A For Andromeda

[Graham Howard]

I remember seeing the brilliant A For Andromeda and its sequel The Andromeda Breakthrough on BBC in 1961-62. What a tragedy the BBC wiped this.

I have magazines with episode synopsis and have been collecting information about the Andromeda series.
I have a review on www.memorabletv.com.

There is a short clip from the first episode on the BBC website's 'lost and found' section. I can direct people to this upon request.

Would love to discuss A For Andromeda with anyone who is interested.

Graham ([e-mail])

[New]

I have never seen this series before, yet I am fascinated by it. Its something I would have liked to watch and its such a shame that all the episodes were wiped!

I have watched the clips that do exist. I also heard a rumour that someone somewhere may have the last episode intact. Its a shame if they don't come forward and give it to the BBC, but I guess they have their reasons.

It seems strange to me that the whole series hasn't been found though, because from what I've seen it was sold to different countries, as there are a lot of foreign pages about the TV series, surely someone somewhere, must have the copies. I'm sure everyone didnt just throw them out. Maybe they are in someones garden shed:p

[New]

Oh yes an it would be nice if the BBC released the sequel 'The Andromeda Breakthrough' Its the least they can do since they wiped any chance of me seeing the series.

Though as I understand it there is an italian version out, I know its different, but it still gives people the chance of seeing a televised version.

[Laurence Piper]

I have seen a fair bit of Andromeda Breakthrough and I have to say that it is very slow and wordy - not at all like the original is / was supposed to be.

I'd still like to see it released but doubt very much if anyone would see it as a viable proposition. A shame. I wouldn't be surprised if episodes of A For Andromeda are out there somewhere though. One complete episode has long been known to exist in private hands. There could well be more, who knows? It was certainly a landmark in it's time.

[William Martin]

so the last episode is existant(or as sure as can be) is there a list of such episodes known to exist or perhaps we can have one here

[Robert Grounds]

I also remember watching both series in the 60s.
I recall that the last episode of the first series was made on location with everyone looking for Andromeda who had run away (remember the cave sequence). This may have survived because it was recorded on film unlike the studio video recording for the other episodes.
By the way you have used a picture of Susan Hampshire on the piece about A for Andromeda that had Julie Christie as Andromeda.

[Brian Fretwell]

Most of this (last) episode was shown at the NFT last year, in a program with the part (most) of The Little Black Bag.

[Ian]

Exactly how much of these programmes survives in total? I haven't seen either but would be interested in doing so. A real pity about A For Andromeda being largely gone as the sequel doesn't seem like it can be in the same league.

[bruiser]

The A For Andromeda series was re-made for Italian tv in the 80's.

[Jon Preddle]

A for Andromeda screened in NZ in January 1963, and according to records kept at TVNZ the prints were sent on to Pakistan on 2 September 1965.

And after screening in April 1963, the prints for Andromeda Breakthrough were destroyed (not not known).

Jon Preddle

[William Martin]

just out of interest, which overseas tv stations were the most efficient at destroying prints

[Richard Berry]

First time I've been on this forum so bear with me!

Officially all BREAKTHROUGH and chunks from A exist. I've seen both a few times and would agree with other comments on this forum that BREAKTHROUGH is too wordy, slow and rooted to A FOR to work as a stand alone video or DVD release. I've heard that the BBC wiped A soon after transmission as the artists' contract did not allow more than two screenings (although in the end it only had one) - whether this is true I don't know.

I too have heard rumours about a complete LAST MYSTERY existing, but at the moment all we have are a few film sequences from the first three episodes, an extract with Frank Windsor talking to John Hollis in a car, and the last two reels of the final episode in not desperately great quality. Most is very fragmentary and vague, although there's a nice sequence where Judy is shot at. The main segment from episode 7 begins with Fleming persuading Andre to destroy the computer, culminating in the sea chase to the island where Andre (supposedly) drowns. A very young Anthony Valentine one of the radar operators following the chase. All the footage together runs about 25 minutes. A is frequently rolled out at the National Film Theatre, and BREAKTHROUGH has been shown there at least twice.

There was an excellent overview of the entire series in TIME SCREEN magazine issue 9 (http://www.the-mausoleum-club.org.uk/timescreen/Index%20Page/index.html).

[John Bisson]

I also remember A for A. very well, though I was age 12 at the time.
A memory of the title sequence with the statue face of Andromeda turning towards the camera/viewer still sends a tingle up my spine! What a great shame most of it has been lost.
I think that I was too young to appreciate the finer points of Julie Christie at the time...The eye of the creature initially created would follow her around the laboratory...

By the way, does anyone remember a 2nd World War drama about the French resistance called 'Moonstrike' or some such?

[andrew martin]

Sorry if it sound pedantic, but "A for Andromeda" wasn't wiped it was junked, as it was made as 35mm telerecordings, not VT. This would have been done for the same reason as most junking and wiping, ie it was not anticipated it would be possible to repeat it, and in the early 60s very few programmes were kept purely for 'archival' reasons. However the last two reels of telerecording neg of episode 7 survived by accident, being discovered in a review of a redundant range of cans in the early 90s at the BBC archive (as was a Z Cars "Person Unknown" and a few other bits and pieces). The film inserts for episode 2 were already held. Further, there is a clip (from episode 3) in an edition of "Points of View" shown 17/10/61. We're told episode 3 exists in its entirety in private hands - if anyone would like to lend it to the BBC...?

Incidentally, three episodes of "Moonstrike" still exist - 'A Girl Friend' tx 6/6/63, 'The Biggest Bandit' tx 13/6/63 and 'The Factory' tx 18/7/63 - there is also a trailer for the first episode, shown before "Panorama" on 18/2/63 (the episode was tx'd 21/2/63, but as the series was live the trailer is just some prefilmed model footage of a Lysander aircraft - not entirely convincing!)

[The Wooksta]

Bothe serials were novelised, and Breakthrough is definitely better on the printed page rather than as a serial. It's dreadfully slow, but still worth watching.

Keep an eye out in the second hand bookshops or junkshops for them. Copies of the books of the Quatermass serials tend to turn up as well quite often.