The Big Pull Part Six
Saturday is late this week. Time is running out for the future of mankind in the final instalment of this lost BBC serial.
The Big Pull Part Six
Written by Robert Gould and directed by Terence Dudley
Illustration by Robert Hammond as seen in A Message from the Stars: The A for Andromeda Story.
The chimes of Big Ben tell us it is four o’clock. A reporter in a nearby phone box tells Jack back at the Globe to standby for a special edition: after five hours, Sir Robert Nailer is leaving Westminster.
Nailer returns to his office and greets his secretary, Pam, she has rang both his wife and Dr Tullis, who will be here as soon as he can. Royston, the Jodrell Bank telescope duty officer, wants to hear from him immediately.
A BBC announcer explains that the process of fusion - where one person is absorbed into the body of another and takes over his physical identity - can be broken down and reversed, which occurred with Bruton-Anderson [See Part Five]. Photographs of the remaining 31 men will be published. It is emphasised they are not criminals, but victims and need to be located. The Prime Minister will broadcast to the nation at 6pm.1
Nailer tells Tullis that Royston reports the signal from space is building up in strength. Are they too late to stop further attacks, asks Tullis? Nailer’s calculations are that the last successful attack was 8.30 yesterday morning. The freeing of Bruton meant the pattern was disrupted at 7pm last night. It is now just after 4pm and the signal is now active again 21 hours after the failed attack. Does that mean they have now reduced their numbers on Earth to 16 so they can start again? The signal may be building to a strength relative to that number, Tullis suggests. Excited, Nailer asks Pam on the intercom to get signal readings for the last 36 hours. It is climbing at a rate of 5.7 cycles per minute. To reach the strength of the signal last time the time the attack claimed sixteen victims, Nailer calculates this gives them ten and a half hours. The next attack will be 2.30am. But Nailer becomes glum again. With the photos only just published, what hope have they got in just a few hours?
At a TV studio, the Prime Minister, seen from behind and with his hands are on a script, explains why the photographs are being published and asks for calm.2
A front-page newspaper is revealed: ‘Attacks Halted. Read the Facts. Find These Men.’ The photos of the men are underneath.3
Night has fallen. The combined intelligence of Sklorski and Weatherfield is standing on a road side and reacts as a lorry appears. The driver stops when he spots a body lying in the middle of the road. He goes to investigate. Sklorski-Weatherfield gives a silent signal. As the ‘body’ attacks the driver, another man appears out of the shadows and stabs him in the back with a metal fencing stave. The driver screams and is dragged off the road. The last thing he sees is his lorry being driven away by the missing men.
In an army tent, a corporal shakes awake two men – there’s a general alert. Parade in five minutes. They have to ‘play ring-o-rosies round the radio telescope.’ A private has lost his bet – the other knew that the signal was building up for something.
A line of soldiers are being instructed by Major Harford. The rule of three is to be rigidly observed. [Only couples are vulnerable to fusion.] Should the attack succeed, half the victims will try to escape. They are surrounding the telescope to prevent anyone from leaving it. This time it must be impossible.
In the gantry area of central control, three armed soldiers have got their attention glued on two technicians. A loud speaker announcement declares that anyone not scheduled for full emergency duties must report to the main forecourt by 1.25am.4
Royston has been joined in his duty office at the telescope by Lieutenant Mackie and a sergeant. He is speaking to Nailer (who is at home in his hallway, preparing to leave). The double pattern is back on the signal, which is just what Nailer has expected. He asks Royston how’s morale? Not bad. Before Nailer leaves to join Operation Control, he is surprised and pleased to learn that his housekeeper Mrs Stone is spending the night here with his wife. Mrs Stone’s son Eddie is one of the missing men, but his picture isn’t in the newspapers. He’d be better off dead, she thinks… Lady Nailer advises her not to think about it.
A police constable reports that the hijacked lorry has been found abandoned a mile and a half from Jodrell Bank, just off the A535 between Holmes Chapel and Goostrey.
Guards close to the perimeter are getting jumpy; a corporal threatens to punch a private if he glances at his watch again.
We see groups of three soldiers, officers and sergeants patrolling the perimeter, 150 yards from the telescope. An officer talks to a corporal by a danger sign which is being used to keep out tourists. The private wants to ask a question but won’t. The officer knows what it is – can they shoot? The officer suspects they’ll find out the hard way. Just keep their eyes skinned. He glances at the telescope – especially on that thing, he mutters…
Inside the main gates, an army communications van sits amidst other army vehicles. A machine gun post has been set up. Troops are moving around the flood lit forecourt before the building and the base of the telescope. Two soldiers are closing the main gate.5
Inside the van there are two radio operators. The second tells Major Harford that the area and block checks have been completed. The first one reports that Sergeant Banner at road block four has picked up a vagrant. He had been sleeping in a barn when some men came in and stole bales of hay. They smelled of petrol. Harford testily dismisses the report and tells the first operator to inform the police. The petrol was probably his own stinking breathe. Harford’s aide appears at the door of the van: all perimeter guards are in position and are completely surrounding the outer area. Harford now speaks to Mackie in the telescope duty office. Everything is set up.
