WEBVTT

NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 21:51:00

1
00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:06.179
Maximum power.

2
00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:22.140
Welcome to Maximum Power, the Blake 7 podcast, where we are very excited to be presenting the 2nd half of our interview with Michael Lee Bryant.

3
00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:27.960
I hope you enjoyed the 1st half if you've already listened to that, and we've got some great things coming up in this one, haven't we, Simon?

4
00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:28.920
Oh, we certainly have.

5
00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:29.579
Thank you, Pete.

6
00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:46.859
There's some very interesting discussion about drones about the original design of the liberator and picking up an episode where someone else has done the location filming and you're asked at the very last minute to come in when you're not expecting to direct an episode.

7
00:00:46.920 --> 00:01:04.260
So, yes, and we'll be hearing about his return to Wookiehole, having been there on that other science fiction show he's worked on, but going back there for the late 7, and a great debate about, a great discussion about the difference between single and multicamera shooting practises and the way that that's changed over the years.

8
00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:09.780
Let's dive straight back into the 2nd half of our interview with Michael E. Bryant.

9
00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:37.859
Yeah, so the next episode of yours to hit our screens was Project Avalon, where there has been another big enhancement to the format, which is, we do now have, a superstar villain, villainess, in the form of Servalon, by Jacqueline Pierce having joined the cast.

10
00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:50.640
Did you know, once, as soon as you saw her, that this was, could be a, a breakout character, because I think originally she was just designed to be a bit of a villain of the week or, but then very much moved front, front and centre.

11
00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:51.840
I didn't.

12
00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.420
I'm certainly didn't know the industry was a casting of Jacqueline.

13
00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:56.040
That would have...

14
00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:57.719
Who's a pursuit of this year in originally?

15
00:01:57.780 --> 00:01:58.439
was a deal.

16
00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:03.780
It was a pin, pin, it was a pin. on one episode prior to project down, hadn't she?

17
00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:04.920
I can imagine that.

18
00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:07.799
Yeah, like imagine there casting Jacqueline, yeah.

19
00:02:07.859 --> 00:02:18.539
I think it was clear from the web that the conflict thing was very, very important of them to keep the stories going for 13 weeks and hopefully more.

20
00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:22.500
Jackie did a sort of nice, since if you know, was the whole thing.

21
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:30.000
I mean, and you know, the council room, we were all giggling and camping it up because, um, it was so outrageously camp.

22
00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:32.639
And it worked.

23
00:02:32.699 --> 00:02:34.740
She just worked really, really well.

24
00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:41.939
And then Stephen wife, who I've worked with, a lot throughout my career in the past.

25
00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:44.099
He managed in my casting.

26
00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:49.080
I can't, I can't remember, but Stephen will certainly bounce from my repertoire.

27
00:02:49.139 --> 00:02:52.860
So, um, 7 wife and worked.

28
00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:55.020
They worked very well together.

29
00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:56.879
They, they, they hit it off.

30
00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:01.860
And, and Jackie just sort of, she sort of, she enjoyed.

31
00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:05.039
She enjoyed herself doing a chair.

32
00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:09.780
I remember her being beside the desk and oh, and having silly things in those days.

33
00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:18.960
I had a monitor wear on the desk or something, the pictures inlaid in it, and you've got to keep it still, and you've got to, you know, it's got to be positioned exactly.

34
00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:28.020
And Jacqueline, really, she was so on top of her game, that doing the mechanical things as an actress to make the effects work.

35
00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:31.319
It wasn't an issue for her.

36
00:03:31.379 --> 00:03:31.860
She just did it.

37
00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:41.939
I mean, it was just, I mean, all the things can do that, but there are some that sort of can do it without thinking about it without considering it and without it affecting their performance.

38
00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:44.520
And that was what, and that was what Jacobin did.

39
00:03:44.580 --> 00:03:47.939
And yeah, David was a very shrewd producer.

40
00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.719
I mean, we could see very quickly what worked and we also had.

41
00:03:51.780 --> 00:04:04.439
I think by this time there was a fair amount of discontent in the, uh, you know, in the home camp, um, that, who had, you know, who had scenes and who didn't have scenes, everyone had dialogue and all the rest of it.

42
00:04:04.500 --> 00:04:09.659
And I think it became clear that we would, we needed other influences.

43
00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:14.580
I, I, I quite liked project, have along when I saw it again.

44
00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:15.719
I thought it worked quite well.

45
00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:21.000
Yeah, sort of through the podcast, that very much came out top for all of us.

46
00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:23.339
That was our favourite episode of that particular series.

47
00:04:23.339 --> 00:04:26.879
So it seemed very Blake 7 almost.

48
00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:35.639
So it's the Federation versus the Liberator crew, lots of action, lots of stump work, lots of jeopardy.

49
00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:38.579
So it was just a really cracking episode.

50
00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:40.680
Wrong stories.

51
00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:43.199
I really, really enjoyed doing action.

52
00:04:43.259 --> 00:04:47.459
I mean, I didn't Pete Spanish, but it doesn't matter.

53
00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.100
I really enjoyed doing action.

54
00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:51.899
I really enjoyed.

55
00:04:51.959 --> 00:05:04.199
I've enjoyed the whole place also fight arranging and the whole process of explosions and people falling from great heights and I just really enjoyed doing those things.

56
00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:07.500
And I did, I did change a bit after that.

57
00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:16.139
But, um, It just happened, I guess, I was, I was able to inject all that into, into the project.

58
00:05:16.139 --> 00:05:20.160
And actually, it was the best science fiction story that I did, I felt.

59
00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:21.540
It was.

60
00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:24.120
Real science fiction.

61
00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:28.259
There was nothing there that you couldn't go, yeah, I can believe that can happen, you know.

62
00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:30.839
Because that's a triple science fiction, isn't it?

63
00:05:30.899 --> 00:05:34.620
You have to be able to believe that it can, that it could happen.

64
00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:37.379
And I think Project everyone had that.

65
00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:42.000
And an old favourite location as well in Wookiehole.

66
00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:42.839
That's right.

67
00:05:42.899 --> 00:05:43.920
A national.

68
00:05:43.980 --> 00:05:49.500
Obviously, I did 14-04, um, Dr. Poo, for the cybermen.

69
00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:56.160
So I knew about that location, and I knew, again, it was going back to somewhere where you knew could make it work.

70
00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:58.199
You could find the location.

71
00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:05.100
You could find the set within the location to do the things that you to do.

72
00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:15.180
And one of the, the lady, Dennis Barber made her a forced turn, the girls, in that in that story, when people become...

73
00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:26.040
Or she, she was a, there's a one called Tangier, and she went down and became a next police, and she became a regular in Blake 7 itself in the final series.

74
00:06:26.100 --> 00:06:27.060
Yes.

75
00:06:27.060 --> 00:06:28.680
Yeah, I've never seen.

76
00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:38.160
Actually, it's a photo break settlement. ever so often, even after I was left it, because we were showing you don't necessarily want to, it's not necessary to taste or whatever.

77
00:06:38.220 --> 00:06:44.220
Uh, but I did use some different brakes of very often and then say, you know, and enjoyed it, an enjoying episode.

78
00:06:44.279 --> 00:06:45.779
Enjoy some of it.

79
00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:47.879
Although I thought...

80
00:06:48.000 --> 00:07:03.300
In the way, though, once Gareth left it, I never, it then got taken over by Silverland, and eventually Pinz's character, and Brian Crabshire, between Stephen Griff, and I don't know what happened with that.

81
00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:08.100
I can't remember why I watched Stephen and Brian came in.

82
00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:12.839
Brian was no weight of mine from, you know, I mean, one I've worked together for donkeys years.

83
00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:25.860
Yeah, I think it was possibly that same thing of not wanting him, having said in interviews that he felt he was going in circles a little bit and one year was enough, but they decided to recast rather than replace him with a different character.

