Michael Keating has died (opens in new tab)

There was some graffiti near me that said "bring back Blake's 7". It appeared in the mid 80s, and lasted about 30 years. It was like a landmark. Eventually they did bring back Blake's 7, and it unfortunately wasn't any good, and the graffiti has faded and vanished now. Farewell, Vila.

Media companies spend untold millions on new content, and yet the acting and writing on a comparatively obscure and low budget British TV series still occupy a place in my psyche many decades later.

RIP Mr Keating.

One of the only episodes of Blake's 7 I really remember is "Orbit", in which Avon and Vila play a game of cat-and-mouse aboard a shuttle that's been stripped back to the wiring but is still doomed to crash into the planet it's trying to launch from unless another 70 kg can be ejected: as Orac helpfully points out to Avon, this is more or less exactly Vila's body mass. The respective faces pulled by Avon and Vila as Orac announces this tell you everything you need to know about their characters.

Sad news. I just last month watched all the way through Blake's 7, which I hadn't seen since I was a kid. Vila was always my favorite as a kid, and Keating still held up.

PSA: Keat[ing] was an english actor. Michael Keat[on] (batman) has not died.

Blake'7, what i can remember is green stuff (?) and a computer saying 'confirm' as a 'i heard you' sentinel. I remember how it sounded.

Vila 'There isn't a lock I can't open if I'm scared enough' Restal was one of the finest sci-fi characters on British telly. The caustic exchanges between him and Avon were priceless.

> Michael was asked whether Vila could cope living in a society stripped of all technology [..] His answer was entirely in character: "I'm sure he would survive. As long as he could make fire, keep warm and meet a young lady. He'd learn a lot about the trees on the planet, build a little hut. It would be wonderful."

I'm not sure that is entirely in character. There's a marvellous episode 'The City at the Edge of the World' where Vila is the main focus of the story. He is given more or less the very opportunity described above and he turned it down:

KERRIL Are you coming with me? VILA I can't. KERRIL Why not? It's a chance to be free. You saw that place, it's beautiful. VILA But there's nothing there worth stealing [..] a thief isn't what I am, it's WHO I am.

https://www.hermit.org/b7/Episodes/scripts/City-EOTW.html

Michael Keating also did a cameo in 'Micro Men' which can be watched on YouTube.

Rest in peace.

That's a bummer.

I'll admit that, at first, I thought this said Michael Keaton. And oddly enough, Michael Keaton's real name is Michael Douglas. So, there's a whole spiral of madness that my brain went off into.

Today I Learned Vila's second name. RIP

loved him in Batman

cant access the website OP.

anyone else read this as Michael Keaton has died and have a panic attack?

If webmaster is around, maybe let's adjust a bit the dictatorship? Can't browse (no privacy setup for this visit, just VPN)

Sorry, you have been blocked You are unable to access bigfinish.com

Edit: Works with privacy setup (Residential proxy + Spoofed fingerprints).