The Tripods (TV series)

The Tripods
The Tripods Titles
GenreScience fiction
Based onThe Tripods
by John Christopher
Written by
Directed by
Starring
  • John Shackley
  • Ceri Seel
  • Jim Baker
ComposerKen Freeman
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
Original languagesEnglish, French, Italian, German
No. of series2
No. of episodes25
Production
ProducerRichard Bates
Running time25–30 minutes per episode
Original release
Release15 September 1984 (1984-09-15) –
23 November 1985 (1985-11-23)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Tripods is a television adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods series of novels. It was jointly produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom and the Seven Network in Australia.[1] The music soundtrack was written by Ken Freeman.

Series one of The Tripods, broadcast in 1984, had 13 half-hour episodes written by Alick Rowe, the author of many radio plays, and covers the first book, The White Mountains; the 12-episode second series (1985) written by Christopher Penfold covers The City of Gold and Lead. Although a television script had been written for the third series, it was cancelled by BBC executives Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell due to the adaptation failing in the ratings.[2]

The first series was released on both VHS and DVD. The BBC released Tripods — The Complete Series 1 & 2 on DVD in March 2009.[3]

  1. ^ McGown, Alistair. "Tripods (1984-85)". BFI Screenonline. British Film Institute. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  2. ^ Josie Santomauro, ed. (2011). Autism All-Stars: How We Use Our Autism and Asperger Traits to Shine in Life. Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd. p. 190. ISBN 978-1843101888.
  3. ^ "Tripods — The Complete Series 1 & 2 DVD". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 18 June 2010.