When you've made it your actual job to dissect television, it's clear that most of it's basically the same, with only loose variations on all the standard cliches and structures. That cannot be said of 3-2-1; ITV's Ted Rogers fronted game show ...
2021-10-14 23:00:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Starsky & Hutch is the most 1970's American thing that exists, with a wah-wah heavy funk soundtrack, an iconic car, chunky knitwear like what Giles Brandreth would wear to a swingers party, and a jive-talkin' pimp so loveable, he presumably...
2021-10-04 23:00:59 +0000 UTC View Post
In my role of dissecting 90's TV which seemed fine at the time, but now feels completely unhinged, Gladiators sits as the suspiciously-vascular elephant in the room. On the surface, it's an odd omission, as there's nothing more on-brand, as a h...
2021-09-14 23:00:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Continuing our root around in the Saturday morning shows, it's back to 1984, when Star Wars was still hot shit, so ITV stuck Tommy Boyd in a spaceship. Think The Mandalorian, except instead of Baby Yoda, Boyd's tiny sidekick is Bonnie ...
2021-09-04 23:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostWherein the Keymaster meets the Gatekeeper(s)
2021-08-24 15:14:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Continuing our run of Saturday morning shows, the cursed bog of YouTube has burped up another bone with 1996's WOW!; a true forgotten example of the genre, even carrying the excitement of the Bad Influence! exclamation mark, and with ...
To quote myself in my previous piece on the pair: “Against all good judgement, I'm really curious to what that final series looked like, being that the format wore itself out before episode one was over.â€
The leap between seventies co...
2021-08-05 23:00:56 +0000 UTC View Post
There's not been a great history of televised board game adaptations. Over the years, American viewers have 'enjoyed' short-lived onscreen runs of Monopoly, Boggle, and The Game of Life, while Brits were mostly limited to ...
2021-07-16 23:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post
"The Lady Corrinne"
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Theme is Comascape - Chant, licensed under Creative Commons 3.0. The rest of the music and SFX are via freesound.org.
2021-07-07 15:23:20 +0000 UTC View Post
Opening titles of the 1997-98 series have Dominik Diamond asleep on the couch in a filthy living room, dreaming a nightmare sprint down an endless tunnel of GamesMaster settings past, eventually bursting though a door into a tropical island par...
2021-07-06 23:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
In part one, we examined ITV's Summertime Special, so now it's the BBC's turn, with Seaside Special. However, I must begin on a devastating note. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, certain footage just refuses to be found. Often â€...
2021-06-16 23:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
When clocks change and the days get longer, it's not called British Summertime for nothing. What's more emblematic of this sceptred isle than humping a load of sandwiches and towels down to the coast on an overly-expensive train, before having to shelte...
2021-06-06 23:00:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Since I made it my business to cover the very worst in pop culture, I've built up a list of Holy Grails, which have so far been impossible to track down. Bobby Davro's Rock with Laughter. Lynne Perrie's softcore/comedy workout video. All 27-hou...
2021-05-17 23:00:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Though this series is more recent than the usual stuff on here, it crops up from time to time, as a query from those still awake after 1am with the telly on at the start of the millennium, existing as fleeting, half-remembered fragments, which linger li...
2021-05-07 23:00:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Having tackled Treasure Hunt, it would be remiss of me not to cover Interceptor, which was very much a sister show; albeit the much less successful black sheep sister, turning up to grandfather's funeral with a wild hangover, and falli...
2021-04-17 23:09:07 +0000 UTC View Post
When writing about a certain type of comic performer, there's a phrase all media is obligated to use, or else the Secret Critic Police will kick in the doors and drag them off to the gulags. There's even an ancient proverb about it – “If wild expres...
2021-04-07 23:04:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Metal Mickey was a notable figure during my time as a small boy, due to his fitting solidly within that best and most formative of all categories – things I liked but was also a bit afraid of. I think it was the voice; clanging and metallic, like a gh...
2021-03-19 00:00:31 +0000 UTC View Post
"William"
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Theme is Comascape - Chant, licensed under Creative Commons 3.0. The rest of the music and SFX are via freesound.org.
2021-03-17 17:03:42 +0000 UTC View Post
As I try to find my way back home, wandering lost through the ill-lit subterranean tunnels of British variety, it's clear the 1980s were a boom period for puppet sidekicks, and 40 years on, the big boys of felt 'n' stuffing remain household names; Orvil...
2021-03-09 00:01:13 +0000 UTC View Post
David Gest first attracted the attention of British audiences through his status as former Mr. Liza Minnelli, as seen in their all-time great wedding photo, where the happy couple stood alongside Liz Taylor, best man Michael Jackson, and Martine McCutch...
2021-02-17 00:05:03 +0000 UTC View Post
