Beyond the Roundels

Thank you!!

I did actually have a pic of both Laurence Hardy and Helen Shingler (Mrs Hallam) but they looked odd in the post in the middle of the episode guide. I got desperate trying to find actors born somewhere between about 1895-1910, and then settled on him. Like most other people here, I found him in a Public Eye episode and thought he'd do nicely (younger than I wanted, but would be fine playing a few years older). But sorry about that - I should have put the pics at the end or something and saved you your Googling.

I also like the way in the descriptions above that you leave out most of the actual details of plot, setting etc - it leaves it all to the imagination.

:lol: You mean all the bits where I might have had to have done proper research and work and things? Oh, I avoided those, yes, I did!

I am not sure what has happened to Europe exactly (but I reason a British show is never going to have a problem fantasising about Europe being ruined while it stands alone blah blah blah). Anyway, I imagine that this is an AU and it's probably the 1990s (but it looks exactly like the 70s, only maybe even drabber), and something happened around the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War - that either WWII didn't end as soon, or there was even worse destruction, plus some dodgy Cold War shenanigans. The situation is probably not as bad as the British believe, because after all they just spent nearly 30 years under the rule of a Totalitarian gov't who don't necessarily want people to have the correct information (or who are paranoid and disbelieving themselves). But it must be pretty bad and the same events have made travelling more difficult/costly, obviously especially across Europe. But the rest of the world is still functioning mostly. I suspect some places boycotted Britain because of the actions of the gov't. (That's my basic idea, but I would need to find out more about what might create that situation and politics and economics... and I'm not doing that to write episode summaries while I have little brain).

The same events helped lead to Hallam's rise to power - related to it, there weren't nuclear power stations, plus less import/export of necessary materials, and therefore, a power crisis began in the late 50s, leading to emergency measures that started becoming permanent - and the dictatorship was based around an extreme form of utilitarianism (according to them, solely to survive).

(I know that. It was just there, I don't know exactly how, if that's really all that plausible, but I think for the kind of series it is, yes, enough so?)

I don't think story form is all that likely... but it was fun to do and I hope the basic character arc comes across. I wrote pages and pages of dialogue (explaining stuff to myself really), which was fun - easier than proper writing!! - and then selected bits that were interesting or implied stuff about the plot/characterisation, but I don't know how well that worked.

And didn't Barry Letts say in his book that it was Lis Sladen's small but brilliantly played role in Heroes of the Revolution that decided him on her when casting Sarah Jane Smith? Sure I read that somewhere...

I'm sure you're right. I think I remember that from somewhere, too - maybe a DVD commentary or something.

Also also... I await yours with much interest!!