Journey Into Space
JOURNEY INTO SPACE was the brainchild of BBC producer Charles Chilton, who had enjoyed much success with his Western serial, RIDERS OF THE RANGE and would later produce the final episodes of THE GOON SHOW. Fuelled by his own interest in astronomy and science, together with the rising public interest in the genesis of the Space Race, he began to work on a six part SF story in 1953 at
the request of the BBC. Due to the unexpected and overwhelming
audience response, this six week run was soon extended to a full 18.
The first series, simply entitled JOURNEY INTO SPACE, (billed in the
Radio Times as "Journey Into Space", A Tale of the Future) actually
began on 21 Sept, 1953, broadcast on THE LIGHT PROGRAMME. It also
enjoyed a weekly repeat and transmission on the General Overseas
Service. The cast included Andrew Faulds as Jet Morgan, David
Kossoff as Lemmy Barnet, Guy Kingsley Poynter as Doc Mathews and Bruce
Beeby as Stephen Mitchell. After the initial run of 6 episodes, Beeby
was replaced by Don Sharp. Filling out the cast was BBC announcer,
David Jacobs. He played a variety of background parts and who would
later provide the voices of nearly everyone other than the main cast 
in subsequent series.
The second series, THE RED PLANET, started on its 20 week run a year
later on 6 Sept, 1954 and showed Chilton's writing at its best.
Beebly returned as Mitchell, although this was his last appearence in
the series. THE RED PLANET was an unqualified triumph, telling of
man's first attempt at planatary colonization. It finished on a
rather downbeat cliffhanger ending that dovetailed seamlessly with
it's sequel. To many, series 2 and 3 can be seen as one long 40 part
story, so faithful is the continuity and plot structure.
THE WORLD IN PERIL began on 26 Sept, 1955 and was to be the final 
radio journey for Morgan and his crew, at least for the 1950's. Once
again, the portrayal of Mitchell changed hands, reverting back to Don
Sharp, who would later find renown for his film directing. Kossoff
too was absent, having left to pursue his stage career. He suggested
actor Alfie Bass as his replacement, the substitution being invisible
to the listening audience.
After completion of the trilogy, it was realized that the quality of
the origional recordings of the first series was inadequate for
repeat broadcasts or overseas sales. To this end, a new version was
mounted, this time a 13 episode serial, which began on March 26,
1958. This new production was christened OPERATION LUNA, omitting
several plot strands, most notably those concerning Jet's father, Sir
William Morgan. The WORLD IN PERIL cast were reunited, with the
exception of Don Sharp, who was replaced by David Williams. This 
became the Transcription version.
The effect that JOURNEY INTO SPACE had on the British public cannot
be overstated. It was the last evening radio program to achieve
higher audience figures than the BBC's TV service. Chilton wrote 3
best-selling novels, expanding upon themes from the radio shows.
There was even a comic strip in the Express Weekly newspaper, with
new stories suggested by Chilton.
Sadly, all four series were destroyed in the purge of the BBC
archive. The Transcription disks for OPERATION LUNA, THE RED PLANET
and WORLD IN PERIL surfaced in the late 80's, discovered by BBC
recording engineer Ted Kendall, having been reserved for overseas
broadcast in 1957 and forgotten. After this discovery, the BBC
repeated the trilogy on Radio 2 between 1989 and 1991. This was
followed by edited cassette releases, with minor scenes and credits/
recaps removed.
53/09/21 1 Journey Into Space, Ep. 1 53/09/28 2 Journey Into Space, Ep. 2 53/10/05 3 Journey Into Space, Ep. 3 53/10/12 4 Journey Into Space, Ep. 4 53/10/19 5 Journey Into Space, Ep. 5 53/10/26 6 Journey Into Space, Ep. 6 53/11/02 7 Journey Into Space, Ep. 7 53/11/09 8 Journey Into Space, Ep. 8 53/11/16 9 Journey Into Space, Ep. 9 53/11/23 10 Journey Into Space, Ep. 10
53/11/30 11 Journey Into Space, Ep. 11
53/12/07 12 Journey Into Space, Ep. 12
53/12/14 13 Journey Into Space, Ep. 13
54/09/06 19 The Red Planet, Ep. 1
54/09/13 20 The Red Planet, Ep. 2
54/09/20 21 The Red Planet, Ep. 3
54/09/27 22 The Red Planet, Ep. 4
54/10/04 23 The Red Planet, Ep. 5
54/10/11 24 The Red Planet, Ep. 6
54/10/18 25 The Red Planet, Ep. 7
54/10/25 26 The Red Planet, Ep. 8
54/11/01 27 The Red Planet, Ep. 9
54/11/08 28 The Red Planet, Ep. 10
54/11/15 29 The Red Planet, Ep. 11
54/11/22 30 The Red Planet, Ep. 12
54/11/29 31 The Red Planet, Ep. 13
54/12/06 32 The Red Planet, Ep. 14
54/12/13 33 The Red Planet, Ep. 15
54/12/20 34 The Red Planet, Ep. 16
54/12/27 35 The Red Planet, Ep. 17
55/01/03 36 The Red Planet, Ep. 18
55/01/10 37 The Red Planet, Ep. 19
55/01/17 38 The Red Planet, Ep. 20 
55/09/26 39 The World In Peril, Ep. 1
55/10/03 40 The World In Peril, Ep. 2
55/10/10 41 The World In Peril, Ep. 3
55/10/17 42 The World In Peril, Ep. 4
55/10/24 43 The World In Peril, Ep. 5
55/10/31 44 The World In Peril, Ep. 6
55/11/07 45 The World In Peril, Ep. 7
55/11/14 46 The World In Peril, Ep. 8
55/11/21 47 The World In Peril, Ep. 9
55/11/28 48 The World In Peril, Ep. 10
55/12/05 49 The World In Peril, Ep. 11
55/12/12 50 The World In Peril, Ep. 12
55/12/19 51 The World In Peril, Ep. 13
55/12/26 52 The World In Peril, Ep. 14
56/01/02 53 The World In Peril, Ep. 15
56/01/09 54 The World In Peril, Ep. 16
56/01/16 55 The World In Peril, Ep. 17
56/01/23 56 The World In Peril, Ep. 18
56/01/30 57 The World In Peril, Ep. 19
56/02/06 58 The World In Peril, Ep. 20