The serial was a success, with the British Film Institute later describing it as "one of the most influential series of the 1950s". The following year the BBC's Controller of Programmes, Cecil McGivern—who had initially feared that viewers would not accept such an unusual name for the leading character—noted in reference to the impending launch of the rival ITV network 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."