marker

I love this series and watched it first time round I then acquired it on VHS all this talk about it has now made me want to watch it again its a great series

Cheers Marker

DB7

If given a decent budget and casted like Dr Who I think it has all the ingredients (good vs evil, action, sci-fi, sexual frisson) of being a major success, but on Sky, who are hardly renown for quality in-house productions, it'll probably be a cast of minor soap stars with an ex glamour model and ageing footballer thrown in for good measure.

Sky have also made 'remake' claims before over other cult shows but they never materialise... thankfully.

DB7

As Blake's 7 returns to TV, what are the original cast of inter-galactic warriors doing now?
Last updated at 17:50pm on 25th April 2008

Blake's 7 is being brought back to life 30 years after the science fiction series first arrived on television.

The show, which was mocked as a "poor man's Star Trek" for its shoestring effects and scenery as wooden as the acting, was an unlikely hit - with audiences of up to nine million.

It ended on the BBC in 1981 but the adventures of the band of reluctant rebels criss-crossing the galaxy to fight the despotic Federation still have a cult following on the internet.


The original cast: Micheal Keating (Vila); Jan Chappell (Cally); Gareth Thomas (Blake); Sally Knyvette (Jenna); Paul Darrow (Avon) and David Jackson (Gan). Zen is behind

Now, thanks to the success of other revivals such as Doctor Who, Sky One wants a new series.

The sets, with the help of computer-generated scenery, are likely to be a little more convincing but the show will remain a British-style space adventure with less emphasis on effects and more on plots.

Casting has yet to begin for the three main parts of rugged leader Blake, played in the original by Gareth Thomas, his brooding sidekick Avon, played by Paul Darrow, and beautiful but deadly Servalan, originally played by Jacqueline Pearce.

Sean Bean or Ashes To Ashes star Philip Glenister have been tipped as a possible Blake, with Spooks' Rupert Penry-Jones as Avon and former EastEnder Tamsin Outhwaite as Servalan.


Blake's 7 Servalan

Bad girl: The character of Servalan, the Supreme Commander of the Terran Foundation, originally played by Jacqueline Pearce, will also be back
RADA trained Thomas has pursued a steady acting career since his days as Roj, including turns in Casualty, Taggart and most recently, Midsomer Murders.

He has also maintained his love of sci-fi - in 2001 he appeared in Storm Warning, an audio drama based on Doctor Who, played the part of Kalendorf in the Dalek Empire series and in 2006, guest stared in Torchwood.

In addition to screen work, Thomas is an accomplished thespian, starring in Royal Shakespeare Company productions of Twelfth Night and Othello, as well as landing parts in King Lear, Educating Rita, The Crucible, Equus and Déjà Vu among others.



Where are they now? Paul Darrow currently does voice over work, Jacqueline Pearce lives in South Africa looking after orphaned monkeys while Gareth Thomas continues to work on stage and screen
Meanwhile, his costar Darrow made a failed attempt to produce a follow-up miniseries, Blake's 7: A Rebellion Reborn, in the early 1990s, reportedly abandoning the project due to creative differences.

Since then has made a string of bit-part television appearances, including parts in Hollyoaks and Little Britain, and also provided the voice-over for Biblical quotations in Richard Dawkin's The Root of All Evil?.

As well as releasing an autobiography, You're Him, Aren't You? in 2006, he has also recently done voice-over work for an Oxford-based radio station.

After giving up her glamorous but ruthless alter ego, Pearce starred as Chessene in three episodes of Dr Who in 1985, and has made occasional television appearances since then, including a brief 2006 role in Casualty.



Stars: Jan Chappel starred in the 2006 film Basic Instinct 2, Michael Keating enjoyed a reoccuring role as Reverend Stevens in EastEnders; Sally recenlty made a one-off apperance in Holby City
Pearce gave up her acting career in 2007, and now lives in a small province in South Africa.

She currently lives at The Vervet Monkey Foundation where she looks after orphaned monkeys has no immediate plans to return to England.

Michael Keating, the cowardly thief Vila Restal, has made only minor television appearances since leaving the show, but has enjoyed a reoccurring role in EastEnders as Reverend Stevens in the last two years.

Sally Knyvette, who played Jenna Stannis, studied for an English/Drama degree at the University of London along side her acting career, which has seen her play Kate Sugden in Emmerdale Farm in the late 80s.

She has since made single episode appearances on a number of soaps including EasteEnders, Coronation Street and Holby City.



Favourites: David Jackson enjoyed a stage career in the late 80s. He died of a heart attack in 2005. Peter Tuddenham regularly reprised his roles in revivals for radio, and in audio tapes made by fans before passing away last year
David Jackson, convicted murderer Olag Gan in the first two seasons, enjoyed a stage career in the late 80s with appearances in Fiddler on the Roof the original West End production of The Phantom of the Opera, also singing on the musical's soundtrack album.

He also starred in the two-handed play My House Guest, Dr Johnson, in 2000. Jackson died of a heart attack on 25 July 2005, aged 71.

Peter Tuddenham provided the voices of the computers aboard Liberator, (eventually three of them - Zen, Orac and Slave) regularly reprised his roles in revivals for radio, and in audio tapes made by fans.

He also appeared in serious dramas Anything More Would Be Greedy as well as lighter roles in Nearest and Dearest, Only Fools and Horses, and One Foot in the Grave. He died in July last year aged 88.

Jan Chappell who played Cally, a guerilla fighter from the planet Auron, went on to star in stage productions by with the Royal Shakespeare Company and television series including Holby City, Spooks and Rosemary & Thyme.

She most recently played a solicitor in Sharon Stone's Basic Instinct 2.

McGill

The Professionals did and that should be a warning to all fans of ANY show they think of remaking.

DB7

Crikey I didn't even know that and just looked it up on imdb. The user comments are mixed, ranging from 'dreaful' to 'enjoyable action thriller.'

batman

I saw a few episodes .... it was truly awful .... Lexa doig is cute though, watched her the other night in Jason X.

YouTube - CI5: The New Professionals - Intro

"Boom boom a baby .... Banham Zoo .... Banana pants! Hahahaha"