‘The Tomorrow People’ has not aged well, but it’s a show that had a big impact on me as a child so the vestiges of that overcome the clunky drama, wobbly sets, poorly done chroma key effects and some truly awful acting. ‘The Blue & The Green’, from 1974, is a story that I remember as particularly frightening although, in my defence, I was only five and had a bit of a sheltered life.
The premise still sounds pretty good, though: in order to leave Earth, an alien species require the raw energy of human hatred, which they achieve by handing out different coloured badges (blue and green) which create two violently opposed factions. Viewed now, it’s terribly slow and very silly, but the depiction of an unravelling world where brothers fight over what’s on their lapel is suitably chilling, and the reports of riots and social disarray resonated with contemporary events, as well as the strikes, power cuts and three day week of just a couple of years earlier.
‘The Tomorrow People’ was a well conceived show sadly constrained by a shoestring budget and the requirement to appeal exclusively to a child audience. There are some truly dreadful stories, but, ultimately, it has a lot of charm and the haunting title sequence remains absolutely classic, an echo of my childhood that has resonated for nearly forty years.
The Living Skins story gave me the fear in my youth.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to say that if you keep reading this blog they may give you fear in adulthood!
ReplyDeleteGod I saw that picture above and nearly had a bloomin' heart attack. I watched TTP religiously.
ReplyDeleteIn Manhattan, the Saks Fifth Avenue store now closely resembles the U.S. embassy in Baghdad…
ReplyDeleteThe Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan is now lined with barbed wire fencing and attack dogs amid weeks of social unrest in the city.
Reuters says the luxury retailer hired a third-party security firm to protect the store and associates. Amid these unprecedented times, it was found necessary to line the store with chainlink fencing with barb wire on top and private security guards with attack dogs.
Of course most other stores in New York City did not take such precautions, and many of them got absolutely gutted as a result.
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/as-businesses-flee-the-violence-will-major-u-s-cities-be-transformed-into-economic-wastelands
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/