Here's a little film I made way back in 1996, with some chums from the BBC Post Production department, produced for inclusion in that year's VT Christmas tape. (For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Christmas tapes: they are an infamous annual event which has been going since 1978, made by the post production people, and which include outtakes, satire, spoofs, skits, parodies and generally anything else that's both very funny and in extremely bad taste).

I've always liked 'Scooby Doo' (well, the early ones, not the ones with that flipping annoying Scrappy-Doo in), which follow the adventures of a cowardly and ever-hungry mutt, and his owner Shaggy - a similarly cowardly beatnik hippie with an insatiable appetite for food. They travel around in a van called 'The Mystery Machine', along with their group of friends, made up of Fred - a good looking and far too sensible young man; Daphne - Fred's pretty redheaded girlfriend; and Velma - the speccy knowitall. Each week would pit our heroes against hideous monsters and diabolical demons, which would eventually turn out to be the bloke we met in the first couple of minutes of the show, now dressed up in a costume in an attempt to scare people away as part of a convoluted plot to steal gold / silver / jewels, etc. A simple formula, which started in the late '60s and is still going strong now. There's also a live-action feature film which was released in 2002, with a CGI Scooby and Sarah Michelle Geller from 'Buffy' in it; for the record, I'd like to point out that my live action film came out six years before Hollywood's, so yah sucks boo to them.

Filming took place on a Sunday in the Summer of 1996, in and around the Post Production area of Stage V at BBC Television Centre, in sunny Shepherd's Bush. After arriving early so that I could prep for recording one last time, and also to attempt to get Shaggy's voice right (okay, I know, I failed dismally - but at least I tried..!) the cast and crew steadily appeared, and began to get into costume. Philip made a great Fred, John a frightening but surprisingly accurate Daphne (!!), and the act of getting Bobby G into his Scooby Doo costume was hysterical (we'd borrowed the suit from the Beeb's costume store, and I'd made the mask especially out of papier mache - in typical BBC tradition, it was all very low budget!). Even more amazing was the sight of Yvonne arriving in full costume, looking like Velma herself had stepped straight out of the cartoon! Together with cameraman Dave Rixon and production assistant Debra Hill, the day's recording whizzed by as we zipped from location to location - pausing only to grab some lunch from the tea bar, amid some very odd stares (we were still in full costume, even Bob!), and recording finally wrapped at 6pm. A quick change of outfit and then we all decanted to the nearest curryhouse, for a slap-up meal and lashings of beer!

'Scooby Doo and the Mystery of Stage V' runs for about six minutes in total. I hope you enjoy it!

(Note: the video capture is in QuickTime format, so if you haven't got that application, you can get it by clicking:here)

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and watch
'Scooby-Doo and the Mystery of Stage Five'

CAST
Scooby-Doo	....................	Bob Greenwood
Shaggy	....................	Clive Banks
Velma	....................	Yvonne Wootton
Fred	....................	Philip Dee
Daphne	....................	John Jameson
Mr. Danny	....................	Danny Iwuji
CREW
Videotape Editor	....................	Philip Dee
Cameraman	....................	Dave Rixon
Sound & Noise	....................	Bob Greenwood
Written, Produced and Directed by Clive Banks
(Special thanks to Andrew Frampton, who converted the movie to QuickTime for inclusion on this site)

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