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.
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
Saturday 1 March 2025 – Zombie Flesh Eaters screening (1pm, Screen 1), followed by Q&A with Ian McCulloch and Ottaviano del’Aqua
Sunday 2 March 2025 – screening of Survivors episodes Law and Order and The Last Laugh (2pm, Screen 8) followed by a Q&A session with Ian McCulloch
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.
Survivors feature – Starburst magazine – May 2024Survivors: Mad Dog – Obverse Books, The Silver Archive, #7
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!
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
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.
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
DENIS LILL (CHARLES Vaughan, Survivors) will join other Doctor Who cast and crew members at the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS) Projections in Time event in London on Sunday 30 June 2024.
Lill, who appeared as Dr. Fendelman in the Doctor Who story Image Of The Fendahl, will join Louise Jameson (Leela, and Big Finish’s audio Survivors), Adrienne Burgess (Veet, The Sun Makers), Hilary Ryan (Rodan, The Invasion Of Time), Mat Irvine (Visual Effects), and A J Mitchell (Electronic Effects).
There will be episode screenings of Image Of The Fendahl (Part One), The Sun Makers (Part Four), Underworld (Part One) and The Invasion Of Time (Part Six).
Cast and crew will reunite live on stage for a special Question & Answer session, and there will be autograph and photo studio sessions (for which additional charges apply).
Projections in Time: Season Sevateem Sunday 30 June 2024, from 13:00 Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London W6 9BN Tickets: £15, available to book from Riverside Studios
BIG FINISH ARE offering discounts of up to 80% on titles from the Survivors audio back catalogue, up until 23:59 on 21 April 2024.
Most of the early series’ boxsets are on offer for less than £10 (CD and download combos), while later sets in the range are significantly reduced in price.
Survivors audiobooks are also included – with the unabridged version of Terry Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel, read by Carolyn Seymour, currently available for less than £5.00.
All these offers are accessible through the Big Finish website.
Comprehensive reviews of each and every release in Big Finish’s Survivors audio range are freely available to read elsewhere on the Survivors: A World Away website.
CHRIS TRANCHELL (PAUL Pitman, Survivors) will be one of the guests at Fantom Events ‘April Signing Spectacular’ being held in Chiswick on 27 April 2024.
Tranchell will appear alongside Hilary Ryan, Milton Johns and Tom Kelly, in a reunion of cast members from the 1978 Doctor Who serial The Invasion of Time.
Tickets for this popular event have already sold out, but there’s an option to join a waiting list in the hope of picking up any booking cancellations.
Fantom Events – April Signing Spectacular 27 April 2024, doors open at 12:30 St Michael’s Centre, Elmwood Road, Chiswick, London W4 3DY Fantom Event information
