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TV Pop Diaries
Pop Music on British Television 1955 - 1999

Classic tea-time sci-fi about a race of intellectually and physically perfect humans, Homo Superior, patronising us mere mortal Homo Sapiens, who they referred to as "saps".


Teenage schoolboy Stephen hears voices in his head, but instead of worrying about his condition school friends in the know assure him that he's "breaking out", turning into one of the Tomorrow People, a race who will, they assure us, save the world.


Thames had just de-commissioned its successful supernatural drama series Ace Of Wands and had been looking for a replacement. The concept of The Tomorrow People was helped along by a conversation between creator Roger Price and David Bowie who he had met at Granada TV Studios canteen. Bowie was due to appear on the local news and arts show Six-O-One performing his new single Holy Holy on 20th January 1971. Price recalled the meeting in the 1970s edition of BBC4's Children's TV On Trial in 2005. "We spent a lot of time together in the canteen and he had a few problems he wanted to confide in an adult about and then we started talking about The Tomorrow People concept, and he was one of the few people I ever spoke to who immediately grasped what it was about and was able to make some real contributions to my thought process... It was only one afternoon in the canteen over egg and chips and beans." Price's concept of Homo Superior was very much akin to what Bowie's own thought processes were going through. Bowie's song Oh You Pretty Things reflected this ideal and would become a much-needed hit for both composer Bowie and singer Peter Noone in late spring 1971, while Bowie himself recorded the song for his Hunky Dory album later that year.


Although the programme itself was not a pop music show in the least, it did co-inside with glam and glitter as is seen by the fantastic costumes. Its classic theme tune didn't hurt either.



THE TOMORROW PEOPLE


Thames

30 April 1973 - 19 February 1979