84
00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:33.959
You had to deal with a particularly difficult robot as well or location, I think, for Project Avalon.

85
00:07:34.019 --> 00:07:35.879
Yeah.

86
00:07:36.660 --> 00:07:38.519
There was a slight.

87
00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:45.300
Disconnect on Web 7 between visual effects department and the rectors.

88
00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:50.579
I don't know how I work for Panjangero, because I know I can borrow it to discuss it with them, but...

89
00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:56.279
The this effects department would tend to go off and do their own thing.

90
00:07:56.339 --> 00:08:14.339
If you're doing adoption home, You know, sit down there and I'm planning, you would make a list of very eventual effects you wanted, send that list to them and then form, and then you would have a meeting with them in, when you're off in my office, and we'll go through light of my item, what was going to be done.

91
00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:20.399
You could also do that with makeup and costume and, you know, everything else, but particularly with vigil effects on a who.

92
00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.100
In Blink 7.

93
00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:28.259
They sort of decided to do things themselves.

94
00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:33.419
They didn't, you didn't, you didn't really come to the direction and say what do you want?

95
00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:35.820
They went, this is what we're giving you.

96
00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:39.120
This is what we've got for, for this.

97
00:08:39.179 --> 00:08:41.399
And I found that disaging.

98
00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:49.200
Sometimes, having had a calamity with a similar sort of robot Colombian space.

99
00:08:49.259 --> 00:08:50.759
Oh yes, yeah.

100
00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:58.500
I can't remember, and it's 50 years ago, okay, but I cannot imagine myself approving of that sort of robot.

101
00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:05.519
Because you could have any sort of robot, you know, we could have an astimov robot, you could have a robots of death robot.

102
00:09:05.580 --> 00:09:08.940
You know, you could have any sort, it's just a robot.

103
00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:12.299
And I guess because...

104
00:09:12.299 --> 00:09:18.480
The pressures, um, for example, which I was describing earlier, was so great.

105
00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:27.419
They would, they just didn't have time for meetings or whatever discussions, and they just designed a robot that could operate in Wookiehole.

106
00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:36.419
I think I probably proved the LMA track because I knew from, I knew that you can put something.

107
00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:45.480
Well, I knew that you're not going to run, you're not going to run any machine to a creature, and garlic, you can run a garlic in wuffy hole other than on a man in my track.

108
00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:51.059
So, well, I obviously clearly agree that it would be on that track.

109
00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:56.460
But the actual design of it, I didn't, I certainly was no input into it.

110
00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:04.440
I'm just so presented with this thing, and I think it was, you know, it was disappointing, but, Is it the rule?

111
00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:05.399
I can't remember now.

112
00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:06.000
What is it?

113
00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:09.480
The door, the door gets blown up at some stage.

114
00:10:09.539 --> 00:10:13.980
I can't quite remember this before they go even after when we came up and it gets blown up.

115
00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:15.960
Visual effects.

116
00:10:16.019 --> 00:10:27.600
Uh, so, uh, we did it with the show, we did a little filming, the gunshots, all the dialogue, all the stuff up to the explosion, the explosion was actually the last thing we were going to do, but just a couple of weeks after that.

117
00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:30.240
And fish on effects.

118
00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:32.639
Obviously, there was a scenery door in there.

119
00:10:32.700 --> 00:10:47.279
Uh, visual effects attached a sort of flashbang thing to the to the door, and we rolled over cameras, and I said action, and they pressed the button, and the thing went off for a bang, and the tool totally filled with smoke.

120
00:10:47.340 --> 00:10:50.399
Oh, no, totally. standing up.

121
00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:51.899
You couldn't see.

122
00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:53.639
You couldn't see a hand in front of your face.

123
00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:54.600
You really couldn't.

124
00:10:54.659 --> 00:10:57.419
You know, I mean, like that, 20 wrist, 25 of us.

125
00:10:57.539 --> 00:10:59.639
So at this stage.

126
00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:10.559
And we discovered that if you got down on our hands and knees, we can actually crawl along to get ourselves a car, but this one, you know, where's the smoke going to do, you know, you clearly got to get out.

127
00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:13.080
You could not get out on full tunnel.

128
00:11:13.139 --> 00:11:18.299
So we got down our hands and knees, and down the hands and knees, it was below the level of the smoke.

129
00:11:18.419 --> 00:11:19.440
All right?

130
00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:20.940
I just see in front of you.

131
00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:30.059
I'm actually crawled out of, out of the area, into the back entrance, and then the door open, and waiting for sort of 15 minutes from when it's all snowed clear.

132
00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:31.919
That's all, you know, that's all official effects.

133
00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:33.960
Well, yeah, fortunate thought about it.

134
00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:36.840
I don't can say, well, they're experts, but it wasn't really their fault.

135
00:11:36.899 --> 00:11:40.919
That whole sort of robot thing was disconnected.

136
00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:44.519
For example, and on the way back, with the video camera.

137
00:11:44.580 --> 00:11:47.580
So, um, just before I went filming.

138
00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:51.480
Um, I said, uh, I wasn't able to, there's a video camera.

139
00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:59.639
And they made, I trained a video camera, something about one foot by one foot, yeah, I mean, a full-sized handheld video camera.

140
00:11:59.700 --> 00:12:02.879
And I went, come on, guys, I didn't know anything about that.

141
00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:06.000
I just meant something really, really small.

142
00:12:06.059 --> 00:12:09.659
Look, it's so easy nowadays, but, you know, I'd imagined.

143
00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:24.059
You know, I imagine something a bit like our mobile phone or maybe an injuncture than a mobile phone, being a video camera in those days, and they produced, and they produced, they eventually produced something, you know, out of stock, and I went, yeah, that's fine.

144
00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:24.659
That'll do.

145
00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.860
And this was a sort of disconnect with that department and direction.

146
00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:30.600
I can't imagine it was just me.

147
00:12:30.659 --> 00:12:31.500
I mean, I'm sure.

148
00:12:31.500 --> 00:12:33.120
I think it was pressure of work.

149
00:12:33.179 --> 00:12:35.159
I think it was going for the okay.

150
00:12:35.220 --> 00:12:37.080
Oh yeah, I've got that on the shelf.

151
00:12:37.139 --> 00:12:41.100
Yeah, you know, I think it was that and not having time to discuss things.

152
00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:45.659
So the robot thing was, I bet they had one.

153
00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:46.860
I bet they had.

154
00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:51.299
I think they made it for a previous episode and then said, oh, you can use that one.

155
00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:52.860
Right, exactly.

156
00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:53.519
Exactly.

157
00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:57.480
So can we ask you a bit about casting?

158
00:12:57.539 --> 00:13:05.279
Because we noticed, obviously, as Doctor Who fans as well, that there are a lot of people that you used in Doctor Who, um, in your episodes of Blake 7.

159
00:13:05.340 --> 00:13:05.940
So what's that?

160
00:13:05.940 --> 00:13:13.679
Just because you knew that they could do this kind of acting that was required for science fiction or that they were just the right people for the roles.

161
00:13:13.740 --> 00:13:18.779
We're not under technical pressure, we all were.

162
00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:23.279
I mean, it was it was not a, you know, it wasn't a walk in the park doing big seven.

163
00:13:23.340 --> 00:13:26.700
It was really tough to get it done in the time for a money.

164
00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:31.200
That would be also a precious one actress that you could just warn on.

165
00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:36.779
You want them to be very good actors because that's, you know, that's the basic criteria.

166
00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:40.740
But there wasn't time to take that many risks.

167
00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:59.580
Although the girl who played Avalon, you know, the girl who had the face mask taken, you know, I remember, I remember interviewing quite a lot of ladies for, for that, for that job, and I thought she was the, Pretty much the most attractive of them all who could act.

168
00:14:02.340 --> 00:14:04.740
Responsible casting.

