Christopher Fowler Pleads Guilty — To Genius!

There I am finally reading one of his prior novels, Red Bride, and I come across things that have been in the brilliant Bryant & May series.

So I send him an email:

Finally reading Red Bride.

Bow Street Station?
HQ above the Morningside Tube station?

Raymond Land?

Oswald Finch?

Was this a dry run for the B&M series, or did you just decide to move the characters and settings over?

(Well, don’t spoil the book for me; I’m just 100 pgs in!)

And he generously replies:

There you go, Mike – in my world everything connects….

ROOFWORLD – appearance by Colin Bimsley, Ian Hargreave (then dating Janice Longbright)
RUNE – First appearance of Bryant & May
RED BRIDE – Added characters from unit

SEE ALSO –
SOHO BLACK – Bryant & May subplot (now fully formed and based at Bow Street)

When I came to create the Bryant & May series I pulled lots of different characters out of different books. I like connections…

Enjoy the book but I’m warning you – it’s a bit supernatural (my publishers insisted)

He continues to astound me with his genius and foresight (not to mention his writing!). I discover one layer of brilliance and underneath is yet another!

Preparing this post, I went to his website (it’s in the Blogroll here too) and looked at the covers of his books. The Bryant & May books get better cover treatment in England than they do here!

Gorgeous eye-catching UK cover

Dull American cover

Having looked at his book covers, I came across something there that will require another email to Chris!

Previously in this blog:
Author Christopher Fowler Torments Me With An Email
The Astounding Christopher Fowler
Writer Added
Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May
Christopher Fowler Slays Me

Now Reading: August 18 2007

Reading:
Red Bride by Christopher Fowler

Still reading:
About Time (short stories) by Jack Finney
(a re-read or 2nd re-read…)

Abandoned in disgust:
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
— see this post

I don’t know what’s next up… yet.

Journeyman: Still Unleaked!

A promo on MySpace TV gives me a chance to grab new screensnaps:

Hey, NBC! Start making like a defective faucet: Leak leak leak!

Previously in this blog:
Fall Network TV Doom Watch List
Journeyman: All Available Vids
Journeyman: No Leak, But Two YouTube Vids
NBC: Leak Journeyman NOW! Early Reports NOT Good!
YouTube: NBC Fall Preview
ABC Kicks NBC’s Ass For Fall TV Buzz
Hey, NBC! Leak Journeyman NOW!
Now NBC Has Pissed Me Off!
Journeyman: Interesting Bits
Hey You Three. Email NBC!
Journeyman Still Not Leaked
September 2005: NBC Promotes A New Earl Show
I Give NBC A Kick To The Nuts. It’s Called An Incentive.
Now Sinfest Persecutes Me!
Hey, NBC! Leak Journeyman, Dammit!!
Bourne Ultimatum? Yes. Journeyman? No.
Hollywood: Settle!
Brightcove: Journeyman Preview
DailyMotion: Ha. Ha. Ha.
Are The Suits Using P2P To Hype Their Shows?

YouTube: More RARE Gerry Anderson

The Investigator (Seg 1 of 3)
The Investigator (Seg 2 of 3)
The Investigator (Seg 3 of 3)

Gerry and Sylvia Anderson made this pilot for a live action/puppet series back in 1973 (or thereabouts), relatively cheaply in Malta. No series resulted.

This was added by some generous saint to YouTube just yesterday. Grab it before it disappears! Download Helper is your Firefox best friend.

SPOILER ALERT!

I tried for two years to get this via P2P. That’s how rare it is. This is from a slightly-faulty VHS tape without any color correction.

After all that time, was it worth it?

Well, to see it, yes. In terms of its actual story value, no. It’s pretty lame and the script has dialogue that is like gravel against teeth.

Sylvia Anderson did the voice of Jill — and she sounds like Joe 90! Shane Rimmer was the voice of John, and he notched his voice up so he sounded like a teenaged Scott Tracy. I think the Jill puppet resembles Karen Black (photo). John unfortunately looks like the Gay Bob doll!

The gas-powered radio-controlled car is pretty remarkable, but it just looks ridiculous against real-life settings. It also betrays just how low-budget this endeavor was: there are no close-ups of the puppets in the moving vehicles (car, motorboat).

It’s difficult to see how this could have ever sold for a series.