 The BBC recognised the success of the serial , particularly in the context of the impending arrival of commercial television to the UK . Controller of Programmes Cecil McGivern wrote in a memo that : " Had competitive television been in existence then , we would have killed it every Saturday night while [ The Quatermass Experiment ] lasted . We are going to need many more ' Quatermass Experiment ' programmes . " Like all of Kneale 's television work for the BBC in the 1950s , The Quatermass Experiment was transmitted live . Only the first two episodes were telerecorded and survive in the BBC 's archives . 
