Paul Franklin

Or install a VPN and set it to a territory that doesn’t insist on age verification for the service

My parents still have these in active service - collected coupons from Homepride flour packs and sent off for them in the late 60s/early 70s.

Loved this next bit in the Wikipedia page: “the final episode of the first series introduces a character named Ron Rust (Joe Melia), a writer who, for reasons that he does not quite understand, owes the BBC £17,000 and is trying to write a black comedy about a university to pay the debt.”

I just read the Wikipedia origin story of the series - the Beeb had commissioned a different idea from Andrew Davies, but he ran out of steam. They asked for the money back, but he’d already spent it, so hastily wrote AVPP as a substitute, and the rest is history. Brilliant!

Such a great series. A family friend ran the medical centre at a big UK university in the 1960s and 1970s, he said the programme was pretty much bang on the truth, though his stories featured fewer delinquent nuns.

He was very cool - also told me that look of fear on his face during his final moments in Titanic were genuine as he had no idea that Cameron was going to dump so much water into the set

I once found myself sitting next to Eric Braden on a plane - we had a very nice chat about Colossus: The Forbin Project

There are awesome refracted light effects in Life Force, created by John Dykstra (Star Wars) - that informed part of what the team did for the Potter movie :-)

I used the VFX in this movie as a reference for the Patronus Charm effect in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Had to warn the crew about Matilda May wandering around starkers. How on earth it ever got a greenlight is a mystery.

Hopefully a shouty Prentis Hancock in a low cut space suit will soothe your troubles away

A man in blue grey space armour stands in front of an exploding black and yellow space ship

Starburst, Omni, Science Fiction Monthly, + the occasional issue of Interzone kept me going. This cover was painted by an art teacher at my brother’s school in the 80s :-)

This is Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and considered to be the first person to write a computer programme which was for Babbage's Analytical Machine. She died in 1842
In her honour, today is Ada Lovelace Day and is all about encouraging women and girls in mathematics, science and engineering.

Ha ha! Should have known you’d have got there first!

A man’s legs clad in strange exoskeleton jogging trousers displaying bones and muscles

I’m not sure why whatever benighted algorithm it was served this up to me today (perhaps image searches for weird creature references?) - do people actually wear these things? Is it even real?

A sharp-pointed science fiction spaceship launches from the earth

It does look a bit like the Kosmoskrator from the 1960 film The Silent Star :-)

I’ve not seen a reference to Barbapapa for a long time, perhaps never - all change!

Hannah Peel, a woman with red hair and a white shirt, performs on stage. Caption reads: ‘In conversation... with Hannah Peel and Tim O’Brien. Thursday 30 October, 19.30 - 21.00.’ The Jodrell at 80 and Real World Record logos are featured.

🎵 Bluedot headliner Hannah Peel returns to #JodrellBank for an exclusive evening of music and discussion!

In conversation with Prof. Tim O’Brien, this event fuses science and storytelling to explore new ways of understanding the Universe through sound.

🎟️ www.jodrellbank.net/events/in-co...

If you see this, post a dragon 🐉

Wondering if the Crack Fox from The Mighty Boosh started out here?

For old-school space nerds visiting the @sciencemuseum.org.uk in London - lower right of the CSM control panel on display next to the Apollo 10 Command Module.

Yep, it’s within the optics of the lens, not a volume within the 3D space viewed by the camera. But it gets interesting when dealing with fantasy effects that combine the properties of lens effects with a 3D volume, the “lumos wand” effect in Harry Potter being an example.

Joan Collins with a bowl of fruit on her head - what a great episode that was!

Two men standing in front of a cinema screen with an illuminated image before an audience

Director Iain Softley and Fisher “The Plague” Stevens on stage at the @princecharlescinema.com last night for the 30th anniversary screening of Hackers

A cinema filling up with people who mostly weren’t born when the movie I helped make was released

In a packed @princecharlescinema.com waiting for the 30th anniversary screening of Hackers!

Movie poster for the film HACKERS 1995

Holy hooting heck - 30 years today since this baby was released into the world. This is where my career in feature film VFX began.

Hack the planet!!!

Very sorry for your loss. You made beautiful music together.

The last album that Stephen Luscombe made with Neil Arthur as Blancmange, Blancburn in 2011, is sublime.

Yep, pretty much

Sade! Anyone who lived around Highbury Fields in the 90s usually refers to how close their house/flat was to Sade’s place. (We were two streets away)

It's the 30th anniversary of Hackers - the mighty @princecharlescinema.com screens the movie on Thursday 18th Sept, with an in-person intro by director Iain Softley. 35mm sold out, but still tix for the digital screening. My first feature film VFX job!
princecharlescinema.com/film/6780863...