How on earth could the BBC system, that normally delivers high quality, come out with this disaster of a mini-series? There is no synopsis on the IMDb page. Maybe everyone is just too embarrassed to even try writing one. I certainly won't contribute! I did listen carefully to the radio drama from the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, made back in 1969, and that is far more exciting than this TV drama from 2009, even though one should expect the opposite. I haven't found out who has directed or produced this nonsense and I don't even care. And how could such top actors believe in it? They don't seem to be having a good time. The film is so full of logical flaws, bad acting and poor film crafting that it clearly is appropriate for use in film schools as a great example of how not to do it.

One of my personal favorite movies of all times is the cheap and often clumsy 1962 version of "Day of the Triffids". Admittedly it's a flawed and heavily altered version of the acclaimed story, but it made an everlasting impression on me thanks to the unequaled atmosphere of hopelessness (during the first half of the film) in combination with the original nature of mankind's opponent (during the second half of the film). Most of the praise should undeniably go to the novel's author John Wyndham, of course, but there's also that typical apocalyptic atmosphere that only worked effectively in late fifties/early sixties Sci-Fi movies. I haven't read the book yet, but apparently the 1962 film adaptation modified a large number of elements, which is probably why the BBC produced two much more elaborated and faithful adaptations in the form of TV mini-series. I can't speak for the 1981 version, but this newer and supposedly "technologically advanced" 2009 version only made me regret to have wasted three long & precious hours of my life and sparked the desire to re-watch that charming old movie again.Thinking back about my viewing experience now, only one day ago, I already wonder how they even managed to fill three hours of running time, as there's actually very little happening in "Day of the Triffids". Here, the Triffids (a unique species of carnivorous plants) already exist as genetically engineered organisms and their oil is used as a more than welcome alternative fuel resource. Their hunger for flesh is stilled and supervised in humongous laboratories of the Triffoil Corporation, but when solar flares blind the entire world's population, the ravenous vegetables break free and feast themselves on the poor and helpless blind. Speaking of which, the whole "world gone blind" aspect is scandalously neglected in this version. There are really a lot of people who apparently missed the once-in-a-lifetime light spectacle and there are only a few sequences of (implausible) mass hysteria in the center of London. There's also very little Triffids-horror, for that matter, and it seems that the entire film revolves solely on the dire romance between a Triffid milkman and a BBC journalist and one idiot's quest for world domination. Only one sub plot is worth mentioning, in my humble opinion, and it involves a monastery community run by Vanessa Redgrave that the Triffids don't attempt to invade for some mysterious reason. The final half hour is unendurable and nearly impossible to struggle through, as the main couple adopts two siblings and reunites with the man's father who has thought up a cross-pollinating solution. Fake sentiment and family drama is the absolute last thing I'm looking for in a Sci-Fi flick about murderous plants. As a fan of old-fashioned special effects and the power of suggestion, I also certainly cannot recommend watching "Day of the Triffids" for its lackluster CGI effects and pitiable post-apocalyptic landscapes. Please, explore and re-discover old Sci-Fi cinema … or, in my case, take the time to read a good book.

I started seeing "The Day of the Triffids" with great expectations of a good sci-fi film. The beginning of the story recalls "Blindness" with most of the population blind. However, differently from José Saramago's novel, London and the rest of the world do not have a mysterious outbreak of blindness but they are affected by a solar storm that blinds everyone that was looking at the phenomenon. Therefore the story is too ridiculous from the very beginning, disregarding that part of the worldwide population would be sleeping or in places protected by the sun. How a scum like Torrence could become a leader? The lame dialogs and situations seem to be written by morons or believing that the viewers are morons. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "O Dia Final" ("The Final Day")

The people who made this adaptation assumed the following:That the average British punter watching this is so thick, that if you cracked open his or her skull with a claw hammer, ate their brain, and crapped it back into their head their IQ would be increased billions of times. Take this piece of script for example:"The Triffids have escaped!" "What are the Triffids?" "They are bad and they escaped!" "The Triffids ESCAPED!?" "YES The Triffids ESCAPED!" "TRIFFIDS ESCAPED!" "TRIFFIDS ESCAPED!" "That means the Triffids have got out!" "Yes, the Triffids have got out. The Triffids are BAD, and now they've GOT OUT!"Of course, I can't quite convey it as stupidly in writing. Dumbing down doesn't begin to describe the depth and magnitude of this level of cultural ruin. The TV adaptation of the early 80s was infinitely better in every way. Not just the script and direction. Even the camera work, the special effects, were vastly better. Our only hope is to cull those in our population who think this sort of guff is worth the license fee, and bring back the death penalty specifically for the sort of muff-botherers who make this drivel. Scrap the BBC if it can make excrement like this, sacrificing Radio 4 may be hard, but it would be worth it so that this sort of thing would no longer come into the world. We need to see the scriptwriters, directors, producers and funders publicly tortured and executed on TV instead, it would be a great moral improvement on this level of depravity.