169
00:14:04.860 --> 00:14:11.639
No, I had a I had a castle walk on my career, I always had.

170
00:14:11.700 --> 00:14:13.500
I always had some new people.

171
00:14:13.620 --> 00:14:17.460
I've never done a show over with people out of the little black book.

172
00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.220
I always had so new people.

173
00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:26.220
Yeah, I never did a sure why I didn't have far off leading the leading people or the main characters would be new people.

174
00:14:26.279 --> 00:14:39.419
Because in those days, there were no casting directors, the director just sat down and cast every single part, you sat down with a book, you sat down with a book and you went, oh, no, yeah, you can do that.

175
00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:40.740
Yeah, no, he'd be really good for that.

176
00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:43.679
So yes, you used to.

177
00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:55.320
And the guys who have done, the guys have done well for me on robots, it seems weird that they were good people to have back in this situation where I went to them.

178
00:14:55.379 --> 00:15:07.919
Because in the rehearsal room, it has to be a lot of precious in the rehearsal room because, as I say, the element of film to studio was smaller in this show.

179
00:15:07.980 --> 00:15:19.139
So, what a studio time, and therefore the rehearsal time was more fully utilised, and you needed people to be able to recognise your shorthand.

180
00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:26.519
You need to provide me, you know, a bit there, sort of take it out of there, or, you know, faster funnier.

181
00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:32.100
They're talking about rather than unknown quantities.

182
00:15:32.100 --> 00:15:39.539
And just, you also just hadn't got the tooling to interview enough people to, You know, I, I would interview.

183
00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:48.059
Maybe 5 or 6 people for 3 parts, you know, the parts that were special for for that particular episode.

184
00:15:48.120 --> 00:16:02.639
So if you've got 4 or 5 people, 4 or 5 characters, parts that you have to interview for, then, you know, seeing 5 to 6 people from each part, is, you know, there's 13 people, that's 13 half hours, that's, um, it's a long time.

185
00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:07.500
So therefore the casting, the little casting book was really invaluable.

186
00:16:07.500 --> 00:16:12.779
I guess this is why the extraordinary extra Pat Gorman turned up a lot.

187
00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:16.259
Because you know he could do whatever you needed.

188
00:16:16.379 --> 00:16:27.179
The extra single world stores was there were 2 or 3 extra agencies, and it was the job of a PA production assistant, the 1st assistant VA.

189
00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:31.379
It was his job or her job to cast extras.

190
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:47.220
And classically, they would have an agency that they liked using, and the agency had all had books and extras, but like, spotlight, and you'd gone through, and people like Pat, who'd been in absolutely the infrastructure hall that ever was.

191
00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:54.840
And, you know, so of course you're going to have patch because you knew you knew exactly what to do and you knew what you wanted.

192
00:16:54.899 --> 00:16:57.360
I mean, this was mascot, it was all papals.

193
00:16:57.899 --> 00:16:59.639
Really good.

194
00:16:59.700 --> 00:17:08.160
We'd love spots again whenever he turns up sort of behind the mock or in front of the camera or bits of face show or even get some line.

195
00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:09.720
Just, yeah, it makes them happy.

196
00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:13.019
If ever you find yourself in a battle in outer space.

197
00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:17.099
You want to stand next to Pat Gorman because he'll be the one who takes the bullet and has the exciting death.

198
00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:19.259
You'll probably be all right if you're stood near him.

199
00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:20.400
Right.

200
00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:24.839
That's right Yeah, and the costume mixture is worse.

201
00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:26.700
The 1st assistant.

202
00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:30.059
I mean, certainly, I was when I was a forest assistant, I was a PA.

203
00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:31.559
I mean, truthfully, seriously.

204
00:17:31.619 --> 00:17:44.700
I've been trying to get the right sort of people, you know, the right looking people, the right physique of people, the story, and and, uh, I, I, I bet it doesn't go like that today.

205
00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:54.480
But there's, And you know, a casting assistant that casts extras and, I mean, now casting directors that cast all smaller parts.

206
00:17:54.480 --> 00:18:03.119
And I think tourists, when I'm sort of enjoying TV, where they did have casting records, I just found it slightly strange that, yes, I'd have the final say.

207
00:18:03.180 --> 00:18:05.640
But I didn't have the say from the beginning.

208
00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:12.480
So I couldn't surround myself with people that I had confidence in and then take a few risks outside that.

209
00:18:12.539 --> 00:18:15.839
It was people that casting directors saw were good.

210
00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:24.119
And I didn't always have the same criteria and casting directors I found.

211
00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:30.539
How did you feel about the used to multi-camera shooting and the extent to which that's now not really done drama anymore?

212
00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:44.759
Because we've often found that when you're watching something on multicamera in studio, there's the rapport between the actors, this really could be firing back and forth, which when it's on single camera, line by line, it doesn't seem to be as naturalistic.

213
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:47.339
I think it's a real...

214
00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:58.619
Well, I think we're treating one of the television studios underground, and then one Grove and Hammersmith at all as well, plus all the visual studios.

215
00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:07.079
I think that was a real tragedy, and that vanished because of accountants, not because of creative people.

216
00:19:07.140 --> 00:19:09.480
It was the accountants taking over the BBC.

217
00:19:09.539 --> 00:19:11.039
The course had to happen.

218
00:19:11.099 --> 00:19:17.819
And matching camera, Absolutely, has the thing, it depends more, actors do actually play off with each other.

219
00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:39.299
I mean, various, and it's interesting that if you're rehearsing watching camera thing, on the right, when you're doing the recording, or if you're done a couple of vessels, and then you're doing sort of recording, when the recording, a little free song of excitement happened, when there was a difference, there was a difference in the action.

220
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:47.339
It just sort of, I don't think it came up and watch, but it had a, it had a slightly real, real feel about it, and I agree.

221
00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:53.640
In some bang or warehouse in acting out of clapper wall.

222
00:19:53.700 --> 00:19:57.180
In the country, some of the jet planes coming over, it's often.

223
00:19:57.299 --> 00:19:59.279
It isn't quite the same.

224
00:19:59.339 --> 00:20:07.980
And I think directors don't have the chance to take the care over the acting, that, in that situation.

225
00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:10.259
And, as you can, there's nothing.

226
00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:17.339
I think it's sad that most of them have done, whether I guess, no, I think it would still be, I think it could still be happening.

227
00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:25.079
Um, now shooting um, So, after the denials of multi camera.

228
00:20:25.140 --> 00:20:33.000
Um, I would vain from shoot on 2 cameras or 3 cameras at the same time, and so that all the actors were involved.

229
00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:41.700
It was, it was not just somebody standing with his head beside the lens, feeding the line to lectures and shot, and then trying to look natural word or whatever.

230
00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:49.440
I'm trying to do almost whole scenes on a couple of cameras going in the same direction so there can be looked from the same direction.

231
00:20:49.500 --> 00:20:54.720
It's the vinyl versus compact disc comparison that we were talking about before, maybe.

232
00:20:54.779 --> 00:20:55.980
Yes, it is.

233
00:20:56.039 --> 00:21:00.119
And then, yes, and from you have the world on it, yeah.

234
00:21:00.180 --> 00:21:03.420
You mentioned boldly going where other people had gone before.

235
00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:08.819
Were Star Wars looming over you by the time you were working on Blake 7 or was that just still over the horizon?

236
00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:09.900
Absolutely.

237
00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:10.619
It was.

238
00:21:10.740 --> 00:21:24.779
We're on the planning stage, and the pin was a couple balls down from me in his office, and I was in my office, and Star Wars was released, and I didn't want to go and see it because I didn't think it was...

239
00:21:24.779 --> 00:21:46.500
Foundable, planned, and saw it, and came back to the office in Jersey, and the next morning, I mean, it was just going, it was just so what we're doing is just impossible, and there's no way we can be, anywhere, you know, I mean, just one, just one, affecting that was clearly going to cost the entire budget from, uh, forcing more series of log 7.