Nailer is now in the ‘Alert’ operations room with Nant, Collins and ‘important civilians’ but is speaking with Royston on the phone. The signal is climbing at the predicted rate. Nailer stays he’ll stay on line with Royston from now on.
At his desk, Royston watches the dials and oscilloscope on his monitor screen connected with control room ‘A’. The technicians and soldiers are showing nerves and tension. The same is true with the men manning the equipment in the gantry area below the control rooms and the technicians in the computer room, one of whom is checking link 8.
It is now 2.29am. The men in ‘A’ brace themselves - ‘Here it comes!’ The gantry floor technicians are appalled by the readings on the dials. As Mackie counts down the seconds, Royston is horrified - if this is the build up, they’ve never seen anything like it before. Major Harford and the radio operators are listening in to the conversation.
By the danger sign, the Corporal and two privates have their gun barrels at the ready. Beyond in the darkness, it is silent, and still. Then something that looks like a fire can be seen in the distance. Then another. And another. A circle of fires. They are all over the place.
In the radio van news of the fires are coming in. A van pulls up outside and Harford’s aide - a 2nd lieutenant - rushes in. They are surrounded by twenty five fires. Harford yells at the operators to get onto the fire service. Shots are heard. Harford is startled - what the hell is going on?
We see a blazing barn. Mobile patrol north – which is an army land rover with driver and two armed soldiers – Thorn and Lake – pull up close to the barn. As they radio in a report, the soldiers are shot down. The driver tries to warn HQ but he is silenced as a rifle butt smashes into his skull. Sklorski and five missing men, take the guns and the land rover.6
Harford is breaking under the strain of these sudden events. 31 fires are now reported by Harford’s aide. Harford uses the panel phone to talk to Mackie.
The duty office is also busy. Royston asks Nailer what is going on. None of the things they expected from the signal have happened. It’s gone completely haywire. Mackie tells Royston and Nailer about the thirty one fires.
A missing man sprays bullets at the perimeter guards and then hit the floor to avoid the returning fire. The corporal and privates have no idea what is happening. The perimeter officer is horrified by the sight of his men being cut down along the fence. He too takes a bullet in the leg. A sergeant close by tries to help him, but there are shadowy figures in the trees close by. Troops in the gate area raise their rifles, looking for a target. They are hit by more gun fire by shadowy shapes using the trees for protection.
Harford is still on the phone. Nobody knows who the aggressor is. His aide reports there are casualties all over the place. Harford demands he tells them on the phone what is happening – warn them! Suddenly shots rings out from outside. Harford, the aide and the radio operators are shot dead.
Mackie has lost contact with the van and Royston relates this to Nailer. They can’t see or hear a thing what is going on outside the telescope.
In the ‘Alert’ room, Nant has lost contact on his phone. Collins is on another. Nailer knows what is happening. The missing men are trying to take over the telescope. They have got to be kept out. Royston agrees and makes an announcement on the speakers that they are being attacked from outside.
In the forecourt, the land rover driven by three missing men smashes through the gates. This is watched by the wounded perimeter officer and sergeant. A few survivors try to enter the gates but are mowed down as ten missing men run from the trees and into the building. An army lorry containing more missing men arrive and they leap out, unloading boxes of ammunition.
Royston is very tense; the monitors have gone blank. He can hear shots – they are in the building. Mackie and the Serjeant have gone to see what has happened. More shots.
Nailer tells Royston to get out while he can. He isn’t sure he can do. Gunfire. Nailer concludes that the missing men are now in control of the radio telescope.
A missing man stands over Royston’s corpse at the duty desk and pushes him out of the chair. Bodies of technicians and guards lie on the floor of control room ‘A’. Two missing men sit by the monitor, the signal noise is very loud. Missing men drag out the bodies of dead technicians from the gantry and take their place at the controls. One body is simply pushed off a gantry. The time is 3.20am.
Nant is on one phone and Collins is on the other while aides are busy and the VIPs hover nervously in the background. How can they get rid of the thirty-one missing men? Collins asks Nant who is taking over command at the telescope? It is Colonel Law. Collins tells whoever he is speaking to on the phone.
In the light of the early morning, troops move about the perimeter and the main gate. An ambulance is standing by, and Nailer arrives in a land rover. He meets Colonel Law and his aide, Captain Hanway, outside of the radio van. Law is convinced they have the missing men surrounded. ‘You know what I’d do if the decision were up to me? I’d blow that whole fearsome contraption sky high.’7
Nant is addressing the VIPs. He is confident that Nailer has been wrong about there not being any trouble unless the number of the missing was reduced to 16. There are 31 missing men out there and lethally efficient. They are all now in one place. He wants to move in and wipe them out. The first VIP disagrees – they are victims. Collins isn’t sure. The second VIP asks if he can understand how the men’s relatives must be feeling? He is basically advocating execution. Nant reacts and looks at Collins, who drops his gaze.
