Pretty much a staying in sort of state as always where I finally managed to start re-reading Tony Blackburn's autobiography whilst listening to some more Shakatak albums I haven't yet listened to.
I'm certainly getting through the book quicker than I thought I would and I'm surprised with the amount of things I agree with him on, apart from being a vegetarian of course.
These include his views on the Musician's Union being responsible for the poor state of British Radio over the years, people who get too fanatical about religion, and probably most important of all, how some of the best broadcasters are or were in fact shy people who tended to save everything for when they were on their own in front of the microphone.
Tony obviously being a key example himself, but the ones he refers to were the likes of Kenny Everett and Alan "Fluff" Freeman.
I definitely remember the latter but was born at too young an age to appreciate Kenny for what he was best at, as by the early 90s he was reduced to being one of the team captains on Mike Smith's "That's Showbusiness" and was one of many demoted to Capital Gold as far as his radio career was concerned.
Definitely an untimely loss.
Another colleague who Tony goes onto talk about was a lesser regarded broadcaster, that being Simon Dee who fell down the pan after he got too big for his boots and let success go to his head when transferring from radio to television with his chat show.
People compare him a lot with Chris Evans, but Evans has re-invented himself and is still presenting a daily radio show on the UK's most listened to station, where the nearest that Simon Dee had in terms of a revival was a dreadful one off epsiode of "Dee Time" shown by Channel 4 in December 2003 and overseen by Victor Lewis-Smith.
Tony also talks about how despite a great love for music, he's never claimed to be a detailed expert and has no shame in venting in his spleen on John Peel and the sort of records he played.
Even resorting to nicknames such as ELP (Emerson Lake and Palmer) being "Extremely Loud and Pretentious" whilst he labels Led Zeppelin
as "Lead Balloon".
I'd definitely agree with the last one as I've never understood their hype and if they really are as good as everyone says.
They only really had three memorable tunes and I would probably end up falling asleep during one of their many albums.
He also mentions that he wasn't into bands and performers of the category "music with a message" preferring acts such as Gary Glitter who at the time lived on just making really good fun pop songs.
Although nowadays it appears that a lot of his music really did have a hidden message.
Tone also lists some of his favourite records from the late 60s with one of them being "You'll Never Get To Heaven" by Dionne Warwick, and it appears I'm not the only one who thinks her version of "Anyone Who Had A Heart" is a thousand times better than Cilla Black.
He also suggests that Burt Bacharach should start writing songs for Joss Stone as he thought that most of her songs were pretty weak.
Although Joss did perform a version of "Alfie" from the Jude Law remake which for me was bloody awful.
Especially after hearing Ron Isley's brilliant interpretation on the much overlooked album by him and Burt from 2003.
The Joss Stone version actually resulted in a rather large raccas between myself and Hannah, the helper I had with me in New York in 2005, when the film was shown on the plane and I vented my spleen about the song.
I've now reached the part of the book where Tony goes onto talk about being demoted from the breakfast show in favour of Noel Edmonds in 1973, and how things started to get really awkward by the end of the decade.
I also managed to watch the final episode of Newswipe With Charlie Brooker where for the final show it took a look at how Election Coverage has got worse in terms of patronising the audience and increasing tackiness, even with the departure of Peter Snow.
Best of all was a section about the fuss surrounding Susan Boyle and I'm glad I barely watch the news myself on a daily basis as I probably wouldn't be here writing this post if that had been the case.
Charlie summed it up perfectly when it showed a clip of the patronising Mary Nightingale on News At Ten saying that "the voice and the life story have managed to lift the spirits of millions during tough economic times",
followed by Charlie's response sticking his middle finger at the TV screen and retorting "Oh fuck you"
That should speak for all of us with regards to what we're really thinking and I may end up smashing that framed photo of Mary Nightingale in M-Block where she's stood with lecturer Geoffrey Davies.
The series has managed to prove that not only is the news itself bad,
but so are those on television who present it.
Definitely one to watch on iPlayer.
Good Night.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Jingle Jaunts: Radio Aire
Here we go then, yet another dissection of a radio stations history, in the first of a series of stations who won't be taken over or rebranded, but deserve some sort of nostalgic wallow.
And this time being the ideal time to do so whilst I've got plenty of spare time before I finally leave Harrow Halls.
The first port of call on my jaunting is Leeds' very own commercial station
Radio Aire, launched in 1981 and broadcasting to the big city
(appropriately enough) to this day.
And as a lot of people on my radio course past and present hail from the area, I thought I'd attempt to find out more about the station that they would have listened to at one time or other.
Remember, this isn't historic or factual account of the station in detail, and is written entirely on my own point of view paying specific attention to the jingles themselves.
And if anyone's got any additional information/corrections, or extra audio then you're more than welcome to help out as always.
Radio Aire began broadcasting in September 1981, with BBC Radio Leeds covering the West Yorkshire area for almost 15 years prior to launch.
The first jingle package was one by a little known company by the name of Crocodile Music where the main theme can be heard here. From my own personal perspective there's a hint of David Arnold in the jingles themselves in terms of the brass, although Aire never went to the man himself for a custom package in their 25+ years on the air.
Anyway here's the rest of them.
1981 Jingles - Crocodile Music
Presenters around the time included Peter Levy who went on to become a familiar face on the BBC's Look North, James Whale who joined the station in it's second year having previously presented at Metro Radio in the North East, and Andy Kershaw on one of his first rungs on the broadcasting ladder.
Top voice over artist Bill Mitchell was brought in to provide some spoken liners which can be heard below.
Radio Aire Bill Mitchell Liners
1983 saw the disposal of the original jingles (but not on a long term basis) in favour of these cuts from an unknown company, with a very synthy 80s sound.
If anyone knows who produced them, it would be very helpful.
Radio Aire 1983 Jingles
A year later they had another package produced, this time by David Reilly and as the lyrics suggest was specially made for use in 1984 on it's own. It's quite a nice orchestral theme with really good vocals although I've never understood the principle aim of the package with regards to the year.
1984 Jingles - David Reilly
In a bizarre twist of fate, 1985 saw a return to the original 1981 package for a few more years.
The late 80s saw what many jingle fans would consider to be one of Aire's
best packages, courtesy of Muff Murfin's Standard Sound based in Worcester.
The programme controller around this time was one Christa Ackroyd, formerly
the station's head of news and by 1990 would be one of the main presenters
of YTV's Calendar for 11 years before crossing over to Look North.
This consisted of custom cuts, as well as resings of cuts from TM's US packages such as "Rock Solid" and Murfin's Capital Radio 1984 custom including the traffic jingle at 8.47.
1987 Jingles - TM/Standard Sound
Although the audio quality on the MP3 isn't 100%, it doesn't add an advantage to the fact that I think the vocals are too aggressive (as per normal for a Muff Murfin package) and in places are poorly sung. One key example being "Radio Aire Main Event" bed at 3.57 which many have misinterpreted as "Radio Aire Merry Men".
There's also that dodgy "Heading Into The 90s" cut at 1.55 although thankfully it wasn't a signifier of the jingles that were to come.
In line with many independent local radio stations, Radio Aire split frequencies in 1990 to become Aire FM on 96.3, and Magic 828 on AM.
There was initally a poor reception on FM due to the "More Music" format and quite a few listeners stayed loyal to AM where a few of Aire's more maturer presenters had moved.
Aire FM had it's first JAM jingle package which was a resing of the much used
KIIS 90 package.
