The BBC's official YouTube channel is offering free Christmas gifts to sci-fi fans in the form of a classic hero and a field full of deadly plants. The move gives American viewers a great (legal) chance to catch up on quality productions that didn't (yet?) make their way over to BBC America.

Among the many full episodes of BBC programming now awaiting your computer's perusal is the creepy 1981 production of Day of the Triffids. Most pop culture and horror buffs know the title from the 1962 monster movie of the same title. But this BBC production was a much more faithful and in-depth production of John Wyndham's book.

The online series serves as a great lead-in to the new BBC production of Triffids -- set to premiere Dec. 28.

A myriad of celebrities are set to star in the BBC's modern remake of the classic sci-fi novel Day of the Triffids. Names include Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and Eddie Izzard.

There seems to be quite a few remakes going on in the world of British television at the moment (Triffids was adapted for BBC television once already in 1981 and had a big-screen version in 1962). We have The Prisoner, Survivors, and now Day of the Triffids. Both Survivors and Triffids deal with the theme of a post-apocalyptic world.

I'm not sure if Triffids was the first story to use the post-apocalyptic genre, but it's certainly one of the most popular. The book itself is a combination of the movies The Happening (where plants attack humanity) and Blindness (where most of humanity is rendered blind).

The anti-Soviet themes of the book won't be applicable in these times, but I'm sure the flesh-eating Triffids will have other, more modern analogies.