A post on the inspirations and references used in series 9 of Listen with Other, The Mind Children.
First up, of course, its main inspiration was The Tomorrow People. What if HTV had made something like it? What if it were cancelled? What if The Mind Children were not quite as benign as the Tomorrow People?
I had great fun making the book cover from scratch, making the HTV Books logo and identifying the Piccolo Books font - Hobo since you ask. At least one person assumed it was real, which is always nice - and terrifying...
I have had a few of these printed up as souvenirs for friends of the podcast, and might make a version available for sale if there's any interest.
The other inspiration was the recurring 'name a TV show only you remember' threads on social media. What if only two people did remember a show, childhood friends reunited by their memory? And they decide to do their own retro TV podcast about it with only a scant Wikipedia entry to go on?
As always, the music by Lee Sparey is key, it helps me write as well as sounding amazing. And the podcast-within-a-podcast gave great scope for the annoyingly chirpy podcast theme (listen carefully and you can hear its original title) and the ad music.
Ok. Let's talk about Flange...
I made a virtue of Listen with Other not having ads, so what better thing to do than... add some spoof ads? I now realise this isn't as original idea as I thought, thank you Hippolyta Loudbasket (possibly not her real name) for alerting me to Done Disappeared. Some people enjoy Flange's frequent pivots. Perhaps too many, as at one point I was wondering if the spoof ads are better than my actual podcast.
Podcast hosts Bob and Dave are, of course, named after Bob Baker and Dave Martin, friends of one of my elder brothers. Baker & Martin were most famous for writing episodes of Doctor Who, but they also wrote episodes of Shoestring and things for HTV like Machinegunner and King of the Castle set in and around Bristol.
Bob and Dave witnessed the filming of the title sequence of The Mind Children. In the show the village is called 'Compton Magna' but they say their village was called 'Stanton Maltravers' - which means they are in the same radiophonic universe as Listen with Other series 1, The Merry Milkmaids.
So that's two layers of the fictional village, elements of which were based on the village in North Somerset where I grew up in the long hot summer of 1976, drinking Top Deck shandy whilst licking a Count Dracula lolly, shameless haunted, tartrazine generation stuff. I never had a space hopper, mind.
The plastics factory in episode 1 is a nod to British Cellophane, which is a backdrop variously to my story in series 3 about the ouija board, The Ring O'Bells, a letter to Fortean Times, and Ray Newman's FT article and fiction too, which I referenced here.
In episode 2, The Playing Fields of England, the sadistic headmaster is named Mr Houston after the actor Glyn Houston who played a sadistic headmaster in an episode of Shoestring.
St Botolph's church is named after Posy Simmonds' 'The Silent Three of St Botolph's' which is in turn named after The Silent Three comic strip I referenced in Tomorrow Never Knows.
Bob and Dave describing how they used to play at being The Mind Children is of course from my own childhood, when we would play at being The Tomorrow People and argue over who got to be John.
David Horovitch gets a mention as the only cast member they can name partly because I can see him playing an insurance inspector and also because of my unforgivable soft-spot for Bognor (Thames TV, 1981-2).
he reporter Catherine Street in episode 3 is named after one of my childhood friend's sisters because frankly I'd run out of inspiration by then and I wanted a plausible name... and yes I did really carry my books round in a Key Markets bag, like Bulman...
In episode 4 of The Mind Children, the mini-computer at the school fair was real, though I don't think it wrote stories but played games. As I recall, Joanne Coffey's dad worked for DEC so I think our Somerset school may have hosted a PDP11. Maybe that's why I love these machines?
The inane pop-a-lop-a-fab-tastic Radio 1 deejay in episode 5 refers to going down the 'Hat and Stick' for a swift half: it's the Crown & Sceptre near Broadcasting, and indeed Egton, House.
What can I say about episode 6? It all goes a bit Children of Quatermass Dæmon Stones.
Headmistress Mrs Earnshaw is based on my real Somerset primary school headmistress who was (like my parents) from Burnley so I named her after the family firm...
...and the mural. Yes Dave was right, it really is real. My Somerset village hall had (has?) a mural depicting real people dancing round a maypole, including the artist's daughter. It was painted by Alan Durman who drew British Rail posters. Now after me, "Now is the month of maying..."
