Attack the Block - Defend the Estate

On the 26th March 2006 Russell T Davies relaunched and rebooted the BBC's iconic Doctor Who. Central to the new series was Rose Tyler, a working class shop assistant, played by Billie Piper, who lives in a flat on a council housing estate with her mum, played by Wandsworth born, Camille Codouri. Davies chose the Brandon Estate near Kennington Park as the filming location to depict the fictional Powell Estate. The estate featured as a location in 6 episodes during the Christopher Ecclestone and David Tennant eras.

Five years later SciFi returned to the area.

Set in and around the Oval, Joe Cornish's cult movie, Attack the Block, was first screened at the South by South West film festival in Austin Texas on March 12th 2011.

On Guy Fawkes' night tennants of a hi-rise block on a Kennington housing estate have to join forces to fight off an alien invasion. The film's male lead, Camberwell born, John Boyega, went on to find global SciFi fame in Star Wars and Pacific Rim, while its female lead, Jodie Whittacker, went on to become the 13th regeneration of the Doctor.

This walk will explore how writers and directors use working class characters and locations as a counterbalance which often makes their fantastical plots all the more believable.

In addition the walk will visit the block of flats where a legend of silent comedy made his first home in the year another comedy legend was born in the same block. There will be an exploration of Mary Seacole's connections to both Kennington Park and Doctor Who. I will reveal how the short SciFi film 'Robots of Brixton' led to the recent council estate dystopian movie 'The Kitchen'. You may wish to bring along some garlic as a precaution, as Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi, is also set to make an appearance.

The meeting point on this occassion will be the entrance to Kennington Oval tube station.