Strange Thoughts of a Strange Man

How, in the name of the Galactic Federation, do I summarise Hyperspace?

How can I convey the thrill of seeing and meeting my childhood heroes in the flesh? Or the glimpses of what was to happen in the audio stories? Or the awful feeling at the end when we realised it was all over.

I can start by saying that I really very much enjoyed it. It is greatly different to many of the conventions I have attended in the past. It was a lot smaller for a start. There was a cap of 90 on the numbers but I don’t think we had that many. Having such a small amount of people made it much easier for all of us to get to know each other. At other cons I have more or less kept myself to myself and not talked to a soul but here I made two new friends (Jacqui and Stephen), talked to all sorts of people from TPDIS and, shock horror, talked to people actually involved with all the incarnations of the Tomorrow People: actors, writers and producers.

I am not normally star-struck but I do like to respect people’s privacy and so the concept of talking to someone just because I saw them in a television program when I was a child or because they wrote episodes of the audio version of the show thirty years later is alien to me. That is why, after nearly an hour at the first day’s autograph session, I’d only managed to obtain one autograph. Even then I was more interested in talking with people than getting their signatures.

My second day started with a walk through the Lensbury grounds to the famous Teddington Locks. I took some pictures of the lock in the morning fog. Here are some of them together with pictures from the first day in the sunshine.

Teddington Lock is another fabulous place from my childhood. I’ve never been there before but I remember the name from countless episodes of Magpie where the address for that week’s competition or where you needed to send your milk bottle tops was Teddington Lock. In my child’s mind this place existed in the magical land of television, where Pinky and Perky rubbed shoulders with Willy Wombat and Susan Stranks and everyone rode around on Puff the Magic Dragon. To actually see it, eons later, was a bit of a kick.

The first event of the day was the Q&A session. This was divided into four panels: writers and producers, original series, new series and audio series. There was a micro panel for Danny John Jules who had turned up slightly too late to take part in the NS panel. Despite the 101 questions in my head before and after I didn’t manage to think of a one at the time. Hats off to whoever it was who asked Roger Price why Stephen suddenly and mysteriously left with no mention of his character. Roger blamed the Network Executives and said that he hadn’t wanted Stephen to go.

I took a few photos but not many. I hate taking pictures of people I don't know. I feel terribly intrusive. I used my long lens from the back of the room and no flash. That's why there are a few heads in corners.

The Q&A session was followed by a walk around Teddington where we could see a lot of the locations used to film the OS Story A Man for Emily. It’s interesting how a lack of budget in those days made the production team make use of locations local to the studio. We saw the shops where Elmer killed the greengrocer, where he almost shot a little boy in a cowboy suit and where there was a chase over a footbridge.

At THE footbridge, there was a man with his children. He called after his daughter on the footbridge and we found she was called Emily.

I loved the looks we had from the locals. What did they think of this group of people looking at perfectly innocent buildings and taking photos?

Our walk ended with a tour of Teddington Studios, which I found very interesting. Television is an amazing art.

After lunch we had the script readings. This was a treat and something I was looking forward to a great deal. Nigel Fairs and the available actors read from the scripts of the audio stories that weren't released. We found out some of what was to happen. We had the tiniest glimpse of what would have been, the future of the Tomorrow People.

We also had some stunning performances from PVC, Nick Young, Helen Goldwyn, James Daniel Wilson and Trevor Littledale. Helen and Trevor nearly had us all in tears with a very moving scene and Daniel was tremendously intimidating as Jedekiah. It is such a shame that we are unlikely ever to find out the full story. Curses!

There wasn't much of the weekend left. There was a raffle where nearly everyone won a prize. I won a script from the audio series! This was followed by the closing ceremony which turned out to be very emotional. There were tears everywhere!

Then that was it and we all had to go home.

Labels: Hyperspace 2008, Teddington

It is 7:20 on Sunday morning. I woke too early and so here I am sitting in front of my laptop putting down a few thoughts about Hyperspace before hitting the shower.

So, what do I think? And, more importantly, what can I say?

Yesterday was a confused sort of day. When I arrived I was at my least gregarious. I'm really not very good at talking to people. I am better than I used to be but I think for parts of yesterday I was as quiet as I was when I was in my teens. However, as the day wore on I was able to make a couple of friends of other people who are here on their own.

The opening ceremony was fun. There was a clever and very funny little video of Nick Young and Peter Vaughn Clarke floating around in hyperspace (the weird glowing stuff - not the convention).

This was followed by an autograph session where my reticence to speak to people reached awesome levels. I met and chatted with Jacqui, a name I recognised from TPDIS, and together we garnered enough courage to approach PVC for his autograph. By that time it was too late to get too many others but there is another session today. I would really like to talk to Nigel Fairs about his audio work. I consider the audio Tomorrow People stories the best of the three incarnations.

Later, we had dinner. That was really great but I wished it would have been a little longer. I had enough time to eat and chat but felt I would have liked to dally a bit and sample another dessert or two.

Then we had the awards. Sorry this is rushed. I want that shower!

The awards were great fun. There was a great deal of confusion but things moved along and awards dished out. Some had to go to people who didn't actually win them purely because their real winners were unavailable.

The most justified award was the Best Cliff Hanger and went to Nigel for the final audio adventure. I would have been disappointed if it went anywhere else.

Best dialogue went to Carol's speech to Stephen from the first episode explaining what and who the Tomorrow People were. I would have preferred Elizabeth's Clean-phone dialogue from Secret Weapon because that was the single line of dialogue that stuck in my head over the thirty-odd years between watching it the first time and seeing it all again on DVD.

We finished up with some of us watching Secret Weapon and then joining the others in the bar where there was lots of chatter, none of which I feel I can repeat here.

The interesting thing about the Secret Weapon screening was that we were joined by Roger Price, the creator of the Tomorrow People. He watched it all the way through and then talked about it afterwards. I was in the bar by then listening to some careless talk but I thought it rather unusual.

More later!

Labels: Hotel, Hyperspace 2008

On Saturday and Sunday, I will be going to Hyperspace 2008, a gathering to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the first screening of a children's science fiction show called The Tomorrow People.

I'm starting to get a bit excited by the idea. I haven't been to any sort of convention for many years and this is very much a one-off event. It will be great fun to meet other fans and the casts of the various incarnations of the series.

I'm particularly keen to meet the stars of the original show from the seventies and from the Big Finish audio stories, an excellent continuation of the story in which several of the original cast featured heavily in new and adult situations.

I am hoping to find out where the audio show's creator, Nigel Fairs, was planning to take the story after the climactic cliff-hanger at the end of the last season. There was supposed to be another series but the show was cancelled because the owner of the title wanted to do something else with it. Grr.

The Earth was being invaded, the Federation in tatters and the Tomorrow People fighting their own demons. What happens next?

I hope I find out at the weekend!

Labels: Hyperspace 2008, Tomorrow People