Category: News

Out of this World – Very British Futures

When I started the Very British Futures podcast I wanted to shine a light on programmes that didn’t have much of a following, that didn’t get talked about much online. Since then I’ve learnt that its good to mix up such programmes with well known titles because listeners like to hear discussions of shows they’ve seen as well as discover old series.

Listen to the Out of this World episode on Spotify

Out of this World is exactly the kind of series I designed this podcast for, and researching it myself I’ve come to be sorry that more it hasn’t survived. It was the first anthology of serious, adult orientated science fiction on UK television. Although both BBC and ITV companies had produced one-off adult dramas SF dramas, such as The Time Machine (1949) and The Ship That Couldn’t Stop (1961), a fully fledged evening series of upfront SF stories was a risky proposition. As it is, Out of this World was a well-received success and would have undoubtedly have had a second season if producer Sydney Newman and story editor Irene Shubik had not left ABC to work for the BBC. But the series was reborn on BBC2 as Out of the Unknown and you can find out more about that marvelous anthology in this podcast episode.

Most of the plots were based on existing stories from the golden age of science fiction, with a couple original scripts in the mix, including an early work about body snatching invaders from Terry Nation – “Botany Bay”. Each episode was introduced by cinema legend Boris Karloff, in the urbane uncle kind of role he often played in his later career. Tragically only one episode has survived – “Little Lost Robot” but that and the other surviving material suggests a very watchable series made with love and care.

See if you agree by listening to the latest episode, in which I am fortunate to be joined by Dylan Rees, host of the Doctor Who – Too Hot for TV podcast and writer Peter Grehen. They had the challenge of listening to me describing missing stories and then reacting to them, and they had some fun insights. You can get the episode on your favourite podcast app or on Youtube.

Whilst I’m here, I glad to tell you that my friend Chatri Art, who wrote the music for Very British Futures has a new album out – The Underdogs. To listen to it, try the player below or visit his Bandcamp page.

Cruise of the Gods – Very British Futures

SF conventions have been making appearances in comedy films for decades. It’s not hard to understand why, as the exotic fantasy worlds of science fiction meeting the mundanity and compromises of the present day and its fallible inhabitants creates a gap that is ripe for observation and storytelling. Then there’s the glamour of celebrity and the shared contract of delusion that exists between artists and their fans. Fandom is a place that build marvellous communities, but also be tawdry and hurtful.

Amongst films and television that have depicted this are Staggered, G.B.H, Paul, Free Enterprise, Frasier, Community, The Big Bang Theory and most famously Galaxy Quest. Less well known but a marvelous example of this sub-genre is the 2002 TV movie Cruise of the Gods. Made by Baby Cow Productions for the BBC, it stars Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan as actors Andy Van Allen and Nick Lees. Both were the stars of an imaginary 80’s tv show Children of Castor. The show was set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, minus the USA (“America is Pollux!”) and featured a New Wave pop group who survived to become the inheritors of humanity. Now in 2002, Nick is globally famous for the US show Sherlock Holmes in Miami, whilst Andy is a barely working actor, supporting himself as a hotel porter. We learn that Andy has been a self-centred jerk most of his life. His lack of success and his resentful reliance on his cult fame has left him lonely and bitter. Most of the film takes place on a cruise ship taking holidaymakers, including a SF convention, around the Greek islands. Andy is the guest of honour, along with the show’s writer and a former actor who played a mutant in the opening credits. But his minor celebrity is overshadowed when Nick turns up completely by chance, filming the latest episode of his series. Andy is initially furious, but when Nick offers him a chance to appear in his programme, Andy sees an opportunity to finally become a star again.

SF conventions on cruise ships are regular events, but there is an extra nostalgia for me in seeing this manner of grassroots event, with guest panels, discussions and competitions, in an era where many conventions have largely become merchandise markets. The film features several actors who would become famous in the Noughties, including David Walliams and James Corden. As well as amusing guest appearances playing themselves from Jack Jones and Brian Conley. It’s a funny, feelgood drama that gently pokes fun at fans but without cruelty.

