Survivors: A World Away – news
The classic 1975-1977 post-apocalyptic BBC TV series Survivors
BIG FINISH IS offering price discounts on all the titles in its original Survivors audio range – to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the broadcast of the first ever episode of the TV series in April 1975.
The discounts, which are available through the Big Finish online store, will be available until 23:59 (UK time) on 22 April 2025.
For reviews of all episodes in Big Finish’s Survivors audio range, check out our comprehensive online guide.
IAN McCULLOCH (GREG Preston, Survivors) will be one of the guests at the Weekend of Horrors convention being held in Cologne on 2-3 August 2025.
McCulloch will be available for both photoshoots with fans and autographs, which can be purchased in advance. (Tickets for the event must be purchased separately.)
Also appearing at the event are Michael Ironside (Total Recall), Brett Wagner (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (Zombi 2), Kenneth Cranham (Hellbound: Hellraiser II), Clare Higgins (Hellraiser) amongst many others – some of which are still to be confirmed.
In 1979, Ian played Dr. Peter Chandler in Marino Girolami’s Zombies Among Cannibals.
Ian McCulloch can be seen in three zombie splatter cult classics!
In 1980 things got even better: Lucio Fulci’s splatterfest Woodoo – The Horror Island of the Zombies followed.
Also released in 1980 was Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination / Astaron – Brood of Terror starring Ian McCulloch!
We are very happy to have Ian McCulloch as our guest again!
— Weekend of Horrors
Weekend of Horrors
2-3 August 2025
The Hall Gate 2, Girlitzweg 30, 50829 Cologne, Germany
Advance tickets | Event website
WARP FILMS, THE Sheffield-based production company behind the acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence, has announced plans to produce a modern-day remake of the unflinching 1984 nuclear TV film Threads.
Acclaimed at the time for its “groundbreaking portrayal of a fictional apocalypse,” the BBC drama Threads presented a “harrowing depiction of life in nuclear war-era Britain,” following a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom, centering its story on the city of Sheffield.
Written by Barry Hines and directed by Mick Jackson, the apocalyptic drama starred Karen Meagher and Reece Dinsdale, and had an enormous impact on the millions of viewers who saw it when it was first broadcast – at the height of the 1980s nuclear Cold War stand-off between Russia and the United States.
Forty years after it was first shown, Threads is still widely recognised as the exemplar of contemporary nuclear dystopian TV drama.
“The original film’s chilling account immerses viewers in the struggles of ordinary people facing unimaginable hardship,” Warp Films says. “This adaptation will explore prescient issues through rich, character-driven storytelling.”
Mark Herbert, the CEO of Warp Films, says: “Threads was, and remains, an unflinchingly honest drama that imagines the devastating effects of nuclear conflict on ordinary people. This story aligns perfectly with our ethos of telling powerful, grounded narratives that deeply connect with audiences.”
Reimagining this classic drama will give Warp Films “a unique opportunity to explore its modern relevance,” Herbert adds.
The planned production is not licensed to a particular broadcaster or TV platform, but reports suggest that production on the Threads remake will begin later in 2025, and be scheduled for broadcast in late 2026 or early 2027 – although this will depend on which TV network or service contracts the new series.
THE INTERIORS OF Hampton Court Castle in Herefordshire, the principal recording location used on the second half of the first series of Survivors, will no longer be accessible to visitors, as its owners pivot to focus exclusively on their wedding venue business.
For many years, Survivors fans have enjoyed the option to join a guided tour of the ground floor (and selected first floor locations) as day visitors to the Castle – by purchasing a combined garden and castle ticket.
When Hampton Court Castle closed for the winter break in 2024, there was no indication that it would not re-open as normal for its spring and summer season in 2025.
The timing of the change is particularly unfortunate as many fans are preparing to visit Survivors locations in Herefordshire this year – the fiftieth anniversary of the broadcast of the show’s first series back in 1975.
The location’s previous website has now been split in two, to create Hampton Castle (the wedding venue) and Hampton Gardens (the still-accessible gardens and grounds).
It is not yet clear what the change will mean for the plans – first announced in 2021 – to open ‘luxury holiday cottages’ in the castle grounds.
The gardens will open to visitors on 12 April 2025 and remain open daily (10:30-17:00) until 28 September 2025.
The Orangery Cafe will still be open for refreshments, and the established trails through the gardens and grounds appear to be unchanged.
This site offers a fully-illustrated guide to the interior locations at Hampton Court used to record episodes of Survivors‘ first series – which are now no longer accessible to visitors.
IAN McCULLOCH WILL be appearing at day two of The Shed of Hell horror and sci-fi convention being held in Rushden on 5-6 July 2025.
Sponsored by The Dark Side magazine, The Shed of Hell event promises “a spine-chilling weekend filled with iconic horror characters, creepy memorabilia, and everything macabre.”
