The BBC did a remake of John Wyndam's novel The Day Of The Triffids in 2009. I found it on YouTube and watched it this morning. It's written by Patrick Harbinson and directed by Nick Copus. It's got Dougray Scott, Joely Richardson, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, Eddie Izzard, Jason Priestley, Jenn Murray and Julia Joyce. The triffids are plants from the jungles of Zaire and bioengineered to generate fuel. They're dangerous man eaters that are kept in special farms where they produce oil. That fuel saved the world from global warming and things are fine until there's a massive solar eruption that blinds 95% of the people in the world. Then it's scramble, scramble, scramble as the world falls apart. The triffids get out and start moving about feeding on anyone they can catch. Dougray is one of the lucky few to have sight, he was in a hospital, his eyes all bandaged. Joely is a radio personality and she meets up with Dougray. Eddie was on a plane, asleep, when the flash blinded the rest of the plane. He survives the crash by taking all the life jackets and stuffing him and them into the bathroom. It's just one of many goofy things in the series.
Jason is an ex-Air Force man who tries to help the blind and Eddie joins up with him. They don't believe Dougray, whom they capture, about the triffids. They'll soon learn differently. Eddie takes over and tries to run things. He sends Dougray and Jason off to their doom but that doesn't go so well and they escape. They head for Dougray's father's place stopping at a church where they find Vanessa feeding the blind to the triffids because it's God's will. It also keeps the triffids at bay. Dougray puts a stop to that and Vanessa gets thrown out of the church.
Brian plays Dougray's father and he's got a solution to the triffids. Another triffid which that will fight the old triffids. Jo escapes Eddie and winds up at Brian's big manor house. Dougray winds up there with two little girls he finds along the way, They set up at Brian's to try to manufacture the anti-triffid plant, Jason flies over in a little plane and drops leaflets about a colony on the Isle of Wight. Brian didn't survive the movie, he's killed by the test triffid which is also killed. Poor Eddie shows up and fucks things up until he's killed by the triffids. No one will miss him. Dougray figures out a cure, based on a remedy he'd seen in the jungle when he was a child and they all relocate to the Isle of Wight. Maybe there's hope for humanity but I wasn't caring that much by the end of the three hours.
The program isn't much better than average and it's not something that I needed to see, even though I like to see SF films in general. I've had a gander at the mini-series and I really wouldn't need to see it again. I did like the 1962 British film adaptation which you can see on YouTube also.
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