Look and Read/Sky Hunter II

From LookingAndSeeing.co.uk - a website about schools broadcasting

Producer Sue Weeks, along with Charles Collingwood as Wordy, makes her exit from Look and Read with a revival of the classic story Sky Hunter first shown in 1978.

After the extremely expensive Through The Dragon's Eye in 1989, the next Look and Read story needed to be reasonably cheap. So following the model of The Boy From Space, the 1970s story that was brought back with new teaching bits in the 1980s, they decided to revive one of the archive Look and Read stories and just give it new, updated teaching segments, with the idea that this would be quicker and cheaper than doing a whole new story. It was neither, and Sky Hunter II, intended to be launched in Spring 1991, was not completed until May of that year and did not reach screens until 1992.

The original child cast was brought back for this revival, and they joined Wordy to do the teaching bits, looking back on their past adventures. Jackie, Butch and Trevor are now in their late twenties and as a result of their exploits with Mr Trim and the peregrine, are working on a touring bus for the RSPB. Wordy joins them on this bus along with Derek Griffiths as an impertinent bird puppet, Jay. Oh, and also Jackie's cousin Sharon - who owned the boat the kids were staying on in Sky Hunter - has got married to the Birdman.

Contents 1 Episodes 2 Credits 3 Broadcasts 4 Sources

[edit] Episodes

The titles of episodes 4 and 9 were changed from the original Sky Hunter, I believe this was under advice from the reading consultant Mary Hoffman.

1. Strangers on the Canal
2. For Sale
3. The Birdman
4. Too Many Crooks
5. The Welsh Telegram
6. Proof at Last
7. A Friend in Need
8. Where is Jackie?
9. Trim's Tricks
10. Back to the Wild

[edit] Credits

Starring	Geoffrey Bayldon as Mr Charles Trim Luke Batchelor as Butch Isobil Nisbet as Cat Mary Emma Jean Richards as Sharon Mike Savage as Badger Jayne Tottman as Jackie Donald Waugh as Trevor Lennox Greaves as the Birdman Charles Collingwood as Wordy Katie Hebb as Wordy puppeteer Derek Griffiths as Jay Mary Edwards as Jay puppeteer Susan Kodicek as the parakeets
Singers	Derek Griffiths Julie Stevens Jane Carr

Written by	Leonard Kingston
Music by	Roger Limb
Design	John Bone Colin Green Maggie Carroll
Reading consultants	Mary Hoffman Jane Bunting
Story director	Roger Tonge
Producer	Sue Weeks

Lyrics by	Rosanna Hibbert Mary Hoffman Gordon Snell
Film animation	Richard Taylor
Cosutme design	Dennis Brack Annie Harding
Make-up designer	Ann Pollard
Props buyer	Brenda Barker
Film cameraman	Colin Munn
PSC cameraman	Robert Pascall
PSC sound	Dick Manton
Sound	Bob Roberts Brian Clark
Film editor	John Lyte
Studio lighting	Duncan Brown
Resource co-ordinator	John Latus
CREW 1	Peter Fox
Vision mixer	Graham Giles
Videotape editor	Mike Thomas
Video effects	Dave Jervis
Floor manager	Sharon Porter
Assistant floor manager	Clive Chenery
Production assistant	Amarjit Ram
With	The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Forestry Commission

[edit] Broadcasts

Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. Unless your teachers managed to get the video recorder to work, this is when you would have seen it in school. See the Schedules section for precise dates and times.

• Spring 1992, BBC2
• Autumn 1994, BBC2
• Autumn 1996, BBC2

• Summer 2005, CBBC
• Summer 2006, CBBC
• Autumn 2006, CBBC
• Spring 2007, CBBC
• Summer 2007, CBBC

Sky Hunter II was scheduled to be shown on the CBBC Channel in Spring 2005, but due to a technical mix up where the wrong details were entered into the BBC's "transmission database", the original Sky Hunter was shown instead.

[edit] Sources

Assertions about the expense and original scheduling of this story in the introduction are given with reference to original scripts, recording dates given on the public version of the BBC Programme Catalogue and private research.

Assertions about the scheduling of this story on the CBBC Channel in the Broadcasts section are based on timetables released by the BBC and information received directly from the BBC.