- "We'll give you shelter. And you give us hope. That'd be best, don't ya think?"
- ―John
| "Part Two" | |
|---|---|
| Series The Day of the Triffids Season 1, Episode 2 | |
| |
| Air date | September 11th, 1981 |
| Writers | John Wyndham Douglas Livingstone |
| Director | Ken Hannam |
| Producers | David Maloney |
| Starring | John Duttine; Emma Relph; Maurice Colbourne |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Part One |
Next Part Three |
"Part Two" is the second episode of the 1981 mini-series The Day of the Triffids. It first aired simultaneously on BBC1 and ABC Television on September 11th, 1981. The series was re-aired beginning on March 7th, 1984. The episode has been made available on the The Day of Triffids DVD collection released in 2005 in the UK and in the US through BBC Home Video in 2007.
Synopsis
At the hospital, Bill Masen finds Doctor Soames ascending a staircase. The man is frantic and blind. He doesn't understand what is going on other than the fact that he suddenly lost the ability to see. Bill, whose sight is operating perfectly well, tries to calm him down and tells him that he will try and find help. He wanders through the various wings in the hopsital, but the building is largely deserted. In one room he finds a patient calling out to his doctor, asking him to open the blinds. Bill looks down and sees the man's attending physician, Doctor McDonald, lying dead on the floor. He goes back out into the hall and sees a throng of people milling about the bottom of a stair well. They too appear to be blind. He returns to the room where he left Doctor Soames, but the man is nowhere to be found. He steps out onto the balcony and realizes that Soames has leapt to his death. Bill goes out into the streets of London looking for signs of life.
Elsewhere in the city, a woman named Jo Payton gets into her car and begins driving. Like Bill, Jo can see perfectly well. She continues driving until she runs out of petrol. She sees an elderly blind man begin shepherded across the street by a young woman, equally blind. She gets out of her car to see what is the matter when an elderly, bearded man approaches her, asking for help. Jo tries to steady him and helps him to the sidewalk, at which point, the man turns on her and attacks her. He presses her against the hood of her car declaring that she will now be his eyes.
Bill meanwhile begins to wander the outer streets. He comes down an alley where he sees a teenage girl pulling up to her flat. He is surprised to note that she can apparently see as well. He follow the girl inside and finds her father, John, sitting in the living room. John addresses his daughter (whose name is Tina) and hears Bill enter the room. John is blind and so is his wife, Shirley. He is elated to find out that someone other than his daughter has managed to keep their eyesight. Like his wife, John has no idea what is going on. He fears that this mass blindness syndrome is affecting the entire country. He begs Bill to stay with them and to help them adjust. Bill pledges to help, but says that first he must scout the neighborhood to see if anyone else has managed to keep their eyesight.
Triffid attack!
Bill continues wandering the back streets of London. He sees that panic and hysteria has already gripped the masses and people are looting and carrying on in the streets. A gang of drunken hooligans accosts a young blind girl with the intent of violating her. Bill intervenes and the girl manages to run off. His bravery is rewarded by a sharp blow to the stomach. After Bill collapses to the ground, the gang members run off.
He takes a few moments to get his wits together and inspects another empty flat. He finds the bearded blind man attacking Jo Payton. He has her tied to him with a length of chord and is beating her across the back. Bill fights with the man and manages to knock him unconscious. He cuts Jo free and walks her across the street to a nearby pub.
At the pub, the two share a drink and collect their thoughts. Bill asks her if she was out watching the comet pass by on the evening earlier. Jo tells him "no", stating that she was in bed with a hangover. When she awakened, she found that both her father and her maid, Anna, had been struck blind. She went out afterward to get help, but ran out of gas shortly before the incident with the old degenerate. Bill theorizes that it is the lights of the comet which rendered everyone blind.
They refuel Jo's car and drive back to her home at 3 Heath Side. As they approach the front door, they find the maid Anna lying dead on the step with severe lacerations across her face. Bill has seen these kinds of wounds before. Turning around, he sees a Triffid shambling across the yard readying to strike. The man-eating plant lashes out and strikes Bill with its stinger. Bill fights back, picking up a pitchfork and stabbing the Triffid repeatedly until it is dead. He then examines his own wound and finds that he is not in any pain. He surmises that the Triffid must have exhausted all of his venom.
Bill and Jo go into the house and find her father dead on the floor - apparently another victim of the Triffid. As they go back outside, they hear the familiar "clacking" sounds of a second Triffid approaching them. They get inside their car and drive away. Going back into town, they find more Triffids taking advantage of their now-blind prey.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| John Duttine | Bill Masen |
| Emma Relph | Jo Payton |
| Stephen Yardley | John |
| Christina Schofield | Shirley |
| Caroline Fabbri | Tina |
| Jonathan Newth | Doctor Soames |
| Chris Gannon | Patient |
| Max Faulkner | Jo's attacker |
| Bonita Beach | Blind wife |
| Alan Helm | Blind husband |
| Albie Woodington | Gang leader |
| Andrew Paul | Gang member |
| Mario Renzullo | Gang member |
| Susie Fenwick | Blind girl |
| Elizabeth Chambers | Car attacker |
| Morris Barry | Car attacker |
| Bernie Searle | Car attacker |
Notes & Trivia
- Based upon the 1951 novel by John Wyndham.
- This episodes establishes the setting as Northwest London.
- Final appearance of Doctor Soames.
- First television appearance of actor Albie Woodington.