The second day of the event will offer “Sunday horror with a sprinkling of sci-fi”. As well as McCulloch, other confirmed day two guests include James Taylor (Star Wars, MCU) and Ross Sambridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story).
Also appearing at the event is Tony Mardon, the director of the upcoming film The Witches of the Sands in which McCulloch appears.
Ian McCulloch has achieved fame in several cult television and film productions. He first became a household name via his central performance as Greg Preston in Terry Nation’s popular BBC television series Survivors, about a genetically engineered germ plague that nearly wipes out the entire population of the earth.
He then starred in several notoriously violent Italian made horror films of the early 1980s that were part of the “video nasty” controversy within the UK. McCulloch was the male lead in the Romero inspired Zombie Flesh Eaters aka “Zombi 2” directed by Lucio Fulci, he was back battling more living dead in Zombie Holocaust aka “Dr Butcher MD” directed by Marino Girolami, and then McCulloch took on interplanetary invaders in the Alien rip-off Contamination, directed by Luigi Cozzi.
McCulloch returned to BBC television, which included playing a villain in Warriors of the Deep: Part One, another role he is well-remembered for by cult television fans as well as a role in Doctor Who.
– Screaming Skull
THE SHED OF HELL, Rushden Historical Transport Society & Goods Shed, Station Approach, Rushden, Northamptonshire NN10 0AW
5-6 July 2025 | 11:00-18:00
https://www.screamingskull24.co.uk/the-shed-of-hell
THE ORGANISERS OF the 2025 Romford Horror Festival have posted the video recording of Ian McCulloch’s Survivors question-and-answer session, which followed the screening of two episodes of the show.
McCulloch, who also appeared at last year’s festival, featured in two sessions of this year’s event – joining a Q&A after the screening of the Italian horror Zombie Flesh Eaters, and a Survivors Q&A after the audience had watched Law and Order (series one) and the McCulloch-scripted The Last Laugh (series three).
In his Survivors Q&A, which was chaired by Spencer Hawken, McCulloch discusses his work as an actor and script writer on the series, his relationship with show creator Terry Nation and producer Terry Dudley, professional and person dynamics amongst cast, his decision to reduce his involvement in the third series, and much more besides.
Ian McCulloch holds up a copy of The End of the World? Survivors book, written by Rich Cross and Andy Priestner, during the Survivors Q&A at the 2025 Romford Horror Festival
UPDATE (11 March 2025): A recording of the Zombie Flesh Eaters Q&A serssion featuring Ian McCulloch and Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, from the Romford Horror Festival 2025, is also now available online.
IAN McCULLOCH WILL return to the Romford Horror Festival next month, to join a ‘Fulci trio’ of guests for a showing of Zombie Flesh Eaters, and – Survivors: A World Away can reveal – to answer questions from attendees following the screening of two episodes of Survivors.
McCulloch attended the 2024 Romford Horror Festival (aka Horrhiffic) and was interviewed about his role in three celebrated Italian horror films Zombi Holocaust, Contamination – and Zombie Flesh Eaters.
At the 2025 event, which takes place between 27 February and 2 March, McCulloch will be joined (on Saturday 1 March) by Silvia Collatina (best known for her role as Mae in The House by the Cemetery) and Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (who appeared alongside McCulloch in Zombie Flesh Eaters). Both films were directed by the acclaimed Italian horror director Lucio Fulci.
McCulloch will also discuss his work on Survivors (Sunday 2 March) following the screening of two episodes from the show.
After discussion with Ian McCulloch as to his preferences, the festival will screen episode nine from the first series of Survivors (often claimed to be the show’s finest fifty minutes) and episode ten from series three (the latter written by McCulloch himself).
Survivors
Law & Order – In celebration, the gang have a party. Not being used to the effects of alcohol, things get a little out of hand and the gang vote on a suitable punishment for those at fault.
The Last Laugh – Greg, travelling alone, has become paranoid and mistrustful of strangers. Will his fears ultimately be confirmed, and what secrets will he uncover as a result?
– Romford Horror Festival
Zombie Flesh Eaters
Strangers searching for a young woman’s missing father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately seeks the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead.
At the end of the movie stars Ian McCulloch and Ottaviano Dell’Acqua will be part of a live Q&A session with the audience.
To see this movie please purchase a Saturday day pass or Full Festival Pass.
– Romford Horror Festival
Fulci trio
For 2025, fresh from last year’s visit, the legendary Ian McCulloch, star of Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie Holocaust, Survivors, Doctor Who and Colditz (to name just a few) is making an epic return!
Previous year’s guest Silvia Collatina, best known as Mae from The House by the Cemetery, is also making a return, and she’s bringing a very special guest with her.
Also starring in Zombie Flesh Eaters is Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, a phenomenal actor with a whopping 106 acting credits and 368 stuntman credits. Ottaviano has a huge cult following with fans of both Italian horror and Giallo. With an outstanding personality, he’s an absolute scream to be with and knows literally everyone in the business.
