Before Return of the Jedi and a film career ended far too early, Richard Marquand was a TV director and here’s a look at an example of his work on the legendary The Sky At Night, hosted by Sir Patrick Moore and featuring guest Arthur C. Clarke, who’s own Star Wars connection saw him list his top twelve favourite sci-fi films, a list that included A New Hope at number 9 and almost featured Return of the Jedi.

First broadcast on 3rd October 1963. Special guest Arthur C Clarke |Introduction: “Twenty years ago the idea of practical space research was widely regarded as a wild dream, and members of Interplanetary Societies were dismissed as cranks. Events have shown that the ‘cranks’ were right.

The concept of a communications satellite was first put forward in 1945 by Arthur Clarke, who is known both as a theoretical astronaut and as a particularly skilled writer of science fiction {to say nothing of his activities in underwater photography). Arthur Clarke, whom I have known well for a great many years, now lives in Ceylon. During his brief visit to England I was delighted that he was able to join me in a programme. Bravely, he ended by making some forecasts about what was likely to happen in the future; it will be interesting to see whether he was as accurate as he was in the 1930s.” Patrick Moore