The Boy From Space (1980) [Look and Read]

It’s fair to say that The Boy From Space is an odd viewing experience. The drama sections concern two children, Dan (Stephen Garlick) and Helen (Sylvestra Le Touzel) who, whilst out stargazing, spy an object plummeting to the earth. They decide to explore and discover a crashed space-ship. Amongst the ship’s inhabitants is a young alien boy christened “Peep-peep” by the children due to his backwards language. But there is danger from another alien who the children refer to as “the thin space-man”, played by John Woodnutt. He seems to have a hold over their new friend from space and this puts them all in danger. Whilst this is obviously quite low budget, there’s plenty of merit here. The child actors are pretty good (Le Touzel would go on to have a lengthy career) whilst Gabriel Woolf and John Woodnutt are as solid as you would expect. Another plus point is the score by Paddy Kingsland. Anybody who loves early eighties Doctor Who music will find much to appreciate. 'Look and Read' (1967 – 2004) was a long running BBC Schools programme that is fondly remembered by several generations of school-children. Its aim was to help less developed readers gain confidence but the drama segments (each twenty minute episode would be a mix of studio based learning lessons and a continuing serial) ensured that the programmes appealed to most children. 'The Boy From Space' was the third in the Look and Read series, originally broadcast between September and November 1971 and was scripted by Richard Carpenter who later went on to write the mythical folklore series, 'Catweazle'. Turning back to the original 1971 broadcast of The Boy From Space, it comprised 10 episodes of 20 minutes duration. Although it was repeated several times up until 1973, sometime after that the tapes were wiped which meant that that only the drama inserts remained. At this point in time the majority of BBC programmes were made and broadcast on videotape. Videotape was expensive and could be re-used, hence the reason why so many shows from this era are lost for ever – as periodically the tapes would be wiped so that new recordings could be made. Film, however, could not be re-used, which explains why these sections of The Boy From Space remained in the archives. In 1980 BBC Schools were looking around for a new Look and Read serial, so it was decided to use the material shot in 1971 along with newly created learning inserts. And as the original music was lost Paddy Kingsland from the Radiophonic Workshop was commissioned to write a new score.