I recently started a sub with Stan (an Australian streaming service) and came across “The Midwich Cuckoos”, obviously most of you can’t get Stan but I suspect the series is available on a streaming service near you.
Having been a fan of John Wyndham books my whole (reading) life it was fascinating to see this. The story has been updated with CCTV etc and I have only watched the first episode but it is showing great promise.
It stars Keeley Hawes, again someone I am a great fan of though I hardly recognised her at first - growing old is a curse!
Anyway it looks very interesting so far, I am just going to start episode two.
I can only vaguely remember the film of The Midwich Cuckoos (Children of the Damned I think?) but early versions of his books were really crap as I recall - In particular the Triffids film was truly awful, wasn’t sea water the cure (??), I think it starred someone really absurd like Howard Keel. The more recent TV versions just got better and truer to the book. I am hoping this is so with Cuckoos.
Village of the Damned was the first which was good.
Day of the Triffids was awful as you say.
That book has one of the best first chapters of any I’ve read.(The rest of the book is good too of course)
Village of the Damned (1960 film) is, of course, a rightly-acclaimed classic …
Village of the Damned (1995 film) is, apparently, not …
In addition to being a failure at the box office, the film received negative critical response. Based on 37 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Village of the Damned holds a 30% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 4.1 out of 10. In 1996, the film was nominated at the 16th Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel but lost to The Scarlet Letter.
The Midwich Cuckoos (2022 TV series) strays well away from the book and receives mixed reviews:
The series has moved away from the Novel somewhat. We don’t have the pale white haired bright eyed kids here. The kids (maybe the program was trying to be woke?) are no where near as creepy and as uniformed or as one because they’ve moved them away from the novel. They look like average kids. The village atmosphere is lost too. More a community than a small village that’s taken over by blackout.
There seems to be a lot of negativity towards this program mainly because it has not remained faithful to the original book or The 1960s film. The world has changed a lot since 1957 when the book was written. The internet, television, computers ect. Even abortion which would not have been easily available in the 50s. It’s by no means perfect and seven episodes is at least one to many. The cast are all excellent from the ever reliable Keely Hawes and Max Beasley but it’s the children who really shine and make this series an enjoyable watch. Don’t be put off by the doubters and judge for yourself.
I haven’t read the novel, but this series was less chilling than Wolf Rilla’s 1960 version “The Village of the Damned.” The children in that version, with their blond(e) hair, were eerily like the Nazis’ ideal German youths. That look was out this time round, because London-centric casting directors nowadays insist on populating dramas and adverts with mixed-race couples and children. That may well be what they’d like to see and also the best way forward, since if in future everyone was coffee-coloured there would be no racism, but it’s a totally dishonest picture of where we are now. Black people constitute only 3 to 3.5% of the UK’s population. That proportion is much higher in London, but we saw Keeley Hawes going to Marylebone station to get a Chiltern Line train, and the announcer mentioned Amersham and Chorleywood: I seriously doubt there are many black people in the Chilterns’ towns and villages. The funny thing is we still get black actors saying they’re under-rather than over-represented in the UK, and have to go to the US for work. Keeley played a role filled by George Sanders in the original (another sign of the times, I suppose.) She was excellent as ever, while Max Beesley scowled a lot. Aisling Loftus made the biggest impression, and I certainly want to see more of her work.
I agree, I watched another episode last night and will definitely be continuing.
You are right too I noticed a “Sky” logo at the beginning of the second episode so it undoubtedly originated on Sky somewhere. Stan must have an agreement with Sky to show their stuff here because Sky is owned by the dirty digger Rupert Murdoch whereas Stan is owned by Nine Digital.
I’ve always been a big fan of John Wyndham’s books - I believe I’ve still got every single one he ever wrote on a bookshelf somewhere. I shall definitely be seeking out this remake!
I enjoyed his books very much as a child, borrowing them from the local library.
The Chrysalids, The Kraken Awakes, Chocky as well as The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cockoos.
I don’t really think much of the films as I like the books that provide the pictures in my head instead
One forgets that Britain is such a monoculture of purely white Anglo Saxon citizens. It must have been so difficult for the casting agents to find such a diverse range of actors, I wonder if they had to go overseas to find them?
I don’t know where TAT lives but my 60 years in Cardiff brought me in contact with people from numerous ethnic origins.Much more so than this part of Victoria.It’s one of the things I miss.
Watched it through to the end but have to admit it almost lost me . It was ok but not rivetting I knew the story and what the end would be so maybe that spoiled it for me…Worth watching though
