Look and Read: Captain Crimson
Captain Crimson is a unit of the BBC schools TV series Look and Read from the 1990s and 2000s, covering Language and Reading for primary school pupils.
This page about the Look and Read story Captain Crimson is not yet finished.
But you can still read my old web pages about the story at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on this link:
Look and Read.myby.co.uk - Captain Crimson
Another of these Look and Read Specials for the Summer term (cf. 1995's LRTV), this at least has a much closer resemblance to the traditional L&R format in that the focus is definitely on telling the story, and in fact there is no explicit language learning, just a few key words flashed up on the screen now and then.
The story is about a comic book artist called Jeff, whose signature strip is the sci-fi adventures of Captain Crimson and his crew. In the first episode, Jeff's son Tom and his friend Amy make up the ending to one of the strips, sending the Captain through a black hole. This results in the Captain appearing in real life, in the form of comedian Felix Dexter. Tom, Amy and Tom's grandmother Whizz then have to hide the Captain from being discovered by Jeff or anybody else as he goes on various adventures discovering the real world until finally being returned to his comic strip. A running subplot involved Jeff's infatuation with the local librarian Gina.
Episodes
Quick episode list
# | Title | Broadcast |
---|---|---|
1. | Escape From The Black of Beyond | 14 Apr 1997 |
2. | Guzzle Trouble | 21 Apr 1997 |
3. | Banana Drama | 28 Apr 1997 |
4. | A Giant Celebration | 9 May 1997 |
5. | It'll All Come Out in the Wash | 12 May 1997 |
6. | Take The Bull By The Horns | 19 May 1997 |
7. | Operation Recovery | 2 Jun 1997 |
8. | Black to the Future | 9 Jun 1997 |
Episode listings from the old BBC Online Schedules.
Num | Title | Broadcast | |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Escape From The Black of Beyond | 14 Apr 1997 | |
Fearless comic book hero Captain Crimson is stranded in hyperspace facing a fate worse than death, when his writer and creator Jeff gets writer's block. Jeff's 10-year-old son comes to the rescue and writes the captain's escape through a black hole. | |||
2. | Guzzle Trouble | 21 Apr 1997 | |
Comic-book hero Captain Crimson creates havoc in the real world and is nearly arrested in a local cafe when he discovers real food. | |||
3. | Banana Drama | 28 Apr 1997 | |
Captain Crimson and his friends inadvertently become caught up in a bank raid. The captain is taken hostage, but eventually he saves the day. | |||
4. | A Giant Celebration | 9 May 1997 | |
When Gary the Gladiator knocks himself out at Amy's gladiator challenge birthday party, things look doomed to failure - until Captain Crimson comes to the rescue. | |||
5. | It'll All Come Out in the Wash | 12 May 1997 | |
Thomas and Amy are doing the café's weekly wash at the local launderette, but Captain Crimson's determination to help only makes things worse. | |||
6. | Take The Bull By The Horns | 19 May 1997 | |
Whizz takes Captain Crimson and the children for a quiet picnic in the countryside, but forgets to warn the Captain not to wear his crimson cape near a bull. | |||
7. | Operation Recovery | 2 Jun 1997 | |
When comic book hero Captain Crimson falls ill, the doctor thinks he is a medical miracle and whisks him into hospital for various operations. Can the children rescue him? | |||
8. | Black to the Future | 9 Jun 1997 | |
Gina has a plan to get Captain Crimson back to his ship - but he has disappeared. Can they find him in time to make the plan work? |
Credits
Starring | Felix Dexter as Captain Crimson Ben Brooks as Thomas Rickard |
Voices | Peter Serafinowcz (sic) Janet Ellis Paul Clayton and Paul Cawley |
Written by | Elly Brewer |
Music by | Debbie Wiseman |
Designer | Alan Spalding |
Executive producer | Frank Flynn |
Producer | Cas Lester |
Directors | Cas Lester Champa Patel-Smith |
Education officer | Chris Hughes |
Production manager | Terry Wright |
Assistant floor manager | Jonathan Barden |
Programme coordinator | Nicki Coles |
Programme cost coordinator | Paulette Gardnier |
Graphic designer | Ian Wormleighton |
Illustrators | Mark Bennington Nick Brennan Fran Brennan |
Video effects | Ian Simpson |
Properties buyer | Francis Smith |
Property masters | Martin Carley Simon Bailey |
Make-up designer | Claire Whitely |
Costume designer | Eric Doughney |
Digital sound editor | Kian Wong |
Dubbing mixer | Pip Norton |
Sound recordist | John Pritchard |
Gaffer | Max Foster |
Grip | James Grimes |
Lighting cameraman | Mike Radford |
Online editor | Duncan Bragg |
Offline editor | Peter Harris |
Broadcasts
Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. See the Schedules section for precise dates and times.
- Summer 1997, BBC2
- Summer 1998, BBC2
- Summer 2000, BBC2
- Summer 2001, BBC2
- Summer 2002, BBC2
- Summer 2002, CBBC
- Autumn 2002, CBBC
- Spring 2003, CBBC
- Summer 2003, BBC2
- Summer 2004, BBC2
- Spring 2005, CBBC
- Summer 2006, CBBC
- Autumn 2006, CBBC
- Summer 2007, BBC2
- Summer 2009, BBC2
- Spring 2010, BBC2
Links
- BBC Programmes page for Captain Crimson
- Captain Crimson on the Internet Movie Database
- British Film Institute Collections for Captain Crimson
More
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