BERGCAST stalwart Toby Hadoke's long awaited tome is out!

Toby chats to Jon and Andy about its long gestation, the challenge of tenses and how to slay sacred cows respectfully.

We're back with a new co-host and an amazing new guest in the shape of the GIANT that is Brian Cox. Andy and Jon talk to Brian about making The Year of the Sex Olympics, how he was cast, why he remains so fond of something from the very beginning of his career, and the fact he'd really like to play Quatermass some day...

There's also an extended intro to meeting co-host Andy Murray, Nigel Kneale's biographer.

This episode had an unavoidable delay, but it's worth it, as Jon talks in a round table with spooky dramaturges extraordinary Carrie Thompson and Chris Lincé of Hermetic Arts, the monstrously talented actor James Swanton and BERGCAST's friend and undisputed renaissance man Toby Hadoke about the 70th Anniversary recreation of The Quatermass Experiment that was held in Alexandra Palace in Autumn 2023.

It's another episode with a genesis almost as troubled as our Quatermass Conclusion Conclusion. This time, Jon was unable to make our discussion with Gothic expert Brontë Schiltz last November at very short notice, so Howard went it alone for the first time. But then, a bunch of uncontrollable life circumstances leading to a massive upheaval meant that the recording languished in the walls of Howard's laptop for three months. We hope that you feel it's worth the wait, as we discuss the TV studio with horror in its walls, 70s pop pseudoscience and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, along with a whole lot else.

Find Brontë's links here.

It had to happen. It's time for us to deal with the One Nigel Kneale Thing We Don't Like: Kinvig.

In this episode, we have the Woman in Black herself, Pauline Moran, who although unwell at the time, graciously agreed to talk to us about her career in rock music, Mike Leigh, clingfilm, auditioning for a role with no lines, and the shocking failure of the media industry to supply decent roles for older women in acting.

Oh, and yeah, did you know there was an Australian adaptation of The Quatermass Experiment? No? Neither did we. A word about that in the preamble.

This month sees the publication of Tomato Cain and Other Stories, Nigel Kneale’s award winning short story collection, first published in 1949.

Joining Jon in this episode is Kneale biographer Andy Murray, who’s been the driving force in getting this book back in print for the first time since the early 1960s. Andy talks about how the opportunity arose, why you’ll find more than just the stories from the original edition here, and what you can expect from this eclectic collection (spoiler free of course), that sees the formative Kneale shaping the ideas and styles that would make him one of the more important screenwriters of the 20th century.

You can order Tomato Cain and Other Stories from Comma Press here.

In this episode of BERGCAST, we're joined by Dick Fiddy, Vic Pratt and Douglas Weir of the British Film Institute to talk about restoring and re-packaging Kneale's work for the centenary year, why archive TV matters, what's happening at the BFI this month and the upcoming release of the restored version of the BBC adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four will be released on 11th April. Pre-order it here. 

If you're lucky enough to be able to get to London, you can book tickets for the Nigel Kneale season at the BFI this month here. And you can find out about the April 23rd Centenary day at Picturehouse Crouch End here.

It's what they call in media a Very Special Episode, because the BERGCAST team is celebrating the 2022 centenary of Nigel Kneale's birth. We're joined by friends of BERGCAST Andy Murray, Toby Hadoke (and also Toby's dog Bernard) to talk about only some of the things that have happened and will happen very soon to mark that.

The Nigel Kneale Centenary Celebration will be held at the Crouch End Picturehouse on April 23rd. You can find out a full rundown of what's going on at nigelknealecentenary.com or cut out the middlehuman and just buy your ticket here – but be quick, they're selling steadily. Toby's 7th Dimension special will air on Radio 4 Extra in the week running up to that – why not bookmark the schedules so you don't miss it? And you can pre-order your copy of Tomato Cain and Other Stories at the Comma Press site right now.

Oh, and let's not forget that we'll be posting frequent updates on our Twitter feed – follow us on @BERGCASTCalling.

For our bumper sized Christmas episode, what better subject than a ghost story?

Taking a deep dive into the terrifying Kneale-scripted Christmas drama The Woman in Black we're joined by Robert Taylor, author of the forthcoming book Sound Haunting: The Making of Central Films’ The Woman in Black. In a lengthy and intimate discussion, we talk about the genesis of the drama, what happened when Nigel Kneale wrote the script too quickly, how a woman in a dress and a hat standing absolutely still can chill you to the bone, and the enduring power of Christmas TV memories.

Robert recently wrote an essay about The Woman in Black on Horrified.com, which you can read here.

It only remains for us to wish you all a merry, and ghostly Christmas. We've got big news coming in the New Year, so stay tuned. Contact will remain established.