michael-leacy Having just viewed all three series for the first time, I'm surprised that every reviewer seems to love Season 1 and hates Seasons 2 and 3. To be honest, I can't see much of a shift in quality between the three. I would probably agree that the first series is the best - but only just. I think that Season 3 is almost as good. Season 2 - apart from the excellent "Light of London" is largely a disaster, settling into an almost comfortable 'everyday' life-style which just feels too safe. Season 3 pulls the rug out from all that by being continuously threatening with the heroes moving from place to place with no sense of any roots. A third season with them happily working the land would have just sent the show down the tubes. Much of the second half of Season 1 also suffers from this "happy" community syndrome as well (excepting the harrowing "Law and Order" episode). Season 3 has some duff episodes as well, but then all 3 seasons do, but a number of very hard-hitting ones such as "Mad Dog" and the haunting "Last Laugh" - as adult as the series ever got. Yes, Jenny has become very annoying and shockingly willing to leave her son behind, while the character of Ruth (one of the best) is written out without explanation. Overall - good and entertaining to watch (perhaps just once though) - but patchy throughout.

stephen-alford1 What an incredible impact this series had on me as a nine year old in 1975. To me it was absolutely terrifying the way it depicted the total collapse of civilisation. The airliners taking off from Heathrow during the credits really illustrated perfectly how a killer virus would be spread right round the planet. The Oriental scientist at the start carried the plague overseas - was this a deliberate ploy by his government because they knew their own country was doomed? Or was the plague slow acting at the start and he didn't know he was infected? Jenny's doctor friend said that the disease was a mutant virus. That suggests to me it changed very quickly and started killing much quicker as it spread worldwide. You seen people dead behind the wheel of their vehicles meaning it killed very quickly at times. I would expect the towns and cities to look just like early morning - cars lined neatly outsides houses and in driveways and shops and factories locked up, because people would simply be dead in their homes. Wouldn't cities be gloomy and terrifying without street lighting and illumination from homes and shops? Obviously the rats and other vermin would be widespread. Pets would become feral again no doubt. Do you think towns and cities would ever be accessible again? How long would it take for nature to reclaim the built up areas? Just think, all round the world would be virtually silent with vast cities with only a handful of stunned, terrified people in them.Another thing, in Survivors you seen Greg, Abby and Jenny using petrol pumps to fill up cars they acquired. Think about it, nowadays that would be impossible because you need to get activation from an attendant's computerised screen/till and obviously the power would be gone. How could you get fuel? Computers and advancing technology if anything has made us MORE vulnerable. If society collapsed we'd be completely at a loss in many ways, much more so than when Survivors was on.With all the corpses lying dead, wouldn't other diseases be on the rise? That would be disastrous for new born babies because they wouldn't be innoculated in a post plague world.So, so many questions. Survivors is probably the best post plague apocalyptic series I've ever seen.

Robski The Survivors portrayed a vision of a post apocalyptic society coming to terms with itself. A virus had wiped out the vast majority of the earth population and those who were left had to come to terms with their predicament and "survive".There were three distinct series, the first centred around three characters, Greg, Jenny and Abby, and their struggle to come to terms with their situation. The second saw Abbey leave and a community set up with Charles Vaughn and a group of others, which ultimately failed and the third saw the survivors branch out to try to unite everyone who had survived as some sort of federal government.The first series was excellent the final series was weak, the whole concept got lost halfway through to be honest as writers other than Terry Nation got involved.Although good this was by no means a classic overall, even though the first series was.IF Survivors is your cup of tea then I would recommend The Last Train which was pretty good.Survivors was always rumoured to be coming back for a fourth series set on a boat between Scotland and Norway but nothing materialised.It is probably just as well.

spook-15 This series was first shown on peak-time on Sundays on B.B.C. 1 (the prime channel) and regularly attracted audiences in millions including a precocious ten year old (me!) and his siblings. The reason was simple: it was the best adult oriented S.F. drama series the B.B.C. had ever made. They have never made anything better since. And it was very powerful, very realistic, completely believable, terrifyingly accurate and very scary on a psychological "what if?" level. Characters behaved in the way that people behave in real crises (such as civil wars) when the veneer of civilisation falls away: some try to grab power, some become natural leaders, some want to be led, others give up in despair and kill themselves. The series didn't flinch from showing all that or sugar coat the pill - and was much the better for it. The B.B.C. had the pick of the best T.V. and stage character actors around to cast it, plots never plumbed the depths of cliche, stories and themes were rarely if ever neatly resolved. It made a huge impact on the British national consciousness: episodes were being talked about in offices, factories and school playgrounds for days afterwards. If you consider that it was broadcast before anyone had ever heard of A.I.D.S., H.I.V., B.S.E., C.J.D. or G.M.O.s then I think it fair to say it was way ahead of it's time. And, sadly, like a lot of the finest T.V. produce of the B.B.C. and independent T.V. in Britain of the 1970s and 1980s - nowhere is it available on video.