Quite why this dialogue-heavy monochrome science fiction series was first broadcast in a teatime children’s slot is outlined in TV historian Jon Dear’s booklet essay accompanying this BFI reissue. Writer Christopher McMaster, best remembered for directing scores of early Coronation Street episodes, penned what became Object Z in 1965. Looking for a show to attract younger viewers (and maybe to compete with the BBC’s fledgling Doctor Who), pioneering ITV channel Rediffusion picked up the project, McMaster quickly redrafting and simplifying his scripts.
The central conceit has astronomers detecting a large, mysterious object heading towards Earth, threatening the planet’s survival. Should individual governments tell the truth about what’s at stake? If shelters are built, who qualifies for a place in one? And will society break down when the news is announced? These are weighty questions, arguably best suited to a cerebral Radio 4 discussion programme. That one of the lead characters works for the fictional ‘UK TV’ allows these issues to be aired openly, journalist Peter Barry (Trevor Bannister, best-known for playing Mr Lucas in Are You Being Served?) also on hand to deliver hefty chunks of expository material when things get a tad complicated.
Object Z is full of middle-aged men in suits, most of them scientists and politicians. Julian Somers’ Prime Minister seems commendably sober and clear-sighted, at one point revealing that the lottery system hasn’t granted him a place in a bunker. Ralph Nossek oozes gravitas as the UK’s chief scientist Doctor Ramsay. Dan Dare lookalike Denys Peek is excellent as a chirpy astronomer, responding to the threat of annihilation by proposing to his sparky spectrographer colleague June (Margaret Neale), one of just two female characters. The other is Barry’s plucky assistant Diana (Celia Bannerman), initially on hand to make coffee for studio guests before she’s dispatched with Barry to Woomera, Scotland and, er, Dunstable in search of the truth.
It's odd to encounter a show aimed at children devoid of child characters, one baffled contemporary reviewer describing Object Z as “an adult play featuring adult actors and dealing with adult situations.” And one wonders what young audiences made of Arthur White’s rabble-rousing fascist politician, keen to exploit the crisis for his own ends. There’s talk of global government and a world police force, both heady topics for 5.25pm on a Tuesday afternoon.
Director Daphne Shadwell achieves miracles on a minuscule budget. Cramped, wobbly sets and crudely painted backdrops are a constant, stock footage spliced in for occasional exterior shots. Shows were taped as-live, with a two-minute pause for the commercial break. There are remarkably few fluffs, though do look out for Robert O’Neill as the US President totally forgetting his lines in Episode 5, his co-stars valiantly attempting to pretend that nothing’s amiss. Steel yourself for the final episode, two startling twists pitching up in the final minutes. A real curio, then, but one worth investigating. Frustratingly, no traces exist of the follow-up series, Object Z Returns, exist, but a disc extra gives us tantalizing fragments of an earlier Rediffusion sci-fi series, In Search of Sierra Nine. Image and sound throughout the disc are excellent, as is the BFI’s booklet.
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