The Blake’s 7 gang are currently doing the rounds at the MIPTV spring market in Cannes to launch their loooong-awaited reboot of the cult fave.
What’s new? Well, according to exec producer Leon Clarance, the reboot is “suitably amazeballs.”
Previously, Clarance teased that the first line of the pilot episode is “Int london – Blake’s apt – morning.”
Now, courtesy of FremantleMedia, we get the rest of the picture: “The year is 2136, Blake wakes up on one side of the bed. He reaches for the other side. There’s nobody there. As reality sets in, this handsome ex-soldier sits up, and looks at a photo of his wife Rachel. Beautiful. Deceased.”
FremantleMedia described the new Blake’s 7 as “a revolutionary reinvention” of the 1970s’ BBC sci fi series, which followed the story of seven criminals — six guilty and one innocent — who escaped from captivity on their way to a prison colony in space.
Launching the reboot, David Ellender, CEO FremantleMedia International and Kids & Family Entertainment said, “Blake’s 7 was such a forward-thinking concept that the show continues to have resonance with audiences today. Its complex characters and gritty storylines, coupled with the highly talented team and modern production techniques are sure to appeal to both original fans of the show and new viewers.”
Leon Clarance said, “Joe Pokaski and Martin Campbell have worked tirelessly … to create an amazeballs reboot of this classic space opera which I watched with my father when I was a child. This reimagined classic for a new generation of science fiction fans will enthrall original and new fans alike.”
Who’s in it? We still don’t know for sure, but the TVClaw casting wishlist has been updated. How about a Wire reunion and have Idris Elba as Blake and Dominic West as Avon? Lucy Lawless as Servalan could be totes amazeballs. Or how about Ray Stevenson or Sean Bean as a male Servalan, Minnie Driver as Jenna and Alastair Mackenzie as Vila?
Other worthy contenders: Jason Isaacs, David Harewood, James Callis, David Tennant, Helen Baxendale, Claudia Black and Gethin Anthony.
There is consensus among fans that original Blake’s 7 star Paul Darrow has to have at least a cameo role, but who else do you want to see in it?
TVClaw 
I will definitely watch it on one condition: they do NOT put Helen Baxendale in it. Can’t bear that woman. Apart from that, bring it on. Can’t wait to see Servelan and Avon again.
I know Baxendale is a Marmite actress, but I think she could be a v good feisty prisoner on the lam in space. I even (heresy?) think she’d make a pretty decent female Avon.
Nooooo! Not The Bax! She ruined Friends for me with her stage school acting, don’t let her puppet acting mess up Blake’s Seven. She would be good in Thunderbirds though. I also think keep Servelan female and Avon male. I may have imagined it but I always thought there was chemistry there, or could be… (it was a looong time ago).
Yes, she was terrible in Friends. I think Avon and Servalan once had at least a snog, but I might be wrong.
I must add that i would want Servelan to remain female. My mum even had the haircut in the 70s!
I agree with iscentyouaday no to Baxendale and Servalan has to be a woman – the whole kinky leather thing would be lost on Bean unless he does it in his ‘Tracey’ persona.
I agree that Servalan should remain a woman, but Jacqueline Pearce was so brilliant I actually think it may be the hardest role to cast. Plus, it’s now hard to to think of Servalan without a nod to characters like BSG’s Caprica 6 and Farscape’s Grayza. How about Lucy Lawless as Servalan? Now *that* could be brilliant.