I’ve started a new chat as there’s bits and bobs about this serial in a couple of forums and I think it’s best to stick with just the one.
I’m typing this as the show is on, unfortunately I’m at work, but it’s being recorded so should be able to catch it tonight, as I’m sure there’ll be plenty of talk about it tomorrow.
There is something about TBFS which I can’t quite put my finger on. Glyn made a good point by saying the budgets were so low on making school programmes that as there were no special effects or detailed costumes, this brought an eerie feeling to the scenes, together with filming in a sand pit which kind of seemed a little surreal, in the sense that it’s a familiar looking place, but a lonely desolate place, making it terrifying. Imagine being one of those children, being chased by a strange looking man with only woods nearby to run to. If you watched this when very young you would put yourself in the shoes of Dan or Helen and feel what they were going through. So it wasn’t just the fact that a beady eyed, golden skinned weirdo was chasing you, it was the fact that he was chasing but you had nowhere to run to! I was absolutely terrified when I watched this aged 6 in 1982. I had seen things on TV that weren’t nice, but nothing like this. When I was 6, sci-fi was very popular, Star Wars, Buck rogers, Battlestar Galactica. These all represented evil characters but clumsy and not altogether scary ones. The Thin Man was the first ‘baddie’ who looked like a man you could bump into on the street (within reason). And that’s the key. That’s what scared me. And that’s what continues to bring me back to this. We have to admit, once you are scared by something, it’s within human nature to want to see it again. I’m older now, but even now, seeing that scene in the sand pit makes my skin crawl and is the only thing that takes me back to the school carpet in front of the big TV with shutters sat next to the kid who always had that runny nose.
That’s not nostalgia. I call it, facing my fear and I don’t think that will ever go away. It’s embedded in my mind. It was stuck there too for 20 years before I came across this website. I wrote many letters to the BBC archive department, begging for repeats or videos to be sent to me. I feel that I had a big hand in getting these repeats shown on CBBC.
Okay, maybe I’m obsessed! In all honesty I’m not too bothered about the rest of Look and Read, I enjoyed them all and continue to do so, but The Boy From Space wasn’t just another TV show. It was something else. As Ben’s said, it was intended to me made into a BBC feature film, probably like one of those Childrens Film Foundation films that used to be shown after school on Fridays through the 70’s and early 80’s. It’s a shame it wasn’t as most people have either forgotten it, or never saw it in the first place. Thing is, you really need to watch this as an innocent youth, not in todays multi million dollar epics you see released every week!
I would love to find out where the cast and crew on this are now and if they have any recollections of the production, especially Colin Mayes and John Woodnutt (who must be pushing 80 now!). Surely, there must be some way to get in touch with these and get there feelings on making TBFSand Look and Read in general. Maybe it was just a job for them…………..but one that will live on in this mind forever…….forever…….forever.
Yeah, have been watching "The Boy from Space" all morning in between doing other things, it sure is top banana. I have it recorded. However, as a wee lad of 5, I used to also enjoy the Wordy segments quite a bit; now they just do my nut. This afternoon, I'm gonna hack out all the Wordy stuff. I don't like the way he keeps implying that the Welsh man with the thin air is annoying and imposing (it's actually more the other way round).
Leading on from what the thin man says, yup, I think a key reason as to why "The Boy from space" is so good is a complete lack of tongue-in-cheek (or any humour for that matter)! A bizarre story about a boy alien and a mutiny on a spaceship would usually mean serious camping it up (especially when it's aimed at schoolchildren), but every single actor seems to take the proceedings seriously, even with a tough script (not tough as in bad but tough as in limited purely because of the level of dialogue that the writers were able to use). It works in a beautiful contrast to the super-camp, OTT World of Wordy and his Wordlab (Why Why Why does he keep calling us "Word Watchers"??! ANNOYING, MESSAGE TO THIN MAN: GO TO WORDY'S WORDLAB AND EXTERMINATE THE LITTLE ORANGE ONE). Even when Dan tells Tom that "Mr Bunting is probably on his way to Mars about now," Tom's response (about possibly informing the police... I WOULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT!!) sounded 100% genuine. Tom actually wanted to go down the nick and tell them that a car had possibly disappeared into thin air (after all, if tyre marks stop half-way down a dirt track, it's the only explanation!) and that a note saying C A P T U R E D (inside out) was possibly because an evil looking alien had kidnapped a local man. Great, great stuff.
