Chocky Episode 1

[Rachal Langwith]

Whilethe 1968 novel was set in an unspecified 'near future', the TV adaptation was set contemporaneously in the mid-1980s in Surrey. The Gore family acquire a second generation Citron CX car which was marketed as being technologically advanced at the time.

Matthew Gore is an intelligent boy chosen by a mysterious extraterrestrial visitor to be a source of information about life on Earth. As his schoolwork and artistic talent improve dramatically he arouses the suspicion of powerful groups who wish to tap into the amazing fund of knowledge to which he is now party.

A year has passed since Matthew said goodbye to his alien friend, and in the summer holidays he meets Albertine, a mathematical prodigy, with whom he discovers he can communicate telepathically. One day Chocky returns to warn Matthew that they are both in danger. When he returns to tell Albertine, he finds she has disappeared.

Chocky hopes, with Matthew and Albertine's help, to help the human race discover cosmic power, which unlike Earth's finite natural resources, will sustain them for as long as the universe itself exists. But their knowledge has aroused a great deal of interest from the military, and they are willing to take drastic action if they don't get what they want.

The series was also broadcast and popular in Czechoslovakia where it was dubbed in both Czech and Slovak languages. It was also dubbed in French and broadcast in Canada in the late 1980s and early 1990s; in Spanish and broadcast in Spain in the late 1980s. It was hugely popular in Bulgaria in the second half of 1980s. Also in Cuba. All episodes of Season 1 and Season 2 were shown numerous times.

The theme music from Chocky is known as Coral and is taken from the 1982 library music album entitled Red Kite by group Astral Sounds. It is track number 4 on side A and was composed by John Hyde. The album was intended to have an underwater feel.[1]

A Disc Chockey is a dessert comprising of 2 chocolate discs held together by sticky marshmallow. It is the same thing as a wagon wheel, just named otherwise. Larger Disc Chockeys than the ones sold in the shops in Australia are available in America.

In this episode, Ben, the new student, brings a disc chockey for lunch, and during the break during his first day of school, while talking to Maudie and Ezra, Ben reveals a Disk Chockey, where Ezra is surprised, and then Ben says everything about him, causing Ezra to develop a relationship with him, and soon, Ben then divides him into two halves, where Ezra says that you can share, however, Ben puts half of the disc chockey in his mouth, the which makes Maudie angry, and Ezra impressed, especially when Ben pulls him out without breaking. This also impresses the other kids, and everyone sees Ben putting the disc chockey in his mouth and pulling it out without breaking several times, which makes everyone bored, and when everyone decides to go back to what they were doing, Ben holds a disc chockey competition, where Kyle is the first to enter the competition, however, he cannot put the disc chockey in his mouth, and at the same time, all the other participants did not succeed as Ben did.

This remarkable little adventure was written by John Wyndham andpublished in 1968. This was the same author of Day of the Triffids, The Krakenwakes, The Midwich Cuckoos (later filmed as Village of the damned). Most of thewriting was concerned with the arrival or threat that aliens represented to thevery primitive (technology wise) earthlings. Village of the Damned was thescience fiction film concerning a small village in England in which all thewomen become pregnant. They all end up giving birth to children with highlydeveloped brains, telepathic powers - you know the rest. Chocky was verydifferent as the alien force did not want to destroy the population of earthbut instead help it and guide it to the stars. Anthony Read had to do a lot ofrewriting with Chocky in order to make to representative of today's societye.g. the inclusion of the Rubik's cube. Anthony Read did a superb jobtransferring this from book to screen. Chocky was produced by Thames televisionand shown in 1984 on ITV (although completed in 1983). I remember watching thiswhen I was just out of school thinking that it was brilliant. The music inparticular stirs memories of those days at secondary school.