Cruise of the Gods is the subject of the latest episode of Very British Futures. You can listen to the podcast on Goodpods or any of the major podcast platforms. My guests, actor Cliff Chapman and podcaster Dani Wray, had originally recorded an entirely different episode about The Comic Strip Presents, but due to my clumsiness I lost the recording. So they very generously offered to record a new episode. I had toyed with the idea of covering Cruise of the Gods for a while. Whilst it is not science fiction, it is definitely about British cult television. Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Exploring A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough | Very British Futures Podcast

I am delighted to announce a new episode of my podcast Very British Futures. The first hopefully of a revived run of the show, after several months of concentrating my time on Bolton Little Theatre and my job at the university.

A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough are fairly obscure today, compared to programmes like Quatermass or Doctor Who, but during 1961-62 they were popular successes for the BBC. It seems appropriate to talk about them now, at a time when Netflix has had a success with 3 Body Problem, another serious SF show about alien contact being conducted through radio communication. Written by noted astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle and TV producer John Elliot, the series begins with radio astronomers detected a message from an alien intelligence. That would be profound enough, but the message turns out to be a blueprint for a new kind of computer, more powerful than anything on Earth. Building the computer in turn creates new life, first an octopus like being, then a beautiful woman they christen Andromeda, based on the body of a murdered female technician. As politics, the military, and a ruthless tech company called Intel (no relation) become involved, maverick scientist John Fleming fights against the alien AI, whilst falling in love with Andromeda. The sequel takes the surviving characters to the Middle East, where a new computer has been built and Intel intend to dominate the world with its technology. But Earth’s weather is running out of control, thanks to Fleming’s interference and only the computer can save us, if it wants to.

Joined by Nigel Anderson and Brian Clark, friends I had worked with on the very first episode covering Pathfinders in Space, this has been a very interesting production to research and produce. After recently covering several high-profile shows, it was good to tackle something a bit more off the beaten track. You can listen to the results on all the major platforms, including YouTube, and find out more about the series, plus the BBC4 remake and the 70’s Italian version by visiting the podcast’s website at: https://westlakefilms.uk/verybritishfutures/

Rik Hoskin has been in touch to tell me about his involvement in a new PC computer game. He is the script editor and consultant on a live-action comedy dating game Forgetting Emily. To quote the blurb on its Steam store page: “When is it time to move on? Before your ex gets married to someone else… right? You play as Alex, a struggling musician invited to his ex-girlfriend Emily’s wedding. It’s in Turkey. It’s in one month. You said you’d bring a plus-one… so the countdown’s on, because you don’t have one.
Filmed in live action, you see through Alex’s eyes as he makes decisions that can land him just about anywhere as he tries to find his ideal date for the wedding. The trouble is, Alex doesn’t have much money, and it seems like everyone who offers to help is also conspiring against him … which is to say, YOU!”

Congratulations to Rik as he adds even more strings to his creative bow. If you would like to find out more, check out the game’s website https://www.forgettingemily.com/

Space: 1999 – Very British Futures

When I was growing up, Space: 1999 was one of the big SF shows. Although I never watched it religiously in the way I followed Doctor Who, nevertheless I had a Dinky die-cast Eagle toy, several annuals and I thought the uniforms looked really cool, especially the colourful jackets they wore in the second season. As a show it was always present in the background, in Look-In magazine, old issues of Starburst and Starlog, and in many of the other SF publications which filled the shops in the wake of Star Wars. Then for a while it seemed to lose its lustre with the fan community, at least in Britain. It became regarded as dull, or camp in the wrong way, an example of how television didn’t ‘get’ SF. But quality will out and in the wake of two serious-minded serial shows of the 90’s both set in one location: Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, ITC’s space opera was rediscovered and reappraised. Older fans even detected a story arc to Year One, a suggestion that the Moon’s journey was being controlled by some kind of cosmic higher power, that the Alphans were being prepared for a new destiny on another Earth.