In the main forecourt and entrance, someone moves across the forecourt. He is in a pitiful state, dragging his feet, his eyes glazed…
Nailer and Law are told by a second lieutenant that one of the missing men is coming out. They leave the van and watch his shambling approach. Nailer identifies him as a missing man. Law asks what the hell can they do? Is he dangerous? Nailer wonders if he is giving himself up… A second man emerges from the building, equally dishevelled.
Nailer realises this is how they are going to reduce their numbers. Nailer becomes excited – get everybody out of this area and blast the whole place out of existence! Law protests: they won’t agree. Nailer becomes anxious – they have to agree. No sign of any more, says the captain. Law asks if this is not a slow and total surrender? Nailer glares at him. When the fifteenth man emerges, the whole process will have started building up again, and they will have no hope in hell in stopping it. Law goes to see what he can do. Nailer approaches one of the ‘poor devils’ and asks if he knows who he is. The man stares blankly. Nailer tells the officer close by to have them taken to a hospital – but under guard.
The second VIP is not convinced by Nailer’s theory when he is told - would they reduce their numbers so obviously after launching a surprise attack? An aide picks up the phone and hands it to Nant. It is Nailer. Nant asks if the emerging missing men disproves his theory rather than reinforces it? Nailer disagrees. They are playing for time by giving them their rejects – eight in over an hour now. They are using them to trigger our sense of morality to prevent their total destruction. ‘And their destruction is the only thing that can save us!’ Nant looks at Collins and hesitates. He can’t make the final decision alone.
By a flight of stairs near the computer room and control room ‘A’, the nineth missing man who has a shoulder wound falls down a flight of stairs. The tenth walks past, taking no notice. Nine drags himself outside into the courtyard.
The officer with Nailer and Law has now counted ten men coming out of the telescope – why is it so spasmodic? Nailer shakes his head.
Any missing man is whipped into an ambulance by soldiers and is taken away – number nine has to be picked up when Nailer watches his condition in horror… The telephone rings. Nailer returns to the van.
Law is taking a message. Bomber command has been alerted. An aircraft will be within striking range within eight to ten minutes. No final decision has been taken. The order, says Laws, is to get everyone away from the area if possible.
As the bomber takes off, the army evacuates Jodrell bank in a montage of shots. The eleventh missing man emerges, and two officers grab him and bundle him into an ambulance. The bomber pilot is now in position awaiting instructions. The land rover driver is trying to contact HQ by radio.
By now, thirteen missing men have been rescued. Nailer shouts at the officers to get in with the missing men and they obey and drive off. The land rover driver still can’t get through to base. Nailer implores him to keep trying. The second land rover, driven by a sergeant joins him and says the bomber can see the area but cannot get in touch. He uses his own radio mike and gets a response. As the fourteenth man emerges. Nailer says tell them to drop the bomb! They make a frantic dash to grab the man and rush him over to the first land rover. Nailer tells him to get out of here and goes over to the second land rover.
The radio van is in a new position away from the telescope. The second lieutenant is watching through binoculars as the fifteenth man emerges into the courtyard. Nailer arrives and joins Colonel Law and two new radio operators inside. Law is still on the phone in a state of exasperation trying to speed up the bombing. What are they waiting for? Nailer agrees. ‘Tell them to blow the place to pieces – now!’ Law cannot do anymore. The binocular officer spots the fifteenth man. Nailer declares it is too late. It is coming to 8.45. Just about five and a quarter hours since the last attack on the telescope. Once again the time lapse has halved itself. ‘They’re back to sixteen. Nobody can stop them now.’ Nailer leaves the van and joins the lieutenant with the binoculars. He notes how slowly the fifteenth man is emerging. Nailer wonders where is that plane – there’s still a few seconds.
The missing man walks slowly across the forecourt. From above, we look down into the telescope bowl very fast. There is a sudden shriek of noise. The two missing men watch the oscilloscope erratic noise pattern in the control room. The noise suddenly stops. No sound or movement. There is a close up of Sklorski.
In the radio van, Nant can be heard on the phone trying to get a response. Colonel Law and a radio operator lie dead. The second radio operator and the captain are missing.
