Undermind

Undermind

1965 - United Kingdom

Undermind was a very unusual British science fiction thriller series for its time in that there wasn't a rocket, flying saucer or extraterrestrial to appear at all over the course of its run.

Over its eleven episodes Undermind told a story about alien subversion where an alien force, that was never identified by name or location, sought to establish a foothold in Britain by undermining society and morale. These aliens had sent high frequency signals from space that are picked up by people who become brainwashed into subversive acts to create a climate of social unrest. 

The series villains ended up being everyday people who suddenly underwent a dramatic change in their personality, and behaving or acting in ways totally foreign to all those that knew them. But they all shared one small thing in common - an acute susceptibility to high frequency signals. 

Undermind was created by writer Robert Banks-Stewart and was produced by Michael Chapman. The series main cast consisted of two regular players - Jeremy Wilkin as Drew Herriot and Rosemary Nicols (who'd later go on to star in Department S) as Anne Herriot - while each episode featured new characters and guest stars suited to that weeks story. In the series premiere episode "Instance 1" (a.k.a. "Onset Of Fear") written by Robert Banks-Stewart, Drew Herriot returned from Australia to find his policeman brother Frank (Jeremy Kemp) had provoked a scandal involving a top politician. Appalled by this uncharacteristic behaviour, Drew and his brother's estranged wife Anne searched for the cause behind Frank's strange actions. With the help of a psychiatrist, they discovered that Frank had become 'emotionless' and uncover a web of similar cases - the victims all being susceptible to high frequency signals. Frank killed the psychiatrist, Dr. Poulson (Paul Maxwell) and tried to have Drew and Anne eliminated. But in the end, it was he who was shot, and as he died, he told Drew: "There are more of us..."

Published on February 10th, 2019. Written by Bob Furnell for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Barney is My Darling

A married couple's uneasy attempt to adjust to married life after years apart.

Also released in 1965

Farscape

Astronaut John Crichton is on a test flight of his module, Farscape 1, when a spatial wormhole opens directly in his path.

Also tagged Scifi

The War of the Worlds

"Across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."

Also tagged British Scifi

The Day of the Triffids

When a comet blinds nearly everyone in the world, a genetically-engineered species of plant takes over.

Also tagged Scifi

Hector's House

Animated children's series - it wasn't Joanna Lumley

Also released in 1965

Counterstrike

An alien 'agent', Simon King, sent to Earth by an intergalactic council posing as a journalist in order to unmask refugees from a dying planet, who wanted to take over the world.

Also tagged Scifi

Millennium TV Series

A retired FBI profiler whose attempt at a new life in Seattle becomes embroiled in a battle against the darkest acts of men. A dark vision of the impending thousand-year mark combined with an exploration of evil.

Also tagged Scifi

"Whilst the cases which made up the bulk of the show's episodes were often fun, ingenious riffs on the standard spy/caper craze of that particular decade, where the series really scored was in the interplay between the three central characters involved."

Also starring Rosemary Nicols

The Tomorrow People review

With the ability to read minds, levitate objects, and teleport themselves, the Tomorrow People are the next stage in human evolution.

Also tagged British Scifi