A vintage British sci-fi serial involving the tracking of mysterious signals from space.

‘A glimpse across a weird threshold, on the rim of space where there should be nothing but eternal, frozen darkness. Yet where there was something more...’

Reporter Tom Lambert decides to reinvestigate the bizarre events of a decade earlier concerning the ‘cosmic noise’. Believing the whole truth was never revealed, he tracks down the one man who knows it: retired astrophysics professor Dr Hayward Petrie. Told in flashbacks, the story unfolds from Petrie’s recordings of the time when he experienced things that made him doubt his own sanity...

Invited to visit his old colleague Campbell McLaren, who is in charge of a radio telescope on a remote Hebridean island, Petrie asks students Clifford Brown and Elizabeth Ryder to join him. McLaren has been studying cosmic radiation, and has detected an unusual pattern of signals, apparently being transmitted by an intelligence beyond Earth. Arriving on Scara, the trio hear the signals for themselves, and while exploring the island, Clifford and Elizabeth discover a mysterious cylindrical object buried on the beach.

What is this peculiar, glowing cylinder, and how is it connected to the radio signals emanating from deep space? As its contents – and awesome capabilities – are revealed, its terrifying purpose becomes clear...

First broadcast in 1961 on the BBC Home Service, this six-part space adventure by Peter Elliott Hayes stars Felix Felton as Dr Petrie, David Spenser as Tom Lambert, Graydon Gould as Clifford Brown and Elaine MacNamara as Elizabeth Ryder.

Production credits

Written by Peter Elliott Hayes

Produced by David Davis

Cast

Dr Petrie – Felix Felton

Tom Lambert – David Spenser

Clifford Brown – Graydon Gould

Elizabeth Ryder – Elaine MacNamara

Professor Campbell McLaren – Ian Sadler

Peter Garrick – Harold Reese

Sir Edward Bancroft – William Fox

Mr Morgan/Dr Trevor Hughes – Basil Jones

Lord Hetherton – Charles West

Police Superintendent – Eric Lugg

First broadcast BBC Home Service, 21 April-26 May 1961