Review: The Galaxy That Britain Built – a BBC documentary on the making of Star Wars

The BBC's latest contribution to Star Wars documentaries

The BBC has made some pretty good documentaries about Star Wars over the years. I’m thinking in particular of the Omnibus episode George Lucas Flying Solo back in 1997 and its follow-up at the time of The Phantom Menace.

A new show, The Galaxy That Britain Built, was broadcast by BBC4 in the UK on Thursday, December 21, sandwiched between two other Star Wars-related programmes. (Those were a repeat of last summer’s BBC Proms concert devoted to John Williams and Hollywood’s Master of Myth, a documentary about Joseph Campbell.)

Today, Episode Nothing reviews a show that interviewed some of the lesser-known figures in the Star Wars story – including those who really did build that galaxy.

Who was the storm-trooper who bumped his head in Star Wars?

A stormtrooper bumps is head in Star Wars' most famous blooper

At least two actors thought they might have been the stormtrooper who bumps his head in Star Wars' most famous blooper. Episode Nothing considers each one’s case – and reflects on what the interest in this gaffe tells us about the film.

One of our dragons is missing: How Disney’s missing dinosaur appeared in Star Wars

The skeleton in Star Wars that was re-used
from One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

In the spring of 1976, my birthday treat was to be taken to the cinema with some friends. The film, like almost all of those I had seen at the cinema up to then, was from Disney. It was called One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing. Not only was it the kind of movie that pretty much disappeared after Star Wars, but you can actually see the symbolic death of the Disney family comedy in a memorable moment from Star Wars itself. 

RIP Kenny Baker, 1934-2016: the man who was R2-D2

Kenny Baker with Anthony Daniels
on the set of Star Wars in 1976

The fan reaction to the death of Kenny Baker, the man who was R2-D2, showed how much the character meant to generations of Star Wars lovers. Episode Nothing reflects on Kenny Baker’s contribution to the original Star Wars – and considers what difference it made to have a real person operating the levers and lights to bring R2-D2 to life.

What came before Star Wars in 1970s science fiction?

George Lucas directing Star Wars

It's true to say no one, in 1977, had ever seen a film quite like Star Wars. But that doesn’t mean no one had been trying to get big budget, old fashioned entertainment off the ground.

Today, Episode Nothing looks at film makers who were trying to make science fiction and fantasy, or to revive old movie genres, in the 1970s.

40 years on: Shooting on Star Wars ends with the film's opening scenes

Darth Vader arrives on the Rebel
blockade runner in Star Wars 

Forty years ago this Saturday – on July 16 1976 – George Lucas was able to call "It's a wrap" as principal photography on Star Wars finally finished. The final days of filming had been hurried, with multiple camera crews working under huge pressure. Yet they turned out to be some of the most memorable moments of the film. Episode Nothing looks at the scenes which were the last to be shot, but first in the film. 

Casting Star Wars: How George Lucas and Brian De Palma found their stars

The alternative cast for Star Wars: Will Seltzer (Luke Skywalker), Christopher Walken (Han Solo),
Terri Nunn (Princess Leia)

Brian De Palma’s Carrie is well worth owning on Blu-Ray just because it’s a great horror film – and a reminder of how much talent was around in 1970s commercial cinema. But for anyone interested in Star Wars in the 1970s, the UK and Ireland Blu-Ray release of the film contains a bonus feature that makes fascinating viewing.

Star Wars: The Deleted Scenes #4: Threepio takes the wheel

Threepio takes the wheel of the landspeeder in
one of Star Wars' deleted scenes

In our continuing look at the deleted scenes of Star Wars, we discover that See Threepio can do something useful other than talk – and we watch George Lucas grapple with the question of which bits of the story to leave out.

Elstree Studios: the home of Star Wars turns 100

The Star Wars crew shooting Darth Vader at Elstree Studios

One hundred years have gone by since a film company with the appropriately space-themed name Neptune founded what would become the home of Star Wars.

Gilbert Taylor, director of photography on Star Wars, dies aged 99

Gil Taylor with George Lucas on the set of Star Wars. Picture: Fansided.com

Gilbert Taylor, the British director of photography on Star Wars and on dozens of other great movies, died on Friday August 23 at his home on the Isle of Wight. He was 99, which surely makes him the longest-lived member of the Star Wars crew.

John Dykstra, ILM and the special effects of Star Wars

The special effects of Star Wars – 
fine just the way they were

On its first release, the thing reviews of Star Wars seemed to dwell on more than anything else was, perhaps inevitably, the special effects.

It's not that films hadn't had great visual effects before. 2001: A Space Odyssey almost certainly contained individual effects shots of higher quality than those of Star Wars. But films had never had so many great effects, flitting by so fast.

Wars-weary: The production of Star Wars and how George Lucas's stress made for a great movie

How not to dress for a heatwave:
Chewbacca's fur is combed on
the set of Star Wars

Here in the UK, we've been experiencing a heatwave. Or at least, what passes for one in Britain. So what better time to reflect on the summer of 1976, when Britain was sweltering in the most famous heatwave of modern times – and a young film director was struggling to make a science fiction movie.