'The Powell Affair' - SUCCESS!!

Hello fellow forum-goers,

I'm wondering if anyone might be able to help with something of a mystery... For no reason in particular I decided to Google Ruric Powell - writer of 'Conflict' and 'The Dalotek Affair' - but came up empty. Aside from 'hits' for the aforementioned episodes, Ruric Powell doesn't appear to have any other web presence. It would appear he never wrote anything else and didn't appear to DO anything. Quite the man of mystery...

There is of course the possibility that Ruric Powell is merely a penname but the only thing that makes me think it might not be is that there is an electoral-roll entry for a Ruric J. Powell living in London. Unfortunately further information about that entry isn't in the public domain and not readily available without payment of a fee. As this is merely a casual enquiry - at least at this stage - it's difficult to justify paying out over twenty pounds merely to satisfy curiosity.

Can anyone shed any light..?

I just looked through Chris Bentley's "The Complete Book of UFO", but didn't see any info on him.  The book treated it as if this was his real name (not a penname).

Marc

 'Ruric Powell' is credited with being the writer of at least two of the BBC's Afternoon Theatre plays.

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/radio4/fm/1982-07-02

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/radio4/fm/1984-06-07

I didn't look further, but, yes, there is very little else about him!

and while searching I found this as well! http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbctwo/england/1996-10-21   

Was that the last time UFO was screened here in the UK?

> Was that the last time UFO was screened here in the UK?

I think UFO was shown on one of the ITV channels (ITV 4) in the 2000s.  But as for the BBC, I know of showings as late as 1999... I used to keep track of things like that:

  https://web.archive.org/web/20020408191317/http://ufo.simplenet.com/broadcasts/index.html

Marc

Oh!  Reviewing my old emails, I see that someone had asked me about this before, and we found that there was a mention of Ruric Powell in the 2nd edition of Chris Bentley's "Complete Book of UFO".  The foreward by Donald James apparently mentions that he brought in Ruric as a new writer for the series.... (I'll have to figure out where I put that edition)

Okay, looking at the foreword to "The Complete Book of UFO" (2nd edition), Donald James says that the original plan was for him to write several UFO episodes, but it turned out that he was overcommitted, so they brought in two new writers to do them instead --  Ian Scott Stewart and Ruric Powell.

Marc

Thanks for that, Marc... I've got a few leads. As I said in my earlier post, there's Ruric J. Powell registered as living in London and as Ruric is such an unusual name I'm guessing the chances are this is him. I suppose there's only one way to find out - I'll have to pay the piper, buy the information and write a spec letter...

Well, bullet-bitten! I've bought the information, written a spec letter and it's already in the mail!

On July 15, "Steve Hardy [via SHADO]" <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Well, bullet-bitten! I've bought the information, written a spec letter and
> it's already in the mail!

Wow, let us know what happens with that... I'd be surprised if "our" Ruric Powell is still alive, as many of the people involved with UFO have passed away.

Marc

Suppose it is an anagram, e.g.:

Pullower Ric (is there any writer named Richard that always used to wear a pullover?)

Ulric Plower (maybe he is from Denmark or something)

Eco will purr (had he written The cat with 10 lives it would be nice)

but I am not a native english speaker, so I cant follow this trail further

I've gleaned a little more information from the Electoral Register. The Ruric Powell I've written to is over 65 years-old and has lived at the same address for over 20 years. The age thing strengthens the chances that this might be our man!

SUCCESS!! It WAS our Ruric Powell! Contact established! Received a postcard from him this morning! He's sent me his phone number so I will give him a call in the next couple of days! Very pleased! :-)

Wow, congratulations!

And what do you intend to learn from this phone call?  

Hopefully at the very least, you'll capture everything he remembers about UFO.  :-)

Marc

Just got off the phone from Ruric! What a smashing guy! Going to see him hopefully before the end of the month to do a whole interview. Didn't know that he was married to the late Anne Ridler (Terrahawks)

Great!  Is this interview going to appear in the Fanderson mag, or elsewhere?

Marc

Hi Steve,

I agree with Marc, this is fantastic! Well done for tracking him down.

I know this is cheeky, but can I suggest some questions:-

 - What was his inspiration for the episode?
 - Where did the name Dalotek come from?
 - I know Gerry Anderson's answer to this question, was the pre-recorded Dr. Stranges interview foisted on him to include in the script?
 - How much time did he have to write the episode?
 - Did Tony Barwick have much input as for as editorial was concerned?
 - Was Ruric offered the chance to write any further episodes should there have been another series?

I won't push my luck any further, just some ideas...

Best to all :)

Griff

I've sent Ruric copies of both of his UFO episodes plus some background material which might help to jog his memory.

I'm planning to go down to London to interview Ruric in the first week of September (off to Portmeirion for a few days holiday next week! :-) ). I haven't yet decided what the ultimate form of the interview might be - audio/print etc. - although I've already had an offer from a magazine for a printed version. I'm planning on making a high quality recording of the interview with a view to perhaps releasing it for 'public consumption' at a later date. I'll also take my camera so expect a few piccies! :-)

Griff, I can answer one point for you straight away. Ruric didn't come up with the name 'Dalotek'. That was a later change done after the script was submitted.

One thing I did glean from Ruric was that Lew Grade had seen 'Identified' and liked it but thought it was all about the hardware and didn't give the characters much to do. Apparently, and this is a direct quote from Ruric, Lew Grade instructed Gerry to '...put some f***ing people in it!' Hence 'Conflict' - very much a personality story - and 'The Dalotek Affair' - a quasi-romantic story.

More as it comes in... :-)

Thanks for the update, Steve!  I don't know if providing Ruric copies of his original scripts would help, but if so, a transcription of the script for THE DALOTEK AFFAIR is on my ufoseries.com website, and I'm sure I could find you something for CONFLICT as well... I'll have to look around and see what I've got.

... great to hear that Ruric remembers details about UFO's production!

Marc

Steve Hardy wrote

Griff, I can answer one point for you straight away. Ruric didn't come up with the name 'Dalotek'. That was

Thanks so much for reminding me... I haven't read the script for some time, can't believe I forgot that!

It'll be great to hear the outcome of your meeting with Ruric! "Conflict" and "The Dalotek Affair" are well up there in my list of favorites!

Thanks!

Griff

Just got off the phone from Ruric again... He's watched both of his episodes and they've jogged a few memories. One very minor blip on the horizon is we've had to push back the date of the interview for a week or so because we can't synchronise our schedules for the first week of September. However,  seeing as we've waited so long to find Ruric, I don't think a delay of a week is much of a problem! :-)