240
00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:53.700
I mean, so, When I eventually did go to see it, I think I decided it was a different genre, really.

241
00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:56.759
I think I decided that it actually didn't matter.

242
00:21:56.819 --> 00:21:59.279
I saw it, I think, after I'd finished in Lake 7.

243
00:21:59.339 --> 00:22:05.099
And I, and I, I didn't, I just sort of know, actually doesn't matter.

244
00:22:05.160 --> 00:22:12.119
It actually doesn't matter because Star Wars also, Oddly, I'm not Star Wars fan.

245
00:22:12.180 --> 00:22:13.740
It's not...

246
00:22:13.740 --> 00:22:16.680
It's not my sort of science fiction.

247
00:22:16.740 --> 00:22:18.359
What have June is not.

248
00:22:18.539 --> 00:22:20.519
The more mythical.

249
00:22:20.579 --> 00:22:21.480
Yeah, right.

250
00:22:21.539 --> 00:22:36.299
Yeah, they're super mirrors. and and spaceship fighting planes on currently on um, digital, whatever, just doesn't, it doesn't do it for me.

251
00:22:36.359 --> 00:22:49.980
In the same way, the guys who made, what was the famous, the big movie were, uh, called Thanksgiving, uh, Thanksgiving, uh, some...

252
00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:51.779
Yes, thank you.

253
00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:52.920
Anyway, you were going.

254
00:22:52.980 --> 00:22:58.859
Independence day, they're trying to do, they're trying not to do digital effects.

255
00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:03.480
They're trying to do real explosions, real crashes, world, as much as they could.

256
00:23:03.539 --> 00:23:08.460
The triple digital effects, instead of just go, could numb.

257
00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:10.200
Just keeping them.

258
00:23:10.980 --> 00:23:18.480
There's quite a good sort of end of the world film where now drums taking off and the one way is breaking up behind it.

259
00:23:18.539 --> 00:23:20.579
It's a sort of okay.

260
00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:25.619
But you just go, but it's just no way that could happen.

261
00:23:25.740 --> 00:23:27.839
It just wouldn't be like that.

262
00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:30.420
It isn't rural.

263
00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:31.440
It looks real.

264
00:23:31.500 --> 00:23:36.000
You know, it's, it's, you know, down in um, technical terms.

265
00:23:36.119 --> 00:23:37.140
It looks absolutely fine.

266
00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:42.240
Once you get away from doing things that people really, really can do.

267
00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:49.140
Like, can cruise, Being, drink, Richard.

268
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:52.740
Which is very, very often.

269
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.579
It's completely...

270
00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:01.380
Yeah, just when, how on, it was just nudicrous.

271
00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:04.200
Well, for me, I could do Jack Ridge.

272
00:24:04.200 --> 00:24:06.539
So, you know, a good chance, and it was Catholic Billion.

273
00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:07.920
I could bring Jack Richard.

274
00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:10.859
So if last come home and do, you know, I can't wait for the next one.

275
00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:12.599
And next book to come out.

276
00:24:12.660 --> 00:24:13.859
I've seen one of them.

277
00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:23.220
But you have got this 6 foot 6, um, military views and then who is interested in the drunks and, yeah, can hold his own.

278
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:24.599
And it's worked out.

279
00:24:24.660 --> 00:24:25.440
But Tom could.

280
00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:32.700
So I guess, I guess that's what my problem is for something links to novels, is you just go, it couldn't happen.

281
00:24:32.759 --> 00:24:34.680
It just couldn't happen.

282
00:24:34.980 --> 00:24:37.859
And also, you wouldn't have fighted violence.

283
00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:40.799
We're not going to have guys in the airplanes 10 years from now.

284
00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:44.099
We'll be glancing in your bones, throw the drones.

285
00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:45.900
They're the drones for each other.

286
00:24:45.960 --> 00:24:46.980
Why don't you put a gun in there?

287
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:48.000
Why don't you?

288
00:24:48.119 --> 00:24:53.819
Why don't you put the weight of the, you know, the oxygen and the ejection seeds and all, why?

289
00:24:53.819 --> 00:24:56.759
When you can have a blade sitting on a container and...

290
00:24:56.759 --> 00:24:59.400
Mind, do I reckon all those continues?

291
00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:07.440
You're actually, In Europe, not America, I don't believe this concept that there are operators somewhere in America.

292
00:25:07.500 --> 00:25:10.920
I don't believe I talk because I just said the signals will take too long.

293
00:25:10.980 --> 00:25:13.440
I have too much chance of having interference.

294
00:25:13.500 --> 00:25:22.140
I reckon the drain operations are over, the drones actually are at the base, I'm certain of it, absolutely certain of it.

295
00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:25.740
And we've seen Pete's Wi-Fi drop out this evening.

296
00:25:25.799 --> 00:25:27.420
Yes, exactly.

297
00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:32.460
So why, you know, why give yourself a 1000 miles of potential trouble?

298
00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:42.539
There won't be guys in fighter planes, which doesn't want to be feeder pilots, but they won't be sitting in the airplane, and won't be tanks on the, but having, how much I will all have tanks on a battlefield.

299
00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:44.099
I mean, absolutely.

300
00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:51.480
Which is mean for me, Star Wars didn't work course because I just think it wouldn't be like that.

301
00:25:51.779 --> 00:25:55.680
Your style is very much more grounded in that action.

302
00:25:55.740 --> 00:26:09.240
And I'm remembering you mentioning Biggle, of course, at the beginning, and that's real, nuts and bolts, having given the adventure done, rather than on a flight of fancy, of which, what would be more, science fantasies, a genre, isn't it?

303
00:26:09.299 --> 00:26:17.579
I hope that everything I did in Blink 7 was makes honoured reality.

304
00:26:17.640 --> 00:26:22.559
Every, every effect I did, everything I did was based on is this truthful?

305
00:26:22.619 --> 00:26:24.779
Could this actually happen?

306
00:26:24.900 --> 00:26:27.599
Was there any sort of criteria about it?

307
00:26:27.660 --> 00:26:35.160
I don't like Germany's being thrown off cliffs, well, if they're dead, that's okay, but I mean, they've done Mrs. Riper.

308
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:41.759
I much prefer to have a stunt guy do it on the boxes because it just looks more real.

309
00:26:41.819 --> 00:26:44.400
And of course, at the stop, deliverance.

310
00:26:44.460 --> 00:26:52.079
You had the physical spaceship with the 2 actors in it rather than a model job, which is sort of bringing it back a bit to Blake 7.

311
00:26:52.140 --> 00:26:58.319
That was a really interesting way to shoot those scenes, very different to what we've seen in the rest of the series.

312
00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:00.539
Yeah, I know.

313
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:01.980
I can't remember, would you listen?

314
00:27:01.980 --> 00:27:09.420
Was it the web, which starts off with a little baby spaceship, the 2 with any crunch on board, and...

315
00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:12.059
Which, you said...

316
00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:21.539
They haven't seen of the episode, there's a small station with 2 people on board it and he's going to replace his father.

317
00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:25.559
He's going to find his father on planet. comes back to me.

318
00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:27.660
Yeah, deliverance, yeah.

319
00:27:27.660 --> 00:27:29.579
I mean, that was actually done.

320
00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:31.380
We actually had the little space ship.

321
00:27:31.500 --> 00:27:32.279
Right.

322
00:27:32.339 --> 00:27:35.519
Oh, because there were a couple of scenes inside it because it has to crash on the planet.

323
00:27:35.579 --> 00:27:37.920
And the reason.

324
00:27:38.039 --> 00:28:04.440
I mean, the reason, um, you know, when we were discussing sort of tuna fortune, David said, really, if you look at Star Trek, the other way, if we're going to be going down on planet for the episode, which is what we're going to have to be doing, you can't have a very spaceship, um, a shuttle, taking off and flying down and landing, and you can't do that, you can take forever, and, you know, you can swing wise into being water shots.

