Tie Ins: The Tomorrow People

Five novelizations by Roger Price

1973 The Visitor

1974 Three in Three

1975 Four into Three

1976 One Law

1979 Lost Gods, Hitler's Last Secret, and The Thargon Menace

Scarred for Life: Tomorrow People

Tomorrow People
68 episodes
1973-1979 ITV

I want to like this show, a psychedelic 70s X-Men/Doctor Who hybrid knockoff, but the acting is just so, so bad, and for some reason the poor effects aren't even campy fun.  This managed to have two reboots, the latest in 2013.



Follow along with Scarred for Life Volume One available in ebook from Lulu.

Scarred for Life: Escape into Night

Escape Into Night
6 Episodes
1972 ITV

A bed-bound child visits a boy in a spooky house every time she dreams.  Haven't seen it all, but there's some pure nightmare fuel between poor acting.



Follow along with Scarred for Life Volume One available in ebook from Lulu.

Scarred for Life: Ace of Wands

Ace of Wands
46 Episodes
1970-72 ITV

A dandy magician solves crimes, I guess, I gave up before finishing a series.  Neato title sequence, though.




Follow along with Scarred for Life Volume One available in ebook from Lulu.

Scarred for Life: The Owl Service

The Owl Service
1969-70 Granada Television

Some rich Brits and working class Welsh, teenage sexual tension, a legend of a flower lady, some dishes, something something.

Not much in the "things happening" department, but creepy atmosphere out the wazoo.  Something about even the film grain of 70s British shows seems sleazy and surreal.  An avant garde style not seen in children's TV at the time, and enough sexual tension that you google the actress' age to make sure you don't end up on a register.  The actress in question, Gillian Hills, was a Roger Vadim discovery and worked with Serge Gainsbourg, so she had full blown Lolita credentials here even though she was 25.

Here she is in a music video with Gainsbourg for "Une Petite Tasse D'Anxiété", which is presumably French for Stranger Danger.


Detracting from the tension are the horrible performances, including the worst teen performances I've seen that actually made it to air, complete with line stumbles.



Follow along with Scarred for Life Volume One, available in ebook from Lulu.

Scarred for Life Volume One

Scarred for Life Volume One

I've read a few books based on blogs, and the blogs tend to be better.  Scarred for Life Volume One might as well be a book based on a YouTube channel.  And surprisingly, that turned out ok.

The theme is creepy British children's shows and PSAs from the 1970s.  And there is an endless depth of creep from 1970s Britain.  I usually shy away from books about film and TV, as I can just watch the original directly, but Scarred for Life goes into depth, shows its research, and gives historical context to the weirdness.  It's the kind of book you'll flip through with one hand and add YouTube videos to your playlist with the other.

And even if you skim over the background and just use it as reference, there's great value for money for this massive 740 page tome.

Available in PDF and paperback from Lulu.

This is the third book I've looked for that is only available on Lulu and for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone would do that.