The Tripods (TV series)

The Tripods
The Tripods Titles
GenreScience fiction
Based onThe Tripods
by John Christopher
Written by
Directed by
Starring
  • John Shackley
  • Ceri Seel
  • Jim Baker
ComposerKen Freeman
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
Original languagesEnglish, French, Italian, German
No. of series2
No. of episodes25
Production
ProducerRichard Bates
Running time25–30 minutes per episode
Original release
Release15 September 1984 (1984-09-15) 
23 November 1985 (1985-11-23)

The Tripods is a television adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods series of novels. It was jointly produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom and the Seven Network in Australia. The music soundtrack was written by Ken Freeman.

Series one of The Tripods, broadcast in 1984, had 13 half-hour episodes written by Alick Rowe, the author of many radio plays, and covers the first book, The White Mountains; the 12-episode second series (1985) written by Christopher Penfold covers The City of Gold and Lead. Although a television script had been written for the third series, it was cancelled by BBC executives Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell due to the adaptation failing in the ratings.

During the very first episode of The Tripods, subtitles appeared on the screen relaying news that Diana, Princess of Wales, had given birth to her second child, a boy. The child would later be named Harry.

The first series was released on both VHS and DVD. The BBC released Tripods — The Complete Series 1 & 2 on DVD in March 2009.