Look and Read - Sky Hunter II


	SKY HUNTER II STORY DETAILS

SKY HUNTER II

• Index
> Introduction
> Episode List
> Credits
> Theme Tune (download!)
> Video Clips (download!)
> Notes
> Links
> Picture Gallery

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ON TV:	Tuesday 12th & Wednesday 13th December 2006 on the CBBC Channel
ON VIDEO:	No longer available on video, you might be able to get it second hand, or just tape it off TV yourself
> More information on the official BBC Schools Programme Guide

Introduction

Producer Sue Weeks, along with Charles Collingwood as Wordy, makes her exit from Look and Read with a revival of this classic story first shown in 1978. After the extremely expensive Through The Dragon's Eye in 1989, the next Look and Read story needed to be reasonably cheap. So after the model of The Boy From Space (the 1971 story that had been re-used with new in-between bits in 1980) they decided to revive one of the archive L&R stories and just give it new, updated teaching segments, with the idea that this would be quicker and cheaper than doing a whole new story. It was neither.
The original child cast was brought back for this revival, and they joined Wordy to do the teaching bits, looking back on their past adventures. Jackie, Butch and Trevor are now in their late twenties and as a result of their exploits with Mr Trim and the peregrine, are working on a touring bus for the RSPB. Wordy joins them on this bus along with Derek Griffiths as an impertinent bird puppet, Jay. Oh, and also Jackie's cousin Sharon - who owned the boat the kids were staying on in Sky Hunter - has got married to the Birdman.

> CLICK HERE for details of Sky Hunter - the original 1978 version of this story.

Episode List

©BBC

1.	Strangers on the Canal
2.	For Sale
3.	The Birdman
4.	Too Many Crooks
5.	The Welsh Telegram
6.	Proof at Last
7.	A Friend in Need
8.	Where is Jackie?
9.	Trim's Tricks
10.	Back to the Wild

Credits

Written by Music by Story director Producer	Leonard Kingston Roger Limb Roger Tonge Sue Weeks
lyrics by Rosanna Hibbert, Mary Hoffman, Gordon Snell, reading consultants Mary Hoffman, Jane Bunting, film animation Richard Taylor, cosutme design Dennis Brack, Annie Harding, make-up designer Ann Pollard, props buyer Brenda Barker, design John Bone, Colin Green, Maggie Carroll, film cameraman Colin Munn, PSC cameraman Robert Pascall, PSC sound Dick Manton, sound Bob Roberts, Brian Clark, film editor John Lyte, studio lighting Duncan Brown, resource co-ordinator John Latus, CREW 1 Peter Fox, vision mixer Graham Giles, videotape editor Mike Thomas, video effects Dave Jervis, floor manager Sharon Porter, assistant floor manager Clive Chenery, production assistant Amarjit Ram With the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Forestry Commission

Starring Singers	Geoffrey Bayldon as Mr Charles Trim Luke Batchelor as Butch Isobil Nisbet as Cat Mary Emma Jean Richards as Sharon Mike Savage as Badger Jayne Tottman as Jackie Donald Waugh as Trevor Lennox Greaves as the Birdman Charles Collingwood as Wordy Katie Hebb as Wordy puppeteer Derek Griffiths as Jay Mary Edwards as Jay puppeteer Susan Kodicek as the parakeets Derek Griffiths Julie Stevens Jane Carr

Theme Tune

The Sky Hunter II theme tune, as sung by Derek Griffiths.

Fly free on the wind,
Hunt free in the air.
Sharp eyes everywhere,
Beware, Sky Hunter, beware.
Beware.

And here is the different song used for the closing theme.

In the swirling sky,
A bird can swoop and fly.
There's a hunter in the sky.
Watch him swoop, see him spy.

There's a hunter in the sky.
See him scoop -
The hunter in the sky.

music by Roger Limb, sung by Derek Griffiths
MP3 file: 26 seconds, 157 kb (dodgy quality)

> CLICK HERE for the Downloads section, including this and several other theme tunes.

Video Clips

Sky Hunter was originally made in 1978 by producer/director Roger Tonge. It reappeared in 1992 in a re-edited version by producer/director Sue Weeks. While the story segments remained basically the same, the learning bits were remade and featured the original child cast (none of whom had gone on to be professional actors) reunited as adults.
The new version was compiled using the original edited material from the 1978 series - the individual 'tracks' which made up the programmes (narration, music, sound effects, etc) were sourced so that, for instance, the narration could be removed and redone without affecting the rest of the soundtrack of the story. Unfortunately, the BBC had lost the tracks of music and effects - so original musician Roger Limb composed a completely new score for the new series. It was also necessary to edit the story bits slightly to make them a bit shorter, since the actual episodes of Look & Read had got shorter between 1978 and 1992!
You can now make direct comparisons between the two versions of the story, using these video clips and the ones available on the Sky Hunter page.

