2000 Minus 60

"2000 Minus 60"
ITV Television Playhouse episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 31
Directed byPeter Graham Scott
Written byJames Workman
Original air dateApril 4, 1958 (1958-04-04)
Guest appearance
June Thorburn

2000 Minus 60 is a 1958 British television play by James Workman.[1] It was Workman's first television play.[2] It appears to have been based on his script "Flashpoint" for the radio series Thirty Minutes to Go.[3]

Premise

The world stands on the brink as a runaway freighter rocket, containing high explosives, is due to detonate over London at midnight on New Year's Eve 1999.

Cast

  • Eric Lander
  • June Thorburn

Receptiopn

The Liverpool Post felt "the script was too heavily laden with scientific mumbo jumbo (much of it way beyond my comprehension) to generate any great tension."[4] "Interest mounts smoothy to a climax of high tension," wrote the Liverpool Echo.[5]

The Daily Telegraph felt "the dialogue was apt to be unsconsciously funny."[6]

The Observer felt it "seemed to lack that polish which is so essential if science fiction is to suspend you."[7]

References

  1. ^ "For Jane". Daily Mirror. 28 March 1958. p. 2.
  2. ^ "Runaway rocket drama". Leicester Evening Mail. 3 April 1958. p. 5.
  3. ^ "On-the-spot golf cover". The Sun. No. 13, 627. New South Wales, Australia. 13 October 1953. p. 33 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 19 September 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "So, the new century survived". Liverpool Daily Post (Merseyside ed.). 5 April 1958. p. 4.
  5. ^ "Telecrit". Liverpool Echo. 5 April 1958. p. 10.
  6. ^ "A nightmare of 1999". The Daily Telegraph. 5 April 1958. p. 8.
  7. ^ "Television". The Observer. 6 April 1958. p. 12.