6:34pm Tuesday 25th September 2007
When the BBC axed the hit science fiction series Tripods in the Eighties, there was a public outcry and a national campaign for its return.
The Saturday night show never was reinstated but its legacy continues. More than 20 years on, a band of diehard fans, known as The League Of Free Men, held a Tripods exhibition in Brighton.
Hundreds of fans were at St Andrew's Church Hall, Hillside, to see 40 costumes, a model of a Tripod used by the producers and to meet some of the cast.
The show, based on John Christopher's 1967 book, filled the Saturday tea-time slot on BBC One from 1984 to 1985.
The series portrayed a future controlled by 100ft tall, threelegged machines called Tripods, which came from another planet.
In what was the most expensive science fiction TV series of its time, producer Richard Bates used camera equipment borrowed from the BBC's weather department to create special effects.
Fan club member and Brighton cartoonist Adrian Andrews bought the original Tripods model and provided most of the memorabilia for the exhibition.
Andrew, who headed the campaign to save the series, said: "It was really special. It was very disappointing when they stopped it after series two. I heard the producers were the last to know. While they were filming the final scenes a runner told them the BBC had pulled the plug."
It was axed by then Director General Michael Grade because it was so expensive and did not draw enough viewers to justify the cost.
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