NIGEL KNEALE (from Data Dump, issue 103)

The recent death of Nigel Kneale, master SF scriptwriter/TV SF assertions drama pioneer, could not go unremarked - I had intended to give a tenuous link to DD's field by noting the poetic use of implicit metaphor in the Quatermass series, and particularly the interlacing of folklore and SF in 'Q & The Pit' (which also in its unpreachy exploration of the roots of "social cleansing" is a paradigm of SF's ability to explore the ambiguities of humanity's self-encounters, dark as well as bright). But I am grateful for J C Hartley's reminder of a directer link - that in Q4, as the compelled young make pilgrimage to the stone circles to be harvested by the aliens, they sing a folk/nursery rhymeish chant, "Ringstone Round".