Aire FM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions
In line with many other US influnced FM stations in the UK, American voiceovers were used in line with the sung jingles, with Aire using JR Nelson.
One such liner that I'm not sure made it to broadcast, can be heard here.
Magic 828's were from Century 21's "Classic Oldies" package which many jingle fans regard to be the best resing of said package for a UK station.
Magic 828 1990 - Century 21
Shortly after they went to TM with US vocals resung from a package called "The Magic Of Boston" which fitted in nicely.
Magic 828 1990 Jingles - TM Productions
Two years later Aire returned to JAM for another package, this time for a resing of "The Beat" for Los Angeles urban station "FM 92 The Beat" which brought back the original name to the station's jingles as "Radio Aire FM".
One of my favourite JAM packages around this time which has some superb solos and a brilliant weather bed, even if it does sound like something from
the Dirty Dancing movie.
Radio Aire FM 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions
Chris Moyles had been at the station for a few years and can be heard in
this clip using the fantastic hour opener as uncovered by JK and Joel at Radio 1
a few years ago.
Whether a jingle as lively and uptempo as that works for a love songs show is debateable.
I refer you to Chris's comments about love song shows on the radio in his 2006 autobiography where he gets it spot on.
Aire went to TM Century in 1994 with a fantastic composite of cuts from "The New WPLJ", "Y-98 FM" and "Dallas Power".
I haven't got the whole package as such at the time of writing, but here's a selection as posted last year by fellow JingleMad member Neal Bowden.
Radio Aire FM 1994 Jingles - TM Century
Another fellow jingle fan and Yorkshire resident Martin Simm once mentioned how the second cut in the above montage was used as part of a fireworks display or something or other on an outside broadcast which would have looked great from a visual sense.
In addition to them there's also a selection of cuts done for Carl Kingston who was a mainstay of Radio Aire for many years, also including a few cuts making use of the earlier JAM packages.
More changes were ahead in 1995 as the programme controller had heard a package by LA based company Groove Addicts for BRMB in Birmingham and wanted to have it done for Aire FM.
However it cost too much money to have it resung so Aire turned to local production company Mezzo who did the theme music for James Whale's ITV Nighttime Show and they came up with the example below which worked well.
Aire FM 1995 Jingles - Mezzo
Impressed by the first effort, more were commisioned with the new on air name "The New 96.3 Aire FM" and a vibrant and uptempo selection of cuts including ones that sounded like Livin' Joy, and another sounding very similar to Incognito.
Around this time Bruno Brookes had joined the station as one of their presenters after being dropped by Radio 1.
Aire FM 1996 Jingles - Music Force
Jingles then made a disapearance from both Aire and Magic from the late 90s
into the early 90s until around 2001 when Aire FM rebranded back to Radio Aire.
They intitially had a jingle package by Reelworld resung from the Kiss 100 custom from the London dance station, which was followed by a resing of a package for Kiss 108 FM in Boston.
2003 Jingles - Reelworld
2006 saw a new custom package in time for the station's 25th anniversary produced in the UK by Wise Buddah. The package included two cuts for Simon Logan's breakfast show and I bet he told the guys at the company to make it as close as they could to their jingle for Chris Evans' Radio 2 show.
2006 Jingles - Wise Buddah
And I had to upload this from Martin Kelner's podcast where he was invited to Radio Aire's 25th birthday do in September that year which included a brilliant speech by James Whale. (Contains strong language)
A good excuse to also upload the song "Bimbo" which was released as a single at the height of the shows success around 1989.
Which brings us pretty much up to date where the station brought some more jingles by Wise Buddah in 2008 picking up from the themes established from a couple of years earlier.
2008 Jingles - Wise Buddah
Overall a diverse insight into the jingles that made up the station sound of one of the UK's most recognised commercial radio stations.
Credit to David Hemsley, Steve Maguire, Sean Martin, Christian Spooner,
Mark Hodgkinson, Aston McNeil, Martin Simm, Neal Bowden,
and Dave Nightingale.
And special mention to Rob Thornton who I'm sure would have been very appreciative of this post, being a man who lived in the area and was a really helpful jingle collector.
And this time being the ideal time to do so whilst I've got plenty of spare time before I finally leave Harrow Halls.
The first port of call on my jaunting is Leeds' very own commercial station
Radio Aire, launched in 1981 and broadcasting to the big city
(appropriately enough) to this day.
And as a lot of people on my radio course past and present hail from the area, I thought I'd attempt to find out more about the station that they would have listened to at one time or other.
Remember, this isn't historic or factual account of the station in detail, and is written entirely on my own point of view paying specific attention to the jingles themselves.
And if anyone's got any additional information/corrections, or extra audio then you're more than welcome to help out as always.
Radio Aire began broadcasting in September 1981, with BBC Radio Leeds covering the West Yorkshire area for almost 15 years prior to launch.
The first jingle package was one by a little known company by the name of Crocodile Music where the main theme can be heard here. From my own personal perspective there's a hint of David Arnold in the jingles themselves in terms of the brass, although Aire never went to the man himself for a custom package in their 25+ years on the air.
Anyway here's the rest of them.
1981 Jingles - Crocodile Music
Presenters around the time included Peter Levy who went on to become a familiar face on the BBC's Look North, James Whale who joined the station in it's second year having previously presented at Metro Radio in the North East, and Andy Kershaw on one of his first rungs on the broadcasting ladder.
Top voice over artist Bill Mitchell was brought in to provide some spoken liners which can be heard below.
Radio Aire Bill Mitchell Liners
1983 saw the disposal of the original jingles (but not on a long term basis) in favour of these cuts from an unknown company, with a very synthy 80s sound.
If anyone knows who produced them, it would be very helpful.
Radio Aire 1983 Jingles
A year later they had another package produced, this time by David Reilly and as the lyrics suggest was specially made for use in 1984 on it's own. It's quite a nice orchestral theme with really good vocals although I've never understood the principle aim of the package with regards to the year.
1984 Jingles - David Reilly
In a bizarre twist of fate, 1985 saw a return to the original 1981 package for a few more years.
The late 80s saw what many jingle fans would consider to be one of Aire's
best packages, courtesy of Muff Murfin's Standard Sound based in Worcester.
The programme controller around this time was one Christa Ackroyd, formerly
the station's head of news and by 1990 would be one of the main presenters
of YTV's Calendar for 11 years before crossing over to Look North.
This consisted of custom cuts, as well as resings of cuts from TM's US packages such as "Rock Solid" and Murfin's Capital Radio 1984 custom including the traffic jingle at 8.47.
1987 Jingles - TM/Standard Sound
Although the audio quality on the MP3 isn't 100%, it doesn't add an advantage to the fact that I think the vocals are too aggressive (as per normal for a Muff Murfin package) and in places are poorly sung. One key example being "Radio Aire Main Event" bed at 3.57 which many have misinterpreted as "Radio Aire Merry Men".
There's also that dodgy "Heading Into The 90s" cut at 1.55 although thankfully it wasn't a signifier of the jingles that were to come.
In line with many independent local radio stations, Radio Aire split frequencies in 1990 to become Aire FM on 96.3, and Magic 828 on AM.
There was initally a poor reception on FM due to the "More Music" format and quite a few listeners stayed loyal to AM where a few of Aire's more maturer presenters had moved.
Aire FM had it's first JAM jingle package which was a resing of the much used
KIIS 90 package.
