BEN: BRITAIN BOUND

Superstar '73, #20, May 1973

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Ever since I heard the faintest murmur of a rumour that Ben Murphy might be able to swing another visit our way - I've been kinda restless.

You too? I thought as much!

Well, I decided that, if I didn't start concentrating on my work a bit harder, I'd soon find out what it was like to go job-hunting! So I took the only step open to me... I put a call through to Ben in California to check out just where fiction ended and fact began.

Now, I might just as well have waited a while longer, because the very first words Ben said were:

"Gee are you psychic or something? I've had it in mind to call you for a while now, but I wanted to wait till it was all fixed."

I was all attention, my body taut with anticipation... Did this mean it was true?

"You see," Ben continued, "it looks as though I might very possibly be over in England this August.

"It's still all very 'hush hush' right now, though it's pretty well in the bag, I reckon. But I'd better not tell you anything about the script till everything's signed and sealed. That'd be sure to bring bad luck!

"Sometimes all these delays seem a little crazy, I know - but that's just the way it is... Like this one: they want me, and I'm more than happy to oblige. But we've still got to wait through the weeks or months it takes for all the formalities to be checked out!"

I assured Ben that we'd all understand that he couldn't give us any more details about the actual film right now, but he promised that, just as soon as everything is settled, he'll be passing all the news on to us!

"Anyway, right now, everything seems to be going my way... The two things I really wanted have gotten themselves rolled into one - the movie and the visit to Britain! So I sure am looking forward to seeing all my friends there again...

"And that's not all. There's a new series with Universal on the cards too - and it all broke on me within a few weeks... It must have been my lucky birthday this year!"

I jumped right away, eager to know more about any extra chances we might have of seeing Ben on the box in the future. What sort of series it was going to be this time? I wanted to know:

"Hey, it's not as easy as all that in this case," came his reply (with additional crackles by courtesy of the international telecommunications service).

"You see, Universal have decided to develop an entirely new series around me, to go on the air in the States next year. And, when they're committing themselves to spending millions of dollars on a show, they're certainly not going to rush the formative stages.

"So I can reckon to be working on 'approvals' for quite a while, before we even fix on the series format we're going to make a pilot for. Still it's really something to be in at the very start of a project like this - 'specially when you've been pre-selected as the key figure, so all the strain of auditions has been gotten out of the way for you!"

With all these things going for him right now, Ben was evidently on top of the world... He'd got reason to be!

I asked him if he'd got anything special coming up in the immediate future or if he was still enjoying relative peace and quiet:

"Peace and quiet!" he burst in. "That just shows how bad I've been. I've really let you get behind the times! Peace and quiet ended with a bang a couple of months back, and since then I've been worked off my feet (which will have to be my excuse for not writing you to put you in the picture).

"Oh, TV and theatre... A few TV movies, some commercials and some live theatre which I always love to get back into for a spell. And I'll be in theatre for the whole of May and June too... In Chicago first, and then on to Ohio. So wish me luck!"

I did, of course, from YOU as well as me personally. And, before I said a final goodbye to Ben, I reminded him how important it was for him to make it over to Britain just as soon as he possibly can!

His reply?

"Don't you worry yourself about that! You can tell every 'Superstar' reader from me that that's exactly what I'll be doing!"

Roll on August!!!