The sinister lizard-headed businessman from the show’s titles: note the other FT.
Perhaps it was my fault for evoking his name at Weird Weekend North 2023 (FT432:14-15), or projecting his leather-clad image on to the wall behind me during the musical conclusion to my talk on Arthur C Clarke. The science fiction author’s two classic television series, Mysterious World (FT410:32-39, 411:42-47, 412:44-49) and Strange Powers (FT432:32-39, 433:42-49, 434:42-49), may have captured the imagination of the young forteans of the 1980s, but I had also wanted to pay homage to a later, very different hero.
“And as luck would have it”, the Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe’s Fortean TV was duly reissued on Network DVD.1
Beneath the outlandish titles – a lizard-headed businessman, a young woman devouring a tarantula – the jaunty musical theme2 signified a certain lightness of touch, a departure from the air of gravity and rational exploration that Clarke brought to television’s forays into forteana. Among the visual collage of archive footage, cartoons, off-kilter camera angles and sweeping extreme close-ups, we meet our new host.
And so here I am, delighted to invite you all along again for an episode-by-episode analysis, looking for the common threads and highlighting how the approach to forteana had evolved by the 1990s. Climb on to the motorcycle pillion and hold on tight as we tackle the first five episodes of Series One!
AMONG THE COLLAGE OF ARCHIVE FOOTAGE, CARTOONS AND OFFKILTER CAMERAWORK, WE MEET OUR HOST
Our man Fanthorpe astride his trusty Harley Davidson.
EPISODE ONE
Fanthorpe welcomes us, instantly cutting a more avuncular figure in front of the camera than Clarke ever did. Introducing himself as ‘Father Lionel’,3 he reminds us that the biblical mysteries and miracles he preaches about in his day job should encourage us to keep an open mind.
After being briefly introduced to Fort and the concept of forteana, we are thrown straight into the deep end with David Heppell, the “world’s leading We get all the usual tall tales of fishermen, and the usual explanations of seals and seacows. But then it gets interesting, and in a way that demonstrates how wanted to push the envelope from the onset.