325
00:28:04.500 --> 00:28:12.119
So you would have this, dissolve a mix which, uh, niche improved immersively from our original concept.

326
00:28:12.180 --> 00:28:16.859
So, never been so, we hit it on the web station, because we have to be done all inside it.

327
00:28:16.859 --> 00:28:28.619
And so I put it on a, on a new cloth, and then had a cycle, a big cycle of armour around it, and got which thing to cover the top in blue as well.

328
00:28:28.619 --> 00:28:37.980
And I used the new cream, which was in, 4 man operated cream, which seems in TV studios in those days.

329
00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:47.400
And then I, one guy driving, a 4 wheel drive thing, and then another guy swinging the arm, and the cameraman on the top.

330
00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:54.900
So, I wasn't able to do a shot of, I, I, I could do a shot of, I, which, blanking, most, actually.

331
00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:58.619
I could do a shot of making the crane, crack in and crab down.

332
00:28:58.680 --> 00:28:59.880
I'm really proud of the shot.

333
00:28:59.940 --> 00:29:15.480
Crab, crab down the studio and coming close to the little model, not a model, the little spaceship that we had sitting on a couple of trestles, with the 2 actors in it, and go past the window and carrying the file, which made it look as if the form was floating.

334
00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:17.220
I'm sure improved about that.

335
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:18.180
Sorry.

336
00:29:18.299 --> 00:29:20.759
Yeah, no, it stands up really well.

337
00:29:20.819 --> 00:29:23.220
So it's really dynamic, start of the episode.

338
00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:30.359
And of course, I think you use the mole crane then on the shots of the flight deck quite a lot as well because there's lots of high angles in that episode.

339
00:29:30.420 --> 00:29:31.680
In the early days.

340
00:29:31.740 --> 00:29:42.119
I didn't see, I didn't conceive the spaceship in enterprise.

341
00:29:42.180 --> 00:29:45.900
I didn't conceive the delivery.

342
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.779
I, I didn't conceive this, it's been...

343
00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:52.740
A manually driven machine.

344
00:29:52.799 --> 00:30:03.960
I mean, for all the reasons that I've sort of talked about that, I believed it would, you know, it just didn't believe that people would pull woovers and press buttons in order to go to web speed.

345
00:30:04.019 --> 00:30:06.059
I just I just didn't think that at all.

346
00:30:06.359 --> 00:30:10.680
My original concept was that you were just going to stand somewhere.

347
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:24.359
Maybe under a light for the screen, and think what you wanted to happen or, say, what you wanted to happen, and the computer would take over and perform the function.

348
00:30:24.420 --> 00:30:29.700
And I got, I got an adventure by doing independent.

349
00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:34.440
And so we end up with the liberator with all these seats and things.

350
00:30:34.500 --> 00:30:40.440
But it's very very sweet to talk to me, um, I think by, by the channel, I was doing the web.

351
00:30:40.500 --> 00:30:53.039
And he said, well, actually, Michael, uh, Yeah, um, we've come, we've got the Zen, we've ended up with Zen, and that is really what your concept always was, um, originally.

352
00:30:53.099 --> 00:30:56.579
I mean, obviously it was slightly different, but that was that was much more.

353
00:30:56.640 --> 00:31:02.099
I absolutely, I never saw the women I should was being something which, I didn't even set in their seats.

354
00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:06.480
And they saw all this control thing being necessary.

355
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:10.799
And didn't, and, We're developing something.

356
00:31:10.859 --> 00:31:12.599
I mean, just go with majority.

357
00:31:12.660 --> 00:31:24.359
Well, you know, a choice course, but I mean, you just got all the majority, and they all felt if they wanted these controllers, and I felt I didn't, and David was a really very good producer.

358
00:31:24.420 --> 00:31:25.920
He was a faithful leader.

359
00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:29.640
Because he, yeah, he, he, he, you know, Michael Luger, right.

360
00:31:29.700 --> 00:31:38.640
Um, We don't need all these controls, we just need to be able to talk to a computer and the computer will do what we uh, what we wanted.

361
00:31:38.700 --> 00:31:46.140
Yeah, and you get lots of great shots of the people's face, the cruise faces of their controlling it, or as they're having mind battles.

362
00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:46.920
Yeah, I don't know.

363
00:31:46.920 --> 00:31:47.819
I don't know.

364
00:31:47.819 --> 00:31:51.839
I don't think it has sort of more acting areas within the spaceship.

365
00:31:51.900 --> 00:32:02.880
I mean, I wanted to see, we had that one tunnel, which occasionally went to somewhere else, but I wanted, um, I wanted to see more of the demasticity of the spaceship.

366
00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:04.859
Get the, you know, I went to see the bedrooms.

367
00:32:04.859 --> 00:32:05.880
I went to see the kitchen.

368
00:32:05.940 --> 00:32:06.960
I wanted to see the rooms.

369
00:32:07.019 --> 00:32:17.099
I wanted to say, you know, I wanted to see all of that, because the actual controls in my head, we would consider our black circle and thought, Mars.

370
00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:24.059
And this little plastic thing arrived and unwrapped it and made it.

371
00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:30.240
And now people have Alexas in their home, which can't do quite that yet, but they're getting there.

372
00:32:30.299 --> 00:32:37.319
Yeah, I mean, I understand in some functions.

373
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:39.960
My eye controls.

374
00:32:40.019 --> 00:32:47.220
The, the, the, the pilot can walk at things and make it do things, I understand.

375
00:32:47.279 --> 00:33:02.579
So, you know, we're almost there, but I say, reality, of course, is that one of the new infant about in those days was drones, um, events have just changed everything, warfare or only Google dragons.

376
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:20.099
And if another, if another stations, as it did come from our planet, and I've given up now, I used to go sort of selling the leader, but now I no longer am, you wouldn't send people, you wouldn't send, why would you, you would send another man spacecraft with a dream?

377
00:33:20.220 --> 00:33:21.779
Bro.

378
00:33:21.779 --> 00:33:22.380
Yeah.

379
00:33:24.420 --> 00:33:42.839
But despite the, that lack of, Drones, the, um, the, the camera shots of that, of that huge liberator main control room are always really impressive and particularly in your episodes, it just, was it, was it unusual to have, central, uh, set like that in anything.

380
00:33:42.900 --> 00:33:48.119
I mean, for example, if you think of Doctor Who, there's the TARDIS console would have to be stuck in the corner of a studio.

381
00:33:48.180 --> 00:33:54.420
Yeah, I mean, yeah, the tourists...

382
00:33:54.420 --> 00:33:57.539
It's becoming enormous, but...

383
00:33:57.539 --> 00:34:11.400
I think I noticed that they were craving a lot in there because it was over a big set, and it seemed crazy not to try to present a big set and present different action, you know, within within the set.

384
00:34:11.460 --> 00:34:22.139
So, a bit like trying to make that big sitting shot over the beginning with the tiny little figures in the in the bottom of the frame.

385
00:34:22.260 --> 00:34:28.079
Um, I quite like the idea of all the ways of being enormous.

386
00:34:28.139 --> 00:34:33.059
I mean, there's appearance and warmness and level shots, and therefore, the interior should be enormous as well.

387
00:34:33.119 --> 00:34:34.980
So I guess having a high shot.

388
00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:37.500
Because it wasn't actually that at all.

389
00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:55.380
I mean, we seem to, you know, in a TV story, in those TV studios, The lights were, I mean, it probably wasn't, Probably in half as much again, it's the average living room, with the highest you could have a set, because of the lighting rakes being there.

390
00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:59.519
So the liberator set wasn't, it wasn't that tall.

391
00:34:59.579 --> 00:35:07.139
So if you get up high, you can do a big high shot and make it look huge, without shooting off the, you know, shooting off the top.