If you found that thread interesting, why not listen to The Mind Children? It's series 9 of LISTEN WITH OTHER on all major (and minor) podcast providers and here.
I'm writing a text-based adventure based on The Mind Children using (almost) period software - The Quill for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. While I am working on it, you can play an early version online here. It was written in Inform 7. It's not a…
Now, a post about the Easter eggs and inspirations in series 2 of Listen with Other, 'No 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…
![Post BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo The launch of episode 4 of The Mind Children gives me an excuse to do a thread on the inspirations and references used in series 9 of Listen with Other. First up, of course, its main inspiration was The Tomorrow People. What if HTV had made something like it? What if it were cancelled...? BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 3mo Time for a thread on the inspirations for series 8 of Listen with Other, TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS. The title, obvs, is from the song where the Beatles invented The Chemical Brothers, but the story itself was inspired by a trip to Alnwick in 2013. The bookshop is based on Barter Books, of course... A bookshop in an old railway station. Racks of books. Neon lights in a starburst. ALT 1 1 6 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social ...what if The Mind Children were not quite as benign as The Tomorrow People? I had great fun making the book cover from scratch, making the HTV Books logo and identifying the Piccolo Books font - Hobo since you ask. At least one person assumed it was real, which is always nice - and terrifying... Cover of the Piccolo TV Times paperback of The Tomorrow People in One Law by Roger Price, based on the exciting Thames Television network series. Five young people stand round a glass table. ALT Cover of The Mind Children by Damon Allan. Very orange. That's a photo of one of my kids in silhouette at sunset in Cornwall. Based on the the exciting HTV network series. ALT 06:30 · 7 Jul 2026 1 like Liked by Hippolyta Loudbasket (she/her) 1 1 Write your reply BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo The other inspiration was the recurring 'name a TV show only you remember' threads on social media. What if only two people did remember a show, childhood friends reunited by their memory? And they decide to do their own retro TV podcast about it with only a scant wikipedia entry to go on? Wikipedia page for The Mind Children. The Mind Children is a British children's science fiction television series created by Damon Allan. Produced by HTV for the ITV Network, the series ran from 20th July 1979 to 3rd August 1979) The theme music was composed by British music composer Lee Sparey.(3) Premise (edit) Three teenagers appear one day in a village, with no explanation. They look perfectly normal except for all having blue eyes which sometimes change colour to green. They can't explain anything about who they are or where they came from. The authorities don't know what to do with them, and they are adopted by three different families in the village. It becomes apparent that the teenagers have exceptionally high intelligence, and are telepathic. The three teenagers are, in fact, aliens sent to Earth in order to prevent it from being destroyed by environmental and political catastrophes. Although the three boys help fight injustices, there is a suggestion that they are saving the Earth for eventual alien colonisation. ALT 1 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo As always, the music by @leesparey.bsky.social is key, it helps me write as well as sounding amazing. And the podcast-within-a-podcast gave great scope for the annoyingly chirpy podcast theme (listen carefully and you can hear its original title) and the ad music... Let's talk about Flange... 1 2 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo I made a virtue of Listen with Other not having ads, so what better thing to do than... add some spoof ads? I now realise this isn't as original idea as I thought, thank you @loudbasket.bsky.social for alerting me to Done Disappeared, but some people enjoy Flange's frequent pivots... 3 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo Podcast hosts Bob and Dave! They are, of course, named after Bob Baker and Dave Martin, friends of my brother, most famous for writing episodes of Doctor Who, but who also wrote episodes of Shoestring and things for HTV like Machinegunner and King of the Castle set around Bristol... DVD release of King of the Castle. 'The macabre benchmark for 1970s children's television drama'. A montage of faces round a a tower block. ALT Leonard Rossiter as the debt collector or 'machine gunner'. ALT 1 2 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo Bob and Dave witnessed the filming of the title sequence of The Mind Children. In the show the village is called 'Compton Magna' but they say their village was called 'Stanton Maltravers' - which means they are in the same fictional universe as Listen with Other series 1, The Merry Milkmaids... 