J O U R N E Y I N T O S P A C E
------------- ------- ---------
1953 - 1958 & 1981
First Show: 21 Sep, 1953 Last Show: 18 Jun, 1981
Number Shows: 72 Audition Show: none
Series Description:
JOURNEY INTO SPACE was the brainchild of BBC producer Charles
Chilton, who had enjoyed much success with his Western serial,
RIDERS OF THE RANGE and would later produce the final episodes of
THE GOON SHOW. Fuelled by his own interest in astronomy and
science, together with the rising public interest in the genesis of
the Space Race, he began to work on a six part SF story in 1953 at
the request of the BBC. Due to the unexpected and overwhelming
audience response, this six week run was soon extended to a full 18.
The first series, simply entitled JOURNEY INTO SPACE, (billed in the
Radio Times as "Journey Into Space", A Tale of the Future) actually
began on 21 Sept, 1953, broadcast on THE LIGHT PROGRAMME. It also
enjoyed a weekly repeat and transmission on the General Overseas
Service. The cast included Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, David
Kossoff as Lemmy Barnet, Guy Kingsley Poynter as Doc Mathews and Bruce
Beeby as Stephen Mitchell. After the initial run of 6 episodes, Beeby
was replaced by Don Sharp. Filling out the cast was BBC announcer,
David Jacobs. He played a variety of background parts and who would
later provide the voices of nearly everyone other than the main cast
in subsequent series.
The second series, THE RED PLANET, started on its 20 week run a year
later on 6 Sept, 1954 and showed Chilton's writing at its best.
Beebly returned as Mitchell, although this was his last appearence in
the series. THE RED PLANET was an unqualified triumph, telling of
man's first attempt at planatary colonization. It finished on a
rather downbeat cliffhanger ending that dovetailed seamlessly with
it's sequel. To many, series 2 and 3 can be seen as one long 40 part
story, so faithful is the continuity and plot structure.
THE WORLD IN PERIL began on 26 Sept, 1955 and was to be the final
radio journey for Morgan and his crew, at least for the 1950's. Once
again, the portrayal of Mitchell changed hands, reverting back to Don
Sharp, who would later find renown for his film directing. Kossoff
too was absent, having left to pursue his stage career. He suggested
actor Alfie Bass as his replacement, the substitution being invisible
to the listening audience.
After completion of the trilogy, it was realized that the quality of
the origional recordings of the first series was inadequate for
repeat broadcasts or overseas sales. To this end, a new version was
mounted, this time a 13 episode serial, which began on March 26,
1958. This new production was christened OPERATION LUNA, omitting
several plot strands, most notably those concerning Jet's father, Sir
William Morgan. The WORLD IN PERIL cast were reunited, with the
exception of Don Sharp, who was replaced by David Williams. This
became the Transcription version.
The effect that JOURNEY INTO SPACE had on the British public cannot
be overstated. It was the last evening radio program to achieve
higher audience figures than the BBC's TV service. Chilton wrote 3
best-selling novels, expanding upon themes from the radio shows.
There was even a comic strip in the Express Weekly newspaper, with
new stories suggested by Chilton.
Sadly, all four series were destroyed in the purge of the BBC
archive. The Transcription disks for OPERATION LUNA, THE RED PLANET
and WORLD IN PERIL surfaced in the late 80's, discovered by BBC
recording engineer Ted Kendall, having been reserved for overseas
broadcast in 1957 and forgotten. After this discovery, the BBC
repeated the trilogy on Radio 2 between 1989 and 1991. This was
followed by edited cassette releases, with minor scenes and credits/
recaps removed.
On 7 March, 1981, Radio 4 produced a Chilton-scripted 90-minute
special, entitled THE RETURN FROM MARS, picking up the story from the
end of THE WORLD IN PERIL. It is currently under consideration for
cassette release by BBC Worldwide and has been aired on the BBC's
new Radio 7, the BBC's outlet for their archived spoken-word
entertainment.
Chilton went on to create SPACE FORCE in 1984 and SPACE FORCE II in
1985, both of which are similar to JOURNEY INTO SPACE in many
respects.
Log Comments:
This log is possible to information provided by Bill Boucher. The
text of the Description section is totally based on information he
sent with only editing by me.