392
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:13.500
How did you feel about the way the series has changed from your 1st to your last episodes?

393
00:35:14.820 --> 00:35:16.559
4 episodes.

394
00:35:16.619 --> 00:35:17.280
Yeah.

395
00:35:17.340 --> 00:35:17.820
Yeah.

396
00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:19.559
Oh, we've touched it already.

397
00:35:19.619 --> 00:35:23.880
I know, but yeah, it's a very, it's a very different kettle of fish by the end of that 1st season.

398
00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:27.599
Stylistically, yeah.

399
00:35:27.659 --> 00:35:34.260
Stylistically, but during that steering, you sort of win over, I mean, they were flying so dyed.

400
00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:34.920
Yes.

401
00:35:34.980 --> 00:35:35.280
Yes.

402
00:35:35.340 --> 00:35:37.079
Sorry, I just mean between your 1st and your last.

403
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:41.760
Or did it just seem much more cohesive to you at the time because you're cracking on with it?

404
00:35:41.820 --> 00:35:47.460
Just, I, I, I found the Soderland thing.

405
00:35:47.460 --> 00:35:49.500
Sorry, disconcerting.

406
00:35:49.559 --> 00:35:53.099
Um, because I think, I can't quite remember.

407
00:35:53.159 --> 00:36:03.300
I have a feeling that there may have been 3 episodes recorded between My, it was Avalon, my final one of my 3 uh, the weather.

408
00:36:03.360 --> 00:36:04.199
Yeah, everyone was.

409
00:36:04.260 --> 00:36:07.260
Yeah, well, it's way back, the web, then Avalon.

410
00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:24.840
And then I've got a feeling that there might have been 3 episodes recorded by other directors via pennant and whoever was replacing me or whatever. came in to do...

411
00:36:24.900 --> 00:36:26.039
Yeah, definitely came in.

412
00:36:26.099 --> 00:36:26.579
That's right.

413
00:36:26.699 --> 00:36:31.079
So I've got a feeling that there were 3 episodes where 3 hours of material.

414
00:36:31.139 --> 00:36:39.420
So when I came in and encountered um, Jackie and Stephen and the whole sort of land thing, it was a bit like walking for a different show.

415
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:46.260
Someday the emphasis was no longer on this blast of deliberation site and everything else.

416
00:36:46.380 --> 00:36:55.260
It was on all these sort of marvel silver and sets and these camp costumes, and the show, It felt like a different show.

417
00:36:55.619 --> 00:36:58.920
Not better, not worth, nearly different.

418
00:36:58.920 --> 00:37:10.320
And I think, you know, I think it was a fairly good decision of delegates to take it in that direction away from the confines of the spaceship because fundamentally isn't that idea.

419
00:37:10.380 --> 00:37:15.900
Certain people in a spaceship or other adventures isn't a good idea, actually.

420
00:37:16.619 --> 00:37:19.440
But we didn't do that at all time.

421
00:37:19.500 --> 00:37:21.420
So once you've realised that.

422
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:26.280
It was very smart to take it away into other worlds.

423
00:37:26.460 --> 00:37:34.679
So we wondered, were you asked to come back for the 2nd series or had you made it clear that you were only doing these sort of 3.5 episodes?

424
00:37:34.739 --> 00:37:37.980
No, I mean, I really didn't want to do.

425
00:37:38.219 --> 00:37:41.880
I really didn't want to do anyone.

426
00:37:41.940 --> 00:37:44.159
I mean, I can't remember why I went on Stwell for that, but it was.

427
00:37:44.940 --> 00:37:46.860
Well, I've been in secret army that you did that.

428
00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:48.539
Army, I mean, secret army.

429
00:37:48.599 --> 00:37:51.539
I just, I thought I grew as a director.

430
00:37:51.599 --> 00:37:54.119
I thought I grew up on Secret Army.

431
00:37:54.179 --> 00:37:57.179
I mean, I thought it became a rule at our director.

432
00:37:57.239 --> 00:37:59.760
I loved doing Secret Army.

433
00:37:59.880 --> 00:38:07.739
It was so well, so well scripted, so well active, so well thought about, based on our reality.

434
00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:24.059
And you were not, you were not being asked to, um, Yes, and I did, you know, I did well glass shot in secret army, and I, you know, I did a lot of 5 sequence and things like that, and gun battles and things were, it was a magical show to do.

435
00:38:24.119 --> 00:38:25.860
And I hadn't moved on.

436
00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:35.639
I did make 7 because they really persuaded me to do it. you know, you've been where he worked at it, he persuaded me to do it.

437
00:38:35.699 --> 00:38:38.219
And I did think we were going to England.

438
00:38:38.280 --> 00:38:40.559
I did think we were doing John Wyndham.

439
00:38:40.619 --> 00:38:45.599
And that's, because it was the script, it was the way back, it was, That.

440
00:38:45.659 --> 00:38:48.960
Yeah, it's so different to everything else that came after it.

441
00:38:49.019 --> 00:38:53.219
That's right Fantastic sort of standalone episode almost.

442
00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:55.739
And I wouldn't have wanted him to come back.

443
00:38:55.800 --> 00:38:58.079
I mean, I I was just working.

444
00:38:58.139 --> 00:39:01.380
And my career was then absolutely on a sort of upward.

445
00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:05.820
Collectually doing, you know, I did a change to the city, there was a literature and I did.

446
00:39:05.820 --> 00:39:06.659
Yeah, I did.

447
00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:10.440
I was just doing things which were very very challenging.

448
00:39:10.500 --> 00:39:14.219
And a director to do.

449
00:39:14.460 --> 00:39:28.619
Whereas, make 7 because of the pressures with, Well, it was your technique that was, it was your technical ability that was being challenged, not your ability to direct.

450
00:39:28.739 --> 00:39:36.300
That's a really interesting distinction, yeah, the difficulty of just getting it, meeting all of those challenges, which no other show really would be.

451
00:39:36.360 --> 00:39:41.039
Certainly a certain, a technical challenge.

452
00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:54.360
But the people like Mitch around, which didn't exist on Doctor Who, in those days, and with the fact that it was contained, This is a big...

453
00:39:54.420 --> 00:39:57.420
Dr. D was never really contained in retardist, was it?

454
00:39:57.480 --> 00:40:02.460
You would have an extinguishing senior, and then senior, and the rest of all happened somewhere else.

455
00:40:02.519 --> 00:40:15.719
Whereas Blake 7 was predicated on the idea that it would all happen in, um, in the Liberator, and then it was predicated on the world and around the Avon, Swivan, um, characters.

456
00:40:15.780 --> 00:40:29.099
So, it was a much more controlled thing, and I was walking into a natural room for the 1st tool of secret army, with Clifford Rose and Bernie Hapton and Orden, who was terrifying.

457
00:40:29.159 --> 00:40:31.739
I mean, absolutely terrifying.

458
00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:36.960
Well, I was walking into, um, gentle fields doing her thing.

459
00:40:37.019 --> 00:40:40.320
We're going on just quite a while.

460
00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:45.179
That's not the pleasure, of enormous pleasure, but a smile.

461
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:53.940
Were there any, um, any people you would have liked to have passed in an episode of Blake 7, who you couldn't get out, who you couldn't get that spring to mind.

462
00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:00.179
I don't know to what extent you ever had any casting wishes that you couldn't actually get hold of the person.

463
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:01.800
No, it wasn't.

464
00:41:01.860 --> 00:41:08.099
I mean, I can't, obviously I can't ask most of the way back. myself other than Gareth, of course.

465
00:41:09.119 --> 00:41:25.079
Because of the 3 of us, and David, David was very strong and casting, and David was the same that, you know, Pendant and David and I, we're all on the same generation, but we were also, you know, we'd all got the same background in, um, television.

466
00:41:25.139 --> 00:41:27.900
We've all done our classic serials. you know, whatever.

