the triffids are back!
The BBC is at it again. In 1981 they did a TV serialization of John Wyndham’s novel, The Day of the Triffids, a book featuring mutant carnivorous plants that develop a taste for the species that invented herbicides and lawnmowers. [ image source ]
According to a thought-piece on the BBC News Magazine site, the BBC is producing another treatment of this 1951 cold-war sci-fi novel. The piece muses how the first treatments of the novel came out of the same Cold-War hysteria that produced a spate of monster and end-of-the-world films. But the author, Finlo Rohrer, talks about how the plot might resonate differently in these days of global warming, where worries about destruction come less through war than through our wanton abuse of the earth through the release of greenhouse gases and genetic engineering.
“The idea of malevolent plant life has a certain appeal now, in a time where some people are increasingly concerned about the idea of genetically modified organisms,” Rohrer writes.
Several times in the piece he quotes Dr Barry Langford, senior lecturer in film and television at Royal Holloway, University of London. Lanford: “The triffids are perhaps to us a more potent threat than even in Wyndham’s time.”
All that’s well and good, but will this be a great show to watch with a bowl of popcorn and the lights turned down low? A nice disaster pic with lots of wonderfully cheesy BBC special effects? You might want to put your houseplants in another room. Wouldn’t want to give them any ideas…
Check out the Wikipedia entry for more information on triffids, including the other sequels and adaptations the book has seen (including the 1963 theatrical film).
December 03 2008 | Categories: art • gardening | Tags: carnivorous plants • Day of the Triffids • disaster films • films • genetic engineering • global warming • television • triffids | 4 Comments »