I actually felt that Space: 1999 would already be well covered by podcasts so I avoided it at first. However I am glad I changed my mind because this twentieth episode of the podcast is proving to be one of the most popular episodes so far. Having good contributors helps, and I was delighted to have my friends and talented writers Kara Dennison and Ian Taylor along for the ride. Their contributions are fascinating and amusing.

You can listen to the episode now on Spotify and the other major podcast platforms, including Youtube. Hope you enjoy it and I intend to pick up the frequency of episodes for the remainder of the year. Coming next will be The Comic Strip Presents.

Vampire Invasion and other news

Hello there! It’s another quick round up of news from myself and friends this time.

After Hangmen was an enormous success for Bolton Little Theatre and myself personally getting some of the best notices I’ve ever had for playing Syd Ambleside, I have gone back into the control box for the next play of the season – Player’s Angels by Amanda Whittington.

In 1950’s Nottingham, John Player’s girls have the best jobs, the best wage and the best hairdos in town. And now, there’s a new face on the Navy Cut machine as 15-year-old Mae comes fresh from the country for her first job at the tobacco factory. Mae lodges with her Aunt Glad who sits alongside her on the production line but keeps her assignations with the young factory foreman to herself. Led by workmates Cyn and Vee, Mae takes her first steps into the world of the Player’s Angels: where a young girl can lose her halo and find her wings.

Running 22nd – 27th April, it’s a warm-hearted play about a group of friends supporting each other and facing a changing Britain, as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II ushers in a new age. You can book tickets now from Ticketsource.

Rik Hoskin and Chatri Art have been busy with a project of their own, a graphic novel called The Vampire Invasion. Set in 1969, their wild story imagines an alternative history where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the Moon triggers a retaliation from a colony of Nosferatu-like vampires who have been living on the dark side for centuries. It’s a very entertaining romp that recalls the best of Warren’s 70’s Creepy and Eerie horror comics. Renaissance man Chatri Art composed the theme for my podcast and his dazzling artwork has been featured in games and album art. He came up with the initial concept for this book when he was a teenager.

Available from Viking Press in both hardback and paperback.

Rik also has a short story out this month in HyphenPunk magazine. The President’s Been Shot is a satirical cyber-punk with his trademark ingenuity. You can order it from Amazon Kindle or a PDF version from Ko-Fi.

Finally, my cousin Terrance McAdams has the second volume of his YA science fiction series out now. Biocode: Resolution finds Ciara and her friends discovering new twists to the mystery of a race of telepathic aliens who want to take over the Earth. Ciara has been seeing visions of her ancestor William on Captain Cook’s second voyage, but now she must travel into the past to save him and the future. Available now from all good bookshops.

Hangmen

In 1965 the death penalty, and hanging in particular, effectively ended in the United Kingdom. So what is Harry Wade, Britain’s last hangman to do? Especially when he is widely regarded as the country’s second-best executioner, after Albert Pierpoint? So begins, Martin McDonagh’s celebrated black comedy Hangmen, which is being staged by Bolton Little Theatre on 4th to 9th March 2024. Set in Harry’s grim pub in Oldham, where he holds court over a group of tatty regulars and his long-suffering wife and teenage daughter, the play opens with a young reporter seeking an interview with the hangman. Harry’s equilibrium is disturbed by the arrival of Mooney, a peculiar young cockney man. His unease increases when his despised old assistant Syd comes calling the next day, warning him about a strange visit he has recently had by a young man who knows a lot about their controversial execution of Hennessey a couple of years ago.