Now now, now then, looking a little closer at the sandpit scenes, I can't think of anywhere in Wokingham this might be. So, any help on location information? Also Tall thin man, what, may I ask, do you do and where yah from? (Just being nosey). And I'm gonna press on with the t-shirt idea and get one printed with the tall man on the front. Do you think if you wore it out, people would ever stop you in the Street and say "Hey, I know who that is!!"
I couldn’t possibly tell you what I do or where I’m from…….not yet. Not far from you mind! I’m not entirely sure that the sandpit scenes were filmed in Wokingham, but Rabbit Hill IS definitely there. Check out the place names on the signpost near to where the thin man stops the car. These places are in Wokingham. Although Rabbit Hill wasn’t known on my search, the other place mentioned did have a woodland area right next to it. The sandpit is most likely to be a Tesco store now! It would be rather cool to find that sand pit still untouched and spot where the man stops the car at the top! Wokingham is also a place where many TV series were filmed around. I know that Dempsey and Makepeace, The Professionals and The Sweeney used many locations in this area. It’s not too far outside of London and plenty of countryside for quiet filming. There must be a way of finding exactly where some of these scenes were filmed? Perhaps Ben knows but is chastised by old beady eyes himself!!!
I've been watching it all morning. Brilliant fun & just as creepy as I remembered it. I was looking forward in doing a good editing job with the main story, but ep 7 has the signing lady in it. So thats going to ruin the look of it, so I won't bother.
Did any of you think it was funny when Peep Peep was ****ing himself as the Thin Man approaches him & Mr Bunting? Mr Bunting just happily waved & smiled as Peep Peep's panicing. Very funny.
I watched Sky Hunter last night, it brought back a lot of memoeries. I wonder whats happened to all the actors now?
The scene where Peep Peep makes his "introduction" is a genuine delight! The way he looks, the creepy way it's been shot and the introduction of the title music as he stumbles towards the kids is all first-class stuff.
By the time I started Infant school, I was already a pretty good reader (my mum taught me, bless her). So I always remember sitting through the Wordy parts with a little boredom because much of it seemed so damn obvious. But now, as I said earlier, I just find Wordy SO irritating!! BUT as Jim says, it's NOT AS IRRITATING AS THE BBC STICKING SIGN LANGUAGE IN EPISODES 7 & 8. ARE THEY STUPID?! Isn't it an insult to deaf people anyway; surely if I was deaf and wanted to see L&R, how is just seeing parts 7&8 going to help me understand the whole series!?
Would it be out of the question that the actual reason this was done was to help prevent pirate and non legit versions circulating and selling, including over the net (I see DVD copies are already doing the rounds on ebay). As Jim pointed out, anyone fancying "editing down" their copy of today's L&R are going to be in for a shock as a middle section of the film is going to feature some woman waving her arms around in the corner of the screen. As time goes on, BBC's catalogue of past televisual treasures is growing and growing and I am in no doubt that the corporation are more than aware of their future value! Ben gave an alternative potential reason for the signs but it made me wonder, especially as the guilty episodes are slap bang in the centre and with no warning. Very poor and amateur.
Yeah, reason I asked "what you did" Tall thin man was a) wasn't sure what employer would allow you to watch tele at work....satellite TV too!! (I WANT A JOB THERE WHEREVER IT IS!) and b) Just fancied knowing what line of work a fellow L&R fan got into (I think we're around the same age although I don't have any children, yet!! When I do, they will be seeing L&R before they're old enough to walk). Keep up the comments!!!
Shame about the hand waving lady! I have to admit, I was planning on sticking it on DVD. I think you're right, let's hope so as I would love to have this on DVD. You know you found the picture of Colin Mayes a few months back? Well, I may try writing to him (through that agency) and see if he'll have a chat with me. It's worth a try and I may then type it up and post it here. Of course if I was successful not everyone will believe me, however I am a fan of L&R, especially TBFS and would never make that up, even though (as you may have guessed) The Thin Man isn't my real name.
