Quatermass and the Pit is a British science-fiction serial, originally transmitted by BBC Television in December and January 1958–59. The third of the Quatermass serials by writer Nigel Kneale, it was the last to be produced by the BBC in the 1950s, and the last television outing of the character on any channel until 1979.
In this instalment of the series, the eponymous Professor Bernard Quatermass is being forced out of his role at the British Experimental Rocket Group, as the organisation is passed into military control by the British Government. Quatermass and his new colleague Colonel Breen become involved in the discovery of a bizarre object at an archaeological dig in Knightsbridge, London. As the serial progresses, Quatermass and his associates find that the contents of the object has a horrific influence over many of those who come into contact with it. As this influence increases, even affecting Quatermass himself, darker implications are revealed about the entire nature and origins of mankind.
The serial has been cited as an influence on the writer Stephen King and the film director John Carpenter. It featured in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000, where it was described as "completely gripping", and in 2005 the BBC's own website declared it "simply the first finest thing the BBC ever made. It justifies licence fees to this day."