Tony Attwood’s first science fiction work was Blake’s 7: The Programme Guide in 1981. This was followed by the novel Afterlife in 1982 which followed on from the events of the final episode of Blake’s 7. He also wrote the Doctor Who spin-off novel Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma.
Today, Tony is a respected figure in the fields of marketing and education. He was a pioneer in the direct mail sector, and is now a highly respected educationalist in the areas of school improvement, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder and other educational areas. However he still looks back fondly on his brief association with Blake’s 7.
Were you a big fan of Blake’s 7?
Yes I was – I got involved in the writing of the books because I enjoyed the programme – also because I was a great admirer of Terry Nation’s work such as Avengers, Survivors… I really did love his approach, and so was drawn to Blake’s 7 from the moment it started.
How did you come to write the Programme Guide?
I was doing a lot of work as a freelance writer at the time, and have always written only on subjects that interest me – I have been lucky in that I have rarely if ever had to take on written work that does not fascinate me – which I think is unusual for writers – most writers at some time or another have to write whatever they are asked to write, rather than being able to pick and choose. So I got in touch with WH Allen the publishing house and asked if they would like such a book – they said yes immediately, and so I went to Roger Hancock, Terry’s agent, and presented the idea. He liked it too, so I then pulled all the contracts together, dealt with each writer – got a deal with them to be able to summarise their story, and tied up all the contracts. That was a significant part of my work in those days – going into projects that required lots of contractual work before the project could get off the ground.
Did you have much freedom regarding the format of the guide?
100%. Roger Hancock listened to my proposals and found them likeable, and the same with the publishers – again luck on my side as everyone seemed to be very happy with the outline I presented – so I then went and wrote it as I wanted.
How did you compile the detailed A-Z of the series? Did it take long?
I seem to remember it took about 3 months. I had some of the series on video – for the rest I went to my contacts at the BBC, and through them set up a meeting with Vere Lorrimer who gave me a) a car park pass (invaluable) and b) a room and c) access to the complete library of tapes and scripts. I just went along and watched and noted and wrote. With each episode I wrote down what seemed to me to be the main issues, places, people…
Did you personally interview Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Chris Boucher and Vere Lorrimer?
Yes I did all the interviews in the book. It was remarkable – I found all of them really kind, helpful, enthusiastic and interested. I was helped by the fact that they knew I was working with Terry Nation’s blessing, so that opened doors – but even so, it was extraordinary how giving of their time they all were. Vere, I have mentioned, went far beyond the call of duty – he really did want the book to be there as a record of the series to exist alongside the videos and the repeats. I spent a lot of time with Chris, not just talking about his episodes but also his increasingly central part in the running of the whole series. Paul and Michael were the two actors I wanted to talk to, right from the very start, because to me they kept the series together through all the character changes, and it was clear to me, even before I started thinking about a follow-up novel that they would be central to what happened next.
I met Michael at a theatre in Leeds where he was working – the others at TV Centre. Vere and Chris were working there – Paul came in specifically to do the interview, and I caught Michael one afternoon at the theatre.
I did in fact stay in touch with all of them after the Programme Guide, and had some very interesting and valuable conversations with Paul and Michael prior to writing Afterlife. After that was written we talked further about how it had worked, and what else could be done. They liked Afterlife in terms of what it did to their characters – we didn’t talk about any literary merits or otherwise – purely in terms of the characters, and how they could handle what was written if they were ever to be asked to act out the story of Afterlife. The feeling was we had got it right – we as in the three of us talking it through with the Programme Guide interviews, then talking again prior to my writing Afterlife, and then finally after Afterlife came out. I am not suggesting we became a bunch of friends – but by then we had met a few times, talked on the phone a lot, and shared an interest in what might happen next to the series.
Terry Nation wrote an introduction to the Programme Guide, did he have much involvement in other areas of the book?
No – I proposed the contents, and gave an example of each section – he agreed to the whole approach, and that was that. That is how it normally works when one person (me) is licensing another person’s property – time constraints mean that it is not possible to for original authors to get deeply involved in a spin off project – so Terry – who was in the States at the time – left the general liaison to Roger Hancock and myself.
How did you come to write Afterlife?