Since JOURNEY INTO SPACE consists of 3 multi-show series, a remake
and a single-show special, the List below contains separations to
display this. The episodes were untitled, so only episode numbers
are shows in the Title field.
Also shown in the log are two documentary/interview shows about the
series.
Chronological Log:
Date Day Num Title
------------ --- --- ------------------------
.. JOURNEY INTO SPACE ..
7:30 - 8:00 PM,
on the Light Programme
21 Sep, 1953 Mon 1 Episode 1 (lost)
28 Sep, 1953 Mon 2 Episode 2 (lost)
05 Oct, 1953 Mon 3 Episode 3 (lost)
12 Oct, 1953 Mon 4 Episode 4 (lost)
19 Oct, 1953 Mon 5 Episode 5 (lost)
26 Oct, 1953 Mon 6 Episode 6 (lost)
02 Nov, 1953 Mon 7 Episode 7 (lost)
09 Nov, 1953 Mon 8 Episode 8 (lost)
16 Nov, 1953 Mon 9 Episode 9 (lost)
23 Nov, 1953 Mon 10 Episode 10 (lost)
30 Nov, 1953 Mon 11 Episode 11 (lost)
07 Dec, 1953 Mon 12 Episode 12 (lost)
14 Dec, 1953 Mon 13 Episode 13 (lost)
21 Dec, 1953 Mon 14 Episode 14 (lost)
moves to Tuesday,
8:00 - 8:30 PM
29 Dec, 1953 Tue 15 Episode 15 (lost)
05 Jan, 1954 Tue 16 Episode 16 (lost)
12 Jan, 1954 Tue 17 Episode 17 (lost)
19 Jan, 1954 Tue 18 Episode 18 (lost)
Date Day Num Title Repeated Day
------------ --- --- ------------------------ ------------ ---
.... THE RED PLANET ....
7:30 - 8:00 PM
(repeat: 6:00-6:30 PM)
on the Light Programme
06 Sep, 1954 Mon 19 Episode 1 12 Sep, 1954 Sun
13 Sep, 1954 Mon 20 Episode 2 19 Sep, 1954 Sun
20 Sep, 1954 Mon 21 Episode 3 26 Sep, 1954 Sun
27 Sep, 1954 Mon 22 Episode 4 03 Oct, 1954 Sun
04 Oct, 1954 Mon 23 Episode 5 10 Oct, 1954 Sun
11 Oct, 1954 Mon 24 Episode 6 17 Oct, 1954 Sun
18 Oct, 1954 Mon 25 Episode 7 24 Oct, 1954 Sun
25 Oct, 1954 Mon 26 Episode 8 31 Oct, 1954 Sun
01 Nov, 1954 Mon 27 Episode 9 07 Nov, 1954 Sun
08 Nov, 1954 Mon 28 Episode 10 14 Nov, 1954 Sun
15 Nov, 1954 Mon 29 Episode 11 21 Nov, 1954 Sun
22 Nov, 1954 Mon 30 Episode 12 28 Nov, 1954 Sun
29 Nov, 1954 Mon 31 Episode 13 05 Dec, 1954 Sun
06 Dec, 1954 Mon 32 Episode 14 12 Dec, 1954 Sun
13 Dec, 1954 Mon 33 Episode 15 19 Dec, 1954 Sun
20 Dec, 1954 Mon 34 Episode 16 26 Dec, 1954 Sun
27 Dec, 1954 Mon 35 Episode 17 02 Jan, 1955 Sun
03 Jan, 1955 Mon 36 Episode 18 09 Jan, 1955 Sun
10 Jan, 1955 Mon 37 Episode 19 16 Jan, 1955 Sun
17 Jan, 1955 Mon 38 Episode 20 23 Jan, 1955 Sun
Date Day Num Title Repeated Day
------------ --- --- ------------------------ ------------ ---
.. THE WORLD IN PERIL ..
