JOURNEY
INTO SPACE
CDR
1: THE RETURN FROM MARS (7 March 1981)
CDR
2: THE RETURN FROM MARS (cont'd)
CDR
3: JOURNEY INTO SPACE AGAIN (20 July 1999)
THE
RETURN FROM MARS
Cast
Jet
. . . . . . . . . . John Pullen
Lemmy
. . . . . . . . . Anthony Hall
Doe
. . . . . . . . . . Ed Bishop
Mitch
. . . . . . . . . Nigel Graham
Patrick
Barr, David Bradshawe, Graham Faulkner, Stephen Garliek, Joho McAndrew,
Sion Probert, Elizabeth Proud, Christopher Scott, John Webb
Directed
by Glyn Dearman
JOURNEY
INTO SPACE AGAIN
Cast
Jet
. . . . . . . . . . Andrew Faulds
Lemmy
. . . . . . . . . Alfie Bass
Doe
. . . . . . . . . . Guy Kingsley Porter
Mitch
. . . . . . . . . David Williams
Alien
. . . . . . . . . Derek Guyler
Uncle
Hector . . . . . .Duncan Macintyre
with
contributions from Charles Chilton, Andrew Faulds, David Jacobs
Produced
by Nick Baker
Original
release on cassette
Journey
Into Space has been described as the first really successful science fiction
series on radio. It was the last radio programme to have a larger evening
audience than television and is also one of the most fondly remembered
series trom the 1950s.
The programme's
vitality came from the combination ot superb scripts - often written by
Charles Chilton just days before transmission - and the tension of the
live recording where the actors, sound effects and the extraordinary orchestral
'space' music of Van Phillips gelled to create an innovative and believable
radio drama.
No complete
stories survived in the BBC sound archives and it was only through a stroke
of good fortUne that BBC Transcription Services recordings of all three
series (initiated in 1957 for overseas broadcast) were discovered In the
late 1980s and broadcast on Radio 2.
Operation
Luna was an entirely new production for Transcription Services and resulted
in some cast changes. The original 1953 broadcast version was subtitled
A Tale of the Future and its preliminary episodes featured Jet's father.
Sir
WUlfam Morgan. However, when it was remade and retitled it was decided
to omit this storyline.
In 1981,
a ninety-minute sequel to The World in Peril was broadcast on Radio 4's
Saturday Night Theatre. It was called The Return From Mars, was again written
by Chilton and starred John Pullen as Jet.
Charles
Chlilton was born in London in 1917 and joined the BBC as a messenger boy
in 1933. working his way up t0 become a programme producer for BBC radio.
His natural
talents tor combining music and drama flourished and in the late 1940s
he made his radio name as the writer and producer of the Western serial,
Riders of the Range. This programme proved an enormous success, running
from 1949 to 1953. It was extensively merchandised and a full,colour picture
strip written by Chilton ran for some thirteen years in the famous Eagle
comic.
As one
of radio's brightest production talents he was asked in 1953 to create
a science fiction serial which became the legendary Journey Into Space.
His other production credits include the celebrated Goon Show and his best-known
success outside the BBC is the musical Oh, What A lovely War! which was
first produced as a stage play before becoming a major film release in
1969.
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