EARTH WARP STORY DETAILS

EARTH WARP

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ON TV:	Not scheduled at the moment, but it should be repeated again in 2007 - watch this space
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

Remember how everyone was all hung up on pollution and stuff in the early 90s? Well here's Look and Read reaction to that - a story involving a funny alien boy coming to Earth and helping some kids from a seaside town to put a stop to the bad pollution coming from an evil factory.
This story is a bit of an epilogue to Weeks-era Look and Read: Charles Collingwood's gone but Derek Griffiths is still around, singing and playing a Wordy-esque "language probe" in the in-between bits, which are set in a local newspaper office. There's still the old song lyrics, but the music has been altered to remove all traces of a tune (listen to some of the painful clips coming here soon) and the animations have been replaced with live action cartoony sequences: they've even got an actor playing Bill The Brickie, for God's sake!
It's very possible that writer David Angus was a long-term Look and Read fan and purposefully hid references to earlier stories in Earth Warp... For instance, when the children first meet Ollie, a boy from space, he talks in funny beeping noises just like Peep-Peep out of The Boy From Space; the learning bits are based in a newspaper office, as were the learning bits to The King's Dragon; and one episode of the radio spin-off Space Warp revolves around a giant weather computer that could come right out of Cloud Burst (actually it couldn't - there was no weather computer in Cloud Burst, but many people seem to have the impression that there was).


The Plot
WARNING! SPOILERS!   Reading this bit will give away the whole storyline and ruin your enjoyment if you haven't already seen/read it.

A hundred years ago an alien race sent a pollution-monitoring probe to the planet Earth. In the present day the probe surfaces from the sea near Southbeach, detects the terrible pollution coming from a nearby chemical factory owned by the local fatcat Mr Belcher, and sends out a distress signal. This calls one of the aliens down to earth to investigate. He is befriended by three local children - Martin, Jenny and Amina - and reveals that Earth's atmosphere makes things from his planet be clumsy (ie. malfunction), so he keeps falling over and the probe is going to explode and blow Southbeach up. The alien boy talks in strange beeping noises, but is able to translate his speech into English, revealing that his name is Ollie. In brief then: Southbeach is suffering from an outbreak of a mystery illness which is turning away clients from Martin's mum's hotel; a national newspaper journalist called Joe Lowin is investigating the illness and hears about the landing of Ollie's spaceship and sets out on his trail; the kids investigate the pollution on the beach resulting in Amina and Belcher's daughter Claire being hospitalised; Ollie has a magic glowing ball thing that he uses to revive Amina and Claire; Lowin persaudes Martin to rat-out Ollie with the promise of money to save the hotel; Martin discovers that business is actually picking up on the back of the UFO trade and repents; Ollie gets away and everybody chases him leading to a final standoff on the beach; Belcher finally realises the harm his factory's done and wrestles with Lowin and the police long enough for Ollie to deactivate the probe; everything's alright again.




Episode Listings

1.	It Came From Outer Space
	Nobody believes Martin when he claims to have seen a spaceship land in the sea at Southbeach, especially his friends Amina or Jenny. But at the dead of night a small creature creeps onto the shore of the little seaside town.
2.	An Uninvited Guest
3.	Whoops!
	Martin, Amina and Jenny find Ollie the Alien on the beach. He has come from the planet Gia to rescue Southbeach from a terrible fate.
4.	Code Name Charley
	The search for Ollie the Alien's malfunctioning space probe 'Charley' continues. Is Mr Belcher's chemical factory causing pollution?
5.	Mystifying Magic
	The children have to cover up for Ollie the Alien, who causes all sorts of problems with his special powers.
6.	Monster Mayhem
	Mr Belcher's factory continues to pollute the water at Southbeach, and his daughter is taken ill. Is it the fault of the pollution?
7.	Doctor Miracle
	Amina and Mr Belcher's daughter are in hospital with a mystery illness - but Ollie the Alien can cure them.
8.	Betrayed
	A newspaper discovers Ollie the Alien and scents a scoop. Amina and Jenny blame Martin.
9.	Hunt The Alien
	Ollie disappears - to escape the press, but his search for the missing space probe makes him weaker and weaker. Meanwhile, time is running out for Southbeach.
10.	The Final Countdown
	Ollie recovers just in time to defuse the probe and save Southbeach.