When the series ended I knew that there would not be anything else happening because of a series of disputes between Terry’s office and the BBC over some copyright issues elsewhere – nothing to do with the BBC – and there was no strong movement from the BBC to do a 5th series. I therefore went back to Roger Hancock and suggested the idea. He cleared it with Terry Nation and I got the agreement of WH Allen to publish it.
We agreed that the format should be roughly four episodes which could, with re-working, become a TV series if needed. We also agreed that it ought to focus totally on Avon and Vila, but that other characters should pop back it – which doesn’t add much to the book, but would be quite dramatic if brought into the TV series.
It was also agreed that the book would be written such that if a TV series was made it could easily set aside the book. So the book had to reflect the primary issues – no one could conceive of the story continuing without Vila and Avon, so that was the given focus of it all.
All in all there were quite a few restrictions and ideas knocked around, which made the book look and read slightly oddly as I recall – but I don’t think it worked out too badly.
Were there particular restrictions when writing the novel, considering that the series had only recently been cancelled and could feasibly return?
Paul Darrow said to me that the Avon / Vila thing was “one man and his dog” – and it was – that was the essence of the relationship, and I just made that the centre of the show. Even if the show came back it would still be “one man and his dog”.
I met with Roger Hancock a few days after the first broadcast of the final episode, to discuss the Programme Guide’s development and Roger was slightly miffed about the ending. He asked if I knew about it in advance – I said no. He said that he didn’t think the BBC had the right to kill off Blake – nothing came of that comment, but he was a little annoyed I think, not to have been consulted.
Anyway, a few days later I went to see Chris Boucher, and asked him what the preliminaries had been to deciding Avon would shoot Blake. He said, “None – I just did it”. I asked why, and he said, “Well we needed a dramatic end – we always have a dramatic end.” I asked how Blake’s 7 would continue and he said he didn’t know – someone would have to work out why episode 52 was as it was – he didn’t know.
Which is why I sat down and worked out my own version when it came to time to write Afterlife. Chris just wrote a big bang ending, and left it for someone else to sort out the why and how. Which is exactly what Patrick McGoohan did with the Prisoner, in the sense that when the production company said to him, “Right, lets do a final episode, who is number 1?” he said, “How the f*** do I know?”
Servalan meets a particularly nasty end in the novel. Why was this?
I thought the character had gone too far and was unwritable. She was a maniac who would destroy whole planets if it suited her immediate ends – so what else could you write her doing other than destroying. She said, “Where there’s life there’s threat” and that summed her up – there is nothing more you could do with that character except get rid of her. Or perhaps I should say I couldn’t find anything else to do with her that was meaningful, given that I had Vila and Avon to write about.
The novel sees the crew acquire yet another all-powerful ship; did you feel that this was stretching credibility somewhat?
Yes – but then so is the series – I thought that was in keeping with the way in which credibility was stretched all the time. Like when Vila and Avon are stranded on another alien planet – and who turns up on the next sand dune but Servalan. Having a great ship was at the very heart of the story from the start – so I was just carrying on the tradition. I was very much trying to keep Blake’s 7 as Blake’s 7 – a group of guys who have a wonderful spaceship and travel around the galaxy annoying the administration.
Why did you call the ship Blake’s 7?
Because there was no other way of legitimising the Blake’s 7 name – why else would it be Blake’s 7 any more if there was in essence only 2 of them? I really liked the idea of the legend of Blake’s 7 having moved across the galaxy – and of course that would give the crew the problem – how to maintain the legend and utilise it, when there was not 7 of them. And indeed how to run a TV series called Blake’s 7 when there were only 2 of them.
You also brought back Tarrant only to have him killed a few pages later. Not a favourite character of yours?
Again this is the sort of thing we talked about in terms of how we could make Series 5 work and how to keep up interest – not from the fans of course, but from the occasional viewers who make up the bulk of the audience.
Tarrant was pushed on the writers as the “new Blake” and was never fully developed in my opinion. Once I had agreed that we were doing the Vila and Avon Story then really Tarrant didn’t have a part to play. But bringing him back to get rid of him seemed quite a nice idea in a TV series – so I kept it in.
Can you tell us anything about the proposed sequel State of Mind?
I proposed a story which would take the effective end of Blake’s 7 and the Administration into a new era dominated by a new force in the galaxy MIND – and the eventual overthrow of MIND by Avon and Vila – which would leave the galaxy with no overpowering control – no Administration, no empire, just lots of planets that had been under central control which were now free – and a couple of Robin Hood type guys revered throughout the galaxy. State of Mind is the final part of the story.
