Trivia / The Tomorrow People (1973)

• California Doubling: "Worlds Away", on arriving for the first time on an alien planet, one character warns the others, "This isn't just some wood in Surrey," which is Lampshade Hanging by the writers — the scene was indeed filmed in a wood in the British county of Surrey.
• Cancellation: The series ended with the four-part "War of the Empires" when a proper Series Finale was still in the writing stages. This was the result of the 1979 ITV Strike - the very same strike which caused Doctor Who's ratings to go through the roof - with many electrical personnel walking out. The 90s revival and the audio dramas were also cancelled while more material was being planned.
• Cast Incest: Then-couple Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson guest-starred in "A Man for Emily", playing siblings.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: Roger Price cast Peter Vaughan Clarke as Stephen after seeing him in a Manchester rendition of Peter Pan with Lulu.
• Channel Hop: Roger Price initially offered the format to Granada, where he was working, but was turned down so offered it to Southern Television, who expressed an interest but had concerns over the budgetary requirements. Finally, Lewis Rudd at Thames Television commissioned a 13-episode series, having seen the potential of the format and looking to replace Ace of Wands after its three-year run.
• Creator's Apathy: Nicholas Young was unhappy with the show's lack of care for special effects from day one, claiming the show would've fared better over time if more of the budget had been allotted for it.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Roger Price only ever allowed one attempt by another writer to work on it solo, with John E. Watkins penning "Into the Unknown" broadcast in early 1976. Price was not satisfied with the final episodes and decided from then on he would be sole writer.
  • Elizabeth Adare grew increasingly unhappy with the quality of later scripts. However she knew how important and groundbreaking it was for a black actress to be the female lead in a British TV production so consciously decided to stick around.
  • Nicholas Young hated the final story "War of the Empires", saying that he was embarrassed to associated with it.
  • Peter Davison is rather embarrassed about his early guest role in "A Man For Emily." Let's just say it opens with a nearly nude Peter sagging against a wall and goes downhill from there. Peter expressed utter horror upon learning that the episode had actually been broadcast in the US.
• Creator's Pest: Roger Price later commented that he felt neither Ginge or Lefty had ever felt right for the format.
• The Danza:
  • Elizabeth M'bundo was played by Elizabeth Adare, Chris was played by Chris Chittel, and Mike Bell was played by Mike Holoway.
  • Wildly averted in the 90s remake; three of the four actors were Kristian, Christian, and Kristen, while the actor named Adam did not play the character named Adam (Kristian did).
• Creator's Pest: Kenny was written out after the first season due to actor Stephen Salmon's poor dramatic ability and an inability to act in general. Salmon would frequently forget lines and spoke with a drawl, making him to difficult to understand by the other actors. For this reason, Kenny's character is seldom seen "in the action" after the pilot, with Kenny often guarding the lab or visiting his home during the bulk of the series.
• Dueling Shows/Follow the Leader: The series was publicized as ITV's answer to Doctor Who. Plus, the finale, "War of the Empires", was clearly trying to ape A New Hope.
• Fake Scot: The English Nigel Rhodes as Andrew Forbes.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Elizabeth Adare was absent for most of the 1978 season due to her pregnancy, making her only appearances through the Lab's monitor.
• No Budget: For much of the original series, which had a budget of £5,000 an episode. The 90s version significantly improved in budget, though.
• Post-Script Season: By season three, Roger Price had become tired of his creation and attempted to end it by killing off the leads in the season finale, but Ruth Boswell made him rewrite it so that they survived.
• Promoted Fanboy: Nigel Rhodes (Andrew Forbes) was a big fan of the series.
• Prop Recycling: During the majority of the series, when the lab was located in the abandoned underground station, the control panel for the entrance was a prop that previously appeared in the Doctor Who serial "The Ark in Space". The prop was originally made for UFO (1970). Other panels and control desks from that series can occasionally be seen in both Doctor Who and The Tomorrow People.
• Recast as a Regular: Nigel Rhodes worked as an extra on "A Much Needed Holiday" before joining the cast in the seventh season.
