Fables of Forgotten Things available on BBC I Player!

How lovely it is to be able to say something concrete for a change!!!

This is just a quickie post to say a. that Fables of Forgotten Things is now on BBC i player and b. thanks to the people who've dropped me emails saying how much they enjoyed last night's BBC HD screening.

A year ago nobody, bar my agent and a few friends, even knew this pilot existed but thanks to the support of a few online champions, the BBC Film Network, BBC Films and BBC HD, together with top publications like SFX and Sci Fi Now, it's finally found an audience. Hopefully even more people will see it on Thursday when it goes out on BBC HD much earlier in the evening.

I notice that the BBC Press Office has included it (and a reference to Sir Paul Mcgann!) in this release so thanks guys. Even better, the pilot is now available on the BBC i player for the next six days and it looks absolutely stunning! Please go to the i player site and checketh it out!

Muchos obligdos!

Mr. Simon Allen xx

Fables of Forgotten Things: showing on BBC HD next Thursday after Gavin and Stacey, and between A History of Christianity and, er, the Culture Show!!!

I know it's sad but look! It's in the listings for next Thursday too! Hurrah! Link to the full schedule here. Over and out.

Update: Fables of Forgotten Things on BBC HD

In a shameless update to this story , I can now reveal that Fables of Forgotten Things has been placed in the BBC HD schedule - behold! And wasn't 'the Waters of Mars' just marvellous?

Fables of Forgotten Things on BBC HD this Month!

Well, it's been a somewhat momentous and certainly life changing year which I'll do my best to sum up next month if I'm sober at all. One of the reasons this blog has been less than active is that I am genuinely either too busy (for which I'm very grateful) to post anything worthwhile or, as my man David Lemon often says, genuinely unable to talk about anything for fear of incurring the cackling wrath of the Jinx Pixies. However, I do have two marvellous little news tidbits to impart this month. The first is that our eerie, Sapphire and Steele-esque children's drama series pilot Fables of Forgotten Things (click here to watch on the BBC's funky new i-playered up Film Network folks!) will be aired on the BBC HD Channel on Saturday 21 November and at various points thereafter. As with all of our work, the pilot is high on atmospherics and mystery but, of all the things I've written (apart from an MR James adaptation I did this Summer), it is still the purest expression of what I wanted to write about when I first started this journey (basically death, memories and childhood - my needs are few!)

The pilot really does look exquisite in 1080i or twelvetywhatever it is they broadcast these things in. It's also a great opportunity for Doctor Who fans to see the stately, lovely Paul Mcgann in action as a mysterious, narcoleptic traveller with a bottle of vintage dust in his pocket. Please take the time to watch it if you can.

On the subject of Doctor Who, Cosima Shaw will be in this Sunday's Doctor Who special and also played the Guardian of the Mist, a beautiful, enigmatic character I had the great pleasure of creating for my top boy Toby Meakins' new film Secrets of Angels. The film will be hitting the festival circuit in the New Year and it is quite possibly the most otherworldly and downright strange thing you will ever see. Check it out if you can - it'll stay with you forever.

Finally, thanks so much to everybody who keeps leaving comments on the Magic Mile's You Tube page. We do check them out from time to time and I'm incredibly proud that it's provoked such a reaction and touched so many people. It seems like we made that film (our first) a million years ago so it's amazing that it still resonates to this day. I watched it again over the weekend for the first time in a long while and it reminded me that good storytelling really is just about a simple idea, executed well. It's amazing how easy it is to get caught up in all kinds of other nonsense.

Satanists, Serial Killers and Textbook Sociopaths

If it's October then it must be time to rake out a choice selection of horror DVDs from the cupboard. And yes, it is indeed October so here are the titles that I've transferred from the cupboard (storage) to the drawer (still storage, but more easily accessible) in the hope that I'll be able to watch a few of them over the next month:
Rosemary's Baby, Seven, Night of the Hunter, Near Dark, the Hitcher, the Innocents, Candyman, Monster House, Night of the Demon, the Signalman, the Descent, the Thing, the Omen, the Others, the Shining, the Changeling and, of course, Star Trek II: the Wrath of Kahn. Out.