This trio also has an immense amount of experience working with controversial horror director Lucio Fulci.
Ian and Ottaviano will join us to regale us with stories from Zombie Flesh Eaters straight after a screening of the movie, while Silvia will talk about her life living both by the cemetery and after it.
All three guests will be signing autographs on Saturday 1st March between screenings of the two movies.
Romford Horror Festival. 27 February-2 March 2025. Lumiere Cinema, The Mercury Shopping Centre, Mercury Gardens, Romford RM1 3EE.
Festival site | Advance tickets
IAN McCULLOCH’S APPEARANCE AT ROMFORD HORROR FESTIVAL 2025
To attend these session, you’ll need to purchase a festival Day Pass (for either the Saturday or the Sunday, or both) at £18.00 per day. A Full Festival Pass, giving you access to the entire festival can also be purchased for £50.00.
SCHEDULED FOR PUBLICATION in 2025, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the broadcast of the first series of Survivors on BBC1, a new book by the author of this site will provide a deep-dive into the show’s first thirteen episodes.
Survivors: the classic post-apocalyptic BBC series / Series one / 1975 will blend updated content by the author from the 2005 book The End of the World? The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Survivors with new and original material – based on an additional two decades of research and writing.
First broadcast in April 1975 on BBC1, Survivors presented viewers with the starkest premise imaginable: that only a tiny number of people had emerged unscathed from a deadly global pandemic, into a devastated, dangerous and unrecognisable world. Created by Terry Nation, the first thirteen episodes of Survivors explored how these few individuals band together to confront the daunting challenges of survival.
Featuring new interviews, original source material and previously unpublished photographs, this is a comprehensive, meticulous study of the first series of the exemplary post-apocalyptic BBC TV series from what’s now celebrated as a golden era of British genre television.
Rich Cross has published widely on the themes of science fiction, dystopian and genre television, and has written about Survivors for Action TV, Cultbox, Obverse Books, SciFiNow, Starburst and Telos.
Any and all profits from sales of the book will be donated to the international, independent medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (aka Doctors Without Borders) whose clinicians deliver vital, life-saving humanitarian aid in crisis situations and war zones across the globe.
More information about the book – including details about how to purchase a copy – will be shared on this site as the publication date approaches.
“It’s amazing to think that next year [2025] will mark fifty years since the first series of Survivors was broadcast,” says Cross. “It seems like the ideal moment to revisit the contemporary themes and issues that inspired creator Terry Nation; and the ground-breaking way that the first series of Survivors was made.”
“It’s also chance to to reflect afresh on the extraordinary characters that populate those first thirteen episodes, and the stories and situations that made that first series so compelling – alarming ‘what-if’ scenarios which still resonate with audiences some five decades later.”
If you’d like to be kept up-to-date with the latest news about the book Survivors: the classic post-apocalyptic BBC series / Series one / 1975, then get in touch with this site to be sure of being amongst the first to know!
Rich Cross’ most recent book on the series – Survivors: Mad Dog, published in 2022 – is available to buy (in both print and electronic formats) from the Obverse Books site.
His most recent magazine feature on Survivors, a four-page retrospective celebrating the series’ status as a ‘certified classic’, appeared in the May 2024 edition of Starburst.
IAN MCCULLOCH WILL be one of the guests at the Chiller Theatre convention in New Jersey, taking place between 25-27 October 2024.
Chiller Theatre is a ‘Toy, Model and Film Expo’ that has been running in different guises and with different names since 1990.
Rare appearance! Euro horror legend Ian McCulloch returns to Chiller Theatre for the 1st time in a decade!
Chiller Theatre
Meet the star of Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, and Euro-cult classics Zombie Holocaust, Contamination, The Ghoul and popular British TV shows Survivors and Doctor Who!
Chiller Theatre
25-27 October 2024
Hilton Parsippany, One Hilton Court, Parsippany, New Jersey 07054
USA
http://chillertheatre.com/
THE LATEST EDITION of the Strangers in Space podcast turns its critical attention to Survivors: Genesis of a Hero and Survivors: Salvation – the two novels written (decades apart) by author Peter Hill under the pen-name John Eyers.
The episode also sets the scene by discussing Terry Nation’s Survivors novel – which Hill’s first novel is a direct sequel to.
The podcast had previously scrutinised the original Survivors television series.
We’ve talked about the original 1970s [Survivors] TV series and its shorter lived 2000s revival, but in this podcast we’re turning our attention to the stories that were too hot for TV – but spoiler warning, Terry Nation’s 1976 novelisation includes twists you might want to discover for yourself, that we can’t avoid bringing up before we discuss John Eyers’ two spin-off books Genesis of a Hero and Salvation. Presented by J.R. Southall, with Jim Cameron and Dylan Rees
Strangers in Space
Strangers in Space. 2024. Book Club 03 – Survivors. 19 June. https://strangersinspace.libsyn.com/tv-club-60-survivors-1975-77