The Cult of... Blake's 7

Narrated By: Robert Llewellyn
Produced/Directed by: Angus McIntyre
Featuring: Chris Boucher, Paul Darrow, Mat Irvine, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, Jacqueline Pearce, Pennant Roberts, Gareth Thomas and Peter Tuddenham
Length: 29�13
Original UK Transmission Date: 12/12/2006
Original UK Ratings: 0.14m
Original UK Chart Position: 9 (BBC4 chart)

Viewpoint:
Very little to say about this one-off documentary overview of the programme - one in a series of seven produced by BBC4. While other series such as The Tripods and Star Cops worked quite well in the short format, trying to sum up the genesis, characters, ideas and all four seasons of Blake's 7 inside half an hour is a difficult task, so we're led through a pleasant enough whirlwind tour with talking heads, some slightly irreverent clips and never really focussing on any one thing for any length of time.

It's a nice little programme, inessential but watchable, and contains some fun outtakes as well as some anecdotes I hadn't heard before. Well, much. Really they could have done with an extra half an hour on the runtime, but it's an enjoyable view all the same. Also bear in mind that the series was seemingly produced with the more casual viewer in mind, so that Robert Llewellyn's chirpy, lightly mocking delivery is there for those with vague memories of the show, rather than people with all four DVD boxsets and a paperback edition of Avon: A Terrible Aspect.