467
00:41:27.960 --> 00:41:32.519
I said, well, we're all of the same, if you like.

468
00:41:32.579 --> 00:41:36.840
So each step in each direction started casting for Hidden's a new episode.

469
00:41:36.900 --> 00:41:39.840
Yes, the character might carry on through other episodes.

470
00:41:39.960 --> 00:41:40.980
Goodness.

471
00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:45.719
I think when I've seen continued longer. brought back for another role, wasn't it?

472
00:41:45.840 --> 00:42:08.820
Yes, I mean, this was after, this was some time after I've left, but yeah, because when you came to your episode, you might have a character that was going on to other episodes, or you were inheriting my head with the last one, um, I inherited Jackie, I inherited, uh, Paul, I inherited, you know, so...

473
00:42:09.300 --> 00:42:11.340
So no, I mean, I...

474
00:42:11.340 --> 00:42:20.880
In professional terms, between for the proportion of the records, it was a world pleasure show to work on, you know, it was, you know, it was very professional, it was very easy.

475
00:42:20.940 --> 00:42:26.699
And there were, you know, there was a certain standard set for the show, and that worked fine.

476
00:42:26.760 --> 00:42:27.960
Excellent.

477
00:42:28.019 --> 00:42:32.099
So did you cast any of the regulars again sort of later in your career?

478
00:42:32.460 --> 00:42:36.840
Yeah, I mean, I made a film called, yeah.

479
00:42:36.900 --> 00:42:39.239
We had a production company briefly.

480
00:42:39.300 --> 00:42:41.820
I'm going to start in that.

481
00:42:41.880 --> 00:42:44.099
I mean, she isn't eating that.

482
00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:48.300
And then I got a phone call from the head of grandma wore it on the weekend.

483
00:42:48.300 --> 00:42:50.400
And you said, you know, can I come in and see?

484
00:42:50.400 --> 00:42:51.179
And we go, oh.

485
00:42:51.239 --> 00:42:52.320
Oh, that's great.

486
00:42:52.380 --> 00:42:53.820
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to see.

487
00:42:53.880 --> 00:42:55.019
It was a pleasure.

488
00:42:55.079 --> 00:42:56.280
I came and sat down.

489
00:42:56.340 --> 00:42:58.559
And we said, to napkins number.

490
00:42:58.619 --> 00:43:00.659
And he said, you just made a thing with her.

491
00:43:00.659 --> 00:43:01.739
And I went, yeah.

492
00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:03.239
So the entire discussion.

493
00:43:03.300 --> 00:43:05.219
They were constant, then see, wait peace.

494
00:43:05.280 --> 00:43:06.239
Ah.

495
00:43:06.300 --> 00:43:16.800
So, he just wanted to know, was she a pro, how did she get on, you know, what the delight was, you know, was she a, You know, did she do it in the time for her anyway?

496
00:43:16.800 --> 00:43:19.380
She, you know, she just wanted no matter.

497
00:43:19.440 --> 00:43:26.099
So I ended up having this sort of hour and half full of head of drama and didn't start the job and I never got to direction with him.

498
00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:29.039
That's very unfair.

499
00:43:29.099 --> 00:43:30.480
You should have got a percentage.

500
00:43:31.739 --> 00:43:35.400
Yeah, I...

501
00:43:35.460 --> 00:43:38.219
I mean, Brian, Brian Crusher.

502
00:43:38.219 --> 00:43:51.900
I wrote Brian work for me, um, but I bought it down before, and then I did a thing called Hideaway that was quite violent, which was 650 minutes episodes story.

503
00:43:51.960 --> 00:43:53.340
It was difficult.

504
00:43:53.400 --> 00:43:55.739
Brian, Brian, I said that.

505
00:43:55.800 --> 00:44:01.440
I mean, I don't think there were any mistakes made on casting a break.

506
00:44:01.500 --> 00:44:08.159
I don't know, or any major, any major errors, or certainly nothing that any of us regret it.

507
00:44:08.219 --> 00:44:14.639
I think there was just simply a problem that you can't have stories for certain people stuck in a spaceship.

508
00:44:14.699 --> 00:44:19.199
And that was a sort of fundamental error that none of us recognised.

509
00:44:19.260 --> 00:44:21.539
They shouldn't have did, didn't recognise he changed it.

510
00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:22.619
Yes.

511
00:44:22.679 --> 00:44:32.519
Yeah, and it was a format that could evolve to run for those 4 years, which I don't know if that was apparent when you were making the 1st episode, that this felt like the beginning of a 4 year long series.

512
00:44:32.519 --> 00:44:36.719
Or did it feel like it was just, it was going to be a one year, beginning, middle end.

513
00:44:36.780 --> 00:44:38.460
I didn't need a force, I had.

514
00:44:38.519 --> 00:44:39.599
I will.

515
00:44:39.599 --> 00:44:41.340
No, you work on a show.

516
00:44:41.400 --> 00:44:51.420
Um, So relating back to Dr. Poo again, I directed 4 or 5 shows within the, within the series.

517
00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:53.340
I hardly watched it in between.

518
00:44:53.400 --> 00:44:57.539
I mean, I didn't know who you didn't mention.

519
00:44:57.539 --> 00:44:59.820
When I came to do some story, there was your engineer.

520
00:44:59.880 --> 00:45:00.900
I went, 0 shit.

521
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:01.860
No way.

522
00:45:01.920 --> 00:45:06.659
And then I had to, I had to actually get a couple of tapes out and a couple of scripts out.

523
00:45:06.719 --> 00:45:22.199
Read out and find out because they're doing what they did because you don't, if you're, if you're a job in director, you come in and you're invited to do something on a show, now, if you know you want to do it, you can start watching it, of course you do, but other than that, once you've done it, once you've done the gig.

524
00:45:22.260 --> 00:45:28.260
You walk away from it because you're then watching the next show you've been invited to work on or direct on.

525
00:45:28.320 --> 00:45:31.260
You don't have time to be a fan.

526
00:45:31.320 --> 00:45:32.039
No.

527
00:45:32.699 --> 00:45:35.460
I think my kids should watch Doctor Who.

528
00:45:35.579 --> 00:45:42.360
I think they would, they would watch it and I might watch it occasionally, but um, I certainly wasn't, you know, I, well.

529
00:45:42.420 --> 00:45:51.360
I mean, I was a fan of survivors, for example, you know, survivors or what was the episode of.

530
00:45:51.420 --> 00:45:55.019
Or, but I wasn't so keen on.

531
00:45:55.079 --> 00:45:57.239
But yeah, it shouldn't be survived to watch of the episode.

532
00:45:57.300 --> 00:46:10.860
And it's like, now, you know, I would watch, I would watch, well, I can say, I would watch it in bed, Walking Dead, and then, or even going dead, which is good, quite a good spinoff.

533
00:46:11.639 --> 00:46:14.940
I watched those, but I wouldn't watch.

534
00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:18.599
I wouldn't watch, um, what was the thing set in a hospital?

535
00:46:18.599 --> 00:46:24.719
um, Angels, the one that you worked on and...

536
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:27.000
No, no, well, angels, angels, angels.

537
00:46:27.059 --> 00:46:29.880
I mean, in touch with their angelity on Facebook, actually.

538
00:46:29.940 --> 00:46:31.320
She was one of the horses.

539
00:46:31.380 --> 00:46:32.280
I imagine.

540
00:46:32.340 --> 00:46:40.260
She's acting away, and we seem to have, we seem to, they've seen Facebook pages No, I was thinking of, do you know what, what's it called?

541
00:46:40.260 --> 00:46:43.739
General Hospital, you know, something where the hospital.

542
00:46:43.739 --> 00:46:45.179
It's been recent.

543
00:46:45.239 --> 00:46:48.599
I think it'd be a big sort of fan.

544
00:46:48.659 --> 00:46:50.519
I watch Kobitz.