Cast and Crew

Written by Music by Designer Executive producer Drama Director Producer	David Angus Roger Limb Alan Spalding Frank Flynn Peter Rose Ronald Smedley
Lyrics by Gordon Snell, Zot animation Sheila Dunn of CAL Ltd, song animation Baxter, Hobbins, Sides Ltd, reading consultancy and teaching section by Mary Hoffman, production manager Peter Miller, production assistant Maggie Elliott, assistant floor manager Angela Scott, production secretary Sarah Harrell, properties buyer Francis Smith, videotape editors Nick Peto Mark Wybourn, make-up designers Jan Musgrove Carole Bernard, costume designer Pat Godfrey, video effects designer Dave Jervis, visual effects designer Melvyn Friend, lighting cameraman John Howarth, sound Richard Manton
Starring Singers	David Cooper as Martin Rowlands Rachna Kapur as Amina Patel Ellie Beavan as Jenny Steel Helen Martin as Ollie Caroline Holdaway as Mrs Rowlands Mark Benton as Chef Dean Harris as Mr Belcher Anthony Milner as Joe Lowin Joanna Wake as Miss Enid Grant Rhoda Lewis as Mrs MacDonald Michael Garner as Mr Steel Stephen Rashbrook as policeman Anna Bosworth as Claire Belcher Derek Griffiths as Zot Zoe Hilson as Sarah Brightly Roger Ratajczak as Chris Smith Derek Griffiths Imelda Staunton

Theme Tune

The Earth Warp theme tune. It was sung by children from the afterschool music group Sumics.

It's our planet, it's our place,
We must save the human race.
Earth Warp.
We must save the world.

Save the creatures, save the trees,
Save the land and save the seas.
Earth Warp.
We must save the world.
music by Roger Limb, sung by the children of Sumics
MP3 file: 40 seconds, 476 kb

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

Video Clips

• Clip 1 - The boy from space
Martin, Amina and Jenny encounter Ollie for the first time on the beach. According to the books, Ollie's first attempts to communicate are in Chinese, but it sounds more like a load of strange beeping to me. "So you haven't come here to destroy my mum?"

	Download WMV file 89 seconds @ 30kbps = 335kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 89 seconds @ 34kbps = 382kb

• Clip 2 - Ollie's little round thing
Ollie turns invisible in order to sneak into the hotel, but accidentally knocks over a plant pot while Mrs Rowlands is watching. Ollie tries to be helpful and puts it back together using his magical sphere thing, but then realises he's done wrong and decides to break it again - just as Mrs Rowlands comes back to clean up the mess. "Wheeeeee! Can I have some food?"

	Download WMV file 74 seconds @ 30kbps = 280kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 74 seconds @ 34kbps = 322kb

• Clip 3 - Joe Lowin checks in
Nosey national newspaper reporter Joe Lowin is not happy at having been sent down to Southbeach to cover an insignificant little story like the mysterious illness, and he makes sure that Mrs Rowlands knows it as he checks in to the hotel. This clip is included just to provide an alternative from the funny-Ollie clips. "I'm a top repow'a."

	Download WMV file 62 seconds @ 30kbps = 237kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 62 seconds @ 34kbps = 272kb

• Clip 4 - Doctor Ollie
Amina and Claire Belcher have been taken ill and the only thing that can save them is Ollie's magic sphere. In order to get into the hospital, the alien has to dress up as a doctor - but when a nurse accosts him for a medical opinion he has a little trouble with the pretense. "I was only kidding, it's a handyoumelon!"

