THE KIDS ARE UNITED

BRITISH SF GREAT JOHN WYNDHAM'S CLASSIC NOVEL THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS HAS BEEN ADAPTED FOR TELEVISION. WRITER DAVID FARR TELLS US HOW HE WENT ABOUT IT

- IAN BERRIMAN

WE ARE ROLLING!" COMES the cry. "SFX are hot!" Why, thank you. Ah... apparently they don't mean us, but the squibs on a stuntman's chest, ready to be activated by an effects person.

A group of neatly lined-up squaddies present arms, cock their weapons, and aim at their superior officer - who stands stock-still, showing no signs of alarm. Then they all fire simultaneously. The squibs crack, perfectly timed, and he drops to the ground like a puppet that's had its strings cut.

It's 18 October 2021, and we're looking out from Shelter 9 at RAF Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire. It's a vast complex, one you could spend half an hour driving around - and on arrival, it looked like our bewildered cabbie might... In the '50s and '60s, this hangar was home to US bombers; a mural nearby celebrates the Fightin' Fifty-Fifth. Today, it's playing host to filming for a new TV version of John Wyndham's classic 1958 novel The Midwich Cuckoos.

Half an hour ago, we sat in a catering bus, observing with wry amusement as a crowd of red-eyed military extras winced and cursed as they struggled to insert jet-black contact lenses. An hour before that, we caught a brief scene featuring Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley sitting in their Land Rover, having recently arrived at the fictional Winthorpe Military Base.

Hawes's character expressed concern about tests being carried out on two children: "What are they doing in there? Why aren't we allowed in?" Then they both mysteriously slumped forward, unconscious. Piece all this together and you'll understand that it's not the children's welfare she should have been worried about...

PREGNANT PAUSE