The Guardian of the Mist

Busy time as ever so another budget post. This one's nothing more than a shameless newsy news release on a little project that's brought a lot of pleasure and wonder into my life. Earlier in the year I was given the great privilege of creating a character (and accompanying monologue) for my good friend Toby Meakins' new short film 'the Secrets of Angels'. The film's in post and should be done by the end of the month. My piece 'the Guardian of the Mist' is the second in a string of bizarre but beautiful interviews with impossible creatures. The character is played by the evanescent Cosima Shaw . As soon as it's online, I shall post an appropriate link but for now see if you can spot Ms. Shaw looking suitably terrified in the ace Doctor Who: Waters of Mars trailer. Au Revoir!

Genocidal Two Year Olds, PLR and Anthony Horowitz

Our little girl turns two this weekend so I took some cake into the nursery today for her to share with everybody. Don't worry, when I say 'some cake' I mean a proper product from a shop with a box and everything - not 'some cake' I'd discovered on the streets or in the folds of a coat belonging to an old man's corpse in a shop doorway.

Hang on.

What?

Never mind.

Anyway... ah two year olds. They're like fawns who've only just woken to discover the forest is on fire. Full of awe and astonishment and powered by a panicky rhythm about what to do first as the world bewilders them with its bright, blurry wonders. They're lovely basically but I caution you now: do not EVER come between a two year old and a piece of cake. They will kill you quicker than a bullet to the brain and suffer no remorse as they dig their hands into the fluffy white flesh of an iced sponge with Iggle Piggle's face on it.

Love them.

Marvel at how cute they are.

But watch them when it comes to cakes. Watch them close, you hear?

A meeting with my agent earlier this week prompted me to finally register for my PLR payments - just a year after publishing my first books. Now I can look forward to cheques for £0.05 along with most other authors and I'm already planning a spend up on the back of it.

In any event, all this talk of children and books puts me in mind of this story. I saw the one-man phenomenon Anthony Horowitz on Newsnight complaining about the concept of being CRB checked before being allowed into schools to promote his books.

Now I've had the good fortune to meet Anthony on several occasions (through my film liaison work on Foyle's War - see here for a little interview I did with him) and have always been struck by how generous he is with his time when it comes to meeting fans and engaging with his considerable audience. He's also only too aware of what a great privilege it is to be allowed into the school environment so I was quite surprised by his (and many others') hostility to the CRB checking process.

Writers are invited into schools because the education authorities recognise that they know what they're doing when it comes to stimulating children's imaginations and engaging them with fiction. I think it's equally incumbent on writers, particularly children's writers who in many ways carry far more responsibilities to their audience than any other kind of writer, to respect the education authorities when it comes to knowing about child safety issues.

The law is the law. It may sometimes be an ass. An ass that sees angels and hee haws and stuff. But no-one can be above it. On an unrelated (or related?) note, I spotted Chris Langham at my local train station this afternoon. Yes that one. He was standing next to a young mum with two children.

I can say with absolute authority and stunning clarity that I have no idea what to make of this or how to segue it into some kind of neat moral conclusion about the complexity of the issues so please make of it what you will, will you?

Much obliged to you.

Oui, c'est juste, ce poteau est dans le français mal traduit, lequel de lui ?

J'ai pensé que je garderais à mon ' ; un poteau par mois rule' ; en fournissant une brève mise à jour quant à mes activités courantes. En même temps, I don' ; t veulent indiquer trop au sujet de n'importe quoi ainsi, courtoisie d'un beau service de traduction en ligne, je suis écriture il tout en français. Ou au moins une certaine tentative automatisée bizarre de Français… Ce mois passé, j'ai fini mon traitement périodique original pour la BBC, ai écrit un manuscrit pour l'aspect de tigre, et ai ma série de livre en service. Nous avons également un nouveau court-métrage sortir plus tard par année cette des étoiles Cosima Shaw (qui apparaîtra dans docteur Who : les eaux de Mars, ou celui qui il s'appelle, en novembre). Les fables des choses oubliées pourraient bien obtenir une émission terrrestrial - hooray ! En outre, j'ai été deux jours screenwriting de développement - un pour le Conseil de film et un pour la BBC. Tous les deux étaient fasctinating et utiles. En conclusion, je décris maintenant des idées pour un children' célèbre ; le programme télévisé mais moi de s ne peut pas dire davantage à ce sujet - même en français. Paix dehors. Devons-nous essayer l'allemand le mois prochain ? Espagnol peut-être ? Ou peut-être latin….