News on Blake's 7

On this page I'll be highlighting any news I can find on the series and the actors.

Jacqueline Pearce in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"

Jacqueline Pearce, who played Servalan in the series, can be seen in the above play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, staged at the Hill Street Theatre, 19 Hill St, Edinburgh. The play runs between 4th -28th August.

UK Fan Get-together

A group of London-based fans of Avon in particular and Blakes 7 in general have started to arrange regular meet-ups. They met in the Blue Post pub on Newman Street in London on the first or second Friday evening of every month. For more information please email jenni@flimsy.dircon.co.uk The provisional dates of future meetings are as follows:

August - 4th (plus Brighton weekend on the Saturday & Sunday, see details below)
September - 1st
October - 6th
November - 3rd
December - 1st (Christmas meal - venue to be confirmed)

Details of how to get to the Blue Post are as follows: From Tottenham Court Road tube station (on the Northern and Central Lines) walk down Oxford Street. Newman Street turns off on the right hand side about 200 yards down.

Around 9.30pm, they will leave the pub to go for a pizza at the Pizza Hut on Oxford Street, which is virtually opposite the end of Newman Street. If you go to the pub and they are not there, walk back to Oxford Street, and you will be able to see the Pizza Hut sign. They will tell the staff showing people to their seats that they are the Blakes 7 table, so that any latecomers can be directed to them. If you have real trouble finding us, the mobile telephone number is 07776 302783.

Over the weekend of August 5 & 6, some of them are also going to Brighton for the weekend. Hotels get booked up very quickly over the summer period and many in Brighton will only offer a minimum two night stay, but the following hotel still has some double and single rooms available:

The Brighton Hotel
143-145 Kings Road
Brighton
West Sussex

Tel: 01904 620033

You can also book them directly through the Internet from the following website: http://hotelnet.co.uk/generated/sussex.htm. Rooms are £45 per person per night for single or double ensuite room for B&B.

A new Blake's 7 Book

The TV Movie

There is now talk of a new TV movie of Blake's 7. And for once this one has substance. Producer Andrew Sewell has bought the rights of Blake's 7 from the estate of its late creator - Terry Nation. Sewell, who has recently worked on the BBC hit "Walking with Dinosaurs", wants to turn the idea into a multi-millon pound TV movie.

Actor Paul Darrow (who played Kerr Avon) has been involved from the beginning and is looking to reprise his role as Avon, twenty years after the events on Gauda Prime. Terry Nation's widow is also involved with the project and the plot is supposed to be based on one of Nation's own ideas. Brian Lighthill, who worked on the BBC Radio 4 Blake's 7 plays is a co-producer, and Bev Doyle, who has worked on Eastenders, is set to become the script writer.

Sewell says: "The plan is to set it 20 years on from when the last series ended." The film will retain the name Blake's 7, despite Blake being killed by Avon in the last episode. No hints are being given as to how Avon survives the last scene gunfire, surrounded by his dead companions. Sewell does not have a broadcaster yet, but hopes the BBC will take up the movie, but there are other commercial station options open.

You can see the BBC's own report of the proposed TV movie here.

The repeats

Blake's 7 has recently enjoyed a rare re-run of series one on the BBC on Saturday's. Shown on BBC 2, the viewing figures were quite good, but the BBC currently have no plans to show more. Viewing figures started above 1 million, but dropped a little.

Repeat fees for the actors are much higher when the show is repeated on BBC 1 or BBC 2, compared to satellite and cable stations, so the BBC need to believe they are getting good feedback to show more shows.

So please let your feelings known to the BBC. You can do this in 3 ways.

• Contact the BBC Duty Officer at 08700 100 222.
• Contact the Radio Times magazine at
  Radio Times, 80 Wood Lane, London, W12 OTT.
  Tel: 0870 608 4455, Fax: 020 8433 3923
  email: radio.times@bbc.co.uk
• Contact Points of View at:
  Points of View, BBC TV, London, W12 7TS
  Tel/Fax: 020 8811 1050
  email: pov@bbc.co.uk

Gareth Thomas in the new Randall and Hopkirk(deceased) TV series.

Gareth plays Dickie Bechard, landlord of The Lord Bechard, in Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's remake of the '60s TV classic TV series. Living in Canada as I do now, I've not been able to see this show, so I don't know how big Gareth's part is. But for a movie clip of Gareth and the other stars, click here. Note, you will need Quicktime v.4 to view the files.

Paul Darrow in The Strangerers

Paul Darrow (who played Kerr Avon) is appearing in Rob Grant's SF comedy series "The Strangerers" on Sky One. Check listings for the correct times.

The filming of the series was in two blocks of 5 episodes each. Paul's character, C.D. - a seedy hotel owner - was only due to appear in 2 of the episodes, but Rob Grant quickly wrote more scenes for Paul, so impressed was he with his performance. Rob Grant, who's previous credits include Spitting Image and Red Dward, had been wanting to work with Paul since meeting him at the Visions '94 convention in Chicago.

For more information on the Strangerers, check out www.strangerers.co.uk.

Paul Darrow narrates the Walking With Dinosaurs CD-Rom

Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon) has joined forces with the BBC to narrate a CD-Rom to accompany the show. The show was a big hit on the BBC and has been sold to the Discovery channel for broadcast in North America. The CD will be released very soon.