The main influence I suppose was the Foundation triology (the original 3 that is, not the subsequent volumes written much later) by Asimov which is one of the few sets of books I have read four times. I don’t think the writing is great, but it is a great tale. The political dimension is not too wonderful in the original trilogy, but then it was written for 1950s America. I wanted to try and do the same sort of thing – empire breaks apart, individual states emerge, and there is a source of power that is outside all the political games, (Foundation for Asimov, the Blake’s 7 ship for me).
Why didn’t this go ahead?
Terry Nation and Roger Hancock were involved in a deep dispute with the BBC over whether the BBC should use Daleks in any Doctor Who episode not written by Terry. As the dispute worsened Roger blocked all activity using any of Terry’s rights – and State of Mind got caught up in that. It was a shame because the two stories together make much more sense, and the publishers were very keen to go ahead. And even after all these years I still like the story – and the way it pays tribute to one of the great bedrocks of science fiction.
What are your feelings regarding fan perception of the novel?
It has never really been an issue for me. When the publishers and I sat down and talked the project through we looked for sales of 50,000 copies – in fact we got far more than that. The hard core fanzine reading fans would have counted for no more 5% of that. Had the book been written for the hard core fans it would not have been economically viable as a commercial paperback – it had to bring in some of the millions who watched the TV series, and who might spot the book in a bookshop on holiday or while browsing in Smiths, and think – “Oh yeah – Blake’s 7 – oh look this tells you what the ending is all about”.
Terry certainly did not want to have anything done that was for the fans only, because that would not have sold to the wider audience and Terry certainly wanted the biggest audience possible for his work.
If the mainstream people who had watched the series had read the book and thought it horrible, that would have upset me, because I would have failed in the terms that I set out for myself and sold to Terry: a mainstream book that would appeal to people who watched the 13 episodes of series D but who would never dream of going to an event or joining a club or buying a fanzine.
I was amazed at the number of letters I got after Afterlife – and this was before e-mails remember so there was more effort in getting in touch with me – from people just asking individual questions, and wanting to know what happens next, through to guys at NASA who sent me a tiny fragment of one of the rocket hulls, as a memento and a way of saying thanks for the books.
My view is not a case of disrespect for the fanzines which do a terrific job with a different audience and have a very valuable part to play – it just reflects that all commercial authors write for a specific audience.
Would you like to see Afterlife in print again?
Yes and I looked into this 2 years ago – we could do it, but I fear that the sales would be too low to make it worth the effort. It would be more fun to write State of Mind – if I had the time.
Have you been in contact with Blake’s 7 Enterprises regarding the proposed new series?
Yes, and we had a meeting about bringing the Programme Guide into their ambit, putting it on their web site etc – but not Afterlife. I thought we were getting on OK, but when it came to the details of the deal, it all fell apart – it was a complex issue involving a whole range of projects – not just one book. So nothing came of it. I still hold the rights for publication of my 2 Blake’s 7 books, and I might do something with them, if the right idea comes along – either because I think of it or someone else does. But this wasn’t the right one, and in the end I didn’t feel comfortable with these people – and I gather they didn’t feel comfortable with me either. I believe that Paul Darrow also dropped out of involvement with them – so I guess they have a particular way of working which doesn’t always accord with others.
Now there is a thought – maybe Paul and I could do something together – except I haven’t been in touch with him for years and he has certainly forgotten who I am.
Do you ever watch Blake’s 7 these days?
No – remember that to write the Programme Guide I spent several months doing nothing but watch the episodes, and once the whole thing was done I was ready to stop. I went through them all again as I started Afterlife. When it started on satellite I watched it all through once more but since then if I have turned on TV or been at someone’s house and Blake’s 7 has been on I have watched it and talked about the actors and writers with whoever I have been with, but I don’t sit down and watch it on satellite.
I stayed with Doctor Who longer – and can still happily watch the occasional episode of that (you may know that I also wrote a Doctor Who original many years ago) but like everyone else I move on. If you take a look on Amazon.co.uk you will see details of what I have been writing in recent years – which is nothing remotely to do with science fiction…
This article originally appeared in Scorpio Attack fanzine by Jonathan Helm
