KING CINDER

My much-treasured copy of the novelization of King Cinder, written by the TV series' creator John Foster, published by the BBC in 1977, and featuring Peter Duncan as Kerry Hutson plus Lesley Manville as Kerry's girlfriend Nikki on the front cover (photo of my copy of book © Dr Karl Shuker; photo on book's front cover/book/series © David Edwards/John Prowse/John Foster/BBC - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Although this present blog of mine is entitled Shuker In MovieLand, every now and then there will be an occasion when it unofficially becomes Shuker In TVLand. This is because there are certain TV shows that I greatly enjoyed when originally broadcast but which are nowadays all but forgotten, so I'd like the chance to resurrect them – if only briefly – by reviewing them here, in the hope that future generations will seek them out wherever their mortal remains may be, whether on YouTube or in TV archives or elsewhere, and derive as much enjoyment from them as I did, and still do. Today is one such occasion.

So...does anyone remember King Cinder – a classic BBC weekly drama series from 1977 aimed at older children and early teens? Directed by John Prowse, and consisting of six 30-minute episodes, it starred Peter Duncan as an upcoming young speedway star named Kerry Hutson, and derived its title (used in the show as the name of a local biker-frequented restaurant) from the fact that cinders were formerly used for speedway track surfaces prior to shale replacing them. I was just getting into motorbikes myself back then, and wanted so much to own Kerry's Kawasaki KH250 that he rode around on when not riding speedway motorbikes, so naturally I totally loved this show. Moreover, as seen above in my review's opening photograph, I still have the paperback novelization (it also appeared in hardback with dustjacket), written by this show's creator, John Foster, which I bought while King Cinder was being broadcast (from 2 November to 7 December 1977) and greatly enjoyed reading. Sadly, the show itself has only been repeated once (during summer 1979) since its original screening, and even the novel sometimes commands high prices when appearing occasionally on online book or auction sites.

King Cinder is set in the fictional English south coast seaside town of Barton, whose local speedway team, the Barton Barons, Kerry fervently hopes to join one day, his ambition encouraged by Tom, one of the Barons' current riders. However, Kerry also faces antagonism and opposition, from his abrasive older brother Terry, another current rider for the Barons, and who subsequently becomes its captain. Not only that, his entire family comes under threat when small-time crook Todd Edwards returns from London to head up a gang running an extortion racket in Barton after he'd  been kicked out of town some time earlier by Kerry and Terry's ex-speedway star father Richard, and now harbors a deep grudge against the Hutsons. (In an ironic twist, the climactic chase scene in the final episode, in which Kerry is vigorously pursued by Edwards driving a fairly new Austin Maxi, is remembered less for the genuinely hair-raising, breath-taking chase sequence itself, culminating in Edwards careering headlong over a cliff, than for the savage continuity error that sees Edwards's plunging car suddenly change into an old Morris 1800 !!)

Terry Hutson (played by Jeremy Arnold) and Todd Edwards (Michael Hawkins) (© Paul Wheeler/John Prowse/John Foster/BBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Apart from Peter Duncan, King Cinder also starred Lesley Manville as Kerry's girlfriend Nikki (apparently, Lesley was also Peter Duncan's real-life girlfriend at that time), Jeremy Arnold as his brother Trevor Hutson, Tony Caunter as their father Richard Hutson, and Michael Hawkins as crook Todd Edwards. Plus Kim Smith as Barons rider Tom, Derek Ware as Edwards's gun-toting accomplice Clayton, and Daniel Abineri as a Hells Angel named Lacey. The speedway racing scenes were filmed on the track at Rye House Stadium, a former greyhound racing and now speedway venue near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, England, using riders from the Rye House Rockets speedway team, with Bobby Garrad standing in for Peter Duncan as Kerry (click here for more details). In the correct sequence that they were broadcast, the six episodes of King Cinder were entitled as follows: 'The Barons'; 'Todd'; 'Spider's Web'; 'Speedway'; 'Home Truths'; and 'On the Track'.

In my opinion, it is surely high time that King Cinder was released on DVD. Having said that, on 22 February 2018 the British Speedway Forum website published a detailed email from a senior member of the BBC Audience Services department's investigation team, named David, with responsibility for deciding which BBC shows are selected for DVD release, in which he had responded to an earlier query on this very same subject from one of the Forum's members. In his email, David stated: "It feels very unlikely to me that releasing King Cinder on DVD would be commercially viable in light of the costs involved in doing so compared to the expected returns," but he did not discourage Forum members (or anyone else) from pitching its release either directly to BBC Worldwide or via any third-party distributors who may be interested in it. Click here to read David's full email. So who knows? Perhaps one day King Cinder will at long last, and very aptly, rise from the ashes of its present obscurity in veritable phoenix fashion after all.

Terry Hutson (Jeremy Arnold) (© Paul Wheeler/John Prowse/John Foster/BBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

And to end my King Cinder review-cum-retrospective on a positive note, I am happy to confirm that at least this first-rate show does still survive, and in complete form (even if locked away somewhere deep within the BBC archives), as I discovered when typing the show's title, King Cinder, into the TV Brain website's search engine (click here), which reveals whether or not a show exists or is lost – so that's something!

I recently found online a succinct write-up of King Cinder that includes some good photos from it, so here it is. There is also currently a short video on YouTube, uploaded there in March 2009 by none other than Peter Duncan himself, containing some clips from this show – please click here to view it. And if anyone has access to a set of the speedway magazine Backtrack, be sure to check out issue #83 (November-December 2017), because it contains an article in which speedway journalist Rob Peasley recalls King Cinder and speaks to several ex-Rye House Rocket riders who took part in its filming.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Back cover of my paperback copy of the King Cinder novel (© photos on back cover of book/book/series © Paul Wheeler/John Prowse/John Foster/BBC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)