HIVE MENTALITY (THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS)

John Wyndham's 'The Midwich Cuckoos' is a classic of British science fiction.

Published in 1957, its admirers have included Margaret Atwood and Dan Rebellato.

It has inspired three BBC radio adaptations in 1982, 2003 and 2017 respectively, four movies and now a TV series.

Director Wolf Rilla and his fellow screenwriters Stirling Silliphant and Ronald Kinnock first turned it into the 1960 horror film 'The Village of the Damned' with George Sanders and Barbara Shelley.

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It was such a critical and commercial success, it spawned the vastly inferior 1964 sequel 'Children of the Damned' by Anton M Leader.

In 1994, the plot of Thai director Niratasai Kanjareuk's sci-fi horror film 'Blackbirds at Bangpieng' borrowed heavily from Wyndham's novel.

A year later, John Carpenter tried his hand at a movie adaptation, directing Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, Mark Hamill and Linda Kozlowski in a US remake of 'Village of the Damned'.

Carpenter's film shifted the action from rural England to Northern California.

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However it flopped with audiences and critics, with Carpenter later admitting it was a film he had little passion for but felt contractually obliged to make for Universal Pictures.

Apart from the three radio adaptations of Wyndham's novel which attracted the likes of Bill Nighy, Sarah Parrish, Clive Merrison, Charles Kay and William Gaunt to their casts, there haven't been any direct adaptations of the novel.

So fair play to Royal Shakespeare Company associate director and writer David Farr for having the courage to bring the tale back to its English roots in a seven part miniseries for Sky Max.

Farr has recruited three accomplished TV directors Alice Troughton, Jennifer Perrott and Borkur Sigborsson to the cause, with Sasha Hails, Laura Lomas and Namsi Khan joining him as screenwriters.

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And from the very opening moments it is clear just how much reverence Farr has for Wyndham's novel, even if he makes a few changes in his contemporary adaptation.

The big change is Keeley Hawes' character Dr Susannah Zellaby.

Her child psychologist replaces the elderly, educated gentleman Gordon Zellaby in Wyndham's novel who grasps the predicament the village finds itself.

In Farr's version of 'The Midwich Cuckoo's,' Zellaby is very much central in the strange events that unfold in her village.

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Before the shocking events that befall Midwich, Farr takes time to introduce us to many of the central characters and goes back five years.

Susannah is the mother of Synnove Karlsen's Cassie Stone who, it is hinted, has been wrestling with mental health problems.

Max Beesley's DCI Paul Haynes is married to Jade Harrison's Deborah Haynes who is expecting.

Paul has a fractious relationship with her sister, Lara Rossi's Jodie Blake but they are trying to be civil for the sake of Deborah.

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Mark Dexter's local Conservative politician Stewart McLean is having an extra-marital affair with his aide, Anneika Rose's Amrita Chohhan.

Aisling Loftus' Zoe Moran and Ukweli Roach's Sam Clyde are newcomers to the village, purchasing their new home from Rebekah Staton's friendly estate agent Mary-Ann Phillips.

Rather ominously, Mary-Ann reminds them of a Midwich tradition that new homeowners should go through the front door backwards for good luck.

So what does Sam forget to do? Yeah, you guessed it.

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As the couple celebrate their new home by undressing and having sex, one of their neighbours Hannah Tointon's Rachel Saunders spots them from a window.

Suddenly there are a number of power surges in parts of Midwich which cause lights and TVs to flicker.

Inside a zone of three or four streets around the local prep school, everyone blacks out including Zoe and Sam, Rebecca, Stewart and Amrita, Amanda and Jodie and Cassie.

Susannah, however, is not in Midwich.

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While her daughter and neighbours succumb to the unusual phenomenon, she's in London on a disappointing date and is shocked to encounter on her return a security cordon has been erected around Midwich.

Concerned for Cassie's welfare, she sneaks into the village and straying into the impacted zone, suddenly feels feint and collapses.

Susannah is pulled immediately from the zone and is medically examined, while Paul tries to handle Cherrelle Skeete's Bryony Cummings who has been assigned to Midwich by the Government.

The following morning the electrical phenomenon impacting Midwich stops and those caught in it emerge from their state of slumber - everyone except Paul's wife Deborah who is overcome by fumes in her kitchen and passes away despite having CPR administered.

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The big twist for everyone else who survives is that every woman of childbearing age who was unconscious during the power surges discovers she is pregnant.

The government takes great interest in each pregnancy with Samuel West's Home Office mandarin Bernard Westcott ordering Bryony and Paul to ensure residents sign the Official Secrets Act.

Offered the chance to have an abortion, Cassie, Zoe, Rachel, Jodie, Mary-Ann and other locals opt to go ahead with their pregnancies.

The women's waters also break at the same time, with each child born on the same day.

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Amrita's pregnancy, however, goes unnoticed because she managed to slip away from Midwich after everyone regained consciousness.

While the rest of the mothers raise the children in the village, Amrita remains under the radar.

However when she and her daughter, Jiyan Kaur Deol's Sunny turn up one day in Midwich, the rest of the kids start behaving oddly.

It soon becomes clear to Susannah and Paul that a form of telepathy or hive mentality exists among the Midwich children.

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And when some of them start to use their powers to punish their parents by forcing them to injure themselves, fears grow that something much worse is to come.

Farr and his fellow writers Hails, Lomas and Khan have crafted a series that really understands the power of Wyndham's central concept - that menacing children can be one of the scariest things in horror fiction.

Along with directors Troughton, Perrott and Sigborsson, they construct a show that overcomes its obvious budget constraints by deploying old fashioned scare tactics.

And for the most part, they do it really well.

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A lot of that is down to the outstanding child actors they have recruited - Deol, Billie Gadson as Evie Stone, Erin Ainsworth as Lily-Grace Phillips, Dexter Dol Ansell as David Saunders and especially, Scarlett Leigh as Hannah Moran who all do a very good line in creepy.

Adiel Magaji also provides a more nuanced performance as Jodie's slightly different son Nathan.

Meanwhile among the adults, Beesley, Rossi, Roach, Skeete, Karlsen, Rose, Tointon and Lewis Reeves as her fractious husband Curtis Saunders turn in sturdy performances.

But it is Hawes, Loftus, Staton and West who provide the standout performances.

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Farr and his team of writers use Wyndham's tale to the current debate on the control women have over their bodies during the Roe versus Wade controversy.

However the notion of a village in a Government ordered lockdown will also strike a chord with audiences in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

At times, despite their best efforts, the drama drags.

Seven episodes feels just a little too much for Sky Max's adaptation.

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But if 'The Midwich Cuckoos' could benefit from having at least one episode shaved off it, it is still a pretty effective adaptation nevertheless.

Farr has done a pretty decent job adapting and updating Wyndham's novel.

There is enough in the miniseries to keep you invested and if he can somehow find a way of returning to the story fur a second outing, you wouldn't quibble.

('The Midwich Cuckoos' was broadcast on Sky Max from June 2-July 21, 2022)