Moving
to Look-In - how did the comic come about as a 'junior
TV Times'? It's said that it was originally supposed
to somehow tie-in with Thames' magazine series Magpie
and indeed 'Magpie' was its working title.
Look-In was, as you correctly surmise, originally intended
to be connected with Magpie. Alan Fennell had done the
dummy - he was most adept at dreaming up magazines and
creating dummies. He had, as you can imagine, many contacts
in the magazine publishing world, and TV Times took
an immediate interest in the projected publication.
With Alan Fennell as editor and
Colin Shelbourn as art editor, where did Angus Allan
fit into all of this and were you involved in its early
conception as a comic or were you always going to be
'the strips man'? Did you come on Alan's recommendation?
Did you have a desk in the office or stay freelance?
 Being
very close to Alan, I was naturally involved from the
start. However (he never forgot that I preferred the
precincts of a pub to those of an office) I remained
freelance. I worked entirely from home, coming up to
the office in Tottenham Court Road maybe three times
a week. Usually at lunchtime, so that Alan and I could
go and stuff our faces at the magazine's expense. We
were both enthusiastic gourmets.
Alan and I always remained very close friends until his death a couple of years ago. This picture of us was taken round about 2001.
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| Timeslip.
1971. Art: Mike Noble |
I'd said on the Sapphire
& Steel site that you wrote nearly every strip for
Look-In but you tell me that this is more true than
I originally thought - I wondered if you had written
any of the comedy strips (Man About the House, Mork
and Mindy) or pop strips (Slik Stories, It's Flintlock)
and indeed you did! You didn't write the Benny Hill
Page or Leslie Crowther (Crowther in Trouble) - I wonder
if I can catch you out on any more ...
|
 |
 |
| Black Beauty. 1974. Art: Mike
Noble |
How about On the Buses? Les Dawson's
Superflop? How about those nutty David Cassidy strips
where he would save a plane from hijacking!? The Kids
from 47A? Starcruiser? Mind Your Language - would you
admit to that one?! Bucks Fizz???
I have no record of exactly which strips I wrote for
Look-In in later years, but I had made a rough and possibly
not complete listing for a party celebrating
some anniversary or another of Look-In's publication
(looks like the tenth birthday in 1981 to me - Alistair).
I would have set it to music, and played it only they
wouldn't let me!
Timeslip, Wreckers At Dead Eye, Redgauntlet, Prize Idiots,
Follyfoot, The Flaxton Boys, Please, Sir, The Fenn Street
Gang, Catweazle, Doctor At Large/At Sea/On The Go, Adventures
of David Cassidy, Elephant Boy, Settle Down With Ken
Goodwin, The Tomorrow People, Bless This House, Kids
From 47a, Kung Fu, Adventures of Black Beauty, Six Million
Dollar Man, Space 1999, Man About The House, Slik, Bionic
Woman, Flintlock, Just William, Abba, The Man From Atlantis,
Logan's Run, The Famous Five, How The West Was Won,
Mind Your Language, Dick Turpin, Worzel Gummidge, Chips,
Sapphire And Steel, Battlestar Galactica, Charlie's
Angels, Mork And Mindy, The Further Adventures of Oliver
Twist, Buck Rogers, Story Of The Beatles, Dangermouse,
Fall Guy ...
I'll prompt you for a few more
shall I? How about ... Magnum P. I., Haircut 100, Madness,
Star Fleet, Into the Labyrinth, Murphy's Mob, Bucks
Fizz, Knight Rider, Terrahawks, Robin of Sherwood, The
A-Team, Super Gran, That's My Boy (what was in Colin
Shelbourn's tea that particular week???), The A-Ha Story,
Alias the Jester, (The) 5 Star (Life), Inspector Gadget
...?
Yes, I wrote all of those too. If they're in Look-In,
twenty to one they're mine. |
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