In August 2014, Sci-Fi Bulletin was invited to the Big Finish studios for a recording of Blake’s 7 and to interview the cast members. Unfortunately the recordings were believed lost until very recently, so to mark the passing of Michael Keating, who played thief Vila Restal, we present Paul Simpson’s previously unpublished interview from that afternoon.

Were you surprised when you were invited back to play Vila for Big Finish?

I mean, it was interesting because I did it for other companies as well. I did When Villa met Gan [for B7 Media]. So yes, I was. It seemed to be some time after we finished it as well, of course, because we finished it in, gosh, ’81. And it wasn’t straightaway, was it?

No, 2006.

So yes, I was surprised. I knew there was interest in America because they’d shown it on the public broadcast channels.

Last year there was a lady from Moscow, who came over to see me. She was at a Big Finish convention in Barking, March before last. I said, oh, where are you from? She said, I’m from Moscow. I asked if she was on holiday and she said, No,  I’ve come to see you. In fact, she’d come over to have the day with Big Finish, and the next morning she was watching videos and then she flew back to Moscow. Blimey, she must have money to burn. Or she was working for Putin, I don’t know…

So there is interest in various parts of the world.

It’s the cliche question, but why do you think people bought into Blake’s 7 so much in the first place that it’s kept that interest?

Do you think it’s something to do with science fiction anyway? It’s a bit like Greek myths, about where we are, where we are in the universe. We’re finding out more and more, but we still don’t think there’s anything out there yet. We haven’t [found anything], as far as we know.

Recently they discovered a planet, God knows how many light years away, and they said it may have life because it’s got rocks on it. I thought that’s interesting. But there we are. It’s a theory that if it has rocks, it may well have life.

So we’ve still got that wonderment of where are we, where are we headed? Maybe that has something to do with it.

Also, the fact it was a group of people a bit like Robin Hood in space, perhaps. I just throw this into the debate. I don’t know. I’m not a writer, as much as I’d love to be. I’ve tried it, but it doesn’t work for me, I don’t think. I’m too lazy, probably. I have ideas, but people say, don’t just talk about it, write it!

One of the strands that goes through the series is the relationship between Vila and Avon.

It sort of developed because Paul [Darrow] came in on the second episode of the first season. I suppose it’s the contrast between the two, the guy who’s the sort of possible coward, possibly not, and the sort of computer wizard who’s a bit of a control freak.

A bit?!

Yes… and they’re both surviving.

The most recent release features you and David Warner. There’s a different side of Vila in that.

There is actually.

[When we recorded that] I’d just been on another planet – well the nearest you can come to another planet. I’d come back from the Galapagos Islands and also the mainland of Ecuador up in the volcano area three days before. I had jet lag, so I was slightly all over the place and I hope it sounds okay!

I hadn’t seen the script until I got back, day after I got back, so I had about two days, a weekend, before we did it on the Monday.

What did you think when you read that?

I thought it was great. I haven’t heard it, and it’s good that they’re bringing [that plotline] back. I think it gives another side to my character.

Did you know David?

He’s a wonderful actor. He was my idol when I was at drama school. I reminded him of the fact that I saw him at the RSC when I was at 17 when I went to Guildhall. He must be, well, into his 20s at that time, doing great things.

When you work on the Big Finish stuff, are there times you look at it and go, I don’t think he’d do that? Or have they pretty much nailed it?

When people say, oh, he wouldn’t do that, he wouldn’t do this, I don’t know. In life you do all sorts of things without knowing. So it’s possible you could, it’s possible he may be schizophrenic, I don’t know. There are things that he might do to survive, I think.

He’s a survivor, he will do what’s necessary.

Yeah.

You’ve done so many different parts in your career. What do you look for in a  script or a character?

God, that’s a difficult one, isn’t it. In one way I look to be stimulated, to be enthused, I suppose, and see the parallels that I can give to the character. I like to see myself as an explorer of parts and pieces of writing. For me, it’s not a matter of just going on stage and being flash or anything like that, I want to explore the characters and the situations. That’s why I’m a rambler.

I’m going to give you a parallel. When I lead walks, I say it’s like being an actor. I take an audience, a group of people on a walk that I’m exploring. The similarities with being an actor on stage and taking a group of people is you can get lost on stage and in the countryside. And I have, many times.

So there are these parallels in my life. I now realise why I’m a very enthusiastic hiker, because there is a parallel with being an actor and having a journey, taking myself or people on a journey – which is what they say when you’re being directed. The director says you’re taking that audience on a journey. So that’s what I’m about.

And each time the journey is different.

Exactly, and you can get lost both on stage many times and in the countryside and in life.

What sort of acting do you prefer? Do you prefer stage to television to audio or are they all just different challenges?

I used to prefer the theatre to everything because it’s so immediate and I suppose in some ways I veer towards comedy because that’s even more immediate, that your audience hopefully is reacting – hopefully! – to what you’re doing.

I was totally dedicated to this business from drama school at 17 right through into my 50s and then I discovered rambling, I met my wife Sue and eventually we got married and I’m happy being with her. I love to act but it’s not the be all and end all of my life anymore, which is just as well because I’m 67 now.

I’m working at the moment. But a lot of actors who I know that are my age and older, they still get frustrated. They’re not working, this, that and the other. And I say, listen, there are kids out there out of drama school. They don’t get the chances we have. There’s not a repertory system anymore. We should be thankful we had that.

But life is an adventure, and so there are other things in my life now, as well as the acting. Well, it’d be nice to do the odd movie or whatever, but it’s not the end of the world anymore.

You’re not going to be turning stuff down necessarily, but you’re not going to be assiduously seeking it.

There are certain plays I would love to do. I’m not somebody who just wakes up in the night saying, Why haven’t I played whatever? I’m not that mad about having to play Lear. But there are certain roles I would like to explore.

Death of a Salesman, which I did as a young actor, playing a tiny part. I’d love to play Willie Loman. I was in it for many years when I was 19, and there were lines in it I could see parallels in my own family and I just thought, this is incredible stuff, Arthur Miller’s stuff.

I saw him once in Hyde Park and I’d just been to see a preview of a play called The Price that he’d written, in the West End. I was walking through Hyde Park and I saw him. I should have gone up and spoken to him but I didn’t, I was too shy.

And the things you see, particularly with plays, the stuff that you see from 40 years on perspective that you wouldn’t have seen at the time.

Oh, you mean in characters? Oh yes.

But also in just in the whole theme of a play. I haven’t read Death for Salesman probably for 20 years, but I’m sure if I read it now. It would speak to me differently than it did.

Just those, the lines within it. I have a theory that he was in his 30s when he wrote it. I don’t think he quite realised what he was writing. I think he’d heard it, was around him. I don’t think that at that time he just knew what effect it would have. And it certainly did on me. As a 19-year-old, it did. Death of a Salesman is timeless.

That’s true.

It’s about family and it’s about failure and it’s about all the human things.

But it’s about perception of failure, isn’t it?

Yeah, you’re exactly right. So to me, that’s the one part. If someone offers it to me, I’d have a go. But I just enjoy life. I have grandchildren now, it’s another world.

Anything you’d love Big Finish to do with Vila?

No, I’ll wait and see what they come up with. I told you I’m not really a writer.

No, people have ideas.

I’ll wait and see what they come up with. I like the idea with David Warner, having the father, and it looks as if they are going to explore that more. That’s open to all sorts of things.

RIP Michael Keating 1947-2026