(Charles Chilton’s classic radio sci-fi series Journey int...)
Charles Chilton’s classic radio sci-fi series Journey into Space thrilled listeners between 1953 and 1958, attracting almost eight million people to its gripping tale of the far future and the thrills of interstellar travel - the last radio programme in the UK to attract a bigger evening audience than television. In this concluding series Captain Jet Morgan, Doc Matthews, engineer Mitch Mitchell and radio operator Lemmy Barnet once more set out for Mars, but this time alone. Their orders - to discover all they can about the threatened Martian invasion of Britain. Jet and his comrades are stretched to their limits as they take on the awesome Martian power, and when they learn the astounding secret of the invasion plan, there is a race against time to warn a defenceless Earth... All twenty episodes are included here, as well as the 90-minute 1981 sequel The Return from Mars and Another Journey Into Space, a special Archive Hour feature on the series. Also included on CD 1 is a PDF file of a comprehensive 16-page booklet detailing the history of the series, with cast lists and episode guides.
(Charles Chilton’s classic radio sci-fi series Journey int...)
Charles Chilton’s classic radio sci-fi series Journey into Space thrilled listeners between 1953 and 1958, attracting almost eight million people to its gripping tale of the far future and the thrills of interstellar travel - the last radio programme in the UK to attract a bigger evening audience than television. The second series once again starred Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, with David Kossoff as Lemmy, Guy Kingsley Poynter as Doc, and Bruce Beeby as Mitch. It opened with Jet and the crew on board the flagship Discovery, leading a fleet of spaceships. Their mission: to explore Mars, the mysterious and - as they believe - uninhabited red planet. All twenty episodes are included here, as well as a a bonus 10-minute 'Round Midnight' interview with creator and writer Charles Chilton. Also included on CD 1 is a PDF file of a comprehensive 16-page booklet detailing the history of the series, with cast lists and episode guides. So prepare to blast off to Mars in the company of Captain Jet Morgan and his crew, as they head off to adventure, danger and some startling discoveries...
Journey Into Space Operation Luna (The Complete Series)
(Charles Chilton’s classic radio sci-fi series Journey int...)
Charles Chilton’s classic radio sci-fi series Journey into Space thrilled listeners between 1953 and 1958, attracting almost eight million people to its gripping tale of the far future and the thrills of interstellar travel the last radio programme in the UK to attract a bigger evening audience than television. The original first series, Journey to the Moon, was lost, but thirteen episodes were re-recorded in 1958 under the title Operation Luna, starring Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, Alfie Bass as Lemmy, Guy Kingsley Poynter as Doc, David Williams as Mitch and also featuring David Jacobs. All thirteen are included here, as well as the sole surviving extract from Journey to the Moon and a special half-hour documentary Journey into Space... Again, featuring clips from the series and interviews with Charles Chilton and members of the cast. Also included on the CD version is a PDF file of a comprehensive 16-page booklet detailing the history of the series, with cast lists and episode guides. So prepare to blast off for the Moon and experience a voyage of danger and excitement in the company of Captain Jet Morgan and his crew...
(Oh What a Lovely War is a theatrical chronicle of the Fir...)
Oh What a Lovely War is a theatrical chronicle of the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the period. First performed by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London in 1963, it received the acclaim of London audiences and critics. It won the Grand Prix of the Théâtre des Nations festival in Paris that year and has gone on to become a classic of the modern theatre. In 1969 a film version was made which extended the play's popular success. The play is now on the standard reading list of schools and universities around the UK and was revived by the Royal National Theatre in 1998. This new version of the play, as edited by Joan Littlewood, returns the script to its original version. Includes a new photo section of the original production, and an Afterword by Victor Spinetti.
Charles Chilton was a British radio producer and writer whose three science fiction novels comprise a rewrite into a novel form of his popular three-part BBC radio series, Journey Into Space.
Background
Charles Chilton was born on June 15, 1917, in Euston, Norfolk, United Kingdom, the son of a clerk at the family firm of painters and decorators. His father was killed at Arras on the first day of the German spring offensive in March 1918. Charles’s mother remarried after the war but died when he was five. Charles was sent to live with his paternal grandmother, a widow with 13 children all living together on one floor of a rundown Georgian house in Sandwich Street, Euston.
Education
Chilton attended St Pancras Church School in London.
Charles Chilton started his career at BBC at the age of 15, delivering copies of Radio Times around Broadcasting House in Portland. He later moved to a job as an assistant in the gramophone library there, helping compile the playlists, and persuaded his bosses that perhaps one night a week they could play some jazz. At last Chilton started a BBC Jazz Band as a guitar player and played in another band in the evenings and at weekends.
By 1940, promoted to assist Leslie Perowne in the variety department, he had established himself at the BBC as a producer of music programmes.
In 1941 he joined the Royal Air Forces as an air gunner in Bomber Command but was later assigned to a radio instructor. He continued to play in his band and wrote and recorded programmes for the BBC’s Overseas Radio Broadcasting Services, a forerunner of British Forces Radio.
After a period as an RAF radio instructor, he was sent to run a radio station in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Returning to the BBC after the war, Chilton worked with some of the best-known names in music and broadcasting, Roy Plomley and Alistair Cooke among them. He also began to develop an interest in popular American music, and at the end of the 1940s was sent to America to research programme ideas.
As well as writing three weekly comic strips, and writing, producing and directing at least one weekly live radio show, Chilton also worked on other radio projects, and had a lengthy spell producing The Goon Show.
During the 1960s, Chilton was producing radio documentaries on subjects ranging from music hall and Edwardian London to the American Civil War, using popular songs as a way of linking different sections together. He retired from the BBC after 46 years in 1972 but continued to work for the corporation as a freelance for many years.
In his eighties, Chilton was still writing and lecturing at a British arm of New York University in London. Every Sunday morning he could be found conducting walking tours around Hampstead for The Original London Walks.