Having killed off his main character - that of Quatermass in the series aired immediately after the end of the ITV strike in the autumn of 1979 - I guess for a time Nigel Kneale was a left a little like a canoeist without a paddle... i.e. up the creek! And thus in Kinvig he tried his hand at a blend of comedy mixed with sci-fi. Sadly, in my opinion it didn't quite work.

Sure, the series has its funny moments, but the overall humour was weak and wasn't to my taste; and to add insult to injury as it were, canned laughter is used as well - yuck! The storyline was in my opinion pretty weak as well with a totally bizarre ending that left me thinking "well is that it then?" There are some barbs at some of the more way-out UFO/conspiracy theory followers that are funny at times, but these are pretty weak and not that obvious.

However, it's not all bad: Kinvig does have a few redeeming features. The special effects used were for the time very advanced: check out the lasers used when the alien ship external door opens to allow Kinvig to enter - cool even by today's standards! Oh, and of course for the testosterone-charged amongst us, Prunella Gee's costumes (or rather lack of them!) have a certain appeal too!

Network have come in for some stick in the past regarding their minimalist features on their DVDs, but this one comes with a very informative and well-researched booklet which is almost worth the purchase alone.

Overall then, not one of Nigel Kneale's best writings by a long way, but it has some appealing qualities and an excellent booklet bundled with the DVD.

Tony Haygarth is Des Kinvig, a repair man with little in the way of a work ethic who is chosen by aliens from Mercury to help them against the Xux.
One cannot help feel that Nigel Kneale was writing this with his tongue in his cheek and having a dig at UFO watchers, the first episode has many examples of Des' friend Jim's wide eyed amazement over UFO's in Buckingham Palace,"everyone saw them" and the UFO's he missed because he was in the town the day before. Kneale also has the aliens originally coming from Atlantis but fleeing to Mercury when Atlantis was destroyed. A great way of getting as many conspiracy theories as he can together. It is also an unveiled dig at those who believed Venus was inhabited by aliens, "too bloody hot" then explaining the reason for moving to Mercury, which is hotter, is that it is hollow with an inland sea. Jim is the archetypal believe anything UFOnaut and this confirms several of his beliefs.
Prunella Gee is good as Miss Griffin who appears in her Earth disguise as a constantly complaining customer, and council temp and, most important, in a series of skimpy "futuristic" outfits. She brings her 3 weird ship mates and a heavily disguised Simon Williams with her through the 7 episodes.
As a comedy it is not side splitting and the canned laughter is annoying but it does bring back many memories. Linking Des' struggle against the local council to an alien conspiracy to manufacture humanoid replicas and to bend metals like cutlery to starve people, and bend keys to lock people out of their houses and cars is clever. The speed at which anything slightly odd, no matter how inocuous becomes an obvious sign of an Alien conspiracy is well handled.
There are a few digs at what are seen as classic Alien contact signs, cars breaking down and loss of memory.
For those like me who saw the original it is a nostalgia trip and a departure for Nigel Kneale who is one of the most important figures in TV fantasy. There are even some dream sequences where creatures similar to Kneale's insect like Martians from Quatermass and the Pit appear.
You also get a well presented booklet on the history of the series. Well done Network for getting 2 Nigel Kneale gems out this month, Beasts and Kinvig.