 When the BBC commissioned a second Quatermass serial in 1955 , Tate was eager to participate and play the Professor again . Production was due to begin in September , and on 7 August 1955 he produced his first television play , Night Was Our Friend . Only sixteen days after this , late at night on 23 August , he collapsed outside his home in London . He had suffered a heart attack , and despite being rushed to hospital in Putney he died soon afterwards . 
