Survivors: A World Away – news
The classic 1975-1977 post-apocalyptic BBC TV series Survivors
Tony Jones of Starburst has today (1 June 2014) published a new article on the ever-more-imminent release of the first series of new Survivors audio dramas by Big Finish.
Tony Jones. 2014. ‘Survivors returns,’ Starburst, 1 June. http://www.starburstmagazine.com/features/feature-articles/8832-audio-feature-survivors-returns.
In an online review of this week’s brilliant, emotionally-wrenching episode of post-apocalyptic zombie serial The Walking Dead (“The Grove”, 4.14) SFX compares the shocking drama’s emotional power to that of the ninth episode of the first series of Survivors.
SFX suggests that the agonised moral texture of this latest installment of The Walking Dead puts the episode:
in the same one-to-watch-with-a-stiff-drink company as the infamous 1975 Survivors episode, “Law And Order”
SFX. 2014. The Walking Dead 4.14 “The Grove” review, SFX online, 17 March.
An archive off-air recording of Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston) appearing in a 1979 Xmas TV ad for Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry has been unearthed on YouTube by Adrian H.
Uploaded to YouTube from a 30-plus-year-old VHS recording, the advert (which also features Christopher Neame [Colditz, Secret Army]) does briefly break-up at 2m28s, but is otherwise in reasonable shape sound-and-vision wise.
Also featuring in the same advert break are Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal (The Good Life) promoting the then state-of-the-art Polaroid ‘instant’ camera (not something the low-tech embracing, consumerism-rejecting Goods might have had much time for…)
Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston, Survivors) has been widely interviewed in the horror-genre press, as part of the publicity drive in support of the release of his most celebrated zombie flick Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) on DVD and Blu-Ray, in “a brand new high definition restoration of the original negative”.
Arrow Films released a new DVD version and (for the first time) two separate Blu-Ray packages of the film on 3 December 2012. Amongst the special features on the release, McCulloch contributes a ‘UK exclusive’ introduction to the movie, and in a separate mini-feature Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror McCulloch reflects on his “three classics of Latin horror lunacy”, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Contamination and Zombie Holocaust.
McCulloch discusses his work on Zombie Flesh Eaters in new interviews on CineMart Online (28 November); the 24 Frames Per Second blog (29 November); Dread Central (3 December); and This is Fake DIY (3 December).
McCulloch was also a special guest on the Starburst horror pod-cast Friday Night Fright (Episode 10, December); and the AV Forum podcast (28 November). McCulloch is also interviewed in the new edition (Issue 15) of Scream magazine (print only).
McCulloch arranged a screening of Zombie Flesh Eaters to raise funds for his local golf club at the CatStrand art centre in New Galloway on 9 November. McCulloch, who has been a member of the New Galloway Golf Club for decades, provided an introduction to the viewing and afterwards: “gave an insight into show business and entertained with a series of songs he has written.” (The Galloway News, 15 November 2012). The £200 raised at the event will go towards the cost of additional drainage on the course.
A four-page full-colour ‘Time Machine’ feature on Survivors appears in the latest SFX magazine (Issue 227, November 2012).
Penned by Robert Fairclough, the feature tells (in brief) the story of the production of the show across all three series, introduces some of the key in-front-of-and-behind-the-camera creative team, and reflects on some of the highlights of series two and three. The piece is illustrated by a mixture of familiar BBC stills and DVD screen captures. No new interview or archival content has been sourced.