Aire FM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions
In line with many other US influnced FM stations in the UK, American voiceovers were used in line with the sung jingles, with Aire using JR Nelson.
One such liner that I'm not sure made it to broadcast, can be heard here.
Magic 828's were from Century 21's "Classic Oldies" package which many jingle fans regard to be the best resing of said package for a UK station.
Magic 828 1990 - Century 21
Shortly after they went to TM with US vocals resung from a package called "The Magic Of Boston" which fitted in nicely.
Magic 828 1990 Jingles - TM Productions
Two years later Aire returned to JAM for another package, this time for a resing of "The Beat" for Los Angeles urban station "FM 92 The Beat" which brought back the original name to the station's jingles as "Radio Aire FM".
One of my favourite JAM packages around this time which has some superb solos and a brilliant weather bed, even if it does sound like something from
the Dirty Dancing movie.
Radio Aire FM 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions
Chris Moyles had been at the station for a few years and can be heard in
this clip using the fantastic hour opener as uncovered by JK and Joel at Radio 1
a few years ago.
Whether a jingle as lively and uptempo as that works for a love songs show is debateable.
I refer you to Chris's comments about love song shows on the radio in his 2006 autobiography where he gets it spot on.
Aire went to TM Century in 1994 with a fantastic composite of cuts from "The New WPLJ", "Y-98 FM" and "Dallas Power".
I haven't got the whole package as such at the time of writing, but here's a selection as posted last year by fellow JingleMad member Neal Bowden.
Radio Aire FM 1994 Jingles - TM Century
Another fellow jingle fan and Yorkshire resident Martin Simm once mentioned how the second cut in the above montage was used as part of a fireworks display or something or other on an outside broadcast which would have looked great from a visual sense.
In addition to them there's also a selection of cuts done for Carl Kingston who was a mainstay of Radio Aire for many years, also including a few cuts making use of the earlier JAM packages.
More changes were ahead in 1995 as the programme controller had heard a package by LA based company Groove Addicts for BRMB in Birmingham and wanted to have it done for Aire FM.
However it cost too much money to have it resung so Aire turned to local production company Mezzo who did the theme music for James Whale's ITV Nighttime Show and they came up with the example below which worked well.
Aire FM 1995 Jingles - Mezzo
Impressed by the first effort, more were commisioned with the new on air name "The New 96.3 Aire FM" and a vibrant and uptempo selection of cuts including ones that sounded like Livin' Joy, and another sounding very similar to Incognito.
Around this time Bruno Brookes had joined the station as one of their presenters after being dropped by Radio 1.
Aire FM 1996 Jingles - Music Force
Jingles then made a disapearance from both Aire and Magic from the late 90s
into the early 90s until around 2001 when Aire FM rebranded back to Radio Aire.
They intitially had a jingle package by Reelworld resung from the Kiss 100 custom from the London dance station, which was followed by a resing of a package for Kiss 108 FM in Boston.
2003 Jingles - Reelworld
2006 saw a new custom package in time for the station's 25th anniversary produced in the UK by Wise Buddah. The package included two cuts for Simon Logan's breakfast show and I bet he told the guys at the company to make it as close as they could to their jingle for Chris Evans' Radio 2 show.
2006 Jingles - Wise Buddah
And I had to upload this from Martin Kelner's podcast where he was invited to Radio Aire's 25th birthday do in September that year which included a brilliant speech by James Whale. (Contains strong language)
A good excuse to also upload the song "Bimbo" which was released as a single at the height of the shows success around 1989.
Which brings us pretty much up to date where the station brought some more jingles by Wise Buddah in 2008 picking up from the themes established from a couple of years earlier.
2008 Jingles - Wise Buddah
Overall a diverse insight into the jingles that made up the station sound of one of the UK's most recognised commercial radio stations.
Credit to David Hemsley, Steve Maguire, Sean Martin, Christian Spooner,
Mark Hodgkinson, Aston McNeil, Martin Simm, Neal Bowden,
and Dave Nightingale.
And special mention to Rob Thornton who I'm sure would have been very appreciative of this post, being a man who lived in the area and was a really helpful jingle collector.
Reactivated But Still Suffering From Drink Thieves
I've sorted out the problem with the cooker in next door's kitchen, but it hasn't stopped by unopened bottle of fizzy orange going walkabout.
I'm definitely buying some post it notes tomorrow when I do my Friday morning shopping to avoid the fire alarm testing, and if they continue to go missing then
I'll make sure that the occupants of Flat 22 will suffer from thirst.
Anyway the cooker tends to bugger up whenever the stupid amount of appliances (including two toasters) overloads the circuit. However it can easily be sorted and I know where to come if it happens again.
I am going to stuff myself stupid with a delicious chilli in about an hour or so
and hopefully endure in Tone's autobiography for the rest of tonight.
Mainly because the rest of today has been busy sorting stuff out for the next post which should provide many radio anoraks up North with some entertainment.
I'm definitely buying some post it notes tomorrow when I do my Friday morning shopping to avoid the fire alarm testing, and if they continue to go missing then
I'll make sure that the occupants of Flat 22 will suffer from thirst.
Anyway the cooker tends to bugger up whenever the stupid amount of appliances (including two toasters) overloads the circuit. However it can easily be sorted and I know where to come if it happens again.
I am going to stuff myself stupid with a delicious chilli in about an hour or so
and hopefully endure in Tone's autobiography for the rest of tonight.
Mainly because the rest of today has been busy sorting stuff out for the next post which should provide many radio anoraks up North with some entertainment.
Bootings And Blackburn
Morning.
A bit overcast this morning but it's not the worst that I've seen.
Last night's Apprentice got really heated where Noorul got booted although really it should have been Ben as he was acting like an arse throughout, with them answering back and arguing with each other.
It will be interesting to hear how Chris Moyles' will take on it this week with the usual editing of clips etc.
On a similar note, with the amount of Tweets from people moaning about others giving the show away on Twitter.
On a similar note Tony Blackburn has made a comment on Twitter saying
that he's bored with the show for doing the same thing again and again.
Well 'Tone, that's easy for you to say.
One key member is missing from today's Chris Moyles' show as newsreader Dom is absent, with Tulip Mazumdar standing in.
Although in all honesty I can barely tell the difference between her
and any other female Newsbeat reporter.
Then again that was more or less the case in the days of Malorie Gell
and Jane Markham.
I may actually make a start on re-reading Tony Blackburn's autobiography sometime today, and I'll probably be able to make it out a lot better than I did when I brought the book 18 months ago.
If I can stomach the idea, I may even search out for his mate "Diddy" David Hamilton's autobiography published around the time he left Radio 2 due to their format change in 1986.
And his career's more or less gone downhill since.
A bit overcast this morning but it's not the worst that I've seen.
Last night's Apprentice got really heated where Noorul got booted although really it should have been Ben as he was acting like an arse throughout, with them answering back and arguing with each other.
It will be interesting to hear how Chris Moyles' will take on it this week with the usual editing of clips etc.
On a similar note, with the amount of Tweets from people moaning about others giving the show away on Twitter.
On a similar note Tony Blackburn has made a comment on Twitter saying
that he's bored with the show for doing the same thing again and again.
Well 'Tone, that's easy for you to say.
One key member is missing from today's Chris Moyles' show as newsreader Dom is absent, with Tulip Mazumdar standing in.
Although in all honesty I can barely tell the difference between her
and any other female Newsbeat reporter.
