A terrible catastrophe has struck the population of Earth. Almost everyone on the planet has been rendered blind by the arrival of a bright comet and its debris lighting up the darkened skies, but the brightness has caused permanent eye damage. Bill Masen, who was unable to watch the spectacular but deadly free firework display, finds himself in a nightmarish world where he believes himself to be the only sighted person left. But soon he finds a soul-mate, Jo Pleyton, who can also see. As the days progress, they find more and more sighted people and together they make plans to build a future. But there is a problem. A walking, carnivorous plant called a "Triffid," which up until now was kept safely in paddocks and zoos, has broken free and has discovered a taste for rotting, human flesh. The remaining blind are helpless and many fall prey to the Triffids' lethal whipping sting, but can the sighted keep this fearful plant at bay?
Reviewers on IMDB Wrote:
Apart from a few extensions and extrapolations, this was a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel, and yards better than the earlier movie. I found it absorbing; the local PBS station showed it entire beginning at 11 at night and I stayed up half the night; I literally couldn't stop watching. Its only big fault is that the triffids look entirely unthreatening, as they did in the movie--walking plants in movies never work--and so the triffid gun seems rather silly. But that's the least of the story. The sense of imminent menace around every corner in the middle of social collapse is strongly conveyed. Nobody can beat the British at this kind of thing.
This is the best ever version of this famous science fiction novel. Even the choice of John Duttine as Bill Masen is very close to how I imagined him to look like. An average 36 year old man, who is lying in hospital, with his eyes bandaged up. This was the result of a Triffid sting. In the 1962 film, we do not find out why Bill Masen has this treatment! The triffids themselves are spot on! in detail and you see the sting lash out about 10 feet long.That is how John Wyndham describes them. So the BBC and Douglas Livingstone ,got this spot on! and we see Bill Masen as a child experiencing his first Triffid in his back garden. This DVD that I now have, has been eagerly awaited by myself. The opening music, is composed and conducted by Christopher Gunning. and is very stirring. every part of the dialogue was also as spoken in the book, (Yes I have read the book) and I know just how the story should unfold on the screen. It is a pity that widescreen TV's did not exist in 1981! as this would of been a great widescreen production. This series was in 6 parts by the way.
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