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo So that's two layers of the fictional village, elements of which were based on the village in North Somerset where I grew up in the long hot summer of 1976, drinking Top Deck shandy whilst licking a Count Dracula lolly, shameless haunted, tartrazine generation stuff. I never had a space hopper, mind A rusty can of Top Deck limeade and lager shandy ALT Comic strip ad for Count Dracula's deadly secret lollies. "Look, it was Pete all the time!" ALT 1 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo The plastics factory in episode 1 is a nod to British Cellophane, which is a backdrop variously to my story in series 3 about the ouija board, The Ring O'Bells, a letter to Fortean Times, and @raynewman.bsky.social 's FT article and fiction too... BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 4mo Last year British Cellophane, ahem, rang a bell. I'd already read a story by Ray Newman set in a similar factory, but then I discovered his Fortean Times article that made the link more real. This was the spark for my story... The Haunted Factory I'm writing with a postscript to 'The Haunted Factory [FT369:55, Aug 2018] in which Ray Newman describes tales of deaths and hauntings at the old British Cellophane factory in Bridgwater in Somerset. By chance I recently saw a post by Ray on social media in which he mentioned his dad having worked for British Cellophane. This jogged a memory: in the late 1970s there was a bit of fad for Ouija boards. Indeed I think a mainstream boardgame company like Parker Bros may even have produced a version. It seems odd now, but 10-year-old me took part in Ouija board sessions with my adult siblings and parents. The only thing I recall is that we were 'contacted' by someone who said he worked for British Cellophane and mentioned a pub called the Ring O'Bells. I mentioned this ALT to Ray who put me on to his 2018 article, and the coincidence is indeed striking. Were we contacted by one of the workers killed in the factory? Ray even confirmed there is indeed a pub called the Ring O'Bells in Ashcott, a village about 10 miles (16km) from the factory. My brother, the only other living (!) member of the 1970s family Ouija board party, confirms the detail about British Cellophane. He said we were also given a name (we can't remember it). He called the company at the time and they said they'd never heard of him. Had a family member heard the same stories Ray heard as a child and was pushing the glass? We lived in North Somerset, which seems close enough, but we had no links with Bridgwater, which in those days seemed a world away. The family Ouija board sessions stopped abruptly. I don't know whether my parents and siblings got too spooked, or if it was the influence of our village vicar who, my mother told me, spoke out against dabbling with the dead in such ways. Giles Booth London ALT 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo In episode 2, The Playing Fields of England, the sadistic headmaster is named Mr Houston after the actor Glyn Houston who played... a sadistic headmaster in an episode of Shoestring. St Botolph's church is named after Posy Simmonds' 'The Silent Three of St Botolph's' which is in turn named after... Eddie Shoestring and Glyn Houston's headmaster on a railway station bench. ALT 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo ...The Silent Three comic strip... BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 3mo Various characters on the island are named after the author of and characters in the 1950s girls' comic strip The Silent Three, which in turn inspired Posy Simmonds... www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/silent3.htm www.lambiek.net/artists/f/fl... 1 BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social · 2mo Bob and Dave describing how they used to play at being The Mind Children is of course from my own childhood, when we would play at being The Tomorrow People and argue over who got to be John... Nicholas Young, who played John in The Tomorrow People, then and now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq5O8q_evtk ALT 1 Read 1 more reply BlogMyWiki @blogmywiki.bsky.social Home Explore Notifications Chat Feeds Lists Saved Profile Settings New post Following Discover BBC micro:bit More feeds Trending 1. Labor Day weekend 2. Pentagon polygraphs Joint Staff over leaks 3. UK reacts to far-right street violence 4. College football season opens 5. Bluesky's 38 most influential posters poll Feedback ∙ Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Help Wikipedia page for The Mind Children. The Mind Children is a British children's science fiction television series created by Damon Allan. Produced by HTV for the ITV Network, the series ran from 20th July 1979 to 3rd August 1979) The theme music was composed by British music composer Lee Sparey.(3) Premise (edit) Three teenagers appear one day in a village, with no explanation. They look perfectly normal except for all having blue eyes which sometimes change colour to green. They can't explain anything about who they are or where they came from. The authorities don't know what to do with them, and they are adopted by three different families in the village. It becomes apparent that the teenagers have exceptionally high intelligence, and are telepathic. The three teenagers are, in fact, aliens sent to Earth in order to prevent it from being destroyed by environmental and political catastrophes. Although the three boys help fight injustices, there is a suggestion that they are saving the Earth for eventual alien colonisation.](https://listenwithother.co.uk/media/posts/51/Screenshot-2026-05-24-at-09.26.48.png)