Then again that was more or less the case in the days of Malorie Gell
and Jane Markham.
I may actually make a start on re-reading Tony Blackburn's autobiography sometime today, and I'll probably be able to make it out a lot better than I did when I brought the book 18 months ago.
If I can stomach the idea, I may even search out for his mate "Diddy" David Hamilton's autobiography published around the time he left Radio 2 due to their format change in 1986.
And his career's more or less gone downhill since.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Unnecessary Starving
The cooker in my flat still isn't working, and I'm sticking to what I said at the end of tonight's radio show when saying that if the cooker wasn't sorted, their won't be a CD player in the reception tomorrow morning.
I may need to stock up on microwave curries and spag bols if this continues any longer, and I pray that they don't get stolen.
I ended up doing a longer show tonight after Max DMC didn't show up without saying he would be absent or why he was absent.
It was just as well it was longer as there were so many Positive Pairings I wanted to play with two back to back tracks each from the likes of Level 42, Rasmus Faber, and best of all Jazztronik which I had been waiting to play for a long while.
Definitely worth the extra half hour.
Rather surprisingly only Potty and Alice were up in RP1 out of all the second year students who's podcasting assignment is due in on Friday. They've definitely got commitment considering them and many others have the dreaded Media Law exam tomorrow afternoon which R Sarah Smith from the third year will also be enduring.
With all my own personal stress continuing, my plan for the rest of the night is to finally read Noel Edmond's "Positively Happy" looking at "cosmic" but not cultish ways to enjoy life on a more positive angle.
Oh yes, I will be positive when the halls staff get their act together.
I may need to stock up on microwave curries and spag bols if this continues any longer, and I pray that they don't get stolen.
I ended up doing a longer show tonight after Max DMC didn't show up without saying he would be absent or why he was absent.
It was just as well it was longer as there were so many Positive Pairings I wanted to play with two back to back tracks each from the likes of Level 42, Rasmus Faber, and best of all Jazztronik which I had been waiting to play for a long while.
Definitely worth the extra half hour.
Rather surprisingly only Potty and Alice were up in RP1 out of all the second year students who's podcasting assignment is due in on Friday. They've definitely got commitment considering them and many others have the dreaded Media Law exam tomorrow afternoon which R Sarah Smith from the third year will also be enduring.
With all my own personal stress continuing, my plan for the rest of the night is to finally read Noel Edmond's "Positively Happy" looking at "cosmic" but not cultish ways to enjoy life on a more positive angle.
Oh yes, I will be positive when the halls staff get their act together.
Rummaging But Not Stealing. Yet.
I'm up to here with the kitchens being moved and refurbished. More of my stuff has gone missing from the fridge and I'm very tempted to get them back if I find anything in their fridge or cupboards that I like.
If they're going to get petty with me than they deserved a taste of their own medicine, with deadly substances.
Or alternatively, I may take everything out of their fridge
and see how they like it, the tight c***s.
Anyway, as you'd expect today has barely been productive at all with even more rummaging, and what you could call nostalgic at that as I've found a few VHS's going back almost a decade ago containing presentation from CBBC and T4 from April 2000. Easter Sunday in fact.
CBBC back then was hosted by Michael Underwood and Ana Boulter, Michael had been there for almost exactly a year after winning the chance to present via Gaby Roslin's "Whatever You Want" whilst Ana was going out with Chris Moyles at the time.
Also making a brief apperance was Otis The Aardvark's short lived replacement "Emlyn The Gremlin", although on the subject of Otis I plan to refer to him on tonight's show via a Matt Bianco record.
If can remember any of my earlier posts rambling about the Broom Cupboard I think you'll know what it will be about.
It was rather surpising to see shows like "Potsworth And Company" still shown, 10 years after it first appeared as one of the BBC's rare co-productions with Hanna Barbera.
It had a really good theme tune though.
T4 on the other hand was hosted by Dermot and Margharita and it's a shame Margs didn't that much telly after leaving as I thought she did really well on that show.
Then again T4 was probably her best telly that she had presented so I'm guessing she didn't want to go overboard after leaving, in the same way as Anthea Turner after Blue Peter.
The programmes shown were really good too such as a documentary set on an American fat camp called "The F*# Word" which generated mixed reactions between viewers as to whether such places should exist on either sides of the Atlantic.
There was also "Bits" where three lovely women reviewed video games, and Planet Pop which by this time had Lauren Laverne presenting in what was her first TV show as a presenter.
I wasn't too sure of her at the time but nowadays with appearances on programmes like "The Culture Show" and "Mock The Week" she's definitely one of my favourites.
Planet Pop itself was really good as well as it tended to shun acts like Steps and S Club in favour for more cutting edge but not too underground acts such as Mos Def, and MJ Cole who along with vocalist Elizabeth Troy had just released the UK garage stunner "Crazy Love".
Lauren left the show after 6 months to record a solo album, so in her place were the recently introduced Scott Mills who did pretty well on the programme,
and a surprise return for T4 founder presenter Ben Shephard.
6 months after that it was dropped altogether and replaced with Popworld which really did change the face of such shows on youth television.
The musical guests in the T4 studio itself (or the Channel 4 entrance to be more specific) included another to garage act Sweet Female Attitude with the delightful "Flowers", and Billie Piper who promoted her song "Day And Night" which R Sophie used to have as her ringtone.
Overall it's a nice reminder of the days when T4 was broadcast live, and was less forced and overblown with celebrity/nonentities, whereas now it's full of forced pre-recorded links, dodgy US teen imports, and the 5 hour Hollyoaks omnibus.
Moving onwards, the tape also had a few things from a few months earlier around Xmas 1999 including the Christmas Eve edition of the Big Breakfast with Johnny and Liza.
This was the final live show of the year as the following week would have pre-recorded shows as per normal at Christmas which were recorded before Liza had her haircut which more or less added to the nature of the show.
As Christmas Eve was on a Friday that year, they did the Friday Song as per normal which contained verses about Cliff Richard being knocked off the Xmas Number 1 slot by Westlife, and Neil Hamilton losing his libel action against Mohammad Al Fayed.
As the show was broadcast an hour later, they changed the last line of the chorus to "Stay tuned from 8 til 10 and you'll be fine" although everyone else was still singing "And stick with us from 7 until 9".
Tonight's the final Newswipe of the series where after last week's clip show, tonight will see Charlie's take on take on the Susan Boyle obsession amongst other items.
I may even do my last link on tonight's radio show in the same way
as Charlie would finish his show, mainly because I'm pretty annoyed
with a lot of things.
If they're going to get petty with me than they deserved a taste of their own medicine, with deadly substances.
Or alternatively, I may take everything out of their fridge
and see how they like it, the tight c***s.
Anyway, as you'd expect today has barely been productive at all with even more rummaging, and what you could call nostalgic at that as I've found a few VHS's going back almost a decade ago containing presentation from CBBC and T4 from April 2000. Easter Sunday in fact.
CBBC back then was hosted by Michael Underwood and Ana Boulter, Michael had been there for almost exactly a year after winning the chance to present via Gaby Roslin's "Whatever You Want" whilst Ana was going out with Chris Moyles at the time.
Also making a brief apperance was Otis The Aardvark's short lived replacement "Emlyn The Gremlin", although on the subject of Otis I plan to refer to him on tonight's show via a Matt Bianco record.
If can remember any of my earlier posts rambling about the Broom Cupboard I think you'll know what it will be about.
