As mentioned previously, BBC4 is doing a season on British science-fiction called Science Fiction Britannia. Cracking open the Radio Times, etc, I've managed to get a bit of the schedule and here are my viewing tips (complete with Video Plus+ numbers and links to DVDs where applicable, in case you can't get BBC4):

Continue reading "BBC4 science fiction season: the schedule has arrived"

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Event: Andromeda at the NFT

Date: 10th July 2006
Host: Richard Hollis
Guests: Peter Halliday, Michael Hayes
Series summary: British scientists pick up a message from the Andromeda galaxy. After decoding it, they find it contains instructions on how to build a computer. They build it and after an accident that kills a lab worker, the computer creates a new life form in her image, which the scientists call Andromeda.
Episode summary: Episode six, The Face of the Tiger, sees the computer become ever more valuable to the government after it develops anti-ballistic missile technology. The computer, however, is starting to assert its own agenda through Andromeda, who is becomingly increasingly human.

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The remake may have been rubbish, as was the sequel and... erm, those clips from the final episode that were around for years, but A for Andromeda is getting a massive amount of attention next month.

The one remaining 1961 A for Andromeda episode, which only got handed back to the Beeb this year, is getting an airing at the NFT on the 10th. This special event will also feature appearances by members of the cast and crew. As if that weren't enough, a DVD release that will include all sorts of things, including the remake, the remaining bits of the sequel (probably) and some “intriguing extras”, will be following shortly afterwards, either on the 17th or the 24th. Is there something 'Andromeda-ish' about July I should know about?

As an aside, following the Andromeda showing at the NFT, there's another special event, this time featuring Adam Adamant Lives! A “little-seen” episode of the series will be shown and once again, cast and crew will be on hand to reminisce. If you've never seen Adam Adamant, I'll just say it's an acquired taste: watch one episode and you've seen them all more or less, but it's kind of fun to see Gerald Harper prance about as an Edwardian adventurer who's frozen in ice and wakes up in the 1960s. I'm not sure if Harper is going, but if he is, I'm not sure I'll have the nerve to ask him how he managed to go out with Sarah Alexander for so long. Honestly, I'm not making this stuff up! She really did (scroll down to the bottom). If you can't go to the event, you can always buy the DVD.

There's supposed to be a bundle deal if you buy tickets to both events, although I couldn't find the option on the site. I'm hoping they'll only charge me the bundle price (yes, I've booked already). Maybe you have to phone to get the discount price? Oh well.

If you'd rather watch something a bit more serious and a bit less fantastic, also showing at the T (not sure that's going to catch on, but I'll give it a try) in July are some Armchair Theatre plays, with producer Leonard White coming along to reminisce, too. Should be well worth it.

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Having trouble getting to sleep on a Saturday night? Well happy happy joy joy, this Saturday coming sees not only a repeat of the stupefyingly dull remake of A for Andromeda, there's now the glorious chance to watch the only remaining episode of the original series, The Face of the Tiger, at the reassuringly late time of 10.40pm. Now, remember that the oh-so-dull remake clocked in at only 90 minutes. This is episode six and runs at 40 minutes. Oh my. Can't wait.

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Wow. I know A for Andromeda was on a week ago, but I've only just got round to watching it. To rephrase a famous quote from 2001/2010: “My God. It's full of arse.”

I can't believe how mind-numbingly dull it was. Seriously, how do you compress six episodes of an old serial down into an hour and a half and still produce something so unbelievably tedious?

There was a good plot in there, trying to get out. I could see it. It had some nice moments and occasional touches of atmosphere. There were even some good actors. But direction and script? Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Fair enough that the original wasn't much cop, but it still had some interesting ideas in there. With a bit of nurturing we could have something really worthwhile. But we didn't.

So, it looks like this might be the last of the BBC4 “classic” remakes, then. So much for The Road: I was really hoping they could redo that, given it's been wiped from the archives and it's got one of Nigel Kneale's finest scripts behind it. But on this performance, I'm guessing we won't be seeing much more in a similar line from BBC4, especially with FictionLab given the shutdown orders.

Can't believe that's an hour and a half of my life wasted, as well as my childish enthusiasm totally dashed. There is no Santa Claus, after all.

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BBC4 is four years old today. Or maybe it was four yesterday. So happy birthday or belated happy birthday to BBC4 then.

Anyway, I noticed a trailer on 4 for the new version of A for Andromeda yesterday and was impressed to see that they were good enough to get Susan Hampshire in. Hampshire played Andromeda in the follow-up to the original series – The Andromeda Breakthrough – when Julie Christie turned down the chance, and it's nice to see 4 showing that kind of respect to the original work. Classy, really. Well done.

UPDATE: Bollocks. It wasn't Susan Hampshire. It was Jane Asher. It's more A for Artichoke Hearts and Angel Cakes then. Oh well.

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Just in case you missed it, wedged as it is under news of Kenneth Williams' diaries being dramatised, the Media Guardian reports that BBC4 is to remake A for Andromeda. Just like last year's The Quatermass Experiment, which featured new Doctor Who David Tennant, it's going to be a condensed version of the original, performed live on the night.

In case you missed The Quatermass Experiment (it's available on DVD if you want to catch up), it was actually rather good and quite creepy – a curious combination of theatre and television that's so rare these days. Since I'm the proud possessor of the Quatermass Collection as well, I can say it was significantly better than the original, which was slow moving to say the least – of course, by the standards of the 1950s, the original was a veritable hurricane.

As I recall, the story's pretty good, despite being put together by Nobel Prize-winning physicist and “life evolved in space” nut Fred Hoyle. It bears remarkable similarities with the naffo Species, although it bears none of that movie's deficiencies, so we know it can fit into a couple of hours without serious plot-curtailment. I have high hopes for this live version. No word yet on casting, but I suspect D Tennant will be a bit too busy to make an appearance this time round.

PS BBC4 again. They've definitely been at those super-wheaties.

PPS I had copies of the few remaining bits of A for Andromeda and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough back in the early 90s, but I purged them long ago in one of my Nights of the Long Video Knives. You can view the title sequences at TV Ark. While you're at, have at look at the Ace of Wands titles, complete with Thames TV opener: they're magnificent. They were victims of my library purge, too. Sigh.

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