series DVD set released by 2 | entertain in 2008; and in the Region 1 three series DVD set released by the BBC and Warner Home Video in 2010.

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