By the summer of 1957, Kneale was working on the scripts for a third and final BBC serial. Titled "Quatermass and the Pit" and again produced and directed by Cartier, this was eventually broadcast in December 1958 and January 1959. John Robinson was no longer available to play Quatermass, so the role was offered instead to Alec Clunes. Clunes turned down the part, and it was offered once more to André Morell, who this time accepted. Morell has been praised by several reviewers as having given the definitive portrayal of Quatermass. The serial itself has been praised by the BBC's own website as "simply the first finest thing the BBC ever made. It justifies licence fees to this day." Despite this success, Kneale was unsure about whether the character would ever return, later telling an interviewer: "I didn't want to go on repeating because Professor Quatermass had already saved the world from ultimate destruction three times, and that seemed to me to be quite enough."