It was rather surpising to see shows like "Potsworth And Company" still shown, 10 years after it first appeared as one of the BBC's rare co-productions with Hanna Barbera.
It had a really good theme tune though.
T4 on the other hand was hosted by Dermot and Margharita and it's a shame Margs didn't that much telly after leaving as I thought she did really well on that show.
Then again T4 was probably her best telly that she had presented so I'm guessing she didn't want to go overboard after leaving, in the same way as Anthea Turner after Blue Peter.
The programmes shown were really good too such as a documentary set on an American fat camp called "The F*# Word" which generated mixed reactions between viewers as to whether such places should exist on either sides of the Atlantic.
There was also "Bits" where three lovely women reviewed video games, and Planet Pop which by this time had Lauren Laverne presenting in what was her first TV show as a presenter.
I wasn't too sure of her at the time but nowadays with appearances on programmes like "The Culture Show" and "Mock The Week" she's definitely one of my favourites.
Planet Pop itself was really good as well as it tended to shun acts like Steps and S Club in favour for more cutting edge but not too underground acts such as Mos Def, and MJ Cole who along with vocalist Elizabeth Troy had just released the UK garage stunner "Crazy Love".
Lauren left the show after 6 months to record a solo album, so in her place were the recently introduced Scott Mills who did pretty well on the programme,
and a surprise return for T4 founder presenter Ben Shephard.
6 months after that it was dropped altogether and replaced with Popworld which really did change the face of such shows on youth television.
The musical guests in the T4 studio itself (or the Channel 4 entrance to be more specific) included another to garage act Sweet Female Attitude with the delightful "Flowers", and Billie Piper who promoted her song "Day And Night" which R Sophie used to have as her ringtone.
Overall it's a nice reminder of the days when T4 was broadcast live, and was less forced and overblown with celebrity/nonentities, whereas now it's full of forced pre-recorded links, dodgy US teen imports, and the 5 hour Hollyoaks omnibus.
Moving onwards, the tape also had a few things from a few months earlier around Xmas 1999 including the Christmas Eve edition of the Big Breakfast with Johnny and Liza.
This was the final live show of the year as the following week would have pre-recorded shows as per normal at Christmas which were recorded before Liza had her haircut which more or less added to the nature of the show.
As Christmas Eve was on a Friday that year, they did the Friday Song as per normal which contained verses about Cliff Richard being knocked off the Xmas Number 1 slot by Westlife, and Neil Hamilton losing his libel action against Mohammad Al Fayed.
As the show was broadcast an hour later, they changed the last line of the chorus to "Stay tuned from 8 til 10 and you'll be fine" although everyone else was still singing "And stick with us from 7 until 9".
Tonight's the final Newswipe of the series where after last week's clip show, tonight will see Charlie's take on take on the Susan Boyle obsession amongst other items.
I may even do my last link on tonight's radio show in the same way
as Charlie would finish his show, mainly because I'm pretty annoyed
with a lot of things.
Revealing Television?
Morning.
Last week I wrote about children's presenter Kirsten O'Brien being one of the finest presenters who's never really tried to do anything too edgy.
However last night I was proved wrong as BBC Three broadcast a programme about the presenter attempting to become a topless model for a lads magazine.
I didn't see the programme although Chris Moyles has been mentioning it a few times on his show and judging by his reaction, it was quite an embarrassment.
I never really thought Kirsten was that much of a looker anyway as opposed to being a really good presenter.
Then again would I have watched if the programme involved Holly Willoughby doing the same?
I'll get back to you on that...
Actually come to think about it, Holly has accidentally revealed all on live television during a live edition of MoM back in 2005.
Seriously though, I get more excited about what clothes female presenters are wearing, rather than not wearing any at all.
I've no idea what today's going to involve but if the cooker stops working again, the halls management will be receiving a few words.
We are paying them rent for accommodation and to remove our kitchen and move all our stuff without telling us is utter bullshit.
The fact that all of our wares and utensils keep getting stolen isn't on, and it just goes to show how unintelligent the staff at the University of Westminster are when it comes to making decisions.
I'll get them back before the end of the year.
Last week I wrote about children's presenter Kirsten O'Brien being one of the finest presenters who's never really tried to do anything too edgy.
However last night I was proved wrong as BBC Three broadcast a programme about the presenter attempting to become a topless model for a lads magazine.
I didn't see the programme although Chris Moyles has been mentioning it a few times on his show and judging by his reaction, it was quite an embarrassment.
I never really thought Kirsten was that much of a looker anyway as opposed to being a really good presenter.
Then again would I have watched if the programme involved Holly Willoughby doing the same?
I'll get back to you on that...
Actually come to think about it, Holly has accidentally revealed all on live television during a live edition of MoM back in 2005.
Seriously though, I get more excited about what clothes female presenters are wearing, rather than not wearing any at all.
I've no idea what today's going to involve but if the cooker stops working again, the halls management will be receiving a few words.
We are paying them rent for accommodation and to remove our kitchen and move all our stuff without telling us is utter bullshit.
The fact that all of our wares and utensils keep getting stolen isn't on, and it just goes to show how unintelligent the staff at the University of Westminster are when it comes to making decisions.
I'll get them back before the end of the year.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Waiting For A Goal
Tonight was disapointing.
A 0-0 draw between Chelsea and Barcelona was the result of the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi final where as planned I watched it at the Junction.
There were barely any Chelsea supporters there, as I expected although first year TV students Bedders and Bland were present despite being both Manchester United supporters.
Luckily Jamie from first year radio was there and we chatted about a few things, namely what the next few weeks have in store for us at the station.
Apparently Luke is doing an event at Area this week alongside fellow first year Frank who's really shown his colours this year when it comes to spinning the disks.
I'm hoping that Luke will take control of Smoke's events next year as he's proven himself to be good when it comes to providing good nights at the Undercroft as well as joining forces with Max DMC for Phil's special parties.
I'd best get some shut eye now and tomorrow will be slightly more relaxed, save for the radio show later that evening.
Good Night.
A 0-0 draw between Chelsea and Barcelona was the result of the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi final where as planned I watched it at the Junction.
There were barely any Chelsea supporters there, as I expected although first year TV students Bedders and Bland were present despite being both Manchester United supporters.
Luckily Jamie from first year radio was there and we chatted about a few things, namely what the next few weeks have in store for us at the station.
Apparently Luke is doing an event at Area this week alongside fellow first year Frank who's really shown his colours this year when it comes to spinning the disks.
I'm hoping that Luke will take control of Smoke's events next year as he's proven himself to be good when it comes to providing good nights at the Undercroft as well as joining forces with Max DMC for Phil's special parties.
I'd best get some shut eye now and tomorrow will be slightly more relaxed, save for the radio show later that evening.
Good Night.
"Unconquered"? What A Load Of Bollocks
Well it's been confirmed.
The 22nd of June 2009 will be the day where the station currently known as Invicta FM will be relaunched as Kent's Heart, along with other stations including Essex FM, Southern FM, Ocean, 2CR, and Marcher Sound.
The names will probably disappear even earlier in order to pace themselves before the name change in the same way that Chiltern, GWR, and 2-Ten FM were relaunched earlier this year.
Radio Today Article
Alread many of the presenters at Invicta FM at least, are referring to it as "the Heart of Kent" which actually used to be one of 106 CTFM's straplines before it got taken over by the Kent Messenger group.
