14 April: Sir John Gielgud

Sir John Gielgud, the English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades was born on this date in 1904. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in South Kensington, London, the third of four children. His parents were Frank Henry Gielgud and Kate Terry-Gielgud.
2. John was his middle name. His first name was actually Arthur.
3. His surname derives from Gelgaudiškis, a village in Lithuania.
4. At school, he was good at English, but hated maths. He took leading roles in school plays including Mark Antony in Julius Caesar and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
5. Even though his mother was descended from a family of actors, the Terrys, his parents weren’t keen on him pursuing a career in theatre. In order to be allowed to take drama lessons he had to promise that if he couldn’t support himself with acting by the time he was 25, he’d look for a job in an office.
6. It didn’t look promising at first. The owner of the drama school he attended, Constance Benson, remarked on his first day that he “walked like a cat with rickets.” His first professional role was the Herald in Henry V at the Old Vic; he had one line and spoke it badly. The theatre kept him on but for the rest of the season he only got walk on parts with no lines.
7. However, he did get a scholarship to RADA where he could work on his technique. He gained in confidence until he got the part of Trofimov in Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard, which he really enjoyed, and said of it, "It was the first time I ever went out on stage feeling that perhaps, after all, I could really be an actor." By this time, he was earning enough that he could leave home and get his own flat.
8. His first film was Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar, playing Cassius.
9. He wasn’t very interested in politics. He once attended a formal dinner where he asked a fellow guest, "Whereabouts are you living now?” to which the guest, whose name was Clement Attlee, replied, "Ten Downing Street".
10. Gielgud's partner, Martin Hensler, died in 1999. Gielgud’s health declined rapidly after that and he died the following year at the age of 96.

Character birthdays

Electric Blue, aka Judith Brent, a genetic variant with power over electricity. She has been a member of the Freedom League, G-Men and Ultra League in her time. At university she met Superwil and although they did spend time apart, they eventually married and had five children. Judith ran her own electronics business and was also known as the mother of the Warner Superhero Family. Her story is told in Eternal Flame.

Wolf, a member of The Raiders, from Classica, Infinitus. He came to our dimension through the wormhole which opened up after the Bird Island nuclear test. At the time, he had been stalking two wild wolves, which were also transported. He gained the power to communicate telepathically with the wolves and they with him; they helped him survive during his first days on Earth. In due course he met the rest of the Raiders and became part of the group. He was one of the four who began singing together and formed a band; and became romantically involved with Bluebird. Read about him in Over the Rainbow.

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future. 

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

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Over the Rainbow

'We're not in Trinity anymore,' says Leonard Marx, quoting a line from an old Innovian  movie. The moon is different; the planes flying overhead are different. Nobody has any idea where they are or if it's possible to get home. 

In this strange new world, people from the highly technical Innovia and the less advanced Classica must co-operate in order to survive. In addition, travel through the inter-dimensional wormhole has given some people unusual and unexpected powers.

Innovia mourns the loss of its superhero, Power Blaster, last seen carrying a nuclear bomb to the upper atmosphere away from the inhabited Bird Island. They don't believe he could possibly have survived.  Power Blaster has survived, but is close to death and stranded in the new dimension. He is nursed back to health by a Classican woman, Elena. She has no idea who he is, only that she is falling in love with the handsome stranger.  

Shanna sets out to discover what happened to Nathan Tate, who didn't return from his hiking holiday, not knowing her life is about to be turned inside out and upside down. 

Meanwhile, Desi Troyes, the man responsible for the catastrophe, is at large on the new world, plotting how he can transfer his plans for world domination to the planet he now finds himself on - Earth. 

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