FORTY-SIX years after it first terrified a generation of TV viewers BBC’s Scotland’s chilling paranormal thriller, The Omega Factor, is set to return in a brand new stage production at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The Omega Factor: By The Pricking of My Thumbs, by Natasha Gerson, daughter of series’ creator Jack Gerson, and award-winning playwright Liam Rudden, is an immersive play that invites audiences to join the cast of a private radio recording of Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the mystical Rosslyn Chapel, where they soon discover they are pawns in a chilling battle for their souls.
With the stakes rising by the second, the eternal battle reaches a terrifying climax. Drexel is back, determined that this time, with the help of his demons, he will not be thwarted.
Set in Edinburgh and shot in and around the capital and Glasgow, the original TV series starred Louise Jameson, fresh from her stint as Doctor Who’s companion Leela, and the late James Hazeldine, best remembered as Bayleaf in ITV’s London’s Burning.
The Omega Factor introduced viewers to journalist Tom Crane (Hazeldine), a man with latent psychic powers who finds himself recruited to secret government organisation Department 7, led by physicist Dr Anne Reynolds (Jameson). Joining Department 7’s fight to defeat powerful, rogue psychic Edward Drexel, played with suave malevolence by the late Cyril Luckham, Crane and Reynolds investigated a host of unexplained supernatural phenomena.
As the never-ending battle between good and evil raged across 10 episodes terrifying viewers, the dark nature of the programme quickly caught the attention of Mary Whitehouse, the reactionary founder of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, who had questions raised in the House of Commons about the show’s moral compass. A planned second series was quietly axed.
The Omega Factor would not die, however, and later enjoyed three spin-off novels and four audio series, produced by Big Finish Productions. Gerson, who also played the character of Morag in the television series, a role she reprised the audio productions between 2015 and 2023, is delighted to have the support of another original cast member for the Fringe show, Dr Anne Reynold’s herself, Louise Jameson, who currently plays Mary Goskirk in Emmerdale and is much loved for her roles in Tenko and Bergerac.
Jameson says, “I’m backing The Omega Factor: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs wholeheartedly. I always thought there was more life in the series and that the BBC made a faux pas by taking it off air too early – hey ho – onwards. I hope it is a marvellous success.”
Gerson concurs, “We all wanted to do a second series, but it never happened. I know that my Dad was very disappointed by that.”
With a smile, she reflects, “The Omega Factor’s original title was The Undiscovered Country. It was a project close to my Dad’s heart and mine as it was my first acting role on telly, working on it with James Hazeldine, producer George Gallaccio and, of course, Louise, who were all highly skilled and supportive, was a joy.”
The seven strong cast of The Omega Factor: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs includes Edward Cory, Lorraine Pritchard, Lee Fanning, Ross Jamieson, and acclaimed Edinburgh-actor Michael Daviot, who will soon be seen in the lead role of Dr Helberson in A Watcher By The Dead, one of four stories comprising In The Grip Of Terror, the first Amicus film to be made in nearly 50 years, as The Stranger.
The World Premiere of The Omega Factor: By The Pricking Of My Thumbs, will run for five nights only, from 19-23 August, 2025, at Braw Theatres @ Grand Lodge, 96 George Street. Tickets here.
