Wednesday 30 April 2008

Journey into Space

Paul Donovan writes the Radio Waves column in the Sunday Times. He recently included a piece about his first radio memory of JOUR-NEY IN-TO SPAACE (the announcer's spooky introduction). Created and produced by Charles Chilton and broadcast from 1953 to 1958 there were 58 episodes in three series. Andrew Faulds (who became a Labour MP) played Jet Morgan, Lemmy was played originally by David Kossof and then by Alfie Bass and Guy Kingsley Pointer played Doc and in effect narrated the stories from his diaries.

Most of the other voices, including that of the Announcer were played by the one and only David Jacobs. In those days he was a young impressionist who later went on to host the unmissable Juke Box Jury and become a Radio One DJ.

I can remember listening with great excitement to many of the episodes on our crackly radio. The sound effects were eerily familiar, I can still hear today the echo of closing the spaceship doors. Together with Dan Dare in the Eagle, these were my introduction to science fiction. Something I love to this day.

http://www.jeton.themoon.co.uk/

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