As I've also mentioned I have 'seen' John Woodnutt in a shop in The Cotswolds. There may be a way I can track him down. He may not want to be contacted but he must be used to it, there are plenty of Dr Who fans out there who I'm sure try to contact him.
One more thing, for anyone interested, there's a Doctor Who convention on this weekend (I can't remember where right now, check the net) and Gabriel Woolf (peep peeps dad) will be there answering questions.
quote: Originally posted by: The Thin Man "There must be a way of finding exactly where some of these scenes were filmed?"
If anybody could talk themselves into the BBC Written Archives in Caversham, they should be able to get hold of the original production paperwork and find out exactly where and when everything was filmed. Anybody doing a university course who could talk their tutors into "accrediting" them to go down there, or anybody who gets commissioned by a publisher to write a book, should be able to manage this. Neither of which cover myself, unfortunately.
Does anybody know Hendon, where the obervatory is, by the way? There seems to be a lake surrounded by woody paths nearby, that could possibly be THE lake? If you look up the observatory on Multimap and go south three times, you can see this lake.
22 years since I last saw every episode. Still creepy, still good story telling. We were talking the other day about what made it so creepy. Well I put it down to where it was filmed, how it was filmed and of course John Woodnutt. Since watching it again, the most creepy thing of all is Helen's voiceover! She sounds like she's reading from very small print in a book that's printed on black paper. Very slowly.
Nah, it's John Woodnutt!
Glyn, you were talking about how to get the best pictures. Upon watching it, the best screen grabs you could get (if on DVD) would be the wordy bits where at the bottom of the screen the typed story appears. In episode 8 there's a really good detailed still of the thin man pointing his gun at peep peep and his dad. The scene is in the main story of course but these pictures they bring up in the wordy bits are better quality. Any chance of getting these Ben as a download somehow? As they would be perfect for the T shirt idea!
By the way, secret squirrel here has been doing some investigations as I said I would. I now have the address of no other than peep peep himself, Colin Mayes. I'm going to write to him and see if he'll like to talk with me or at least get a few memoirs from him. I hope! Watch this space!
Well if there's anything that sticks in my mind from primary school, it's Look and Read. And if there's one story that I can't shake it's The Boy From Space. As someone already said, that was the first genuinely scary programme I had ever seen on telly. That weird sandpit was wacko and as for what they looked like...well, all I can say is those cheap costumes just added to the sinister atmosphere, like they were genuine aliens who couldn't dress themselves properly. I always shudder when I think of that bit where they end the episode with the shadow coming up the stairs.
Only one problem...my telly packed up last Sunday night, so I had to record them all at school, and I've not had time to watch them, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the telly will be back from the menders soon and I can settle down at home and watch TBFS. In the meantime, I've made a start on Look & Read at school...I'm showing my class an episode of Sky Hunter every day, and they LOVE it. I might save TBFS as a treat for the end of term.
WHAT HAPPENED TO FIRST BOY FROM SPACE STORY BEFORE WORDY CAME IN TO THE PROGRAMME AND WILL IT EVER BE SHOWN ON CBBC. BUT THE 1980s BAY FROM SPACE HAS GOOD SONGS IN IT. MY BEST SONG IS THE GOING GOING GONE SONG FROM EPISODE 10.
I set my video for the boy from space last Wednesday (or whenevr it was) but we had a power cut about five minutes before it started and I missed everything!! Does anyone know if they're going to re-show it or did anyone record it and would be kind enough to lend me the video? You can get me at dawnrun2004@yahoo.co.uk if you can help me out.
quote: Originally posted by: James McElroy "WHAT HAPPENED TO FIRST BOY FROM SPACE STORY BEFORE WORDY CAME IN TO THE PROGRAMME AND WILL IT EVER BE SHOWN ON CBBC. BUT THE 1980s BAY FROM SPACE HAS GOOD SONGS IN IT. MY BEST SONG IS THE GOING GOING GONE SONG FROM EPISODE 10."
I knew it was originally shown in the early 1970's but for some reason always thought Wordy was in it. Wonder what it was like without him and what they had in it's place?