On the 40th anniversary of the moon landings, Alex Fitch talks to two television pioneers who were inspired by the events of July 16, 1969.

Alex Fitch talks to Gerry Anderson about how the space race and technological innovations of the 1960s inspired such shows as Supercar and Thunderbirds. Anderson also talks about his stint in the RAF as an aircraft controller, responding to the fashions in genre with Four Feathers Falls and Fireball XL5 and mixing animation styles in lesser known series such as Lavender Castle and The Secret Service.

Sir Patrick Moore and Apollo 11, photo by Paul Grover

Sir Patrick Moore covered the events of the Apollo 11 mission live on TV and discusses the events of that day with Alex Fitch as well as the highlights of his six decades presenting The Sky at Night.

(N.B. The interview with Sir Patrick is available to download now at Sci-Fi London)

Thursday 16/07/09 10.30pm Resonance 104.4 FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

 

 

Links: 
Buy Fireball XL5 and Space:1999 from Network DVD
Gerry Anderson’s fan club
Sir Patrick Moore’s website
The Sky at Night page at www.bbc.co.uk

Alex Fitch talks to screenwriter Charlie Kaufman about his new film Synecdoche, New York, the challenges of directing his own script, working with Spike Jones and Michel Gondry on his previous screenplays Being John Malkovich and Human Nature and issues of post-modernism and magical realism in his work. Alex Fitch also talks to Electric Sheep editor Virginie Sélavy about Synecdoche, New York, looking at Kaufman’s depictions of the internal workings of the human mind in that film and in earlier scripts such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.(Originally broadcast 21 May 2009 on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Podcast produced by Alex Fitch