V.p. N.p., V.d.

A collection of typed, printed and photographic production, housed in eight folders. Some wear to items consistent with their use, but a very well preserved collection.

A COMPREHENSIVE PRODUCTiON ARCHIVE OF ALTERNATIVE 3, COVERING ALL ASPECTS OF THE FILM'S PRODUCTION, FROM THE ESTATE OF THE FILM'S DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER MILES. A well preserved collection of scripts, contracts, correspondence, production photographs and rights negotiations for both the film and its novelisation spin-off.

Alternative 3 (originally called The Split and sometimes referred to as such in this collection) was broadcast in the UK on 20 June 1977. A spoof-documentary, it alleged that scientists were being disappeared by shadowy government operatives and flown to Mars to develop a human colony there, in order to give humanity a home to flee to when climate change renders life on earth impossible. The film caused a furore among the credulous -- and another furore when they realised they'd been duped. A book of the film followed, and the same thing happened all over again.

Inevitably, conspiracy theories asserting that it was all true began circulating as soon as the show was broadcast. But it wasn't. The show's closing credits sequence provides the names of the actors involved in the show, as is the custom with any televised drama, and the show was originally scheduled for broadcast on April Fool's Day, 1977 (although, unable to secure a slot that evening, it eventually went out in June). And in some of this archive's correspondence the film's director Christopher Miles urges people attached to the show to keep its secret: '...it would be helpful if you could say as little [as possible] about the project to others, especially outside, as if too many people get to know about it the fun and hoax element could be spoilt.' None of which stopped the more credulous members of its audience falling for it: the archive contains letters from both dedicated conspiracy theorists and the more casually credulous, many furious to have had their gullability exposed.

In their defence, the show did go to considerable lengths to convince its audience it was a straight documentary. Ahead of filming the script was shown to a scientific consultant called Arthur Garrett for his comments; his four-page report (present here) picks the inevitable holes in the show's grasp of the science, but Garrett is very perceptive about its likely impact on an audience:

'I am quite sure that if the programme were screened with a straight face a considerable number of people would take it seriously. After all, they took 'The War of the Worlds' seriously! [...] [T]here is very little in the programme that has not been pretty well worked over in the science fiction pages. [...] There is nothing very new in the 'space ark' concept. There is nothing very new in the 'greenhouse effect' with consequential doom for the world. [...] This seems to me to be your dilemma! If you screen the thing as science fiction much of its impact goes whereas if you screen it as apparent fact, somebody is certain to get pretty heated or pretty worried or both.'

And his response to the script gives an intriguing insight into 1970s scientific thinking on climate change:

'The other question is whether it is scientifically responsible: the fact of the matter is that quite respectable scientists have forecast between a fourfold and eightfold increase in the carbon dioxide levels of the atmosphere and if you assume a 0.5 C increase in mean global temperature for each doubling, the effect in the worst case of a 4.0 C rise in mean temperature over lowland Britain would be dramatic from the point of view of ecology and agriculture.'

The collection comprises:

i) MANILA FOLDER 1: Contracts and correspondence relating to the preparation, publication and distribution of the novelised tie-in book, by Leslie Watkins based on Ambrose and Miles's original material and published by Avon Books in 1978, with additional correspondence about associated foreign rights issues relating to the book's publication in the US. With a small collection of press clippings relating to climate change. 1978-2007;

ii) MANILA FOLDER 2: 18pp. photocopied shot list (pp. 15-16 missing); Character breakdowns, casting lists and audition timetables; 7pp. photocopied scene breakdown; lists of required film library and SFX material; TLS and script report by the show's scientific consultant Arthur Garratt; 3pp. handwritten grading notes; Unit call sheet for 25 January 1977; 21pp. voiceover typescript; correspondence relating to writers' screen credit, train timetables etc. 1977;

iii) MANILA FOLDER 3: Handwritten to front: ALTERNATIVE III DELPHI FILM FESTIVAL 1982. Correspondence and associated material relating thereto. 1982;

iv) MANILA FOLDER 4: Original typed contract for the programme (here still called The Split) between Anglia Television and Christopher Miles, dated 1 August 1976; Handwritten letter of thanks to Miles from Shane Rimmer, a member of the show's cast; Correspondence relating to the post-transmission conspiracy theories, and theorists, including letters from some of the more gullible members of its audience. Various dates;

v) MANILA FOLDER 5: Large correspondence file, mostly of letters to and from duped (and in many cases demented) viewers. Correspondents include the North Yorkshire UFO Society, the certifiable editor of a newsletter called Viewpoint Aquarius, and a Mr. D. Williams, who found the film to be a 'cruel product of perverted sick minds [...] I was violently ill after seeing it and but for the sake of my elderly parents I would have killed myself'. Also present is a letter from the Rev. David Catterson who, having been hoodwinked, writes to complain with no apparent irony: 'At what stage do we discriminate between what is truth and what is fiction?'. He also encloses copies of letters he's sent to the Prime Minister James Callaghan, and to Margaret Thatcher, asking them to reassure the nation that there are in fact no survival colonies on Mars, and that people aren't being kidnapped and flown to the Red Planet to populate them;

vi) MANILA FOLDER 6: Collection of press cuttings, a small collection of b&w production photographs, and some letters from gullible Canadians;

vii) YELLOW FOLDER: Production file, containing correspondence and documents relating to permissions for found footage; cross plots; cast availability charts and contact lists, call sheets for the entire shoot, two further copies of the production contract (see iv)), and assorted royalties and residuals paperwork;

viii) VERMILION FOLDER: Small collection of press cuttings and certificates.