Oh, this was such a deliciously British bit of SF. Cheap and cheesy and a marvellously dark complement to the US stuff being manufactured at the time, great as much of that was.
Blake’s motley crew of criminal weirdos and dissidents were hopeless and kept screwing up and were betrayed all the time by those they trusted. Evil, brilliant Avon was terrific. And there was scheming, sexy Servalan! And the theme tune was this anthemic bit of space pomp pop by Dudley Simpson.
I feel quite exhilarated just listening to it, transported back to happy times in my early twenties, sharing a flat with a lovely nurse tutor who was obsessed with this show and was a great mentor to naïve, younger me. I wanted to be him and coveted everything about his personal and professional life. Looking back from thirty years on, I do seem to be living a life that matches that template. Improves on it, really. Except he had a lovely big motorbike!
Fun facts about Blake’s 7:
1. Blake’s 7 was the offspring of Terry Nation, whose other great creations were The Daleks and the original series of Survivors.
2. I don’t watch East Enders but Michael Keating, who played Vila, plays the Reverend Stevens on that show and is an episodic character, I gather.
3. SPOILERS In the final episode of the series, Avon (Paul Darrow) is shot dead by the character Klyn (played by his IRL wife, Janet Lees Price). He also read all the biblical quotations in Richard Dawkins’ documentary ‘The Root of All Evil?’
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