Inspirations behind No Service

Giles Booth 19 Apr 2026

Montage of iPhone screen and 1970s cover of The Owl Service

Now, a post about the Easter eggs and inspirations in series 2 of Listen with Other, 'No Service.'

Armada Lions 1970s edition of The Owl Service

They're actually quite simple, as almost everything is a reference to one of two books.

First the title, is a play on The Owl Service by Alan Garner, my favourite Garner book as a child.

My older sister gave me a box set of the Armada Lions editions, I suspect she had watched the TV series. Red Shift was also in that set, which when I re-read it a couple of years ago struck me as a challenging, though great, book for an adult, let alone children. Have expectations about what kids read change, or was it always an outlier?

The owl pattern on the plates also features in the podcast cover art.

Episode 2 is named after Lucy and Tom at Christmas, a picture book by Shirley Hughes that became a sacred seasonal text when my children were young. The siblings in my story are named after them also, of course.

A page of the Shirley Hughes book. Lucy and Tom stir the pudding. "Christmas is coming! Lucy and Tomare helping to stir the Christmas pudding.As they stir they each make a wish." — Red Fox

The book Delyth gave Tom is clearly The Owl Service, and it becomes apparent when they get into the loft room that she had a childhood obsession with the book and possibly the TV series (though she would have been *way* too young to see it first time round).

Gwyn, Roger and Alison as played by Michael Holden, Francis Wallis and Gillian Hills. — Granada/ITV

Ah yes, the loft room. The way Lucy and Tom get up there was inspired by a real-life event. In 3rd year 6th form, Matthew Norris and I had English lessons on our own with Mr Clare in a house across the street from the main school building. We noticed a hatch into a locked loft room...

A very Bristol house typical of the Redland end of Clifton. — Google

We moved furniture and forced the hatch open, then waited for Mr Clare to arrive and dangled various surreal objects down through the hatch in some kind of homage to absurdist drama. I know we sound tedious, I promise we were not.

he scratching sounds in the loft are, of course, a direct lift (a loft lift, if you like) from The Owl Service. The paper owls and the name 'Gwyn' up there point to Delyth's childhood obsession with the Alan Garner story. Next time, I'll dive into the inspiration for 'The Ring O'Bells'.

Alison shows Roger a paper owl she has made from the pattern on the plates, from the 1969 Granada TV adaptation of The Owl Service. — Granada / ITV

If that has piqued your interest, you can listen to No Service by looking for series 2 of Listen with Other on major podcast providers and here.

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