I loved TBFS, it scared me silly with the thin man. I've been after this for years. I'm glad I accidently came across it in the listings last night. I'm recording Sky Hunter so I can watch it when I get home tonight. I missed Cloud Burst on Monday, though :( Hope they repeat it again at a later date.
Is "Dark Towers" any good? Mate, it's superb. Almost as good as "The Boy from Space" but not quite. It's worth watching just for Christopher 'camp' Biggins playing a part that he clearly took very seriously. The Wordy segments are also worth viewing, partially for the episode where Wordy teaches "loud" words (e.g. Bang, crash) to an amazingly, quite shockingly nervous ghost (watch it and you'll see what I mean).
But nothing beats "The Boy from Space" showing tomorrow on CBBC. Can't wait. I'm recording both shows.
Tell you what? The hairs on the back of my neck are already starting! The bit in the sand pit where the thin man first approaches the two kids is one of the most scary things I have ever seen. Watching this in 1981/82 when I was around 6 was seriously shocking and have never forgotten it.
I would love to hear from anyone who first saw this in black and white in 1971. It's possible this particular story could have been even more scary in grainy b&w. It's a shame it was probably removed from the BBC archive many years ago.
Sod the Daleks and Cybermen, The Thin Man is surely the most haunting image the BBC or British terrestrial TV has ever produced. Shame so few people know what the hell I'm talking about!
When I was around 4 or 5, I remember watching TV one morning and switching over to see a very spooky moment. There was an evil, pale-looking man at the top of some pit and he didn't look happy at all. I was deeply spooked by the event and switched the TV over.
A year or so later, we began doing "The Boy from Space" at Infant school. Every Friday morning, we'd sit round on the carpet and watch this seriously odd drama. It was during one of those first mornings that I discovered that the evil faced man from that never-forgotten morning at home was none other than that evil b*****d from The Boy from Space.
I have never told anyone that story. The fear that The Boy from Space creates never dies.
Itis good! But it caused no end of sleepless nights in the early 80's for both me and my parents.
My son watched it last summer on CBBC and although wasn't scared, I could still tell he was unsure about the man.
As I've said before in the guest book, it's definately the eyes of the guy! You watch anything with John Woodnutt in and the same applies. Doctor Who, Who dares Wins, he has very small but penetrating eyes that kind of go right through you.
I am waiting to watch this in so much anticipation. I haven't watched it all the way through since 1984. With the help of this website I can pretty much remember all of it now.....however one sinister thing about the serial you can't get from stills, is the atmosheric music, eerie in itself.
Brilliant stuff! remember, anyone spots any recent pictures of John Woodnutt then post them here or at least point to where I can see one. I'm intrigued as to what this guy has to say for himself! let's face it, he has no dialogue yet has managed to put the bijeezers up blokes in their 30's and beyond!
I still don't fully get this Boy from Space thing. It was made made in 1971, right? As a black and white Look & Read show? And then it was RE-MADE in 1980....? Or was it not? Was the same footage from the black and white version used for the colour but simply broadcast in colour? Someone explain, I don't get it. Richard Carpenter tells that story (given on this site) about how the "re-make" shows the older children 'remembering' what happened all those years ago but Ben says this isn't quite true.... (so what exactly DOES happen), please don't say "wait till tomorrow to find out!" Grrr.... I don't get it. Someone explain.
It was made in colour in 1971. But due to there not being many colour TV's and the need to broadcast in colour in 1971, the show was shown in b&w. Why I'm not sure. Back then things weren't repeated like they are today.
The 'new' version was the same apart from new filmed segments at the beginning of the two kids now grown up and reminiscing, which you will see tomorrow.
At the end of the day, it proves that this is a finely written, directed and produced drama as to warrant repeats and still get people talking 33 years on is pretty impressive. Something the BBC should realise and release it on DVD with other Look and Read stories.
All the old L&R stories are good and warrant watching now, but as you will see The Boy From Space is iconic as in it's time this was possibly the scariest thing on TV, more remarkable that it was made for schools learning television. It is possible that the makers didn't realise how scary it was. It would be interesting to get their thoughts on it, but it's possible many of them are no longer with us. Watch Dark Towers and Badger girl for nostalgia and charm. Watch the Boy From space and face your fears.If you watched this anytime between 1971 and 1986 and aged between 5 and 10. You'll know exactly what I mean.
Yeah that's right, it was made in 1971, when all BBC schools TV was entirely black & white. (ITV was already making schools programmes in colour by then, but the BBC was generally referring to it being "ten years" before they'd be able to provide an all-colour schools service, because they were too busy trying to get black & white sets for schools that didn't have any receivers yet, and VHF radios too. In the event it took them two years to sort out colour.)
Normally the story would just have been filmed in black-and-white - using the cast-off cameras and equipment from the rest of the BBC that the schools department were always lumbered with - but by chance BBC Enterprises heard about this kids sci-fi drama being filmed, and thought they might be able to release it as a feature film, so they stumped up the extra cash to allow filming to take place in colour. The schools programme was broadcast entirely in black-and-white though, and with the feature film plans abandoned the colour film stock just sat on the shelf never to be seen.
Then that colour material - as filmed in 1971 - was finally dusted down and shown in 1980, alongside new educational bits and the grown-up kids sequence that The Thin Man explained.
And don't worry Thin Man, the key production staff are still with us, though certainly getting on a bit. Maddalena Fagandini who directed the original film in 1971, before leaving the schools dept to become a Radiophonic musician, appears in the documentary about the Radiophonic Workshop that's shown on BBC4 occasionally.
quote: Originally posted by: The Thin Man "Ben, it would be really good to hear what Maddalena Fagandini has to say about TBFS."
Yeah, I'd be quite interested too! I've been meaning to write to her for a couple of years, but still don't seem to have done it. I did send her an email once, but I don't think she uses it anymore. If anybody's going to know all the secrets of The Boy From Space, it's surely the story's director. I really should send her a letter...