	Download WMV file 54 seconds @ 30kbps = 205kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 54 seconds @ 34kbps = 237kb

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

Notes

Here's an interesting fact about this story provided by cast member Anna Bosworth: The best thing about Earth Warp is Ollie's funny voice. Oh, you want a fact? Well Ollie's voice wasn't recorded during the filmed story, it was dubbed in afterwards - so the actors didn't know at the time how much they were going to be upstaged by the young alien.

In the narration of the TV episodes, Amina's surname is specifically given as Patel, but in the novelisation she is called Amina Sondhi. Hmm.

The planet 'Gia' is pronounced with a hard 'g' sound for some reason; I don't know how they explained that to all the kids who followed the story and tried to learn grammar from it.

The BBC listings synopses for episodes 1 and 3 called the main lad David instead of Martin. Now, he was played by a David, so maybe somebody got a bit confused at BBC Publicity.

Martin Rowlands has five days to save his home town, Southbeach. Just what he doesn’t need! His life is complicated enough, with his dad gone and his mum about to lose her hotel to Mr 'Moneybags' Belcher. Now, here is a clumsy alien called Ollie, calmly telling him that Southbeach is about to be blown up by a malfunctioning pollution monitor from the planet Gia! It couldn't possibly be true, could it? - novelisation blurb from BBC Shop

Most of the Look and Read stories since the mid-70s had been accompanied by short series of radio programmes, which usually just replayed the songs and empahsised the grammar points. Earth Warp went a stage further by having an entirely separate (and complimentary) radio story called Space Warp, featuring Ollie's sister Ellie (who was also in some of the TV educational songs) going on adventures to various other planets and discovering things about grammar. Space Warp was written by David Angus and Mary Hoffman, and narrated by Pauline Quirke.

Space Warp: Download the opening theme (MP3 file) 56 seconds @ 32kbps mono = 220kb

You can buy a copy of the Earth Warp novelisation by Roy Apps, which contains some extra material and incidents that you don't get on TV or in the Story Book. Click any of the images below to read about it at various online merchants.
      A couple of websites also reckon they could get you a copy of the Earth Warp story book by Mary Hoffman. Click either of the images below to read about it.
 

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 1994, BBC2
      Autumn 1995, BBC2
      Autumn 1998, BBC2
      Summer 2002, CBBC (twice)
      Autumn 2002, CBBC (twice)
      Spring 2003, CBBC
      Summer 2003, CBBC
      Spring 2004, CBBC
      Spring 2005, CBBC
      Autumn 2005, CBBC




Links

• This page shows a classroom display about Earth Warp, with pictures of Ollie, Charley and all the characters, a mock newspaper and other written work. The photo is third from bottom, about 3/4 of the way down the page.
http://www.shepherd.coventry.sch.uk/display.html

• There's a whole class worth of colourful newspaper reports on the events of Earth Warp on this school page.
http://www.st-brigids.co.uk/Yr3 2002.htm

• Roy Apps, who novelised the story, has a page about the book at his website.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pantechnicon/roy/bbc/bbc1.htm

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

Picture Gallery

Sarah Brightly, Chef, Jenny, Amina, Martin, Mrs Rowlands and Mr Belcher.

Ollie produced a pollution map of Southbeach on Martin's computer screen, using the machine on his wrist. There were lots of red patches, particularly along the beach.	Ace reporter Lowin had his big story at last. He was soon gabbling it over the phone to the Daily News. Which was where Jenny and Amina read it next morning.	Amina was still cross with Martin but he had the bright idea of using the magic sphere. They all held on to it and wished hard to make Ollie better.

		> See every Look & Read book cover in the Trivia section > Get complete books from the Downloads section (but not this one)
'Doctor' Ollie was now in the right room and he could see how ill Amina was. He took out the magic sphere and said that he could only use it once against illness.	The story book

Earth Warp continuity slide	Earth Warp resources	And again

Earth Warp title

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