Adrian Hodges – writer and executive producer
For Adrian Hodges, the challenge of re-imagining the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s classic Seventies drama Survivors for the 21st century was one that he simply could not turn down.
Ìý
Adrian's writing credits include Primeval, Ruby In The Smoke and Charles II, but he says the new Survivors excites him as much, if not more, than any previous project.
Ìý
"I remember the original series by Terry Nation very well, the shock that everyone who saw it felt, and the concept retains that emotional power," he says.
Ìý
"It gives you the chance to tackle every possible kind of human drama. Most of what we write about happens within society, but in Survivors there is no society."
Ìý
In a world where 99% of the population has been wiped out by a mystery virus, there are no rules, no law and order, but there is, Adrian stresses, hope for mankind.
Ìý
"It's about people taken to their limits and, of course, you encounter the dark side of human nature, but the new series is not as bleak as the original," he says.
Ìý
"The characters find themselves in horrendous situations, but I couldn't have taken it on unless the overall message was one of hope."
Ìý
If Survivors is ultimately optimistic about our courage and capacity to start afresh, Adrian admits it has been borne out of pessimistic times.
Ìý
"While I was writing it, there was at least two major health scare stories that made the front pages of the papers," he recalls.
Ìý
"I think we're more receptive now to the idea that this kind of virus could strike, and certainly closer to the possibility of it happening than we were in the 1970s."
Ìý
In his research for Survivors, Adrian spoke to virologists who confirmed that a scenario similar to that in the series is all too plausible.
Ìý
"They are absolutely convinced there will be a pandemic one day, but not sure exactly how bad it will be, and they're also convinced there will only be a limited amount we can do about it when it happens.
Ìý
"The world is busier than it's ever been, travel is easier, and viruses and bugs replicate and spread with incredible speed – perhaps not as fast as the virus in Survivors, but still at an astonishing rate."
Ìý
What has also changed since the original series was made, claims Adrian, is how much more dependent on technology we have become.
Ìý
"I'm convinced it would be harder to survive now – we're more helpless than perhaps we've ever been at any point in history," he says.
Ìý
"There's no doubt that some of the people left would be very practical, but a lot of them would be hopeless. That was true in 1970s to a degree, but more so now.
Ìý
"One of the endearing things about the original is that there really isn't that much technology in people's homes at all.
Ìý
"When I was writing, I looked around my own room at home and imagined stripping out all the technology, and what's left was basically a chair and me.
Ìý
"So this enormous web of technology we've developed in the intervening years needed to be part of the storytelling in the new Survivors.
Ìý
"We're too far down the road of being in love with it to give it up lightly, so it's not a case of going back to the Stone Age overnight.
I also tease a bit with the possibilities of whether some technology might still work and why that might be so."
Ìý
Adrian is keeping mum about whether the "why that might be so" might involve the kind of conspiracy theories that abound in a complex and fearful 21st century.
Ìý
"I genuinely don't want to say too much, but I feel comfortable saying I've explored the back-story of the virus in a way that the original Survivors didn't," he reveals.
Ìý
"The possibilities of how it came into being, how it spread so quickly and what it actually is are all things I deal with, but you'll have to watch to see how!"
Ìý
Adrian, who based his new series on Terry Nation's Survivors novel, adds that most of those watching will not have seen the original, which ran for three series from 1975 to 1977: "I think it will stand or fall on its own merits as a new drama."
Ìý
Printable version