Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left

Comedy / Children / Science-Fiction

Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left is a 1985 novel by Australian children's author Robin Klein which also became a children's television series. The story focuses on an alien family who seek refuge on Earth, in the small town of Bellwood. Klein also wrote a sequel novel called Turn Right for Zyrgon . The story was made into a television series in 1991-1992. It was very popular in Australiaand aired on CITV and TCC in the UK and also in other parts of Europe and there are many fansites. The series is not available on DVD, though in the early 1990s several episodes were released on VHS in the UK. These can often be found for sale on eBay. The TV-show had 28 episodes, split into 2 story arcs. The first story arc stayed close to the novel, the second arc had new stories written, some of which would end up incorporated into the sequel novel, Turn Right for Zyrgon . The entire series was filmed in Melbourne, Australia. Zyrgon, and the family home interior were shot on the Crawford Productions sound-stage. The town of Bellwood was shot inWilliamstown. The family home exterior is located in Surrey Hills. The props for the space raft and other sets were kept in the Crawford Productions lot for a couple of years following production, however, they were eventually dismantled and destroyed. The series was repeated in the UK between 2007-2008 on a digital children's channel.