Although the good news (if that's the right term to use) will be that I will be back in the area when it all takes place although it's safe say that the damage well and truly began the Monday when I started University in September 2005, where GCap reared it's ugly head and made the station even worse than it was before leaving.
To be honest, it starting sinking the moment Neil Francis left "The Morning Zoo" in January 2000.
As expected I will definitely be posting more "Heart Attack" posts for all the jingle fans nearer the time but if you can't wait that longer, I'll attempt to post a few jingle histories in the next few days of various stations mainly up North including Hallam FM, as this Friday the 1st of May will be 20 years since it split frequencies on AM and FM.
I can imagine it being difficult times, given the role the station had to play with regards to events a few weeks earlier, but they did it well and brought the station into the 90s sounding fresh without making too many drastic changes.
Meanwhile, Radio 4 had to pull an interview with Andy Kershaw this morning from broadcast for fear of invading his family's privacy.
I really don't understand why they would make such a decision at the last minute when it has been carefully edited and checked with lawyers.
Life goes on though, and it should be time to get some light grub sorted before the Junction tonight.
The 22nd of June 2009 will be the day where the station currently known as Invicta FM will be relaunched as Kent's Heart, along with other stations including Essex FM, Southern FM, Ocean, 2CR, and Marcher Sound.
The names will probably disappear even earlier in order to pace themselves before the name change in the same way that Chiltern, GWR, and 2-Ten FM were relaunched earlier this year.
Radio Today Article
Alread many of the presenters at Invicta FM at least, are referring to it as "the Heart of Kent" which actually used to be one of 106 CTFM's straplines before it got taken over by the Kent Messenger group.
Although the good news (if that's the right term to use) will be that I will be back in the area when it all takes place although it's safe say that the damage well and truly began the Monday when I started University in September 2005, where GCap reared it's ugly head and made the station even worse than it was before leaving.
To be honest, it starting sinking the moment Neil Francis left "The Morning Zoo" in January 2000.
As expected I will definitely be posting more "Heart Attack" posts for all the jingle fans nearer the time but if you can't wait that longer, I'll attempt to post a few jingle histories in the next few days of various stations mainly up North including Hallam FM, as this Friday the 1st of May will be 20 years since it split frequencies on AM and FM.
I can imagine it being difficult times, given the role the station had to play with regards to events a few weeks earlier, but they did it well and brought the station into the 90s sounding fresh without making too many drastic changes.
Meanwhile, Radio 4 had to pull an interview with Andy Kershaw this morning from broadcast for fear of invading his family's privacy.
I really don't understand why they would make such a decision at the last minute when it has been carefully edited and checked with lawyers.
Life goes on though, and it should be time to get some light grub sorted before the Junction tonight.
Defining The Disk Jockeys
I made my way into Uni for a meeting with Prospects which went OK, despite not getting as further as we wanted to in terms of progress, due to the computers in the library all being occupied to the point of being crowded.
It's looking OK however and the transitions scheme that Ellena spoke about sounds like the ideal thing to do.
I then made my way up to the radio rooms where it was also pretty busy with first years completing their websites and the second year's still working on their podcasts.
Jadey Babes decided to make a few jokes about bearing a resemblance to a pig which was probably a bit far although she was wearing quite a lot of pink clothes.
It prompted me to start singing "Swine Flu!" to the tune of "Wild Thing" although I was too lazy to think up any more words.
I went back over to the flat and went through some more gandering, starting off with another vintage episode of HIGNFY this time from the 26th of October 2007 with Omid Djalili as the host.
This was probably one of the first things on television that actually had me laughing after my illness, mainly due to Omid's Iranian dancing at random points, which confused Paul Merton, but had everyone else in stitches.
The guests that week were a return appearance for flamboyant writer Julian Fellowes on Ian's team, whilst Paul's guest was Danny Baker who's always on good form when appearing on the show.
One of the stories this week involved England's faliures not just in the Rugby World Cup final, but Lewis Hamilton missing out on the F1 title.
This lead to Omid making a point about the term "WAG" which instead of standing for "Wives and Girlfriends" should be "Wives or Girlfriends", to which everyone started laughing at rather sheepishly.
The end of the programme had a trail for Omid's new BBC 1 series which has been re-used for the second series currently airing, involving a send up of the Sting song called "Iranian In UK".
Moving onwards I then re-viewed a documentary which we had first watched in one of our radio lectures during my second year as part of the Time Shift series on BBC Four looking at the history of disk jockeys in Britain.
This looked at how the pirate stations and disk jockeys of the 60s saw the BBC make changes to their light programme in order to initiate Radio 1, and how 20 years later the pirates of tower blocks in London, leading to illegal raves saw the transition of the Smashie And Nicey-esque DJs at Radio 1 to finally make their bow in order for the likes of Westwood and Pete Tong to prove themselves to a national audience.
It's given me an idea to have another gander at that "Smashie And Nicey End Of An Era" programme later this week.
It's looking OK however and the transitions scheme that Ellena spoke about sounds like the ideal thing to do.
I then made my way up to the radio rooms where it was also pretty busy with first years completing their websites and the second year's still working on their podcasts.
Jadey Babes decided to make a few jokes about bearing a resemblance to a pig which was probably a bit far although she was wearing quite a lot of pink clothes.
It prompted me to start singing "Swine Flu!" to the tune of "Wild Thing" although I was too lazy to think up any more words.
I went back over to the flat and went through some more gandering, starting off with another vintage episode of HIGNFY this time from the 26th of October 2007 with Omid Djalili as the host.
This was probably one of the first things on television that actually had me laughing after my illness, mainly due to Omid's Iranian dancing at random points, which confused Paul Merton, but had everyone else in stitches.
The guests that week were a return appearance for flamboyant writer Julian Fellowes on Ian's team, whilst Paul's guest was Danny Baker who's always on good form when appearing on the show.
One of the stories this week involved England's faliures not just in the Rugby World Cup final, but Lewis Hamilton missing out on the F1 title.
This lead to Omid making a point about the term "WAG" which instead of standing for "Wives and Girlfriends" should be "Wives or Girlfriends", to which everyone started laughing at rather sheepishly.
The end of the programme had a trail for Omid's new BBC 1 series which has been re-used for the second series currently airing, involving a send up of the Sting song called "Iranian In UK".
Moving onwards I then re-viewed a documentary which we had first watched in one of our radio lectures during my second year as part of the Time Shift series on BBC Four looking at the history of disk jockeys in Britain.
This looked at how the pirate stations and disk jockeys of the 60s saw the BBC make changes to their light programme in order to initiate Radio 1, and how 20 years later the pirates of tower blocks in London, leading to illegal raves saw the transition of the Smashie And Nicey-esque DJs at Radio 1 to finally make their bow in order for the likes of Westwood and Pete Tong to prove themselves to a national audience.
It's given me an idea to have another gander at that "Smashie And Nicey End Of An Era" programme later this week.
"YOU DID NOT HEAR OR RECORD ALL OF THAT INTERVIEW!"
As planned I watched those two documentaries starting off with the Big L one once again, where I always pick up something new every time which represents the complete and utter nonsense that made up the running of the station.
One of them being Mike Read being hired as "the station's secret weapon" although to be honest, the ideal analogy for him would be a water pistol.
I still end up shouting at the TV screen whenever station manager Chris Vezey makes one of his bullshit statements about the station progressing, when in reality he was hired to give the station a kick up the arse, as opposed to just being an arse overall.
And I think the word "arse" is too kind a description.
