h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thank God it wasn't Yarmouth, Norfolk as that was my home county!

If he was so against science fiction, didn't he approve Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, which definitely fell into that category?

That was his uncle Lew Grade, Baron Grade, who changed television forever with such programmes as 'Thunderbirds', 'The Muppet Show' and 'The Prisoner' (which I class as spy-fi rather than science fiction, but if you consider it science fiction, fair enough). He also owned the Beatles' song rights but was forced to sell them after disastrous film 'Raise the Titanic!' cost twice as much as 'The Empire Strikes Back' to make but was released at the same time as the 'Star Wars' sequel and flopped.

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It was spy fiction but look at the odd technology in it and methods for getting information out of people (cordless phones, a big blobby ball, mind altering technology etc). Maybe futurism would be a better definition as it is not really science fiction as in space travel and new life forms, except as a method of escape in the last episode

I know 'The Prisoner', I've got the DVD and bought the T-Shirt (from Portmeirion, surprisingly enough). Swanky gadgets and devices hidden to look like mundane everyday objects are standard fare in Spy Fi, which as a genre definitely overlaps both with science-fiction and more hard-boiled, realistic spy drama. So both 'The Prisoner' and 'Danger Man' count as spy fi, but you might not necessarily class 'Danger Man' as science fiction.

Be seeing you!

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