Outside, we can see a pair of binoculars on the ground. Next to it, the outstretched hand of Sir Robert Nailer. We hear approaching voices, panicky soldiers, counting the dead, wanting to know where their mates have vanished? Private Moss becomes hysterical and runs away. They are horrified - Nailer is dead. A sergeant looks inside the van and finds the bodies. Private Foster realises an attack has happened - that damned place. Another corporal reports more deaths and vanished soldiers. The plane approaches. Forster becomes hysterical - it’s too late!8
We hear the explosion, but we are looking at Nailer’s body as the credits roll up to the designer’s credit…
Then…
Outside the Nailer household, a chauffer driver car pulls up and an officer gets out and rings the front door. Lady Nailer lets him in. A man has been watching. He turns round - it is Nailer-Binocular officer. He has that same expression we saw on Anderson-Bruton. He walks away from the house…
Written by Robert Gould.
Directed by Terence Dudley.
The End
Cast in order of appearance
Stanley Walsh (Peter), Ian Gray (Jack v/o), William Dexter (Sir Robert Nailer), June Tobin (Lady Nailer), Laura Graham (Pam), John Graham (Radio newsreader), Ray Roberts (Dr Tullis), Meadows White (Prime Minister), Jean Leo (Ada), Edward Kelsey and Michael Segal (Pub customers), Frank Fenter (Sklorski-Weatherfield), Paul Bacon (General Nant), Terence Holland (Nant’s aide), Keith Pyott (AVM Collins), Raymond Duparo (Collins’ aide), Harry Littlewood (Corporal), Christopher Coll (Private Cooke), Tom Sheridan (Private Wood), Lewis Wilson (Major Harford/Gantry announcer), Rex Robinson (Harford’s sergeant), Ian Clark (Royston), David Brierley (Lieutenant Mackie), Paul Duval (Mackie’s Sergeant), Jack Gray (OV voices), Joan Frank (Mrs Stone), Tony Carrick (Perimeter Officer), Keith Goodman (1st Operator), Gordon Clyde (2nd Operator), Robert Hunter (Sergeant Banner), Peter Thornton (Harford’s aide), Roger Kemp (Computer technician), Noel Coleman (Colonel Law), Bryan Vaughan (Law’s Aide), Michael Bird and Allan Jeayes (VIPs), David Brewster (Nailer’s jeep driver), Ryan Jelfs (Landrover driver), Donald Webster and Michael Earl (3rd and 4th Operators), Rex Robinson (Private Moss), Stanley Walsh (Sergeant) and John Colin (Private Forster).
Also appearing
George Lee (Technician to speak), Desmond Cullum-Jones (Technician in Computer Room), Malcolm Anderson (Soldier in Computer Room), Syd Della and Roy Denton (Technicians), Tony Mann, David Thomson, Alan Shire (Soldiers), Michael Allan and Brian Gardner (Missing men).
Appearing on film only
Cyril Cross, Brain Proudfoot, David Randall, Charles Vance, Ian Fairbairn, Derek Partridge, Richard Davies and Bernard Egan (Speaking soldiers or police), Christopher Mann, Billy Moss, Johnny Shadow (Voices dubbed on film), Robert Fyfe, John Colin and Tex Fuller (Technicians missing men), Les White, KGJ Allday, Allan Deverene, Alf Wereham, Vincent Wood, Ron Masters, Dick Verschoyle, Douglas Martin (non-speaking extras).
COMING SOON Reflections, unanswered questions and what the press and the audience thought of The Big Pull.
NEXT TIME Softly Softly guest starring… William Hartnell. A murderer? Surely not.
COMING SOONER OR LATER Plots and intrigue and something unusual spotted swimming in the lake… It’s The Monsters, another lost serial from 1962.
Saturday Morning Press sponsors
In Part Five, the Bruton-Anderson fusion (played by Frederick Treves) was faced with both sets of parents. After an emotional and internal struggle, the features of Anderson suddenly reverted to Bruton who couldn’t remember what had happened since it occurred in the control room of Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Anderson is as dead as his body which under went a post mortem, so if the idea was for the dead bodies suddenly to return to life, Anderson won’t.
Once again, we see a real BBC camera (no 3) and a boom operator (A) in shot.
Shot on film, the picture zooms out from an out of focus shot of the centre of the poster to reveal headline and pictures.
These three scenes were done on film. Some of the dialogue was dubbed on afterwards.
This episode has an enormous cast of bit part players and extras, some of whom only appear on film. 54 extras were hired from the Denton de Grey agency, and 19 extras were recruited from the Birmingham Theatre School. Some actors doubled up in the studio either as out of vision voices or not clearly seen.
Stock film of a barn on fire came from the BBC.
Readers of footnotes to the first episode may recall my frustration with how the script is presented when it comes to identifying characters. Here is a good example. Colonel Law’s aide is Captain Hanway, but throughout the rest of his appearances, he is either ‘aide’ or ‘officer’ yet it is clearly the Captain in camera directions. He is only christened Hanway in later dialogue.
The whole of this scene and the closing credits play over Nailer. We only see the boots and legs of the soldiers, all of whom are playing second roles.