7:30 - 8:00 PM
(repeat: 6:30-7:00 PM)
on the Light Programme
26 Sep, 1955 Mon 39 Episode 1 02 Oct, 1955 Sun
03 Oct, 1955 Mon 40 Episode 2 09 Oct, 1955 Sun
10 Oct, 1955 Mon 41 Episode 3 16 Oct, 1955 Sun
17 Oct, 1955 Mon 42 Episode 4 23 Oct, 1955 Sun
24 Oct, 1955 Mon 43 Episode 5 30 Oct, 1955 Sun
31 Oct, 1955 Mon 44 Episode 6 06 Nov, 1955 Sun
07 Nov, 1955 Mon 45 Episode 7 13 Nov, 1955 Sun
14 Nov, 1955 Mon 46 Episode 8 20 Nov, 1955 Sun
21 Nov, 1955 Mon 47 Episode 9 27 Nov, 1955 Sun
28 Nov, 1955 Mon 48 Episode 10 04 Dec, 1955 Sun
05 Dec, 1955 Mon 49 Episode 11 11 Dec, 1955 Sun
12 Dec, 1955 Mon 50 Episode 12 18 Dec, 1955 Sun
19 Dec, 1955 Mon 51 Episode 13 25 Dec, 1955 Sun
26 Dec, 1955 Mon 52 Episode 14 01 Jan, 1956 Sun
02 Jan, 1956 Mon 53 Episode 15 08 Jan, 1956 Sun
09 Jan, 1956 Mon 54 Episode 16 15 Jan, 1956 Sun
16 Jan, 1956 Mon 55 Episode 17 22 Jan, 1956 Sun
23 Jan, 1956 Mon 56 Episode 18 29 Jan, 1956 Sun
30 Jan, 1956 Mon 57 Episode 19 05 Feb, 1956 Sun
06 Feb, 1956 Mon 58 Episode 20 12 Feb, 1956 Sun
Date Day Num Title
------------ --- --- ------------------------
.... OPERATION LUNA ....
(re-make of series 1)
7:30 - 8:00 PM
on the Light Programme
26 Mar, 1958 Wed 59 Episode 1
02 Apr, 1958 Wed 60 Episode 2
09 Apr, 1958 Wed 61 Episode 3
16 Apr, 1958 Wed 62 Episode 4
23 Apr, 1958 Wed 63 Episode 5
30 Apr, 1958 Wed 64 Episode 6
07 May, 1958 Wed 65 Episode 7
14 May, 1958 Wed 66 Episode 8
21 May, 1958 Wed 67 Episode 9
28 May, 1958 Wed 68 Episode 10
04 Jun, 1958 Wed 69 Episode 11
11 Jun, 1958 Wed 70 Episode 12
18 Jun, 1958 Wed 71 Episode 13
Date Day Num Title
------------ --- --- --------------------------
18 Jun, 1981 Thu 72 RETURN FROM MARS (special)
In Stereo, 90 minutes
Date Day Num Title
------------ --- --- ----------------------------------------
20 Jul, 1999 Tue na JOURNEY INTO SPACE AGAIN
documentary/interview, BBC Radio 4,
aired at 11:00 PM, 30 minutes.
Guests: Charles Chilton,
Andrew Faulds,
David Jacobs
11 Mar, 2000 Sat na ANOTHER JOURNEY INTO SPACE
David Jacobs interview, BBC Radio 4,
8:00 PM, 60 minutes. The last half
of the show was an episode of the
show.
References:
* "The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming and Guide To All
Circulating Shows", by Jay Hickerson, Box 4321, Hamden, CT 06514
Other Logs:
* JOURNEY INTO SPACE log, Jerry Haendiges Productions, 13808 Sunset
Dr., Whittier, CA 90602 (http://www.otrsite.com)
Reader Feedback:
* Colin M. Bleads sent his list of episodes and episode descriptions
from the BBC's Radio Times. It provided primary broadcast times and
repeat broadcast dates and times.
* Jim Sanderson provided the information about "Journey Into Space
Again" and "Another Journey into Space".
Last Update: Sep 01, 2004
This log is informational only and does not imply that I have these
shows for trade or sale. The shows are still be protected under
copyright law and should be obtained only from authorized dealers.
The log may be freely reproduced and published on a no-profit basis.
Please send error corrections or additional information to Frank M.
Passage, 109 Elmwood Road, Verona, NJ 07044 (email: wb2ntp@arrl.net).