This morning, whilst lying in the bath, I was flicking through an old Blakes 7 book. Towards the end of the book are a few interviews with actors, writers and production staff about their B7 experiences that I’d not read before. One of them was by the guy who did the voices for the various computers (Zen, Orac and Slave) throughout all 4 series. Now, I’m sure he’s a lovely bloke, but he really came across as the architypal old queen luvvy. Linda Smith may have also pointed out his cravat as further evidence of this, but she’s sadly not around any more…and I didn’t know her or anything…so on reflection it’s very unlikely…anyway…

His interview was peppered with some wonderful luvvyisms like:

I’ve toured, Ive done the West End in revue, I’ve touched nearly every branch of the business. For example I worked with Noel Coward, and I worked for Peter Hall…

you get the picture.

But the last paragraph is something very special:

…I had a letter from a woman who said what a marvellous character I made of Zen and how upset she was that he died – her little girl couldn’t sleep afterwards and cried over Zen saying, ‘I failed you’. Then when I went to a convention last year a little girl in a wheelchair asked how I felt when Zen died […] I went down to speak to her later and found this was the same little girl who had cried all night when Zen died. I had no idea that she was a cripple. It was very moving for me.

Now, I’m sure some people would find no humour at all in that. Personally I nearly had an accident laughing; which, as I was in the bath at the time, would have been most unpleasant.