Poster for Hangmen, showing dangling feet

I am playing the part of Syd, Harry old assistant, and part-time pornographer. It’s a brilliantly written part and enjoying rehearsals a lot, not having played a major role on stage for a while. It is fun finding his accent, that variety of camp Northern nasal sound usually used by comedians like Alan Carr, but with more unhappiness and desperation.

Hangmen premiered in 2015 and went on to become a West End and Broadway hit. It has won several major awards and the original production has been broadcast by National Theatre. Its writer Martin McDonagh is probably best known for his black comedy films In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Epping, Missouri. Hangmen is a superbly written play, funny and frightening in equal measure. I hope we get a healthy audience for it.

You can buy tickets online at ticketsource.co.uk/boltonlittletheatre.

Stingray – Very British Futures

Just in time for Christmas, I’ve released a brand new episode of the Very British Futures podcast, with a seasonal flavour. There aren’t many British TV science fiction programmes that actually feature Christmas, apart from 21st century Doctor Who, but one welcome exception is the works of Gerry Anderson. Most of his puppet shows feature the Christmas holiday and for this special we took a look at Stingray and “A Christmas to Remember”.

Stingray is an odd fish. Although clearly a children’s show, it nevertheless features a largely adult cast of characters who have foibles, who socialise with alcoholic drinks and cigars, and have mature concerns beyond simply defeating the bad guy of the week. Most famously there is the romantic triangle between Troy Tempest, underwater-breathing glamourpuss Marina, and attractive Atlanta Shore, who works at Marineville most of the time. The stories were straightforward, but there was space for humour, and even a touch of satire. Meanwhile the excellent craftsmanship of the AIP team, created one of the glossiest junior shows on television, with memorable images like Stingray erupting from its undersea silo, or Marineville descending underground.

I was keen to get a younger viewer’s opinion for this episode, so invited John and his thirteen year old daughter Amber to be my guests for this mini-episode. It’s a slightly unusual episode as a result, but I hope listener’s enjoy the seasonal flavour and if it’s a success I’ll do another one next year.

YouTube version of the podcast

You can listen to Very British Futures on your favourite podcast app or at the official website

The Day After Tomorrow – Very British Futures

Plenty going on this month but the biggest news for this blog is that there is finally a new episode of my podcast Very British Futures out there – The Day After Tomorrow.

Nothing to do with the dreadful 2004 Roland Emmreich film but everything to do with Gerry Anderson’s continuing efforts to conquer America. UFO had come close but after a strong start in the ratings it had faltered. Space 1999 was doing reasonably well in syndication but the question of a second season was still up in the air. Then Gerry Anderson was approached by George Heinemann, producer of NBC’s new youth orientated anthology strand Special Treat. Special Treat was a series of documentaries and educational family dramas, and Heinemann was looking for a way to dramatise Albert Einstein’s famous theories for children. The result was the 50 minute special The Day After Tomorrow. Hoping it might act as a backdoor pilot for a TV series, Anderson and writer Johnny Byrne (Space 1999, Doctor Who) added the subtitle Into Infinity.

It’s an entertaining family SF adventure and something of an unintended callback to the pioneering Pathfinders in Space series with its young protagonists and parents and the emphasis on science and engineering. The short running time means it moves at a fair clip, and it enjoys the same high-quality production values as Space 1999. For this podcast I tried to reach out beyond my usual circle and recruited Felicia Baxter from the podcast guest site matchmaker.fm Felicia turned out to be a wonderful guest and her fresh perspective and presence make this an excellent episode. It’s also the first of what I intend to be an extra format for the podcast. As well as the traditional discussions with a group of guests, I’d like to more conversational two handers like this, looking at more targeted subjects and shorter form TV plays.

You can hear this episode on your favourite podcast app and also on the web here.

My friend Rik Hoskin has had a good month too. His comic strip adaptation of the second book in The Wheel of Time saga is out now and there’s a new trailer online.

