by OLIVER WAKE

Out of the Unknown Writer: J.B. Priestley; Adapted from (novel): Mordecai Roshwald; Producer: Irene Shubik; Director: Rudolph Cartier

BTVD_Level Seven_1
Set within a survival bunker and missile control base deep underground, Polish writer Mordecai Roshwald’s 1959 novel Level Seven was a grim depiction of the spiralling cold war leading to nuclear apocalypse. The story made no reference to specific nations engaged in the conflict but was cheekily dedicated “To Dwight and Nikita” in reference to Eisenhower and Khrushchev, then the premiers of the USA and USSR respectively.¹ On publication, the novel was highly lauded by the likes of Bertrand Russell and Fred Hoyle, and J.B. Priestley called it “the most powerful attack on the whole nuclear madness that any creative writer has made so far” and began work on a film adaptation.²

BTVD_Level Seven_2
Making enquiries in 1962, Irene Shubik, the story editor on ABC Television’s science fiction anthology Out of this World, found that the film option on the novel precluded any television version. The film version was announced in 1963, to be made by Eliot Martin and Philip Langner in association with the Theatre Guild of New York.³ It’s not clear if this was to use Priestley’s script or an alternative, but either way the project came to nothing. A few years later, Shubik was producing Out of this World’s BBC successor Out of the Unknown, when she was reminded of the novel. The film option had expired and Shubik wrote to Roshwald to express her interest in staging a television adaptation. Having re-read the novel, she told the author that she was “moved practically to tears by it. I do think it is an absolutely marvellous piece of work”.⁴

Mordecai Roshwald, Level Seven (London and Redhill: Ace Books, 1962), p. 2. ↩
Quoted on rear cover of Roshwald, Level Seven. ↩
John Montgomery, ‘Studio News’, The Stage and Television Today, 9 May 1963, p. 14. ↩
Quoted in Mark Ward, Out of the Unknown: A Guide to the Legendary BBC series (Birmingham: Kaleidoscope Publishing, 2004), p. 197. ↩

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by OLIVER WAKE<\/h4>\n
Out of the Unknown<\/em> Writer:<\/strong> J.B. Priestley; Adapted from (novel):<\/strong> Mordecai Roshwald; Producer:<\/strong> Irene Shubik; Director:<\/strong> Rudolph Cartier<\/p>\n
$\"BTVD_Level$
\nSet within a survival bunker and missile control base deep underground, Polish writer Mordecai Roshwald\u2019s 1959 novel Level Seven<\/em> was a grim depiction of the spiralling cold war leading to nuclear apocalypse. The story made no reference to specific nations engaged in the conflict but was cheekily dedicated \u201cTo Dwight and Nikita\u201d in reference to Eisenhower and Khrushchev, then the premiers of the USA and USSR respectively.^{1<\/a><\/sup> On publication, the novel was highly lauded by the likes of Bertrand Russell and Fred Hoyle, and J.B. Priestley called it \u201cthe most powerful attack on the whole nuclear madness that any creative writer has made so far\u201d and began work on a film adaptation.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n}
$\"BTVD_Level$
\nMaking enquiries in 1962, Irene Shubik, the story editor on ABC Television\u2019s science fiction anthology Out of this World<\/em><\/a>, found that the film option on the novel precluded any television version. The film version was announced in 1963, to be made by Eliot Martin and Philip Langner in association with the Theatre Guild of New York.3<\/a><\/sup> It\u2019s not clear if this was to use Priestley\u2019s script or an alternative, but either way the project came to nothing. A few years later, Shubik was producing Out of this World<\/em>\u2019s BBC successor Out of the Unknown<\/em>, when she was reminded of the novel. The film option had expired and Shubik wrote to Roshwald to express her interest in staging a television adaptation. Having re-read the novel, she told the author that she was \u201cmoved practically to tears by it. I do think it is an absolutely marvellous piece of work\u201d.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\nThe rights were acquired and an edited, but still over-long, version of Priestley\u2019s unmade film script went into production as part of Out of the Unknown<\/em>\u2019s second series. Although every other instalment was limited to fifty minutes, a special case was made for Level Seven<\/em> and it was allowed to run to an hour.5<\/a><\/sup> The script eschewed the novel\u2019s diary format and introduced the character of the General to give a human face to the otherwise unseen controlling authority behind Level 7. To be more appropriate to a visual medium, the radio broadcasts of the couple reporting from the devastated surface became a television transmission. Priestley also introduced the setting of the hydroponics room, which became a key location for several scenes in his play, notably the conclusion. This was perhaps wise as it created a distinctive setting, preventing all the action occurring in otherwise similar sets.<\/p>\n
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\nThe script was eventually assigned to Rudolph Cartier to direct, after Shubik\u2019s earlier choices of Ronald Eyre and Charles Jarrott proved, respectively, not interested and not available.6<\/a><\/sup> Cartier had experience with science fiction and grim futuristic visions. Between 1953 and 1959 he had produced the BBC\u2019s three groundbreaking Quatermass<\/em> serials and in 1954 was responsible for the controversial dramatisation of Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/em>. Cartier gave the script the strong production it demanded, and no punches were pulled in its grim conclusion. Cleverly, the production maintained the novel\u2019s ambiguity over the identities of the warring nations, with the large map, on which the progressive destruction of the world is charted, consisting of abstract shapes and markings rather than identifiable countries. Costumes were similarly ambiguous, with the military uniforms not clearly styled on the forces of any one particular nation. <\/p>\n
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\nAfter its initial BBC2 transmission in October 1966, television critics were unanimous in their praise. \u201cA terrifying bit of science fiction, as precisely shaped by Priestly as, in performance, it was manoeuvred by the director, Rudolph Cartier, and acted by [its] cast\u201d, wrote JC Trewin in The Listener<\/em>, who added that \u201cthe tension was inescapable, the excitement incontestable\u201d.7<\/a><\/sup> The Guardian<\/em> admired the play\u2019s \u201cextraordinarily sound structure and steady balance of interest and tension\u201d, as well as its \u201cwell chosen cast\u201d and \u201cintelligent direction\u201d.8<\/a><\/sup> One viewer wrote to the Radio Times<\/em> that Level Seven<\/em> was one of the best instalments of Out of the Unknown<\/em>, finding that \u201cthe settings and photography were perfect.\u201d9<\/a><\/sup> It was repeated on BBC1 in 1967, along with five other highlights of Out of the Unknown<\/em>\u2019s second series.<\/p>\n
As was standard practice in the 1960s, the master videotape of Level Seven<\/em> was wiped for re-use once it had been telerecorded to film for overseas sales. Like the bulk of Out of the Unknown<\/em>, and so many other programmes, these prints were subsequently \u2018junked\u2019 once it was felt they had no further commercial potential, leaving no recordings for posterity. Consequently Level Seven<\/em> was for some years regarded as Out of the Unknown<\/em>\u2019s missing masterpiece and unsubstantiated rumours persisted that a copy existed in private hands. Happily, a 16mm film print of the play was discovered in the archives of German television broadcaster Radio Brennen and returned to the BBC in early 2006.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Oliver Wake 2012<\/p>\n
Originally posted: 30 October 2012.
\n[This piece first appeared in the Programme Notes for the National Film Theatre’s ‘Missing Believed Wiped’ screening of this drama in 2006. It is presented here in expanded form with extra material.]
\nUpdates:
\n4 July 2013: Added Radio Times reference.
\n24 November 2014: Added images.<\/em><\/p>\n
‘Level Seven’ was released on DVD by the BFI<\/a> as part of the Out of the Unknown<\/em> release on 24 November 2014.<\/p>\n

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