A for Andromeda
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Main title caption for A For Andromeda |
A for Andromeda is the title of a
1961 British television drama series and novel by astronomer
Fred Hoyle and author and TV producer
John Elliot, and a 2006 television remake.
In seven 45-minute episodes, it tells of a radio signal received from the direction of the constellation of Andromeda. This signal is found to contain encoded specifications for a supercomputer, as well as a program for it to run and data for it to process. The computer is built and turned on. It proceeds to ask a series of questions, which gradually teach it about human society and biochemistry. Various Governments and big businesses want to use the machine for their own purposes, but it has its own agenda for the world...
Julie Christie, in her first role, played both a young lab assistant named Christine and an artificially grown human, named Andromeda or André by the rest of the team, which the machine uses Christine's DNA to create (killing Christine in the process). Her co-star
Peter Halliday played Dr. John Fleming, the scientist responsible for constructing the supercomputer. Also appearing were
Mary Morris as biologist Professor Madeleine Dawnay,
Patricia Kneale as security officer Judy Adamson,
Noel Johnson as civil servant J.M. Osborne,
John Hollis as a shadowy corporate operative named Kaufman employed by "Intel - the international cartel people", and
Esmond Knight as radio astronomer Ernst Reinhart.
The series was not retained by the BBC, and most of it no longer exists. However, a film print of episode six was recently (2006) returned to the BBC, and the concluding act of the final episode seven has also survived, as well as some clips from episodes one and two and a very short excerpt from earlier in episode seven. All of the existing material, linked by a complete set of captioned
telesnaps for the serial, was released alongside the sequel
The Andromeda Breakthrough as part of
The Andromeda Anthology DVD boxed set in 2006. The set also included
audio commentaries on most of the surviving material, a documentary and an excerpt from a 1961 edition of
Points of View discussing the serial (also the source of the surviving clip from episode one). The complete scripts for the episodes were also provided as
PDF files for
DVD-ROM access.
A novelisation of the series was published by Souvenir Press in 1962, and a Corgi paperback was issued in 1963.
A year after the first series, a sequel
Andromeda Breakthrough, was aired. Halliday, Morris, Johnson and Hollis each reprised their roles from the first series, but Christie was replaced by
Susan Hampshire.
Italian Version
A version of the series was made for
Italian television in
1971, titled
A come Andromeda. It follows the plot of the original series very closely. Unlike the original, it still exists and has been released on
VHS. The cast includes Paola Pitagora and Luigi Vannucchi. [
1]
A new version of the serial, adapted by
Richard Fell based on the original scripts, premiered on the
digital television channel
BBC Four in the UK on
March 27,
2006. The adaptation stars
Kelly Reilly as Andromeda, and the cast includes
Tom Hardy,
David Haig,
Charlie Cox and
Jane Asher.
The Andromeda Strain*
Patricia Kneale profile*
Action TV*
British Film Institute Screen Online*
BBC Four's 2006 Production