Dynamite Comic’s The Great Hunt, written by Rik Hoskin

In addition he has published a marvellous creepy short story by a scuba diving holiday that takes a strange twist in The Dive, published by Cornice. You can enjoy for free and I recommend you give it a read.

In Memory of Sandra Leatherbarrow

Sandra talking on the set of "Heroes"

I was shocked, along with the whole North West amateur theatre scene, by the sudden death of Sandra Leatherbarrow on Friday 13th October 2023. Not only because she was a good friend of many years, but because I am currently working in her last production, Blue Stockings at Bolton Little Theatre. I had only been speaking to her on Thursday night, little knowing that under two hours later I would be watching paramedics hurrying in, after she suffered a stroke. I still have emails in my inbox from her, about the play and providing technical help to the Little Theatre Guild conference she was simultaneously organising.

Sandra in a shawl, working a spinning wheel in a wood panelled room.

Sandra was always filled with energy from the first time I met her at the theatre. She loved directing and acting, and was always prepared to assist with the less glamorous side of the theatre too, regularly serving as house manager for other productions, and being a long time member of the committee. She cast me in a dual role of medical officer and private in My Boy Jack, one of the plays I am proudest of from my career. She kindly took on the role of Samuel Crompton’s mother in a short play I directed at Hall’ith Wood called A Fine Spinner. I provided sound cues for many of her productions.

I wish I had a hilarious anecdote to share but right now my memories are of a bundle of energy, occasionally exasperating, certainly eccentric but in a productive way that raised up everyone around her. Not just at Bolton Little Theatre, over her life she was involved in several companies, not to mention being a keen golfer. I’m sure I’m going to find out even more over the next few weeks about all her achievements. She supported so many people. In my case I know that each year she lobbied for one of my pantomime scripts to be produced, which I appreciated even though it has not happened yet.

Sad as it is that Blue Stockings will now be a tribute to her, rather than simply her latest production, it is an excellent choice by fate. It’s cast includes old friends and young actors who had only just met her, everyone grateful for the opportunity to work with her and who have been inspired. It’s a play about remarkable women who helped leave the world a better place. Exactly what Sandra did.

Blue Stockings and The Wheel of Time

I’ve been improv acting as a simulated patient over the last few years, and the odd voiceover, but between October 21st and 28th I’m heading back to the stage as an actor in Blue Stockings, by Jessica Swale. The play is on at Bolton Little Theatre. This one of several productions of Jessica Swale’s popular debut play being staged nationwide that week.

1896. At Girton Colllege, female students are welcomed to study at the University of Cambridge for the first time. The Girton girls study ferociously and many match their male peers grade for grade. Yet, whilst the men graduate, the women leave with nothing but the stigma of being a ‘blue stocking’ – an unnatural, educated woman. The play follows them over one tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education. There is laughter, thwarted romance and bravery from both the women and their few male supporters. Whilst in the background is the suffragette movement, which ironically might do as much to damage their cause as support it.

I play Radleigh, one of Cambridge dons who is against encouraging women to study degrees, viewing it as youthful indiscretion which will destroy their future prospects of marriage and respectability. It is a fairly small part, appearing in two scenes but I must admit I was struggling to memorise my lines after leaving that part of my brain unexercised for years. But they are in there now and I hope my performance gets richer now with each rehearsal. This is all useful practice for a much larger role I’ll be taking on next year in Hangmen by Mike Bartlett.

Blue Stockings runs from 21st to 28th October 2023, including a Sunday matinee. For more information and to book tickets visit https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/boltonlittletheatre or the theatre’s website boltonlittletheatre.co.uk

I posted recently that Rik Hoskin had recently written the comic strip adaptation of Book Two of The Wheel of Time – The Great Hunt. He has recently had a couple more interviews published, where he talks about Robert Jordan’s writing and the experience of adapting such a famous, influential fantasy world.

Epic Fantasy — Discussing ‘Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time: The Great Hunt’ With Writer Rik Hoskin

The Beat – Comics Culture