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A slice of dystopian 70s TV that still makes great viewing today. Terry Nation's nightmare drama Survivors, series 2 – on DVD at last!

Survivors (Series Two)

The end of the world was only the beginning...

What if the world had effectively come to an end in the 1970s? If some mystery pandemic - natural or not - had wiped out 99% of the population? How would the remaining few live on - and what sort of bleak world would they find themselves and their children living in?

Terry Nation’s landmark dystopian drama Survivors was set against exactly that bold concept.

A groundbreaking, ambitious and often startlingly realistic television drama series it first aired in 1975 at the height of the Cold War - when the idea of a global apocalypse seemed not so far away...

Week by week the unfolding post-disaster storylines gripped the imagination of the British public and the series remains compelling viewing to this day.

Conceived by Terry Nation (creator of Doctor Who’s arch enemies the Daleks and BBC TV’s space opera Blake's 7), the cult genre BBC series Survivors is widely regarded as one of the best British science fiction series of all time. Set in a grim, post-apocalyptic Britain where virtually the entire population has been wiped out by a plague, it set new standards for adult, intelligent science fiction in the 1970s.

Now classic TV specialist DD Home Entertainment is to release the entire second series as a DVD box set. Despite the fact that a few attempts have been made over the years to release the whole of Survivors for the home video market, the complete 13 part series two has – until now - never been available to own before.

The world inhabited by the survivors is a world without law, in which isolated, frightened communities continue their fight for day to day survival - often in the most extreme of circumstances - against the weather, crop failures, food and fuel shortages – and (literally) against each other. In a world where there is no electricity, no medical care and seemingly no hope of a return to the way of life of the world before the disaster - the characters find themselves increasingly forced to become self sufficient. The second series finds the characters increasingly thinking about their - and their children’s futures - beyond the next meal and beyond having their hands on something to keep predators (human and otherwise) at bay.

Resources

As resources dwindle and they find less that can be scavenged the group has come to realise the full extent of how badly equipped they are as modern city dwellers to live off the land. They have realised how much of the knowledge and technology they relied on in the old world is now useless to them - and the sheer weight of things they need to learn – and to teach to their children and each other if their dependence on the last pre-disaster supplies is ever going to be overcome.

Reminiscent of the kinds of post-apocalypse/disaster fiction epitomised by John Wyndham’s novel (and to a great extent the own BBC’s adaptation of) Day Of The Triffids, as well as John Christopher’s The Death Of Grass – and foreshadowing end-of-the-world TV productions such as drama documentaries Threads and The War Game, the series pulls no punches.

The seriousness of the needs for food, shelter, defence and simple medical care – set against a scrambling dog-eat-dog world where all the old rules of society have vanished - lead the characters into a dark territory of violence, vigilantism and a survival of the fittest situation where weakness and compassion may no longer have any place.

This second series picks up where it left off at the end of series one. Erstwhile community leader, Abby Grant has left the community behind, still intent on finding her missing son. To do this – and to get away from her responsibilities she has head off with the former soldier Garland, a man the group encountered during the season one episode Garland’s War, where he was trying to seize back his family manor house single-handed, from a group of entrenched survivors.

'The Death'

Series two follows the small band of survivors – with returning face Denis Lill and new face John Abineri – as they struggle to exist in the dangerous new world left behind by 'The Death'. A new year brings new perils for the Survivors, including: a devastating fire which leaves one of their number disfigured and in need of constant care, a lunatic sniper who besieges their community and a terrifying journey into the underground tube tunnels of the rat-infested ruins of London.

Finding themselves increasingly threatened by organised attackers from outside - and sometimes inside - their ranks, the central characters of Greg Preston (played by Ian McCulloch, who also wrote one of the episode: A Friend In Need) and Jenny (played by Lucy Fleming – who comes to the fore as a character at least equal to Greg in some of these episodes) must use all their ingenuity just to keep alive.

As with the Season One release, DD Home Entertainment has included a raft of exclusive DVD extras. These include:

Scenes missing from the recent satellite and cable transmission of the series (UK Gold has been about the only place to see these serials for years – and the early Sunday morning time slot chosen for the transmissions necessitated some cuts!)

A comprehensive 40-page fully illustrated guidebook containing new, behind-the-scenes photographs from series two.

Two photo galleries.

All 13 Episodes: Birth of A Hope, Greater Love, Lights of London Part 1 and Part 2, Face of the Tiger, The Witch, A Friend In Need, By Bread Alone, The Chosen, Parasites, New Arrivals, Over The Hills and New World.

An audio commentary for the episode The Lights of London (Part 2).

A series of exclusive interviews with Dennis Lill, Lorna Lewis, Heather Wright and director Pennant Roberts.

This digitally remastered DVD release includes the eleven hours of the second series, with a running time of approximately 11 hours 16 minutes.

Other BBC forthcoming genre releases from DD Home Entertainment include Peter Cushing's famous appearance as George Orwell’s Winston Smith in the Rudolph Cartier mould-breaking BBC production of Nineteen Eighty Four, as well as the third and final series of Secret Army. Survivors Series One is also still available, from DD Video – on VHS and DVD.

The third and final series of Terry Nation’s epic series – which sees the series take a turn away from self-sufficiency as Jenny, Greg and their child become separated and their life becomes nomadic – until finally the drama moves towards it’s shocking conclusion - has already been promised as a 2005 release by the company.

Survivors Series Two is available now on DVD only, rated PG and priced £49.99. The serial can also be ordered direct from DD Home Entertainment, Unit 1, Pool Bank Business Park, High Street, Tarvin, Chester, CH3 8JH. Please add £3.75 towards postage and packing. Credit card customers can also order copies by ringing the 24 hour DD hotline on 01829 741490.

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