NIGEL “QUATERMASS” KNEALE’S one attempt at comedy, perhaps wisely. Eponymous repairman TONY HAYGARTH owns a crappy electrical repair shop, helped/hindered by his mate COLIN “THE OTHER LESTRADE” JEAVONS and cosy wife PATSY ROWLANDS. One day, attractive PRUNELLA GEE moves in upstairs, causing palpitations in Tony and Col, but her standoffishness is baffling until Tone discovers she’s actually – of course! – an alien from the planet Mercury, surviving on said planet by living underground. Hilarity ensues, naturally, over the teacakes and inter-planetary tittle-tattle. Prunella resembles Barbarella-style creature, i.e. almost naked. No wonder Tone joins her for a turn around the galaxy. First she wants his help to save her planet from hostile forces, but then falls in love with him and wants him to marry her and be king of Mercury. She even gives him a special talisman to rub when he wants to contact her, except it’s disguised as a two-pence piece, so frequently gets lost/accidentally spent with more of that hilarity just around the corner. Whole thing never properly resolved.
