The Day of the Triffids

Show Guide

The Day of the Triffids, a modern revamp of John Wyndham’s novel about giant plants that form during a solar eclipse and set about taking over the planet.

Starring Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott, Eddie Izzard and Vanessa Redgrave. Imagine waking up one morning to find that the rest of the planet has gone blind, you're only one of a handful of people who can still see, and roaming the streets are deadly, man-eating plants. It wouldn't be very pleasant, would it? But that's the nightmarish scenario faced by the protagonists in this reworking of John Wyndham's classic novel. Transplanting the events of the book to the not-too distant future, the series reveals how humanity's search for a renewable energy source has led to the discovery of triffids, a crop that can be grown for fuel.
Things are all rosy until spectators gather all over the world to view a much-anticipated solar storm passing within close proximity to Earth. Unfortunately, as these things tend to turn out in science fiction stories, the event leaves billions of unsuspecting people blinded, while those fortunate enough to have their sight can do little but watch as society begins to collapse into chaos. Meanwhile, the same event has bestowed the plants with a life of their own and they develop something close to animal intelligence. Finding a way out of captivity, the triffids are now free to roam the planet with a fatal sting and a taste for human flesh. Humanity has never been more vulnerable, and as the plants begin to breed rapidly they start feeding with a deadly ferocity on those people unable to defend themselves. As one of the few sighted people left in the world, it falls to Dr Bill Masen (Dougray Scott) to lead the fight against the killer plants. But these could be the last days of mankind, after all, is there any way to fight back against such a terrible enemy? One thing is for certain, you'll never look at a Venus' Flytrap the same way again.

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