Cinema Retro's Dean Brierly serves up another fascinating, exclusive interview.
The Martin Woodhouse Interview
By Dean Brierly
PROLOGUE
Perhaps the most potent evocation of the 1960s was the book
“Goodbye Baby and Amen,†with pictures by David Bailey and words by Peter
Evans. Published in 1969, it paid stylish homage to the decade’s cultural icons
and iconoclasts: from Jean Shrimpton to Terence Stamp, Christine Keeler to
Marianne Faithfull, the Rolling Stones to the Brothers Kray. It’s a perfect
tribute as well as a perfect time capsule. Well, nearly perfect. There is one
glaring omission. Chap by the name of Martin Woodhouse.
If that name doesn’t immediately set bells of recognition
pealing, it’s not because his CV is unworthy of inclusion in the decade’s
creative pantheon. Woodhouse first drew notice in 1957-58 as a research scholar
at Cambridge,
where he built one of the world’s first pure logic computers. During the next
two years, he did pioneering research on anti-aircraft missile-control systems
while serving as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Upon being demobilized, he
joined his brother Hugh in writing all the first-season episodes of the
Supermarionation TV series Supercar. (Who can forget such characters as
Mike Mercury, Mitch the Monkey and Dr. Horatio Beaker, who was famous for
taking forever to finish a sentence and spouting the catchphrase:
“Satisfactory. Most satisfactory!â€) Woodhouse subsequently graduated to writing
for real actors, contributing a number of sparkling scripts for The Avengers
that helped instill the show’s surreal, science fiction ambience and Cathy
Gale’s fully liberated character. He penned a series of brilliant espionage
thrillers between 1966 and 1976 featuring research scientist-turned reluctant
spy Giles Yeoman (and his occasional CIA sidekick Yancy Brightwell). To top it
off, mystery writer and critic Dorothy B. Hughes famously dubbed him “a
swinger.â€
Woodhouse certainly looked the part, projecting unflappable
cool from behind Alfie-like eyeglasses in his early book-jacket photos. One can
imagine Bailey and Evans slotting him into their book between, say, Michael
Caine (who would have been perfect casting as Giles Yeoman) and Jonathan Miller
(another multi-hyphenate writer with a taste for dead-on-target satire). Unlike
some of his more famous sixties contemporaries, Woodhouse not only survived
that tumultuous era, but continued to push past creative and cultural
boundaries in succeeding decades. He co-wrote (with Robert Ross) a trilogy of
mid-70s alternate history novels centering on Leonardo da Vinci as a kind of
Renaissance James Bond. In the 1980s he invented the solar-powered Lightbook,
the world’s first e-book reader (for which he’s been dubbed “The Father of
Modern Electronic Publishing). Recently, his time has been spent setting up an
ambitious, large-scale charitable organization to distribute e-books (and by
extension, education) to countless children in impoverished Third
World countries. Woodhouse now resides in sylvan contentment in
Haslemere, Surrey, England. He recently took time out
from his altruistic and creative endeavors to share some of his memories with
Cinema Retro.
So, what’s it all about, Martin?