Sky

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.

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.

So glad I've found this on IMDb.Many's the time I've thought back to the strange, delicate,alien boy from my childhood viewing days. Sky had blue eyes - I mean all blue, no pupils, and was the stuff of my childish fantasies (I was 9, so he probably played Sindy's with me...) and when the Evil forces were coming to do unspeakable things to him, the wind would blow and the leaves would whoosh around in a sort of Force of Nature warning...Ooh I've come over all funny again. I absolutely loved it and would give anything to get my hands on an episode. I understand HTV only have 5 out of 7 left - come on guys, release them - I'm tired of watching my Trumpton DVD's...Did it have an unhappy ending - I seem to remember Sky disappearing - in anguish or triumph? Please let me know someone. I really need to watch this again so please contact me if you have any information as to Sky's whereabouts...

I thought this was great fun. I only heard of it recently and accidentally and am astonished it exists. The title character is a cosmic traveller gone astray; his look is a cross between David Bowie and Jesus Christ - his spiel too, albeit with a touch of steely ruthlessness, amoral survival instinct and the anger of Jesus with the moneylenders - and he's destined to become a god. But he doesn't belong in this time and place so he's attacked by Nature itself - vines and leaves and winds and a sinister human incarnation of it. It's inventive and intelligent and properly creepy and eerie at times. I don't want to spoiler the various neat touches and good developments, but to give you a taste one episode features an excellent sort of were-crow almost as a throwaway bit. It starts off quite good and gets better and wilder as it goes on. But if you can't get along with 70s special effects, forget it.