The Pit and the Pendulum Charles III and Charles IV only four persons were condemned. The Inquisition was, however, abolished during the period of French intervention (1808–13). The original source of the pendulum torture method is one paragraph in the preface of the 1826 book "The history of the Inquisition of Spain " by the Spanish priest, historian, and activist, Juan Antonio Llorente. relating a second-hand account by a single prisoner released from the Inquisition's Madrid dungeon in 1820, who purportedly described the pendulum torture method. Most modern sources dismiss this as fantasy. One theory is that Llorente misunderstood the account he heard; the prisoner
Quatermass and the Pit career in a 2003 television documentary, cited "Quatermass and the Pit" as perfecting "the notion of the science-fictional detective story". Newman also discussed the programme as an influence on the horror fiction writer Stephen King, claiming that King had "more or less rewritten "Quatermass and the Pit" in "The Tommyknockers"". After "Quatermass and the Pit" Kneale felt that it was time to rest the character. By the early 1970s he had decided there were new avenues to explore, and the BBC planned a fourth "Quatermass" serial in 1972. The BBC did not proceed with the project, and Kneale's scripts were