set in the near future, both Hoyle and Michael Hayes felt that women would occupy more progressive roles in the years to come. This was reflected in the writing and casting; appearing as the security services agent, Judy Adamson, was Patricia Kneale. Kneale found the character "a rather prissy sort of person, not really the sort of person I usually played at all." A late change to the script was changing the sex of the biologist character, George Dawnay, to Madeline Dawnay; writing to Mary Morris offering her the part, Hayes said, "don't be put off by the fact that the lady appears to smoke a pipe half way through and give vent to some rather strange utterances." Production Norman James had hoped to produce the serial himself but the BBC felt it was too complex an undertaking for a novice producer. However, James was given the role of co-producer and designer; he also received an additional payment in acknowledgement of his role in developing the serial. Assigned as co-producer and director was Michael Hayes who had directed the Shakespearean serial An Age of Kings (1960). Location filming took place in July 1961 around London, including at IBM's offices on Wigmore Street, and in the vicinity of Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales where the Manorbier Army Base stood in for the Thorness research centre. The army assisted the production by providing a helicopter for scenes of personnel arriving at Thorness and for aerial shots of the base and environs. They also supplied a pursuit launch for the chase scene in the final episode. A number of pre-filmed inserts were also shot at Ealing Studios. The production then went into studio at BBC Television Centre with each episode recorded every Wednesday between 1 August 1961 and 13 September 1961. For editing purposes, the output of the electronic studio cameras was recorded onto 35mm film rather than videotape. A last minute addition to the serial were the pre-credits sequences at the start of each episode depicting Reinhart recalling the events of the serial in a television interview. These were made in the style of the well-known interview programme Face to Face hosted by John Freeman and were shot at Television Centre on 22 September 1961. Broadcast and critical reception The debut episode of A for Andromeda was promoted on the cover of listings magazine Radio Times. The accompanying article said, "A new science