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50 Years, 50 Amazing FactsThings you probably never knew or knew and had forgotten about or forgot that you had forgotten about or else didn't even want to know about Journey Into Space. To celebrate 50 years since the first broadcast, we look at the trivia behind the show and connections so loose, you'll think they're on Babychamp.
The Cast 1. Andrew Faulds appeared in several episodes of Hancock's Half Hour. In the classic episode The Radio Ham he played "Mayday". He later became a labour MP for Warley East and even managed to steal some of Tony Blair's thunder by retiring the same day Blair became Prime Minister. 2. Alfie Bass played Harry in Alfie, Bert in 'Til Death Us Do Part and Alf in A Kid For Two Farthings. His most famous role was probably that of Private 'Excused Boots' Bisley (Bootsie) in the ITV comedy series 'The Army Game' (1957-61) and 'Bootsie and Snudge' (1960-62).
3. Charles Chilton originally wanted to call the radio operator Bert or Alf but David Kossoff, who originally played the part, had always wanted to play a character called Lemuel and asked for his character to be called that. Chilton found that the name was a bit long for his script and shortened it. Hence 'Lemmy' was born. 4. David Kossoff left the cast of Journey Into Space in 1955 to appear in the film A Kid For Two Farthings. After the film was completed he wanted his old job back but Charles Chilton said "I've got a new Lemmy; I don't want to kick him out just 'cos you've finished your film." This was in spite of the fact that Alfie Bass appeared in the very same film! 5. Guy Kingsley Poynter appeared in Riders of the Range, before being cast in Journey Into Space. 6. Bruce Beeby originally played Mitch in the first series, but only until episode 6 when he landed a film role. Don Sharp replaced him in orbit from episode 7. 7. Don Sharp later became a director, whose work included episodes of The Avengers, Hammer horror films and the third screen version of The Thirty-Nine Steps. 8. David Jacobs voiced 22 different characters in the full series. He and Charles Chilton had first worked together in the Second World War making Forces programmes in London and later at Radio SEAC (South East Asia) in Ceylon. 9. David Jacobs became known as "The Flasher of Aeolian Hall" because during one recording the cast, led by Andrew Faulds, poured a jug of water down his trousers. He was soaked through and had to record the rest of the episode wearing a raincoat. 10. Alan Keith, later to become a popular radio presenter, had also played for parts for Charles Chilton in other shows. In Riders of the Range he played Billy The Kid. 11. Deryck Guyler, who played The Voice of the time traveller, was better known for his comedy roles in programs such as Take It From Here and The Men From The Ministry. 12. Anthony Marriott, who played Whitaker, was also a write and contributed scripts to the Gerry Anderson series Fireball XL5. 13. Madi Hedd who played Martha, the sheep-farmer's wife, was the wife of Bruce Beeby. She had written to Charles Chilton saying she was an actress looking for work. 14. John Cazabon, who played the Flying Doctor, also appeared episodes of the cult classic The Prisoner as well as Quatermass II. 15. Alan Tilvern, The Luna Controller, later appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as R K Maroon. He has also appeared in Doctor Who (Planet of Giants) and Dad's Army. 16. Pat Campbell, alias Paddy Flynn, used his softly spoken Irish tones to become a DJ on radio Luxembourg. He also released a single called The Deal, regarded as one of the worst records of all time. 17. Fred Yule and Duncan McIntyre have also appeared in several Paul Temple serials on radio. 18. Ed Bishop who played Doc in The Return From Mars was a stalwart of Gerry Anderson productions, most notably his portrayal of Commander Straker in UFO. He appeared in lots of Saturday Night Theatre plays during the 1980s and 90s.
19. Kenny Everett grew up listening to Journey Into Space in the 1950s. He described it as the era before Black and White, when there was just black. His 'comic strip' radio serial Captain Kremmen was inspired by Journey Into Space and The Goon Show. 20. Former prime minister John Major and his wife Norma are fans - they both listened to the repeats of Journey Into Space on radio 2 in the early 1990s, according to a newspaper interview. 21. Professor Steven Hawking grew up listening to Journey Into Space and would rather listen to the programme than do his school homework. His interest in space and the Universe lead him to write A Brief History of Time. 22. Miriam Margolyes, the actress perhaps best known for her voice work, lists Journey Into Space as one of her favourite radio programs. Also Colin Pillinger, designer of the Mars probe Beagle2 (sadly destroyed on landing or perhaps stepped on by a Deceptacon), Terry Malloy (actor Davros - Doctor Who and The Archers) and Pink Floyd!
23. Charles Chilton was the first presenter of a music program on the BBC without the posh 'BBC' voice. He was a cockney and worked as a gramophone producer compiling programmes about jazz. 24. Charles Chilton wrote each episode of Journey Into Space over the weekend of each recording! He would start writing it on Friday night and take it into the studio on Sunday. Often the final cliff-hanger was finished over lunch in the BBC canteen. Despite this Chilton was always able to produce an episode that was exactly half-an-hour in length. He felt that this method of working heightened the dramatic tension in the story. 25. Chilton was never paid for writing an episode. He was under contract as producer and paid for that. "If you were so full of the urge to write that you couldn't help it, the BBC didn't stop you." 26. Charles Chilton appeared wearing a space-suit at the Schoolboy's Own Exhibition held at Westminster in January 1954. He also appeared on Under Twenty Parade to talk about space travel in a feature called Space Flight - Fact and Fiction that same month. 27. Chilton was invited to see a film showing several unidentified flying objects flying level with a Norwegian aircraft. It was shown to the R.A.F. but Chilton was shown it as well, despite being a civilian, because it was thought he must have some special insight into the unknown. He says that the craft looked like saucers flying in formation and that they were translucent, although the strange film could have been faked. 28. Chilton later wrote a musical radio programme about the First World War called The Long, Long Trail. This was adapted for the stage as Oh What A Lovely War by Joan Littlewood. Chilton was fine with being credited as researcher on this, until the play was adapted for radio - the medium he originally had had the idea for.