• Reclusive Artist:
  • Dean Lawrence, who played Tyso, has only given two interviews and attended one convention since he left the show. He's never seen at informal gatherings and his life post-TP remains a mystery (although it has been rumored that he now designs and manufactures fetish clothing). There's barely any talk of him within the fandom and any times where he is mentioned are when the stories featuring the character of Tyso crop up. What makes this even stranger is that judging from a few sources he doesn't seem like the reclusive type. He did, however, attend the Hyperspace convention in 2008.
  • Stephen Salmon, who played Kenny, has given no interviews (not even on the Beyond Tomorrow documentary) and made no appearances since he left the show. The fandom often question whether he's even still alive. Many speculate it was because of the backlash he received over his wooden acting. He eventually found his true calling as an electronic engineer.
  • Misako Koba (Hsui Tai) only just came out of a long time away from the public to attend conventions and give interviews from March 2014 onwards.
• Screwed by the Network: With inflation out of control in the late-1970s, the budget was stretched to breaking point, a factor which was constantly on the mind of producer Vic Hughes. A dispute over the allocation of studio days ended the show in 1979 when Hughes attempted to gain an extra studio day for the planned ninth series (which fell victim to the ITV strike that summer) following numerous problems during the production of "War of the Empires" (the sole four-part adventure that made up series 8) which had been given only four days in studio. This was partially due to a very ambitious script that, with its numerous space battles, was heavily influenced by A New Hope. Also by this point Roger Price had emigrated to Canada and begun work on You Can't Do That on Television and Thames were reluctant to carry on without him. However some of the lead actors were of the opinion that the series was disliked within Thames due to its great success. Whatever the reason, it finally vanished after a short repeat run in early 1980.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The Beyond Tomorrow documentary was completed in 1997 and wasn't released until 2005.
• Stunt Casting: In season four, Roger Price attempted to boost ratings by introducing teen idol Mike Holloway of the pop band Flintlock to the cast in the hope that he would be Britain's answer to Donny Osmond or David Cassidy.
• Troubled Production:
  • Production of the first story, "The Slaves of Jedikiah" was much troubled as the crew found they were unfamiliar with the technical demands of a science fiction drama. The first day in studio was disastrous with virtually no usable material getting made and there was some tension between the cast and Paul Bernard who was very authoritarian with them. Also Nicholas Young banged himself hard into a wall while working on the darkened entrance to the Lab which was being filmed inside the real disused tube station at Wood Lane (closed in the 1940s). Fortunately he was not badly injured and able to carry on later that day after a recovery break.
  • The eighth and final season was hit by budget problems due to inflation in the UK in the late seventies. The series was finally ended following a dispute over the allocation of studio days when the producer attempted to gain an extra studio day for the planned ninth series (which fell victim to the ITV strike that summer) following numerous problems during the production of the final story "War of the Empires" (a four-part serial that comprised the whole season), which had been given only four days in studio. This was partially due to a very ambitious script that, with its numerous space battles, was heavily influenced by A New Hope. Also, Roger Price had emigrated to America after being headhunted to help set up Nickelodeon, and Thames Television was reluctant to carry on without him. However, some of the cast were of the opinion that the series was disliked within Thames due to its great success.
• Uncredited Role: Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson as students in "The Blue and the Green".
• Unfinished Episode: There were plans for a Sequel Episode to "A Man for Emily", but it was scrapped following the episode's negative reception.
• What Could Have Been: Season one's recurring villain, Jedikiah, was originally devised to be a long-running foe, but after seeing the poorly-designed robot that was the shape-changer's true form, an unimpressed Roger Price elected not to use the character again until the finale of season three, which was planned at that time as the series' finale (the robotic form noticeably fails to appear).
• Written-In Infirmity:
  • Michael Standing (Ginge) fell off his motorbike and broke his leg at the start of season two, prompting a speedy rewrite whereby Ginge's younger brother, Chris, was now seen as the new Sap regular. Chris was mentioned in the dialogue as already being known to the Tomorrow People, so little in the way of changes had to be made to the script. Ginge's absence was explained on-screen by his having been admitted to hospital following a fall from his motorbike, reflecting Standing's real-life accident.
  • During season three, Dean Lawrence hurt his knee during location filming and the injury had to be included in the script.

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