One of Chris's possible redeeming features was his constant cocotions of chilli con carne which the presenters seemed to live on at their house, and every time I watch it I can really smell the chilli.
I think I know what I'll be making at teatime tonight, albeit with no onions.
Another part that had me raging was when he finally met radio consultant Ray Arthur who had been hired to meet up with him at the station, only for him to turn up on a Friday afternoon to find no fucker there. Earlier on in the documentary we saw Chris and Ray Anderson taking the mickey out of his "geeky" appearance like a load of thick schoolchildren and Chris had the nerve to say on meeting Ray Arthur "I recognise you from your picture".
There was also the part where Harvey Goldsmith arranged a meeting with the four main members of Big L alongside some radio experts and critics including Gillian Reynolds.
Mike Read was an utter twat to say "will we recognise any of these experts?", especially as Gillian Reynolds gave him and several other ex Radio 1 presenters a ribbing in the late 70s which lead to Tony Blackburn getting suspended for retaliating to it on air.
Chris Vezey's defence was that his staff had been "trained by the BBC and brought up by the BBC" before arriving at Big L.
Not to mention also getting sacked by the BBC many years ago.
Anyone on the radio course, especially those who will be running Smoke Radio next year should watch the documentary as I have seen several incidents from that occur in real life, such as bollocking presenters mid way through a live show, and not recognising the fact that the direction and format of the station is not working.
Following on, I watched the Panorama documentary "Scientology And Me" which gave me a slightly better understanding of Scientology and how it caused problems bigger than I thought it would.
Examples included interviews with parents who had lost their children to the organised religion despite the fact that in the UK, Scientology had not been accepted as a proper religion by the Church Of England.
Reporter John Sweeney also interviewed celebrities about their beliefs but their own personal responses were not broadcast as they complained about Sweeney referring to their religion as a "cult".
Whilst the documentary was being made the Church Of Scientology was recording their own documentary spying on the BBC and Tommy Davis the leader of the church's celebrity centre seemed to follow Sweeney just about everywhere and one particular part was when he interrupted an interview with critic Shawn Lonsdale who was also a convicted abuser.
This is what lead to that infamous outburst later on in the programme as Davis did not witness the entire interview taking place to get a fuller idea of what Lonsdale was revealing to the BBC.
Before transmission the Church Of Scientology asked the BBC not to show the programme, claiming that Sweeney's outburst amongst other alleged offences had broken rules of the BBC's guidelines.
Personally I thought Sweeney had every right to do what he did not just because of Davis's inconsistency but because of the harrasment from the Church Of Scientology towards his family which really wasn't on.
And it was also bloody hilarious.
It's good to finally see the documentary in full.
One of them being Mike Read being hired as "the station's secret weapon" although to be honest, the ideal analogy for him would be a water pistol.
I still end up shouting at the TV screen whenever station manager Chris Vezey makes one of his bullshit statements about the station progressing, when in reality he was hired to give the station a kick up the arse, as opposed to just being an arse overall.
And I think the word "arse" is too kind a description.
One of Chris's possible redeeming features was his constant cocotions of chilli con carne which the presenters seemed to live on at their house, and every time I watch it I can really smell the chilli.
I think I know what I'll be making at teatime tonight, albeit with no onions.
Another part that had me raging was when he finally met radio consultant Ray Arthur who had been hired to meet up with him at the station, only for him to turn up on a Friday afternoon to find no fucker there. Earlier on in the documentary we saw Chris and Ray Anderson taking the mickey out of his "geeky" appearance like a load of thick schoolchildren and Chris had the nerve to say on meeting Ray Arthur "I recognise you from your picture".
There was also the part where Harvey Goldsmith arranged a meeting with the four main members of Big L alongside some radio experts and critics including Gillian Reynolds.
Mike Read was an utter twat to say "will we recognise any of these experts?", especially as Gillian Reynolds gave him and several other ex Radio 1 presenters a ribbing in the late 70s which lead to Tony Blackburn getting suspended for retaliating to it on air.
Chris Vezey's defence was that his staff had been "trained by the BBC and brought up by the BBC" before arriving at Big L.
Not to mention also getting sacked by the BBC many years ago.
Anyone on the radio course, especially those who will be running Smoke Radio next year should watch the documentary as I have seen several incidents from that occur in real life, such as bollocking presenters mid way through a live show, and not recognising the fact that the direction and format of the station is not working.
Following on, I watched the Panorama documentary "Scientology And Me" which gave me a slightly better understanding of Scientology and how it caused problems bigger than I thought it would.
Examples included interviews with parents who had lost their children to the organised religion despite the fact that in the UK, Scientology had not been accepted as a proper religion by the Church Of England.
Reporter John Sweeney also interviewed celebrities about their beliefs but their own personal responses were not broadcast as they complained about Sweeney referring to their religion as a "cult".
Whilst the documentary was being made the Church Of Scientology was recording their own documentary spying on the BBC and Tommy Davis the leader of the church's celebrity centre seemed to follow Sweeney just about everywhere and one particular part was when he interrupted an interview with critic Shawn Lonsdale who was also a convicted abuser.
This is what lead to that infamous outburst later on in the programme as Davis did not witness the entire interview taking place to get a fuller idea of what Lonsdale was revealing to the BBC.
Before transmission the Church Of Scientology asked the BBC not to show the programme, claiming that Sweeney's outburst amongst other alleged offences had broken rules of the BBC's guidelines.
Personally I thought Sweeney had every right to do what he did not just because of Davis's inconsistency but because of the harrasment from the Church Of Scientology towards his family which really wasn't on.
And it was also bloody hilarious.
It's good to finally see the documentary in full.
The Very Loud Hangover Cure
Morning.
A tiny bit uncomfortable after the side effects of last night but I've felt a lot worse in the past.
I may pop over again tonight as the CMP lot are having a retro gaming night with old SNES machines, Mega Drives, and other vintage consoles but there's also appearance from old Smoke Radio friends Adam and Zo who will be DJing with a selection of bizarre 8 bit tunes.
Although come to think of that it's also the first leg of the Chelsea V Barca semi final tonight so I may head over to the Junction to watch that if the weather's still good.
And the drinks will be pretty cheap as well.
I could probably manage both tonight if there's hardly anyone at the Junction that I know turning up, despite it being Tuesday. Although by the time I get back from the Chelsea game the Undercroft will be closing.
Still, you can never have it all.
Yesterday was proof that the drinking and birthday boozing was a much better alternative to the Hell's Kitchen Grand Final where Dynasty actress Linda Evans pipped Ade Edmondson to the post which I thought was good as Adrian was always a bit of a brown noser.
Anyway it's over now and I doubt I'll be following any other nightly shows this year until Britain's Got Talent goes into the finals.
I'd prefer it if the X Factor took a similar route as I would feel a lot more involved and they could get it over with a lot quicker.
As for today I plan to re-view two documentaries from this time two years ago, the first being the infamous Harvey Goldsmith Big L documentary which I've blogged about several times and is the ideal example of how not to run a radio station.
The other being the Panorama Scientology documentary which I haven't seen in full before but have definitely seen the outburst itself from John Sweeney many times.
Personally I thought he had every right to do so as I've always found Scientology to be a load of bollocks.
The entertainment continues.
A tiny bit uncomfortable after the side effects of last night but I've felt a lot worse in the past.
