BIS West Midlands: Space As It Should Have Been! with Mat Irvine

Date: 22 March 2025
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Location: Online via Zoom
BIS Events | BIS West Midlands | Online | Supported by BIS

It is somewhat ironic to realise that if President John F. Kennedy had not made the “We will put a Man on the Moon…” speech in 1961, the whole of the American space industry may have taken a completely different direction? In “Space As It Should Have Been!” Mat Irvine looks at some of these alternatives.

Mat Irvine – I spent most of my, what could be termed, ‘early career’ at the BBC. I briefly worked first in thePhotographic ‘Stills’ Library for Television News, then moved to the Visual Effects

Department, where I stayed for around 23 years, making an overall total of a couple of months short of 25 years. (So, no gold watch)

I left the BBC in 1993 to pursue ‘other interests’, although still within the general media. This included producing and directing and the odd bit of presenting. I also attempted to get a movie made of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel A Fall of Moondust, but as with so many potential movie projects, it didn’t get green lit.

I also continued with my writing, most, but not exclusively, on model-making topics, both for magazines, and for a growing range of books.

I got directly involved with a number of other programmes over the years, possibly the most significant being regularly appearing on Swap Shop and Superstore; co-presenting and co-producing TECHNO; producing and directing on Future Fantastic (a Tomorrow’s World spin-off); co-devising Robot Wars and, more recently, operating K-9 for the latest Doctor Who and The Sarah-Jane Adventures.

All inter-dispersed with talks; lectures; guesting at SF Conventions and talking part in endless DVDs on “the making of Doctor Who”.

Meeting Timetable

  • 13:55 – The meeting is available to join
  • 14:00 – Welcome
  • 14:05 – Space As It Should Have Been! by Mat Irvine
  • 14:45 ish – Questions and Answers (we enable everyone’s microphone to allow an interactive Q&A session)

So, here’s the Plan/Joining Instructions!

  1. Register for the Talk using the link below
  2. Register link
  3. Before the event, we will send you an email with the joining link for the meeting.
  4. On the day, click meeting link (and follow the on-screen instructions to install Zoom if prompted)

Please Note

The Conference Call and Q & A sessions will be recorded (which may capture your name, picture, voice or video) and made available via the West Midlands Facebook group and possibly via the BIS HQ website. You consent to this by registering for the Conference Call/Q & A sessions.