©BBC

• Clip 1 - Mr Trim bravely faces the villains
The different musical score is evident in this clip, especially towards the end; the wipe down to black is made a few frames earlier in this new version - perhaps an example of the tightening up done on the story bits. What's most notable, though, is how minimal the narration in this new version is, compared to the original - Nigel Anthony describes the scene and action for ages in the original, but all is achieved in one quick sentence here.

	Download WMV file 103 seconds @ 103kbps = 1.26Mb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 103 seconds @ 80kbps = 1.00Mb

• Clip 2 - The Welsh telegram
Sky Hunter and Sky Hunter II would probably be brilliant material for someone examining the evolution in Roger Limb's musical career; being entirely un-musical myself I can only say that the music sounds 'different' here :-). No attempt is made in the new version to correct Jackie's fluffed "looksk" (sic) line from the original. Primary children's basic vocabulary had advanced somewhat between the two stories (and Look and Read had changed reading consultants) - the Post Office man is described as "puzzled" in the original, but "mystified" in this new version.

	Download WMV file 95 seconds @ 103kbps = 1.17Mb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 95 seconds @ 80kbps = 966kb

• Clip 3 - Naughty boys
The big difference here is that Wordy is able to scold the two boys directly for getting into the car, in the original he just talks to the viewer generally and provides his own justification. The clip is compiled from two different extracts from the story, but you can get a bit of a sense for the different way of doing the story recap in the new version. "What a stupid thing to do!"

	Download WMV file 49 seconds @ 103kbps = 615kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 49 seconds @ 80kbps = 511kb

• Clip 4 - Mr Trim repents
Evil Mr Trim's dodgy dealings have been revealed and he's kidnapped Jackie. The kids turn the tables and tie him up. With Trim as their prisoner, they then set about persuading him that he's been very naughty. "No harm?! You were just about to ship her across to FRANCE!!"
I don't have a Sky Hunter comparison for this clip, but there is unlikely to have been much difference. The video clip is significantly worse quality than the others from this story. So.

	Download WMV file 177 seconds @ 30kbps = 663kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 177 seconds @ 34kbps = 757kb

• Clip 5 - The end
Wordy's final ever appearance on Look and Read, first seen in March 1992, comes at the end of the final credits to Sky Hunter II. He and the bird puppet Jay (Derek Griffiths) say goodbye to the viewers. But Wordy, who had been teaching children how to read for the last 18 years, has a little trouble reading the on-screen text: Producer Sue Weeks ©BBC MCMXCII "You've run out of ideas!"
See the Wordy page for a few more details on this clip.

	Download WMV file 33 seconds @ 103kbps = 419kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 33 seconds @ 80kbps = 335kb

> CLICK HERE for more video clips from Look And Read stories.

Notes

The title of this story is Sky Hunter II, with the roman numeral, not Sky Hunter 2 and definitely not Skyhunter 2. It was inspired by the slew of big film sequels that came out in the late 1980s - Back to the Future II, Crocodile Dundee II, Ghostbusters II and all that. The Look and Read crew wanted to have a big "Part 2" sequel of their own, but as they couldn't actually write a sequel to any of their old stories, they made do with appending II to the title of this revival.

You can buy a copy of the Sky Hunter II novel - under the title Skyhunter - by Roy Apps, which contains some extra material and incidents that you don't get on TV or in the Story Book (available only to schools). Click any of the images below to read about it at various online merchants. (There would normally be a link in this section to BBC Shop.com as well - except it doesn't have a listing for this book)

Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. Unless your teachers managed to get the video recorder to work, this is when you would have seen it in school. See the Air Dates section for precise dates and times.
Spring 1992
Autumn 1994
Autumn 1996
Summer 2005, CBBC

Links

• Ian Trembirth's Look and Read site looks at the Sky Hunter story bits.
http://www.trembirth.demon.co.uk/lookread/ (frameset)

• Sky Hunter was novelised by the author Roy Apps. There is a page about the book on Apps' official website.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pantechnicon/roy/bbc/bbc2.htm

> CLICK HERE for more general links about Look And Read and schools TV.

Picture Gallery


As they walked away towards Mr Trim's they saw the young man coming out of the paper shop. He was coming in their direction! They started to run.	'Quick!' said Mr Trim. 'Let's dash through the back door. We mustn't let that Birdman follow us. We mustn't let him meet the other crooks!'


The boys tried to get Jackie away, but she shouted, 'Don't worry about me! Run for help!' Suddenly a van door opened and a voice said, 'Quick! Jump in!'	Cat Mary pointed at the children with her knife. 'What are these kids doing here?' Mr Trim smiled at her. 'Don't worry, my dear. I tricked them into coming here.'

> See every Look & Read book cover in the Trivia section

> Get complete books from the Downloads section (but not this one)

The story book

Sky Hunter II resources

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