Chocky was a six part adventure set around the Gore family. Mum (Mary)is a busy housewife, Dad (David) is an accountant, Polly (little sister) is atprimary school and Matthew (adopted when he was a baby) is at secondary school(I think he about twelve years old). The six parts were shown every Monday at16:45 starting January the 9th and finishing 13th February. Two further serieswere also produced called Chocky's Children (six episodes 1985) and Chocky'sChallenge (six episodes 1986). Andrew Ellams played Matthew in all three seriesalongside James Hazeldine as his father.

Sadly John Wyndham died in March 1969 but his books are still read todayby different generations eager to see the vision of a truly remarkable writer.Chocky was no doubt one of the best childrens science fiction dramas to be seenon television and has been long over due for a place on Little Gems. Today'schildrens science fiction drama doesn't even come close.

I actually felt that Space: 1999 would already be well covered by podcasts so I avoided it at first. However I am glad I changed my mind because this twentieth episode of the podcast is proving to be one of the most popular episodes so far. Having good contributors helps, and I was delighted to have my friends and talented writers Kara Dennison and Ian Taylor along for the ride. Their contributions are fascinating and amusing.

You can listen to the episode now on Spotify and the other major podcast platforms, including Youtube. Hope you enjoy it and I intend to pick up the frequency of episodes for the remainder of the year. Coming next will be The Comic Strip Presents.

In addition he has published a marvellous creepy short story by a scuba diving holiday that takes a strange twist in The Dive, published by Cornice. You can enjoy for free and I recommend you give it a read.

Like the book, the series explored themes of survival, adaptation, and morality. Produced by David Maloney, directed by Ken Hannam and adapted for television by Douglas Livingstone, it starred John Duttine, Emma Relph, and Maurice Colbourne.

I had an excellent time recording this episode with Rik Hoskin, and Chris and Ella Burton and we got unexpectedly deep in places when it came to the moral challenges faced by the characters. You listen to our debate by finding Very British Futures on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and many more platforms. Or go to its page on the podcast website.

Writers Andrew Scott Roe-Crines and John Isles return to the show to join me in discussing the messages of the book and strengths of this television play. Find out about what the papers said, how the IngSoc party operates and the nightmare of Newspeak.

Making a welcome return visit for this episode are the warm and witty Tim Reid and Charles Auchterlonie, the hosts of The Randomiser, a podcast reviewing Doctor Who old and new, as well as other British cult TV. Hope you enjoy this one.

It has a marvellous cast of people who were just getting recognised for their talent, including Michaela Cole (I Will Destroy You), Jim Howick (Ghosts) and Michael Socha (Being Human) and Michael Smiley (Kill List) and was produced by a lot of the same team responsible for Misfits.

Episode one is out now and its excellent. A very entertaining 50+ minutes of conversation about the first novel The White Mountains, along with an charming interview with another friend of mine, author Will Hadcroft about his correspondence and eventual meeting with John Christopher, a pen-name of Samuel Youd. It is well produced too and reminds me that when I start season two of my podcast I want to do some in-person recordings as well as Skype chats.

I'd be really interested to find out if anyone else can remember a TV show which was shown in the UK, I would say it was late 80s or early 90s. All I remember is that there was a pyramid shaped object in the room of a normal looking house, not huge, around the height of a child. The only scene I really remember after all these years is one where other children returned to find the side of the pyramid was open and one of the children had gone into the pyramid and was now unconscious (I think).

and there are several episodes of Chocky's Challenge on youtube. The pyramid object you mention can be seen in Chocky's Challenge episode 6 at the 2 minute mark, the scene with the unconscious person inside the pyramid appears towards the end of the episode at 22minutes.

Apparently the short book was made into a brief television series that aired in the UK (where the story takes place) in the mid-1980s, and which seems to expand on the ideas. Normally I am a purist about movie/tv adaptations of books, but I am kind of curious to see how the book was interpreted, especially since mid-eighties sci-fi shows and movies are fantastic. A playlist of all episodes can be found on Youtube here. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

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