545
00:46:50.579 --> 00:46:51.840
I thought carnets was very good.

546
00:46:52.079 --> 00:46:54.539
I thought Kodis was very good.

547
00:46:54.599 --> 00:46:55.440
I watched that.

548
00:46:55.619 --> 00:46:57.719
But I think it's not.

549
00:46:57.780 --> 00:46:58.800
I think it's not.

550
00:46:58.860 --> 00:47:01.139
I think it's in certain people's nature to be fans.

551
00:47:01.199 --> 00:47:07.800
I've got an intro channel, and I have, I have people who are friends.

552
00:47:11.039 --> 00:47:13.079
I'm delighted.

553
00:47:13.139 --> 00:47:15.360
I'm glad you like it, but...

554
00:47:17.099 --> 00:47:20.519
So I'm sort of looking back over your career.

555
00:47:20.579 --> 00:47:22.619
How do you think Blake 7 sort of fits into that?

556
00:47:22.679 --> 00:47:25.500
I know it's probably a very small part of a long career?

557
00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:28.440
I can say something to me a problem of...

558
00:47:28.440 --> 00:47:34.559
Super one only, a temperature centuries, treble island worship, not doing that.

559
00:47:35.039 --> 00:47:37.440
And jail, okay, okay.

560
00:47:37.500 --> 00:47:40.860
Yeah, uh, I still love directing Emmerdale.

561
00:47:40.920 --> 00:47:43.320
I just love going up to Yorkshire television I'm doing now.

562
00:47:43.380 --> 00:47:45.420
It was such a breath of fresh air.

563
00:47:46.500 --> 00:47:49.860
I, I look back on week 7.

564
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:51.659
Well, I looked back.

565
00:47:51.719 --> 00:47:53.159
I mean, I thought Jackie Pierce.

566
00:47:53.219 --> 00:47:56.219
I'm not the gentleman became so famous out of it.

567
00:47:56.280 --> 00:48:10.320
I know the fact that you became so famous and so glamorous, and so, you know, such a jealousy has such a sort of a good aftertaste after Blake 7, she survived in around television or around conventions and things.

568
00:48:10.380 --> 00:48:11.880
So it was flashing about that.

569
00:48:11.940 --> 00:48:15.780
I, basically, for me was a bit of experience.

570
00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:16.800
It was really interesting.

571
00:48:16.920 --> 00:48:18.539
And...

572
00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:25.800
But like I've done my 5 Doctor Who was, I did my 4 break 7 and that was fine, thank you.

573
00:48:25.860 --> 00:48:27.119
You know, I enjoyed it.

574
00:48:27.179 --> 00:48:28.619
I enjoyed it.

575
00:48:28.619 --> 00:48:31.380
I enjoyed talking about it.

576
00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:40.980
I quite, it's been, it's been a real pleasure to, um, look at the 4 episodes that you've sent to me and occasionally I went, oh, I should see the ones in the tree.

577
00:48:40.980 --> 00:48:42.059
I know what they like.

578
00:48:42.780 --> 00:48:45.960
Do you know what I've seen is my working make, sir?

579
00:48:45.960 --> 00:48:48.840
I've seen, you know, Sauveers or Borders.

580
00:48:48.900 --> 00:48:50.880
I'm sure we can sort that out.

581
00:48:50.940 --> 00:48:53.099
Yeah, we'll do it with feeding them short strength.

582
00:48:53.460 --> 00:48:55.559
Well, thank you, Michael.

583
00:48:55.619 --> 00:49:02.159
It has been an absolute pleasure chatting away with you about your role in the theories and your faults.

584
00:49:02.219 --> 00:49:04.619
It's, yeah, it's been an absolute belief.

585
00:49:04.920 --> 00:49:07.559
I'm sure all our listeners are going to really enjoy hearing this.

586
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:08.699
Yeah, I hope so.

587
00:49:08.760 --> 00:49:10.800
Do a good ebit on it.

588
00:49:10.860 --> 00:49:14.760
I've really enjoyed listening to your audio, your part.

589
00:49:14.820 --> 00:49:17.880
And, you know, I've never listened to new single podcasts.

590
00:49:17.940 --> 00:49:20.820
I've never listened to a podcast in my life.

591
00:49:20.880 --> 00:49:22.260
I'm a visual person.

592
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:26.099
So, of course, I'm listening to Steve radio seemed an acoustic really.

593
00:49:26.099 --> 00:49:27.659
So, I wouldn't enjoy it.

594
00:49:27.719 --> 00:49:31.079
So I look forward to hearing the, I look forward to doing the podcast.

595
00:49:31.139 --> 00:49:32.940
I'm really delighted for people.

596
00:49:33.059 --> 00:49:34.860
Still like blakes.

597
00:49:34.920 --> 00:49:36.000
I want you to go to Germany.

598
00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:39.900
To do a Blake Southern convention, I think.

599
00:49:39.960 --> 00:49:41.460
Doctor Who?

600
00:49:41.519 --> 00:49:42.900
Blake 7.

601
00:49:42.960 --> 00:49:43.500
I can't remember.

602
00:49:43.559 --> 00:49:44.820
I'm driving to Germany.

603
00:49:44.880 --> 00:49:49.079
It seems that it's high from France to Germany than just fly.

604
00:49:49.679 --> 00:49:52.199
Anyway, it's been a pleasure.

605
00:49:52.260 --> 00:49:53.219
I didn't enjoy myself.

606
00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:53.760
Thank you very much.

607
00:50:00.719 --> 00:50:07.619
Thank you very much for listening to part 2 of our fantastic episodes with Michael Lee Bryant.

608
00:50:07.679 --> 00:50:22.199
We'd like to say a huge thank you to Michael for giving us an evening of his time and for spending so much time talking about the show, his feelings about it, watching his episodes for the 1st time in nearly 50 years.

609
00:50:22.260 --> 00:50:26.579
And yet just for generally being a fantastic bloke.

610
00:50:26.639 --> 00:50:31.559
We're really, we've been really delighted to spend this time with you, Michael.

611
00:50:31.619 --> 00:50:40.440
We really were and it's very generous and yeah, it's really helped us enjoy those episodes even more with a bit of inside info.

612
00:50:40.500 --> 00:50:41.579
Absolutely.

613
00:50:41.639 --> 00:50:52.019
So once again, we would like to say a very big thank you to Jason Thompson of the robots in your eyes podcast for absolutely making this happen.

614
00:50:52.079 --> 00:50:58.380
We couldn't have done it without you, Jason, since we were both too shy to go up and ask Michael ourselves.

615
00:50:59.039 --> 00:51:00.719
It's true.

616
00:51:00.780 --> 00:51:06.300
And how could we have been shy when he's as lovely as he obviously is, but we were because we're cowards, whereas Jason just got off with it.

617
00:51:06.360 --> 00:51:07.980
Basically, yeah.

618
00:51:08.219 --> 00:51:10.139
We're the villas of this team.

619
00:51:11.099 --> 00:51:17.460
So coming up next week, of course, we will be getting our teeth into series B of Blake 7.

620
00:51:17.579 --> 00:51:24.179
And we've got the full series of that in the can and ready to roll out into your podcatchers in the weeks ahead.

621
00:51:24.239 --> 00:51:27.000
So we really hope you'll be enjoying listening along to that with us.

622
00:51:27.059 --> 00:51:39.300
Yes, so next week we will be taking a trip to Space City for redemption, the 1st episode of Series B, and boy, we love that episode.

623
00:51:39.480 --> 00:51:40.860
Great.

624
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:44.039
So thank you very much for listening and goodbye.

625
00:51:44.159 --> 00:51:45.119
Thank you, bye.

626
00:51:54.900 --> 00:51:57.119
Switching to manual.

627
00:51:57.179 --> 00:51:59.039
Maximum power on all drives.

628
00:52:02.099 --> 00:52:04.139
Maximum power.