Is 2009 to be Glyn Jones rediscovery year? Out of the blue a school as requested permission to put on OH BROTHER, a play that hasn’t seen the light of day in over forty years and now I discover an e-mail from another school wanting to do my version of PETER PAN, last performed ten years ago. THRILLER OF THE YEAR has just had another airing in Germany and the reason for the visit to London was the resurrection of my early DOCTOR WHO - THE SPACE MUSEUM which is now to be reissued on DVD, and I was asked to take part in a commentary together with two original members of the cast, William Russell and Maureen O’Brian. The round table was chaired by Peter Purvis who was terrific. He had done his research diligently, had his notes both on paper and computer and, under his guidance, the session never seemed to flag. What was there to say about four episodes of truly primitive television? William Russell didn’t seem to have much input but Maureen had a right old go at the director, one Mervyn Pinfield, and quite rightly too. If he could have had his four principals stand in a straight line one more time for a medium group shot I have no doubt he would have done so and he had absolutely no idea of pace; the whole thing is so slow both in dialogue and action. I didn’t know this but evidently when he was due to direct another, the cast rebelled and refused to work with him. THE SPACE MUSEUM has for some time been considered something of a classic and I still get the occasional fan mail but, looking at it now, one can only sigh and wish it could be done again with modern digital technology. The sets and models are basic (and wobbly); the costumes and make-up awful. There are some good effects but others not attempted as being too difficult. The whole thing was produced on a shoestring, just over two thousand pounds, and now we come to my really serious complaint which has been common knowledge for years – the then script editor Dennis Spooner. I’ve always complained that Spooner cut out virtually all the humour. It’s not nice to speak ill of the dead but in both cases, Pinfield and Spooner, it can’t be helped and Peter Purvis summed it up with “So many great ideas simply wasted.” What Peter didn’t know was there were great ideas that received the red pencil to such an extent some aspects simply didn’t make sense if one stopped to analyse what was going on. In fact I had my original scripts with me and, when we got to the last few minutes, at the request of the others, I read out what was in my script as opposed to what we were seeing and hearing on screen and there were gasps of astonishment all round that Potter had simply ignored an integral and exciting ending that made sense of all that had gone before. Ah, well, we’re talking ancient history here but antiques can be fascinating, no? And writers are forever beefing about how their scripts get mauled. In this case the mauling does happen to be very true.