THE BOY FROM SPACE (1980) STORY DETAILS

THE BOY FROM SPACE

• Index     > Introduction     > Episode List     > Cast and Crew     > Theme Tune (download!)     > Video Clips (download!)     > Notes     > Links     > Picture Gallery • Story Guide     > Episode One     > Episode Two     > Episode Three     > Episode Four     > Episode Five     > Episode Six     > Episode Seven     > Episode Eight     > Episode Nine     > Episode Ten

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ON TV:	Not scheduled at the moment, but it should be repeated again in 2007 - watch this space
ON VIDEO:	Not available on video or DVD, you'll have to tape it off TV yourself
> More information on the official BBC Schools Programme Guide

Introduction

The Boy From Space was first shown in 1971, when schools' TV was still black and white; due to circumstances explained on the page about the 1971 version, it had been filmed in colour anyway. So when the BBC were on the look out for a new Look And Read to be made on the cheap at the end of the 70s, it seemed like a good idea to reuse the old story material, and just make new teaching segments. In the end though, this 'remake' ended up actually costing more to make than a completely new story would have! A short introduction set in 1980 was added to the beginning, with Helen and Dan driving back to the observatory and reliving the story in flashback. Helen then narrates the whole story, but there's no contemporary coda or other later references to the reunion.
The in-between bits featured a life-size Wordy in his orbiting spacestation, Wordlab 1, with a human assistant called Cosmo (not Colin as BBC Cult would have you believe), and many of the educational songs were sung by two stars and other space creatures.

> CLICK HERE for details of the original 1971 version of this story.

EXTRA: Download the Boy From Space story book
EXTRA: Translate what the space men were saying - listen to their actual voices!



Episode List

For an in-depth look at the plot of The Boy From Space, illustrated with screen grabs, check out the Story Guide.
1.	The Meteorite
2.	The Spinning Compass
3.	The Man in the Sand-pit
4.	In danger!
5.	The Hold-Up
6.	Where is Tom?
7.	The Hunt for the Car
8.	The Lake
9.	Captured!
10.	In the Space-Ship

Cast and Crew

Written by Lyrics by Music by Film director Executive producer Designer Directors	Richard Carpenter Gordon Snell Paddy Kingsland Maddalena Fagandini Claire Chovil Pamela Lambooy Pat Farrington Jill Glindon Reed
Presented by With Starring Singers	Phil Cheney as Cosmo Charles Collingwood as Wordy Katie Hebb as puppeteer Sylvestra Le Touzel as Helen Loftus Burton as Tom Stephen Garlick as Dan Colin Mayes as Peep-peep John Woodnutt as the thin space-man Anthony Woodruff as Mr Bunting Gabriel Woolf as Peep-peep's father Derek Griffiths Neil Fitzwilliam Sheila Steafel Gwen Watford Jeffrey Shankley

Theme Tune

The Boy From Space theme tune, as sung by Derek Griffiths. Out there in space,
Shall we find friends?
Is there a place
Where the universe ends?

When shall we find it?
Never, never.
Space goes on forever.
music by Paddy Kingsland, sung by Derek Griffiths
MP3 file: 38 seconds, 304 kb

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

Video Clips

• Clip 1 - First contact
Helen and Dan become the first humans to encounter one of the aliens when they come across Peep-Peep hiding in the sand-pit. He makes some elaborate attempts to communicate with them which are met with incomprehension and shouting from the two children. Finally Dan manages to hold his hands out in peace and the three make friends.
> What happens next? Read about it in the Story Guide.

	Download WMV file 156 seconds @ 30kbps = 586kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 156 seconds @ 34kbps = 730kb

• Clip 2 - The stranger on the stairs
The big, classic cliffhanger from The Boy From Space: Helen and Dan are alone on the first floor of the observatory, thinking they may be the next targets of scary spacemen; they try to phone for help but it's been cut off, and then they see the shadow of a figure slowly making its way up the stairs towards them... Check the Boy From Space section of Ian Trembirth's Look And Read website for more on the impact of this cliffhanger.
> What happens next? Read about it in the Story Guide. [SPOILER!]

	Download WMV file 43 seconds @ 30kbps = 162kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 43 seconds @ 34kbps = 185kb

• Clip 3 - The invisible wall
More of the strange mime work that marked this story. Helen, Dan and Tom are investigating why Dan's compass started spinning last time they were in the wood. This time, they keep going when the compass spins and walk straight into a strange sort of force field that seems like an invisible wall that they have to push their way through.
> What happens next? Read about it in the Story Guide.

	Download WMV file 58 seconds @ 30kbps = 219kb
	Download RM file (or click here to stream it) 58 seconds @ 34kbps = 252kb

• You can watch four more clips from The Boy From Space - including the Thin Man's kidnapping of Bunting and Peep-Peep - on BBCi's Look and Read website. See the links section below.

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

Notes

Jane Killick's interview with Richard Carpenter for TV Zone magazine in 1993 featured some discussion of The Boy From Space:
It was originally shown in black and white, but as colour became the television norm, a problem arose when they wanted to show it again. "The two children in it, who played Helen and Dan... had grown up, they were now young adults. So we have this wonderful opening where they're sitting on Mill Hill observatory steps saying, 'Do you remember when we were kids and we first came to the observatory?' and you do a fade and them as kids come up the drive on bicycles. Now I know of no other film or television [programme] where that's ever happened."

The 1980 version of this story is considered as completely separate from the 1971 version by the BBC, for educational purposes at least. The 1980 teacher's book notes that schools should not just reuse their old 70s story books, as an entirely new version was published, with new illustrations, a new first-person narrative (the 70s one was third-person) and which also
differs from the earlier version in vocabulary and sentence structure and in the addition of a non-fiction section at the end of each chapter on space and other topics arising from the story.
There are also different visions of the spaceship (which is never seen on TV) for the different decades - the 70s version can be seen on my 1971 story page, while the 80s version looks more like a satellite or something.

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 1980, BBC1
      Spring 1982, BBC1
      Spring 1984, BBC2
      Spring 1986, BBC2
      Autumn 2003, CBBC
      Spring 2004, CBBC
      Summer 2004, CBBC
      Autumn 2004, CBBC
      Summer 2005, CBBC
      Spring 2006, CBBC




Links

• For full coverage of the Boy From Space story including plenty of screen grabs, check out the Story Guide at this site.
/stories/boy2/guide.html

• You can watch several RealVideo extracts from this version of The Boy From Space at the BBC Cult website, specifically:
      the title song
      one of the reading bits
      the Thin Man dealing with Bunting's car
      and the weird flashback fight scene from the final episode
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/lookandread/index.shtml

• For a well-written account of The Boy From Space's history, check T J Worthington's article on the Off The Telly site.
http://offthetelly.users.btopenworld.com/childrens/boyfromspace.htm

• Ian Trembirth's Look and Read site has extensive coverage of The Boy From Space, with stuff from the pupil's book and some nice illustrations.
http://www.trembirth.demon.co.uk/lookread/   (frameset)

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

Picture Gallery

The spacemen	Tom, Bunting, Helen and Dan

The thin man got into the car and drove after him. Dan was running hard, but I thought the man was going to run him down.	Peep-Peep's father put a strange ring on his finger. When he had made sure that the other space-man could not see them, he began writing with it.

			> See every Look & Read book cover in the Trivia section > Get complete books, including this one, from the Downloads section
'That's mirror-writing,' said Dan. 'We don't write like that.' 'No, Dan,' said Mr Bunting. 'The bag is inside out.'	Back cover	The pupil's pamphlet.

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