Sky

SKY is a flawed but fascinating children's television production of the late seventies. It's refusal to follow dramatic convention is commendable, if difficult. It's debut episode is abstract and bordering on avant-garde theatre. The rest are occasionally rushed, uneven dramatically, but the last ten minutes are truly jaw dropping. The risibility of this denouement may be a 'jump the shark' moment for some viewers, but it certainly gets full marks for originality.

Sky himself, vulnerable but not entirely benign, is a lead character unlike any I can recall in children's telly. The program is not 'cuddly'. Sky does not express gratitude to his helpers, or any degree of warmth. He is more arbiter than interferer, a fascinating performance from young actor Harrison.

With it's hippy cloaks, druids and Stonehenge, SKY could be seen as the last hurrah before the advent of punk, but it refuses to be pigeon holed as a pantheist diatribe against the 'experiment' of intelligence and the despoiling nature of man. A couple of hippies are given short thrift in one rather disturbing scene and slope off disillusioned. Let's say SKY is sympathetic to Ghia theory but remains open minded, if pessimistic, to other possibilities.

Why is it remembered, albeit dimly? Perhaps due to its striking images, many foreshadowing eighties pop video. Goodchild's appearance is memorably eerie. It also has a splendid character in Mr Crow with his creepy hand, reminiscent of Mr Stabs of 'Ace Of Wands' fame. I also cannot get out of my head Sky's rejuvenation of Arby's mother. The music is less successful, sometimes over-used and then dropped for later episodes.

SKY is a wonderfully balmy creation. It is unique, and may attract a considerable cult following if ever released to the public.

All i can seem to remember about this show is how Sky would fade away to nothing at the end of one of the series (being made of sky) accompanied by a synthesized wind type sound which i think was also the only theme music for it.

Regardless, this show has stuck in my head and i have only just found this site with a bit of info on it...At least i know it actually existed!

Anyone with info on how i might get copies of this series could you please email me.

In the 1970s, HTV cornered the market in quirky and bizarre fantasy half hours, always memorable, not always good. This oddity is fair, and concerns a beautiful blue-eyed blond alien with decidedly earthbound teeth who arrives on Earth at the wrong time and has to find his way to the right time zone. The Earth invokes a sort of immune system which tries to reject him, and he is pursued by the sinister Goodchild, who is perhaps a little too like a geography teacher to be wholly convincing as an avenging agent of nature. Sky's powers, and gradual loss of power, create a lot of tension, and Meredith Edwards lends a touch of class as the simple-minded Tom. Perhaps just too silly to be scary, a little too earnest to be eccentric, and with an unconvincing and predictable conclusion (you do not have to be tuned into the forces of the cosmos to work out what the Juganet is) it is still worth seeing, and all told it is not very much like anything else, which is an achievement for writers Baker and Martin.

Having looked for this for ages, I was delighted to be able to see it through the magic of the Internet recently.

Like most people, I saw it when I was a child and it made a big impression.

On viewing it now, being much older, the experience was a little disappointing, as was to be expected.

The episodes had very little pace, and the programme makers took incredible liberties with the cliffhangers, often showing something at the start of the episode that wasn't there at the end of the previous one! Sky himself was still as eerie as I remembered, and the use of CSO on his eyes and hands was still effective.

It was a true Friends of the Earth parable, however, and, given that I'm not exactly a supporter of greenie, eco-friendly, anti-science bull, this grated on me.

Only one moment in the series sent a shiver up my spine... when Goodchild was going up the stairs, with the camera focused on his feet, and you saw his creepy cloak just kind of drop into shot, where it hadn't been before!... ooh! All in all, could have done with being 6 episode long instead of 7.

DVD release seems unlikely due to the fact that episodes 3 and 7 only exist in ropey off-air recordings from a domestic Philips 1500 VCR.

There's a definite reluctance to release material in low quality.

Catch it if you can, though, through other methods :)

This is one of those seventies classics a bit like the Aztec chocolate bar..A series about the battle of good vs evil, that I remember rushing home from school to watch.I can only remember bits and pieces,but i'm now torn as to whether i should try and track down a copy if possible. Sadly if i do it'll probably be appalling, as i'm no longer 11 years of age.I wouldn't mind an Aztec bar though...............