The Day of the Triffids (1981)

This was made during a period when the BBC did not have very much money and it shows in this generic by-the-numbers BBC adaptation. Neither the actors nor the script nor the production are very much to write home to Mother about. The whole first episode takes up about half the first chapter of the book, an indication that the series will set most things indoors to save money. The whole episode just shows the lead actor feeling upset in his hospital room, with a couple of flashbacks. I disliked the way that the story jumped between characters as well - this was quite contrary to the spirit of the book, in which the lead character's story slowly unfolds and his world expands. The main reason you would watch it is just that you hunger to see an adaptation of the book. The book indeed calls out for a modern 'Children Of Men'-type adaptation. We do the Apocalypse just so much better nowadays.

This early 1980s adaptation of John Wyndham's 'Day of the Triffids' offers us global apocalypse on a shoestring budget: cue some decidedly unspectacular special effects and thin crowd scenes. The acting is also limited: the characters respond remarkably calmly to the near-end of everything. Yet the triffids themselves are surprisingly well done, with their venomous strings and menacing roots. And (especially knowing what was to come) I found the tension implicit in the opening episode, in which a temporarily blinded man comes to suspect that something in the world he can't see isn't what it's supposed to be, utterly unbearable. At the end of the day, a good story trumps special effects, and there's something in the believable human tragedy of this one that makes it more horrifying than any horror story. Indeed, some of the scenes had stayed with me since first watching it over thirty years before. It's proof you don't need exploding galaxies or evil geniuses to unsettle a complacent audience.

Bill Masen (John Duttine), having been temporarily blinded by a Triffid plant, wakes in the hospital one morning to find the world has mostly gone blind due to an unusual meteor shower the night before. He quickly teams up with Josella "Jo" Payton (Emma Relph) and the duo try to navigate though London while avoiding the walking Triffids as well as new groups determined to advance their ideologies on this new world. This 157 minute miniseries won accolades from John Wyndham fans as being the most accurate adaptation of his 1951 sci-fi novel (I haven't read it but the Wikipedia synopsis is dead on). It is definitely fun stuff and decidedly different from the 1960s TRIFFIDS film. Like most great sci- fi, it is really talking about modern times and dynamics between the various groups trying to impose their plans is interesting. While the idea of walking plants seems goofy, the production pulls it off with some nice practical FX. The key element that really helps pull it off is the creepy sound the plants make as they communicate by tapping on their bases. Very simply yet very effective. The show does suffer in that it does the age old Brit trick of location shooting on film and studio filming on videotape. Other than that, this is top notch stuff.

I remember watching this when i was a child and still enjoy it as much now as i did then,the breakdown of morals were shown very quickly with the main character trying to save a girl from being raped and it made me think what would happen if there was no more law and order and the sighted could do whatever they wished.OK the triffids are very 1980's (but that is when it was made so what do you expect) But if they made a remake now it would be all CGI and no story (war of the worlds being a major case).All in all i would have to say get it (not the rubbish film but the bbc version) settle down on a Sunday afternoon and go back in time to when a programme had to keep you hooked by the story line and not the special effects and maybe make you worried about your garden at night lol.