The Day of the Triffids (1981 TV series)
Fantastic, frightening, but entirely plausible. John Wyndham’s famous story of a world dominated by monstrous, stinging plants catches the imagination like the best of HG Wells.
The Day of the Triffids is a British science fiction drama serial which was first aired by BBC Television in 1981. An adaptation by Douglas Livingstone of the 1951 novel by John Wyndham, the six half-hour episodes were produced by David Maloney and directed by Ken Hannam, with original music by Christopher Gunning.
It premiered simultaneously in the UK and in Australia on ABC Television.
Why It Matters
The 1981 serial keeps the disaster grounded in ordinary decisions: where to find food, whom to trust, whether organised communities can survive and how quickly familiar institutions collapse. The triffids matter because they exploit a catastrophe that has already made humanity vulnerable.
Worldbuilding Inspiration
- A disaster that removes a society’s greatest advantage almost overnight.
- A dangerous species that becomes dominant only after human systems fail.
- Competing survivor communities built around different moral and political choices.
Related Screen Archive
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