S.I.G. Spotlight, An Interview with Tony Anholt
Part Two of our exclusive interview with actor Tony Anholt
covers his work for Gerry Anderson on "Space: 1999" right
up to the stage tour ("Dial M For Murder") he was involved
with when he was interviewed in November, 1982.
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"S.I.G.": YOU"RE NOT, BY NATURE , A SCIENCE FICTION FAN AS
SUCH, THOUGH I THINK YOU DID SOMETHING ON THE
RADIO?
Tony: You research is quite thorough. I did a play with
Honor Blackman in which I played a lone astronaut
and all I had for company was a computer, which had
Honor Blackman's voice. It was very sophisticated &
developed a sort of emotion and I had this platonic
love affair, something went wrong with the
spaceship and to fix it the computer suggested that

Tony Anholt and Catherine Schell

I remove part of her electronics and, in so doing,
she would cease to be what she'd become and revert
to that sort of Dalek-type voice. I had a crack-up
scene in floods of tears screaming, "Don't Leave
me," and all that. I enjoyed that. It must have been
around '74-ish, I suppose.
"S.I.G.": SO YOU'RE NOT REALLY INTO THE GENRE AS SUCH ?
Tony: No, I mean that may be a failing in me. I suppose
one of the things, and I've not give it much tho-
ught, that disapoints me somewhat about science
fiction is that if you're going to deal with that
subject, the possibilities are so enormous and all
we seem to devise is more and more 'goodies' versus
'baddies'. I mean "Space: 1999" seemed to me to be a
Western in a different set of costumes, not just
"Space", most of what I've seen is just 'goodies' vs.
'baddies' and instead of the six-shooter you've got
a laser gun.
HOW DID YOU REACT WHEN YOU KNEW YOU WERE JOINING AN ESTA-
BLISHED SHOW, ESTABLISHED STARS ? YOU WERE THE NEW GUY,
PERHAPS YOU HAD A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF PRESSURE THAT YOU WERE
'THE SAVIOUR' ?

Curiously, no. It's only since doing "Space" that one is
aware of the immense following that there was of the first
year and the kind of comparisons being made witht he sec-
ond year. When I signed to do the show I had no knowledge
of this at all, so that pressure didn't exist. I was aware
certain members of the cast had gone, whether they'd gone
of their own volition or because the producers didn't want
them, was only something I could guess at. I did feel in a
slightly stronger position than I felt in "The Protectors"
because I wasn't going back to "We would see how the chem-
istry worked...", I was being brought in as THE Number
Four, and my character position in terms of Moonbase Alpha
looked fairly secure, unless I was going to make a real
hash of it I looked like having a strong permanent notch
in the show.

FREDDIE FREIBERGER HAS A QUOTE, "NICK TATE WAS VERY NERV-
OUS WHEN TONY ANHOLT CAME IN AND ALWAYS HAD HIS AGENT ON
US."

I think Nick suffered a lot in the second show because,
again I don't know all the background, but there was a
certain amount of personality stuff going on. I don't know
the full picture, but it had something to do with Gerry &
Sylvia in that Sylvia, who was involved in the first but
not the second series, was a fan of Nick as an actor and
thought his presence in the show was useful and good, as
indeed I did. I don't know to what extent Gerry shared
this view, or if he did share it to what extent his view
was coloured by what Freddie Freiberger wanted. It may be
that something to do with my particular looks, dark, sort
of Italianette, appeals in essence to the Americans and,
therefore, Freddie saw me as something the Americans could
relate to more. I'm just guessing on the basis of lots of
gossip that I picked up.
Certainly, because I was brought in under contract as THE
Number Four, and was being paid equivalently - they could
not give me less than Nick, it was into the same thing I
had on "The Protectors", we've got Martin, Barbara, Cath-
erine Schell, Tony Anholt, guest names, action now what
room can we find for Nick Tate ?
He would get onto his agent, the more his agent would get
onto Freddie, who whatever his virtues are or are not is,
I think, quite a stubborn man - he doesn't like the feel-
ing people are telling him he's wrong or unfair, I think
for a while they were at such loggerheads that there was
no way Nick was going to gain anything and there was a
point, I think, when he was going to ask to be released.
I think things improved slightly for him after that, alb-
eit too late from Nick's point of view.

FREDDIE FREIBERGER HAS BEEN BLAMED, OR PRAISED, WHICHEVER
WAY YOU WANT TO LOOK AT IT - DID YOU FEEL HE WAS GOING IN
THE RIGHT DIRECTION ?

One thing I think Freddie was right about is that he was
trying to make the people there more human in the sense
that everybody in the cast thought that if you're going to
have a bunch of people stuck up on a moon for God knows
how long, whatever else they are they are human beings,
they would have relationships, recreation, be seen doing
human things, and not just staring at a screen and launch-
ing into space and fighting the baddies and coming back
wondering whether they were ever going to return to earth.
I think that attempts like Tony Verdeschi's beer making
were to try and give it a human face. I gather from what
I'm told that fans fall into at least two camps - those
who think that was rubbish and others who think that it
was right. As an actor I think that the premise was
right. As an actor I think that the premise was
right. I don't think it was ever realised anything like





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