Sci-fi And Shakespeare

David Johns heads to Stratford, via some lively locks, and relives some wonderful childhood memories of the Avon.

When I was eight years old a new science fiction series began transmission on the BBC. For a young lad who was already overexcited about a space film called Star Wars that had also just been released in the UK, tuning in to this new TV show without fail each week became an obsession (to my mother’s despair).

Featuring an incredibly sleek spaceship, teleporters, talking computers and a group of kind-hearted convicts as the good guys, Blake’s 7 transported me happily into another universe.

My favourite character was Avon, played by Paul Darrow. He was a sardonic computer genius with a roguish attraction for the ladies. I always rather wanted to be him and in later life would indeed end up working with computers though I failed utterly at the roguish attraction bit much to my ongoing chagrin.

Wistful but happy memories of this formative time on my younger self were prompted by another Avon which I also had a regular appointment with those forty-odd years ago, and met once again this summer.

It was on the river of that name that my parents kept their sailing boat and most weekends we would head down to the mooring at Bredon in Worcestershire.

There Dad would either to do some maintenance aboard while my sister and I played in the adjacent field or we would set sail for the short trip downstream to Tewkesbury Cruising and Sailing Club. Even in winter I often went along with my father, when the boat was hauled out onto nearby hard standing for antifouling and other annual works.

Four decades later and I found myself at the helm of my own craft on the same stretch of water though the narrowboat is certainly less than interstellar when pushing upstream. Perhaps a rocket engine on the back would help although the “pass at tickover” folk might be in for a shock… a project for another day maybe?