The Tripods: The BBC�s visual effects department did themselves proud with the Tripods. They had to solve the problem of making the Tripods walk realistically. They turned to George Pal�s film of War of the Worlds, only to discover that he�d turned HG Wells�s tripods into flying machines.

The full-size tripod: Rumours persist that one of the reasons The Tripods was so expensive was because the BBC built a full size tripod (yes, for once, the effects were that good). In fact, as you can see, they built some legs.

The City of the Masters: The biggest model the BBC had ever built took up the entire floor of Elstree Studios (that�s well over 1000 square feet). For years bits of it were propped up against a wall in Visual Effects. It was made out of lots of things, including a large amount of shiny wrapping paper.

The Music. Ken Freeman supplied the magnificent incidental music. You can find out more about it from his site www.topnote.co.uk.

The Dome: To help give the City of the Masters some perspective, a giant painting of the domed ceiling was made as adrop. It was painted the wrong way round, so if you look carefully, you�ll see the roof bends away from you rather than towards you.

The Last of the Tripods: After the series was cancelled, all the models were junked. One was rescued from a skip.

Cameo appearances: The main characters meet the Tripods only five times in series one�s 300 minutes.

Sour grapes: A constant criticism of the first series is the enormous amounts of non sci-fi padding - five stray lines in the book about a vineyard are turned into two whole episodes.

Series three: The cancelled final series of the Tripods would have seen the City of the Masters destroyed by an attack from balloons. V, the lizards-invade-earth sci-fi soap re-used this plot.

DVD: An attempted video release petered out with the first series. Series one was released on DVD in March 2001. There has been no news of a DVD release for series two. However, Tripods actor Jim Baker who played Henry has launched a campaign on the BBC iCan site to demand a release. You can add your support here.

A stellar cast: Of the cast of over 300, famous names include Pamela Salem, John Woodvine, and er, John Scott-Martin (he�s been inside a Dalek lots). Will was played by John Shackley.

Tragedy: Will�s love, Eloise, was played by Charlotte Long. She died shortly after filming for the show at Alan Clark�s castle, Saltwood. He mentions this sadly in his Diaries.

Link: John Christopher�s The Tripods - a great fan site that goes into immense detail about the show.