29. Sound effects and music from Journey Into Space have appeared in The Goon Show, particularly in episodes produced by Charles Chilton. 30. The inner airlock door opening effect was used in the cartoon DangerMouse for the sound of one of the doors in D.M.'s headquarters. 31. The sound of the 3 dimensional Martian televiewer in The World In Peril was used in the James Bond film Dr No. The spooky electronic sound is heard when Bond crawls through a ventilation tunnel. 32. The lyrics for the rebel song The Green Hills of Earth were actually penned by Clark Harrington - who was the programme director for NBC in America and a friend of Charles Chilton. It was originally written for a Robert Heinlein short story of the same name, but Harrington published the song and allowed Charles Chilton to use it for The World In Peril. 33. An eight piece orchestra was assembled to play the music for every episode. The music was played in live during the recording along with the sound effects and the actors' performances. Sometimes the orchestra was used to contribute to the effects, such as the strange sounds heard when Whitaker speaks over the radio.
35. Stock music originally composed for Operation Luna appears in The Avengers episode The Frighteners - one of only two Ian Hendry episodes to survive from the first series.
36. Charles Chilton originally cast an actor called John Glenn in the role of Jet Morgan before seeing Andrew Faulds and changing his mind. The name is of course the same as the first american to orbit the earth - the NASA astronaut John Glenn. 37. Andrew Faulds own Uncle, The Reverend Hector Angus McPherson had written a book called Practical Astronomy, which Charles Chilton had read. Hence the appearance of "Uncle Hector" in the first series. 38. Journey Into Space has gone on record as being the last radio program broadcast in an evening to have a higher audience than the one watching television at the same time. 39. When the transmission time of the first series was changed an order of Nuns wrote to the BBC to complain that the transmission clashed with the hour of their evensong. 40. The British radar society invited Charles Chilton to their annual dinner - not to talk about radar but to outline what would happen in that week's episode which was on at the same time as their dinner. 41. The BBC even thought about putting the show on television. A TV producer told Charles Chilton that anything that could be done on radio could be done on television, so Chilton went and wrote the one thing they couldn't do - an episode set completely in the dark. This was the episode where Jet and crew were stranded on the Moon for the fourteen days of the lunar night. 42. "All our rockets took off at the right speed," said Charles Chilton proudly in an interview once. He consulted Kenneth Gatland, who was a rocket designer at Farnborough, to ensure the scientific accuracy of his scripts. 43. For the name of the strange crewman aboard the Mars Fleet ship Freighter No. 2 Chilton was inspired by the copy of Whitaker's Almanac sitting on his desk. 44. In 1981 The Return From Mars was broadcast on Radio 4. It was directed by Glyn Dearman who also directed James Follet's Earthsearch - a show which owes its format to the old Journey Into Space serials. 45. Journey Into Space was translated into 17 different languages including Dutch, Rumanian and Hindustani. It also played to great success on the radio stations of America and Australia. 46. David Lean wanted to make a film version of Journey Into Space. Sam Wanamaker wanted to make a musical! 47. Journey Into Space continues to enjoy popularity in the Netherlands. The adaption entitled Sprong In Het Heelal was recently voted the second-best radio science fiction series of all time - beating Lord of the Rings and The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. 48. The series was thought lost in the BBC archives until 1986 when BBC recording engineer Ted Kendall unearthed a pile of mislaid Transcription Disks. He used his tricks of the trade to restore the recordings to hi fidelity. 49. The series 1980s radio series Space Force, also written by Charles Chilton, is set in the year 2010 and features the character of Lemuel 'Chipper' Barnet - Lemmy's grandson! Space Force also mentions "Morgan's Private Airbus" (perhaps the company Sir William Morgan set up) and has a character called Captain Rogers - captain of Freighter No.2, just like her grandfather Frank Rogers! 50. There really was an Empire Exhibition in 1924. The British Empire Exhibition of 1924-1925 was held at Wembley stadium, designed to highlight the imperial wealth and prosperity of the soon to decline British Empire. People were desperate to get tickets. Of course not everyone who had tickets turned up. Some people disappeared completely before they could even get to the Exhibition.
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34.
A suite of music from Journey Into Space, was recorded by Van Phillips
as library music for use on other shows. Cues featuring a medley of
music from the second and third series became stock music used in Edward
D. Wood Junior's most infamous film Plan 9 From Outer Space -
voted at one point, the worst film of all time. The music turns up in
the funeral scenes, when the cops race into action following the death
of 'the old man' and during the final climatic fight aboard the flying
saucer. No doubt sourced from the short-lived bootleg Plan 9
soundtrack CD, the final climatic piece of music has also turned up
in commercials for Linx deodorant (a man finds himself trapped
on pre-historic Earth) and Dairy Lee Dunkers (a UFOs zap a kids
lunch)!