Space School (1956)
| Production company/ies | Broadcast station(s) | Broadcast date(s) |
|---|---|---|
| BBC | BBC Television Service | January 8 - 29, 1956 |
Production credits
| Producer(s) | Director(s) | Writer(s) | Other notable credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Sheldon | Unknown | Gordon Ford | Settings: Gordon Roland Models: John Ryan Film cameraman: David Prosser (Parts 2 &3) |
Acting credits
- "Sir Hugh Sterling": John Stuart
- "Michael O'Rorke": Matthew Lane
- "Tubby Thompson": Donald McCorkindale
- "Sam Scroop": Neil McCallum
- "Miss Osborne": Julie Webb
- "Wallace Winter": Michael Maguire
- "Wilfred Winter": Meurig Jones
- "Winnie Winter": Ann Cooke
- "Humphrey Soames": David Drummond
- "Mrs Winter": Maud Long (Parts 2-4)
- Captain of the school: Anthony Toller (Parts 2-4)
- Pupil: Alanna Boyce (Part 3)
- "The Stranger": Shay Gorman (Parts 3 & 4)
Episodes
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Synopsis
Space School was a children's science fiction serial in four parts written by Gordon Ford. Little is known of the writer except that he wrote three television plays for children between 1955 and 1956, all produced by Kevin Sheldon. Sheldon wrote about Space School in the Radio Times:
On Earth Satellite One
IMAGINE going to school in a Space Suit. Try to picture what it would be like to live with your mother and father in a colony of four or five hundred engineers, scientists, space pilots, and planetary explorers on the inside rim of a great wheel silently turning 1075 miles above the surface of the earth. Life would be very strange at first, there would be no night and day as we know them, and there would be no winters or summers, The force of gravity might play unusual tricks at times and there would be an ever present danger from stray meteor showers; but there would also be compensations. From the observation port you could watch the earth turning beneath you once every two hours; there would be trips to the Moon, Mars, and Venus; and fascinating lessons on unusual subjects such as astronautical navigation.
In Space School you will learn about the exciting adventures of the Winter children (Wallace, Winifred, and Wilfred), who, together with their mother live in one of the little houses on the inside rim of Earth Satellite One, while their father is away surveying possible landing sites on the moons of Mars. Among others you will meet are "Space Commodore Sir Hugh Sterling", a veteran of interplanetary flight, played by John Stuart (already known to you as "Dr Lachlan McKinnon" of The Lost Planet and Return to the Lost Planet); "Space Captain Michael O'Rorke", the hot-headed Irish dare-devil (Matthew Lane); "Space Engineer 'Tubby' Thompson", played by Donald McCorkindale, his Cockney assistant; "Miss Osborne", the schoolmistress (Julie Webb); "Sam Scroop" the trapper of the Spaceways, played by Neil McCallum; and "Humphrey Soames", ace newshawk of the Interplanetary Television Commission, portrayed by a newcomer to Children's Television, David Drummond.
You will see the artificial satellite turning slowly in space against the background of the earth, and space tankers with their special cargoes of food, air, water, and space fuel, darting noiselessly from planet to planet, and the strange craft from other worlds and other systems.
Gordon Roland has designed some extremely unusual settings and the Space Ships and Satellite for Space School have been built by John Ryan.
