Orbit One Zero

A vintage British sci-fi serial involving the tracking of mysterious signals from space.

‘A glimpse across a weird threshold, on the rim of space where there should be nothing but eternal, frozen darkness. Yet where there was something more...’

Reporter Tom Lambert decides to reinvestigate the bizarre events of a decade earlier concerning the ‘cosmic noise’. Believing the whole truth was never revealed, he tracks down the one man who knows it: retired astrophysics professor Dr Hayward Petrie. Told in flashbacks, the story unfolds from Petrie’s recordings of the time when he experienced things that made him doubt his own sanity...

Invited to visit his old colleague Campbell McLaren, who is in charge of a radio telescope on a remote Hebridean island, Petrie asks students Clifford Brown and Elizabeth Ryder to join him. McLaren has been studying cosmic radiation, and has detected an unusual pattern of signals, apparently being transmitted by an intelligence beyond Earth. Arriving on Scara, the trio hear the signals for themselves, and while exploring the island, Clifford and Elizabeth discover a mysterious cylindrical object buried on the beach.

What is this peculiar, glowing cylinder, and how is it connected to the radio signals emanating from deep space? As its contents – and awesome capabilities – are revealed, its terrifying purpose becomes clear...

First broadcast in 1961 on the BBC Home Service, this six-part space adventure by Peter Elliott Hayes stars Felix Felton as Dr Petrie, David Spenser as Tom Lambert, Graydon Gould as Clifford Brown and Elaine MacNamara as Elizabeth Ryder.


Production credits
Written by Peter Elliott Hayes
Produced by David Davis

Cast
Dr Petrie – Felix Felton
Tom Lambert – David Spenser
Clifford Brown – Graydon Gould
Elizabeth Ryder – Elaine MacNamara
Professor Campbell McLaren – Ian Sadler
Peter Garrick – Harold Reese
Sir Edward Bancroft – William Fox
Mr Morgan/Dr Trevor Hughes – Basil Jones
Lord Hetherton – Charles West
Police Superintendent – Eric Lugg

First broadcast BBC Home Service, 21 April-26 May 1961

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