Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future
Somewhere in the world, sometime in the future where television is the only growth industry, star reporter Edison Carter is on the track of hot new story about a new kind of advertising, unskippable, unavoidable and for many people - fatal. When boy genius Bryce sets a lethal trap for him, Edison is left in a coma, but a copy of his mind is about to become something unique - the world's first computer generated lifeform - Max Headroom!
Promoted as the first computer generated celebrity, Max was in fact an ingenious combination of prosthetics, video effects and actor Matt Frewer. He was developed by the directing team of Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, who had made a name for themselves with innovative pop videos, and writer George Stone. Max was a handsomely sculptured head and shoulders, with a gleaming quizshow host persona, that appeared to live in your TV screen. His original role on Channel 4 was to be a video DJ, linking pop videos on The Max Headroom Show. But the channel felt he needed explaining with an origin story and commissioned a one-hour Sci-Fi drama called Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future, which was broadcast on 4th April 1985, two days before the first edition of The Max Headroom Show. The pilot movie was directed by Jankel and Morton, and written by Steven Roberts, inspired by the ideas of Jankel, Morton and Stone. Music provided by Midge Ure and Chris Cross.
It was great to welcome two old friends of mine to talk about cyberpunk and satire. Amy Elizabeth and Steve Noble. Amy is an actor, singer, voice-over artist and sometimes writer, who keeps being talked into my odd projects. Steve is a Bristol-based SF and comics fan who has written strips for many British magazines including the Red Dwarf Smegazine, Dr Who Monthly, Count Duckula and Rainbow. By day a sales manager of communications technology, by night contributing reviews to podcasts including the Official Talking Pictures TV.