The Production of Space Patrol After the writing of the scripts, the first stage of production was the recording of the soundtracks. With an extremely limited budget, these were done in the converted attic of Roberta Leigh's house in Hampstead - a practice which started with Sara and Hoppity, and would continue with the pilot for Paul Starr - over the winter of late 1961 and early 1962. These were read through in the correct scene order, like a radio play, often with little or no rehearsal. Filming, after the initial pilot, started at Saint Michael's Church Hall in Northwold Road, Stoke Newington. While the building still exists, it is no longer linked to the church and is used as a community centre for pensioners. However, filming moved to another, larger premises - a church in Harlesden High Street - later on, possibly during or towards the end of the first production block. This would remain the puppet studios for the duration of the series and beyond, often being referred to as 'NIP (National Interest Pictures) Harlesden'. To left is a behind the scenes photo taken in 1962 at St. Michael's, showing the confined area for shooting and makeshift filming conditions. Roberta Leigh herself stands to the right (in the belted dress). The other crew, while not individually identified, would have included Arthur Provis (possibly at the camera), art director Roland Whiteside, director Frank Goulding, and puppeteers Martin & Heather Granger with Joan Garrick (on the gantry). Eerily, the puppets not in use hang above and on either side of the set. Colonel Raeburn and Jones (The Miracle Tree Of Saturn) are to the left while Marla, Haggarty, Gabbler and a type one robot are on the right. The contamination control set seen here was used for virtually all character publicity shots, with a number being shot in the Galasphere control room, along with Roberta Leigh. Barely visible behind the set and covering the entire far wall, appears to be a vast black material backdrop decorated with stars. This 'permanent' set would have been used for various space scenes as well as providing the distant sky on many planet settings. As Roberta Leigh recounts in her interview for Network Video, in order to reduce costs all the scenes on one set were shot in blocks then the end results were edited together. This is not unusual in the production of a film, nor of individual episodes of any one series, but for an entire series to be filmed this way would have proved a logistical nightmare with regard to editing. However, as has been found with Sara and Hoppity, an order for the episodes could have been established (all the dialogue would have been recorded beforehand) and episodes completed and delivered in any order, as footage for them was filmed. The end titles of the first series indicate two specific blocks, with earlier episodes having variable versions of the theme and fewer end title credits. From this, it can be inferred that early episodes were the work of editor John Beaton, with a couple of episodes handled by Len Walter before the post was taken by Roy Hyde. Len Walter then returned to complete the second series. It would have made sense to split the first series in some way, otherwise final editing could not begin until all filming was completed. This, according to Heather Granger, took almost two years, presumably from early 1962 to early 1964. A logical split would be two pairs of 13 episodes (most series tend to be filmed in multiples of 13 anyway) and the use of sets confirms this. There is a definite revamp after 13 episodes - both the Galasphere control room and Raeburn's office undergo subtle but obvious changes. This has now been confirmed in Martin Hutchinson's comprehensive feature for Cult TV, in which he was able to interview art director Roland Whiteside. For ease of reference, we refer to these blocks as Series 1 and Series 1A. See the page on the three production blocks for more details. The original Associated Rediffusion London region screening order echoes the production with all 13 episodes of the first block screened before the Series 1A episodes. For this reason we have adopted this order for the episode guide, although we realise this is not a definitive production order. One quirk of this order is the placing of The Swamps of Jupiter at the end of the first block but it is generally accepted, being expanded from the pilot film, that this was the first episode and intended as such. However, it may indicate it was completed until later in the first production block. We would gladly accept any suggestions or corrections (or even outright factual information or documentation!) that would allow us to run a definitive and accurate production order at some point.