In particular, I though Steward Guidotti took a good part as Geoff. He came over as a breed of teenager which has been somewhat out of fashion since the Sixties – the sort who is eager to be counted as one of the grown ups, and accepts the need to earn this by acting like one. He discharges to the best of his ability the duties he is given on radio and radar, accepts without complaint his exclusion from the first walk on the Lunar surface (because he is needed in the ship for radio watch) and the potentially dangerous duty of going from ship to ship through a meteor storm. In the final crisis, he takes upon himself the duty of comforting his little brother, assuring him that it will not hurt when they both die of suffocation.

I must admit that at this point I felt a bit angry with his father and the grownups in general. Ok, I know they were busy with their scientific work and in particular the alien ship, but wasn’t this carrying the British Stiff Upper Lip a bit too far? It seems rather “over the top” to leave such a task to a 14-year-old boy. And neither then nor later does Geoff get so much as a pat on the shoulder for his behaviour in the face of death. Apparently it is no more than is expected of him. At times, though it was made in my own lifetime, the human characters in PiS seem a more alien species than anything they are likely to find in outer space.

Still, they were a great view fifty years ago, despite the excruciating visual effects, and there still well worth a watch. Not at all sorry I bought them.

I hesitated a bit over buying the dvds, as not all these “sentimental journeys” end well. This one did though.

I was surprised to find how much I liked the first series, which I missed as a child (I saw PtM and PtV at 12/13). In particular, the crisis scene, where they had to decide which two of them woudl get to survive, was really gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat, despite my foreknowledge that all the major characters must survive for the next series. I was rather touched by Jimmy’s determination to save his hamster, even if “himself he could not save”. Both moving and credible.All in all, really glad I bought it.

I have recently ressurected my old Akai open reel tape recorder and have found many reels of tape.
I have a radio serial ‘A Walk in the Dark’ originally broadcast on radio 2 in the ’70s, I think. Any use?