13. Mr Custa and the Forgotten Prison of Hectar

Brok has ignored Mr Custa’s dire warnings and stepped into the Modernising machine. He’s left with the voice of “Hectar” in his head, but who exactly is Hectar? Before long they set off in a helicopter to find the island of Tig. An old enemy has set a trap for Mr Custa, and time is running out…

Mr.Custa and the Forgotten Prison of Hectar

Story 13Produced 2011, Broadcast 2015

Credits

  • Mr. Custa – Mathew Cobb
  • Sia / Voice of Nova – Sara Beamish
  • Brok / Forsyth – Aaron Nicholas-Wood
  • Fly / Banardo Baddiel / Jungle Idiot / Parrot – Philip Whitmore
  • Hectar – Daniel Llewellyn
  • Tribe Chief – Lee Bannister
  • Announcer – Lee Bannister
  • Mr. Custa Theme – Michael Skywood Clifford
  • Writer – Aaron Nicholas-Wood
  • Creator and Producer – Philip Whitmore
  • Director – Philip Whitmore
  • Music – AKM copyright Free Music
BEHIND THE STORY with PHIL WHITMORE
“THE FORGOTTEN PRISON OF HECTAR”

The original titles were “THE LOST PRISON OF HECTAR” OR “THE LOST TEMPLE OF FABRIC”

Aaron’s third & final script was created simply by “flipping through a dictionary” and “picking out two words”.

These two words were “cashmere” and “alchemist”.

Which is bizarre, because, as Mr Custa actor (Mat) pointed out, there was a line of dialogue about there not being any “sheep” around to make the cashmere, when cashmere, in fact, comes from “goats“.

This line was amended in the eventual recording.

I liked the character of Barnardo Baddiel, the explorer.

His name was created by somebody I used to know mishearing somebody else’s name & getting confused.

This story features once again, Forsyth (the villain from “Space Amulet”).

According to Aaron, this story was going to be the first in a “story arc”, which he had got planned in secret, but (bizarrely) didn’t really tell me about it.

Tensions by this point were getting… well, tense.

And it was after this story was written & recorded that Aaron decided to quit writing for “Mr Custa”.