the film: “I was one of the people attacked by the alien pods. This pod exploded and I ended up with what was supposed to be a terrible alien growth on my face. Come lunchtime and we all went off to the pub. Of course, I couldn't take this stuff off, the makeup was too complex; the landlord refused to serve me”. William Franklyn as Brand: Franklyn later became well known for his voiceovers for a series of advertisements for Schweppes tonic water. In 2004 he took over from the late Peter Jones as the Voice of the Book in the radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He died in 2006. Vera Day as Sheila: Vera Day was first spotted by Val Guest in the musical Wish You Were Here at the London Hippodrome. Other actors appearing in the film include Charles Lloyd-Pack, Tom Chatto, John Van Eyssen, Percy Herbert, and Michael Ripper. Filming Val Guest, who had directed The Quatermass Xperiment, returned for Quatermass 2. Guest once again sought to create a film that felt as real as possible, using many cinema vérité techniques such as hand-held cameras. He was assisted in this respect by the moody, overcast cinematography of director of photography Gerald Gibbs, who also made extensive use of day for night photography for the film's climactic scenes. Guest planned each day’s shooting carefully, creating meticulous storyboards detailing all the shots he wanted to make that day. Filming took place between 28 May and 13 July 1956. The film's budget, at £92,000, was much larger than that of The Quatermass Xperiment. The bigger budget was achieved by the advance sale of the distribution rights in the United States to United Artists. United Artists contributed some £64,000 towards the production of the film, as well as Brian Donlevy's $25,000 fee and his airfare to London from the US. Although filming still occurred at Bray Studios in Berkshire, the larger budget allowed for greater use of location filming in the making of the film than had been possible for its predecessor. The key location used was the oil refinery at Shell Haven in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, on the Thames Estuary, which represented the secret Winnerden Flats complex. This was exactly the same location as used in the BBC television production of the story. Despite its size, the plant was run by a relatively small number of personnel,