Journey Into Space

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 interest in astronomy and science, and the rising public interest in the Space Race, he began a six-part SF story in 1953 at the request of the BBC. Due to overwhelming audience response, the run was 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'), began 21 Sept 1953 on THE LIGHT PROGRAMME, with 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 6 episodes Beeby was replaced by Don Sharp. BBC announcer David Jacobs played background parts. The second series, THE RED PLANET, started its 20-week run on 6 Sept 1954. THE WORLD IN PERIL began 26 Sept 1955, the final radio journey for Morgan and his crew in the 1950's; Kossoff was absent and suggested Alfie Bass as his replacement. Because the original series-1 recordings were inadequate for repeats, a new 13-episode version christened OPERATION LUNA began 26 March 1958 (the Transcription version), with Don Sharp replaced by David Williams. All four series were destroyed in the purge of the BBC archive; 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. On 7 March 1981 Radio 4 produced a Chilton-scripted 90-minute special, THE RETURN FROM MARS.