Quatermass and The Pit - Parodies

Parodies

A 1959 episode of The Goon Show, a BBC radio comedy series, parodied Quatermass and the Pit. The episode, "The Scarlet Capsule", was written by Spike Milligan, and used the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound effects made for the television serial. In the episode, some workmen employed by the government's Dig Up the Roads Plan for Congesting Traffic Scheme unearth an ancient skull ("Must be a woman ... the mouth's open."). Professor Ned Quartermess, a.k.a. Neddie Seagoon (Harry Secombe), sceptical of claims that the remains might be unexploded German skulls from World War II, discovers a fossilized Irish stew, and then uncovers a strange scarlet capsule containing the fossilized remains of three serge suits and the bones of a bowler hat. Willium "Mate" Cobblers hears a voice saying "Minardor". Several people are struck down by flying Irish stews, and Quartermess becomes convinced there is a poltergeist at work, and starts evacuating the local population—including Peter Sellers as a woman whose seductive voice causes the script (according to announcer Wallace Greenslade) to be heavily censored. Eventually the scheming Hercules Grytpype-Thynne (Sellers) persuades Quartermess to blow up the capsule — with his sidekick Count Jim Moriarty (Milligan), whose life he has coincidentally insured for a large sum, tied up inside. But the blast blows everyone up — at least until the next episode — and a BBC announcer (Andrew Timothy) reports that the capsule was actually a London Underground train containing three striking Tube workers that had been shunted into a siding and forgotten. "The Mystic word 'Minardor' was in fact 'Mind the doors'. Not a very good ending, but at least it's tidy, don't you think?" He is then struck down by an Irish stew ("And there's more where that came from, Tim!" remarks Major Bloodnok (Sellers) ). The episode has been released on several LP and CD compilations by EMI, but due to copyright restrictions the show's musical interludes have been removed and the closing playout heavily abridged. A more complete version has been broadcast a number of times on BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC7).

The serial was also parodied by the BBC television comedy series Hancock's Half Hour, in an episode entitled "The Horror Serial", transmitted the week following the final episode. In it, Tony Hancock has just finished watching the final episode of Quatermass and the Pit, and becomes convinced that there is a crashed Martian space ship buried at the end of his garden. This episode no longer exists in the BBC's archives but a private collector's audio-only recording has been discovered.