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On 3 July 1985 Back to the Future was released.
The film tells the story of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, played by Michael J Fox, who is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-travelling DeLorean car invented by his friend, Doc Brown.
The screenplay for the genre-bending story was rejected 40 times, but it became a Hollywood blockbuster, dominating contemporary culture and bringing its leading actor worldwide fame.
The film’s co-writer and producer, Bob Gale takes Josephine McDermott back to 1985, reflecting on how in the first draft of the script the time machine was a refrigerator and Einstein the dog was a chimp.
With movie excerpts from the 1985 Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and U-Drive productions film, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
(Photo: Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
By BBC World Service4.5
897897 ratings
On 3 July 1985 Back to the Future was released.
The film tells the story of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, played by Michael J Fox, who is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-travelling DeLorean car invented by his friend, Doc Brown.
The screenplay for the genre-bending story was rejected 40 times, but it became a Hollywood blockbuster, dominating contemporary culture and bringing its leading actor worldwide fame.
The film’s co-writer and producer, Bob Gale takes Josephine McDermott back to 1985, reflecting on how in the first draft of the script the time machine was a refrigerator and Einstein the dog was a chimp.
With movie excerpts from the 1985 Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and U-Drive productions film, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
(Photo: Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

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