With the coming of the latest SWORDCAST, here are a few images to illustrate our serial nattering. Firstly, we have the exciting photos of the BBC filming of H.G Wells classic, 'War of the Worlds' which has been taking place in various locations around Liverpool and the Sefton coast. The Horsell Common crash site has been using an area of Ainsdale pine woods, which have naturally been cleared as a firebreak. The felled trees have been dressed by the BBC with pitch and black paint to give a charred effect. This has naturally panicked the naturalists who are concerned about the red squirrel population. The clearances are all carried out by conservation monitored specialists and the Beeb has agreed to replant any disruption in the wake of filming.
Further filming has been going on in central Liverpool, with a section of derelict housing from the turn of the century being repurposed nto devastated London streets and St Georges Hall plaza has been recast as the capital. (all photos courtesy of Inacity Living Group)
The Martian Fighting Machines have seen many different iterations, from the extravagant illustrations in early editions of the story, through George Pal's streamlined 1956 saucers, to Geoff Waynes musical version. Anderson designer Mike Trim conceptualised the clinical, gleaming tripods seen in the album artwork, with Peter Goodfellow and other artists contributing to the story. The iconic vision of Parson Nathaniel facing the tripods is based on Salvador Dali's surreal 'Temptation of St Anthony'.
Around 1979, I bought a large format poster magazine which feautured some backstory to the production and a large poster of Peter Elsons vision of the Martian Handling Machine. Its somewhere in the attic!
Pals's unique vision of the invaders departed almost completely from the classic tripedal vehicles, but provided one of the most elegant and memorable vehicle designs ever.
The soundscape which accompanied the heatray and sinuous electric eye still gives me shivers even today.
However, for me the most favourite realisation of the War of the Worlds was from Tell Me Why magazine in 1970 and the edited serialisation of the story, illustrated by railway specialist Terrence Cuneo. His vast, corroded looking tripods and glistening, leathery martians with inimical sneers are for me, the go-to vision of invaders from Mars.
