Suitably Dressed

I went into Harrow to buy the additional clothes for today's pub golf as planned where I bumped into Chris, and Phil Harris who had already brought quite a few things including polo shirts and gloves.

I went into one of the nearby sports shops and bought a baseball cap which I hope will come in useful and then went into St Anns and to HMV.

Whilst in there I bought a couple of DVDs, one of them being Doctor Who and Genesis Of The Daleks from 1975.
I have the episode on VHS as part of a special boxset released in 2001, but it's good to finally have it one DVD which contains two hour long documentaries that I'm looking forward to seeing as well as a commentary by Tom Baker, Lis Sladen, and Peter Miles who appeared in the episode as Nyder.

There's also a selection of BBC continuity which I imagine will include the repeats on BBC 2 in January 1993 when they showed some of the older episodes as part of the series' 30th anniversary. Alongside Stingray and The Man From U.N.C.L.E this made the perfect Friday evening line up in the early 90s.

Other episodes that were shown included Jon Pertwee's "The Daemons", Peter Davison's final episode "The Caves Of Androzani", and Colin Baker's "Revelation Of The Daleks" although this was split into four parts rather than showing the two 45 minute episodes as originally transmitted.
The concept didn't last long however and was one of the many cutbacks to the series made by Michael Grade after it's 18 month absence, along with the exterior scenes to be shot on video tape.

The Sylvester McCoy episode that was repeated in April 1993 was "Battlefield" which at the time I can remember getting exicited about because I hadn't seen the opening titles for five years and it was a bit unnerving after all that time.
Still my favourite set though.

I can remember watching the first episode as we were at my Mum's parents house and Granny at the time worked as a classroom assistant at a primary school and said
"That girl, I'm sure I've seen her presenting "Words And Pictures".

I'm hoping the DVD of the episode I bought last week contains the BBC 2 continuity for that, although it's possible that they'll have the original BBC 1 continuity from September 1989.

The other DVD I brought was one that I've been longing to buy for a long time, Series 1 and 2 of Spaced which oddly enough, I've never seen before
despite being a fan of Simon Pegg.

This leads on to one of my favourite comedy sketches and send ups from Red Nose Day 2003, the "lost episode" of Blankety Blank from 1981 featuring Willie Rushton played by Nick Frost, Su Pollard played by Matt Lucas, Ruth Madoc by David Walliams,
Martin Freeman as Johnny Rotten, Simon Pegg as Freddie Starr,
and Sarah Alexander playing Liza Goddard.

Also appearing are Stirling Gallagher from The Office as the female contestant, with Kevin Eldon playing the male one, and best of all Peter Serafinowicz as Terry Wogan.

Whilst it's all done well, I don't like how they've missed the opportunity for the voiceover to go
"And here's your host on..."

"#Blankety Blank!"

V/O "Terry Wogan!"

in the same way as the original show.

Kevin Eldon is the funniest in this sketch proving once again that he really knows
how to swear for comedic effect by doing it at the right time.
In this case finding out that he hasn't won the "chauffeur" as played by Paul Putner.

Whilst that was clearly a send up, rather dirt goings on actually happened on the show itself as shown in this clip from one of the BBC VT Xmas tapes with "mic bender" Kenny Everett.

Two years earlier, most of the cast members appeared in a very well made spoof of Popstars called "Popsters" which I was impressed with considering it was made so soon after the TV series had aired.
In fact it hadn't even finished as Hear'say had just released "Pure And Simple"
that week and Myleene was gunged earlier on CBBC's Red Nose Day coverage.

In this equally amusing sketch Rowan Atkinson stars as Neville Logo one of the judges, whilst Sarah Alexander appears as a Nicki Chapman esque character.
Lenny Henry appears as one of the contestants, whilst Peter Serafinowicz plays "Cassius"
a send up of the man who would actually go onto having a platinum album.

Also look out for Howard Goodall who appears as the piano player in the sketch.

Ironically Kate Winslett who appears in the sketch actually went on to have a
top ten single at the end of the year with the rather dirgeful "What If".

There's also an appearance by the ever stunning Debra Stevenson who would later go onto show off her vocal talents in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy in 2005.

I doubt they'll be doing one this year however, due to the BBC's rules forbidding phone in votes in aid of charity.

I also like Anthea Turner's brilliant take on the girl who swore at the camera
in the original show.
I'd imagine she recorded that bit before entering the Big Brother house.

Oddly enough I would have actually liked to have read her infamous autobiography
"Fools Rush In" to find out what really went on with Bruno Brookes.
I can understand why the book got bad publicity as it was not long after "Flakegate".

Paul Merton made a brilliant joke on Room 101 when Anne Robinson apart from the Welsh, wanted to put shouty children's presenters into Room 101 with the example shown being a young Vernon Kay on the Saturday morning show "FBi".

Paul described the career of a children's presenter as "starting off on Blue Peter, then moving to Saturday mornings, onto Top Of The Pops and then you advertise chocolate on your wedding".

On a similar note Jonathan Ross on his part of Red Nose Day 2001 described his section of the show as "more exiciting than a Cardiff pub brawl with Anne Robinson".

Here's hoping this years Red Nose Day will be just as memorable as they really put a lot of effort when it comes to getting the finest comedy performers as proved in the above clips.