The classic 1975-1977 post-apocalyptic BBC TV series Survivors
Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards, Survivors) was a guest-speaker at events marking this year’s World Book Night at London’s Southbank (24 April 2013). To coincide with World Book Night 2013 a “half a million books were given away across the country to support the nation’s love of reading”.
The niece of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, Lucy read from her uncle’s essay How To Write A Thriller (see video below).
Survivors‘ scriptwriter Don Shaw is selling off a number of original copies from his personal archive of his own TV scripts – including his own copy of his script for the series three classic Survivors episode Mad Dog.
Don recently sold a signed copy of one of his Doomwatch scripts for more than £200, while a copy of an signed script from his contribution to the Hammer House of Horror anthology sold for more than £400.
Of the Mad Dog script he is now auctioning off Don says:
“It comes with a 3 page lengthy analysis and synopsis, cast list, viewing figure, locations. transmission date and time etc. It will also have my letter signed by myself to the winning buyer giving something of the background as I remember it with a tale of an actor in risk of hypothermia as we shot footage near Ilam in the Peak District. It’s in very good condition. I’m looking for offers above £250.”
If you are interested in making a bid on the Mad Dog script, please register your interest via the contact form on the Survivors: Mad Dog site, by the end of Tuesday 14 May. (Please note, the Survivors: Mad Dog site is just helping Don to get word out to Survivors‘ fans about this offer – and won’t receive a penny from any sale).
If no suitable offers are received directly from the Survivors fan community (which is receiving first sight of the sale), then the script will be auctioned off on eBay.
UPDATE: 28 May 2013: The auction of Don Shaw’s original script for Mad Dog has concluded – and the successful highest bidder will shortly receive their signed manuscript in the post. Don has expressed his pleasure that the script has a new owner “within the Survivors fan community”. Thanks go to everyone who took part in the auction, or expressed an interest.
After a series of false starts stretching over more than a decade, a remake of Survivors‘ creator Terry Nation’s science-fiction space drama Blake’s 7 (1978-81) has finally been confirmed.
The BBC News site reported (10 April 2013) that, with the licensing of the project agreed with the Nation estate, a first series of thirteen episodes had been ordered by the SyFy channel, and will be distributed by FremantleMedia International, and produced by Georgeville TV and Marc Rosen. Initial reports indicate that the series will be written by Joe Pokaski (Heroes, CSI) and directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, GoldenEye).
Freemantle Media has outlined the show’s premise:
The year is 2136, Blake wakes up on one side of the bed. He reaches for the other side. There’s nobody there. As reality sets in, this handsome ex-soldier sits up, and looks at a photo of his wife Rachel. Beautiful. Deceased.
A revolutionary reinvention of the long-running BBC series made in the late 1970s, Blake’s 7 tells the story of seven criminals – 6 guilty and 1 innocent – on their way to life on a prison colony in space, who together wrestle freedom from imprisonment. They acquire an alien ship which gives them a second chance at life and become the most unlikely heroes of their time.
Blake’s 7 was the show that Terry Nation created shortly after his departure from Survivors at the end of series one. Later in his career, Nation sought to get an American network to revive Blake’s 7, as he also (unsuccessfully) attempted to do with Survivors.
Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant) is scheduled to appear at the Wales Comic Con 2013, being held at Glyndwr University, Wrexham on Sunday 28 April 2013.
On the Guest pages, Seymour is listed as appearing to sign autographs (but not to be part of a convention panel or to be included in official photoshoot events).
Thanks to Adrian H for alerting the blog to this
As part of the promotional work to support the release of the new film adaptation of his bedroom farce Run For Your Wife, writer and director Ray Cooney catches up with Lucy Fleming and Simon Williams (two of a huge number of British actors and actresses who cameo in the film). The interview includes footage of Fleming’s and Williams’ brief appearance in the film (alongside Andrew Sachs and Mark Wingett).
The film, which stars Danny Dyer, has received near-universally dire reviews, and the story of its dismal performance at the box office has attracted widespread press comment.
Reviewing the film in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw concludes:
The humour makes The Dick Emery Show look edgy and contemporary, and the movie features a mind-boggling parade of cameos you are only otherwise liable to see in the cutaway shots of an ITV3 repeat of An Audience with Magnus Pyke. Frank Thornton! Bill Pertwee! Russ Abbot! Connoisseurs of the British thespian scene from 30 years ago are likely, however, to have precisely the same response as those who do not recognise any of these people: an overwhelming desire to buy an old-fashioned town-gas cooking appliance in which one’s head will fit snugly.
Hugh Walters (the second of three actors to play the role of Vic Thatcher in Survivors) is making a signing appearance at the London Film and Comic Con, being held at Earls Court 2, London between Friday 5 and Sunday 7 July 2013.
Walters, who played the role of Vic Thatcher in first series episodes Revenge and A Beginning, will appear on Friday 5 July only for a signing session.
Thanks to Adrian H for alerting the blog to this news
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.
Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan, Survivors) appears, as part of an Only Fools and Horses cast reunion, at the next Birmingham Memorabilia event. The event takes place over the weekend of 24-25 November 2012, although Lill is only scheduled to appear on Saturday 24 November.
Carolyn Seymour (Abby Grant, Survivors) appeared at the Destination Star Trek convention, held at the Excel convention centre, London between 19-21 October 2012.
The convention was celebrated for bringing together (for a rare joint UK convention appearance) all of the actors who have played the role of ship captain in all of the different TV incarnations of Star Trek.
Seymour, who played a variety of guest roles in both Star Trek: the next generation and Voyager appeared at a photo-signing session at the event.
Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston, SurvivorsZombie at the Spooky Empire 2012 horror film convention held, over the Halloween weekend, in Orlando, USA. Joining McCulloch on the panel were Richard Johnson and Ottaviano Dell’Acqua.