I may pop over again tonight as the CMP lot are having a retro gaming night with old SNES machines, Mega Drives, and other vintage consoles but there's also appearance from old Smoke Radio friends Adam and Zo who will be DJing with a selection of bizarre 8 bit tunes.
Although come to think of that it's also the first leg of the Chelsea V Barca semi final tonight so I may head over to the Junction to watch that if the weather's still good.
And the drinks will be pretty cheap as well.
I could probably manage both tonight if there's hardly anyone at the Junction that I know turning up, despite it being Tuesday. Although by the time I get back from the Chelsea game the Undercroft will be closing.
Still, you can never have it all.
Yesterday was proof that the drinking and birthday boozing was a much better alternative to the Hell's Kitchen Grand Final where Dynasty actress Linda Evans pipped Ade Edmondson to the post which I thought was good as Adrian was always a bit of a brown noser.
Anyway it's over now and I doubt I'll be following any other nightly shows this year until Britain's Got Talent goes into the finals.
I'd prefer it if the X Factor took a similar route as I would feel a lot more involved and they could get it over with a lot quicker.
As for today I plan to re-view two documentaries from this time two years ago, the first being the infamous Harvey Goldsmith Big L documentary which I've blogged about several times and is the ideal example of how not to run a radio station.
The other being the Panorama Scientology documentary which I haven't seen in full before but have definitely seen the outburst itself from John Sweeney many times.
Personally I thought he had every right to do so as I've always found Scientology to be a load of bollocks.
The entertainment continues.
Birthday Boozing And Recovery With The Help Of Mr Chips
Ooh dear.
Let's say tonight was good and it was certainly right as the title of this post suggests.
First of all I got a bit too tipsy at tonight's drinking at the Undercroft which to be honest was the reverse of last week as it was more of a third year drinking do with barely any second year radio lot present.
On my arrival there was barely anyone present at all apart from Mattie and Matt who were DJing for tonight and probably still are as I type.
Pretty soon after saw first year student and specialist star Jamie arriving with his mates where he told me about the future for "Show 25".
Even when I'm gone, I can guarantee that his show will have my full support as he's such a lovely down to earth fella, and he supports Chelsea which helps as well.
Then a few of the third years arrived consisting of Phil H, Stoobs, and Sami who was celebrating her birthday, along with Phil's partner Annabel.
Chilvers arrived not long after so let's cut to the chase and have a look at the photos from tonight.
And whilst I make constant comparisons with Sami comparing her with Ace from Doctor Who, I reckon Alice looks a bit like how Sophie Aldred does now, if you look at her Wikipedia profile.
In fact let's have an instant comparison, there's Ace back in the late 80s, and here's Sophie as she is now.
Wearing a leather jacket tonight certainly helped.
Sami and Blammy (in that order), the pairing that never was.
The old boys (bar one) reunite.
Talk about incestous. (That may have been a bit far)
Sophie Aldred, I mean Alice Robertson.
One of quite a few dodgy close ups.
The Mjolnir Boys
Stewart's unlucky close up.
Chris's attempt at impersonating your's truly.
At around 11:30pm I decided to leg it having drank several £1 VK's and because Sami was going too and because I'm a bloody sychophant I decided to tag along, until everyone else got into Sami's car to drive back to their own houses.
On getting back into the flat I managed to endure what I had planned in my earlier blog post, an episode of Catchphrase from 1989 which I found on Youtube a couple of days ago.
Because it's in HD it meant I could watch in full screen without it being distorted apart from the VHS picture quality and audio in mono which to be fair was a sign of the times.
My favourite bit has to be in part 1 at 6.40 with the catchphrase "Drag Racing" to which the male contestant guesses "Two transvestite Mr Chips' trying to run a race".
More or less the literal take on the golden rule "If You See It, Say It".
The episode comes from the latter half of 1989 due to the generic ITV endcap for TVS at the end although the grid for the Super Catchphrase is made up of basic 8 bit graphics before they slightly modified it around the time when they started to use catchphrases that didn't have black backgrounds.
The contestant also manages to win the endgame meaning that we don't hear the now innoffensive noise at the end of the 60 seconds, but at my age I can't sit through the sound played when they run out of time in the Ready Money Round.
I'm not sure if it was the same back in 1989, but from 2000 onwards when
Nick Weir started hosting the show, it was referred to as "The Cosmic Blowout" due to the fact that it started off with electronic bleeps and finished with the noise of an air horn.
Apologies for going into too much detail but I may regret what I've done tomorrow morning which may result in that and jokes about parrots being directed at me as a sign of revenge that many of those who hate me,
would feel I deserve.
Then I really will end up in a mental breakdown.
(That probably really is too much detail)
Anyway it gave me the idea of adding the sound effect of Noel Edmond's Gunge Tank to a load of records I really liked, in the same way as Tim Westwood's bomb and Zane Lowe's noise sounding very similar to the said "Cosmic Blowout" to signify a really good record.
Two examples can be heard here, the first being EWF's "In The Stone" (apologies), and the second being the Dave Grusin original of my favourite ever love song "First Time Love" which I plan to play minus the Gunge FX on my soul show this week.
I think it's a good time for a lie down until around 6:20am when Greg invites listeners to give Chris Moyles a ring, before the hour's Newsbeat.
Good Night.
Let's say tonight was good and it was certainly right as the title of this post suggests.
First of all I got a bit too tipsy at tonight's drinking at the Undercroft which to be honest was the reverse of last week as it was more of a third year drinking do with barely any second year radio lot present.
On my arrival there was barely anyone present at all apart from Mattie and Matt who were DJing for tonight and probably still are as I type.
Pretty soon after saw first year student and specialist star Jamie arriving with his mates where he told me about the future for "Show 25".
Even when I'm gone, I can guarantee that his show will have my full support as he's such a lovely down to earth fella, and he supports Chelsea which helps as well.
Then a few of the third years arrived consisting of Phil H, Stoobs, and Sami who was celebrating her birthday, along with Phil's partner Annabel.
Chilvers arrived not long after so let's cut to the chase and have a look at the photos from tonight.
And whilst I make constant comparisons with Sami comparing her with Ace from Doctor Who, I reckon Alice looks a bit like how Sophie Aldred does now, if you look at her Wikipedia profile.
In fact let's have an instant comparison, there's Ace back in the late 80s, and here's Sophie as she is now.
Wearing a leather jacket tonight certainly helped.
Sami and Blammy (in that order), the pairing that never was.
The old boys (bar one) reunite.
Talk about incestous. (That may have been a bit far)
Sophie Aldred, I mean Alice Robertson.
One of quite a few dodgy close ups.
The Mjolnir Boys
Stewart's unlucky close up.
Chris's attempt at impersonating your's truly.
At around 11:30pm I decided to leg it having drank several £1 VK's and because Sami was going too and because I'm a bloody sychophant I decided to tag along, until everyone else got into Sami's car to drive back to their own houses.
On getting back into the flat I managed to endure what I had planned in my earlier blog post, an episode of Catchphrase from 1989 which I found on Youtube a couple of days ago.
Because it's in HD it meant I could watch in full screen without it being distorted apart from the VHS picture quality and audio in mono which to be fair was a sign of the times.
My favourite bit has to be in part 1 at 6.40 with the catchphrase "Drag Racing" to which the male contestant guesses "Two transvestite Mr Chips' trying to run a race".
More or less the literal take on the golden rule "If You See It, Say It".
The episode comes from the latter half of 1989 due to the generic ITV endcap for TVS at the end although the grid for the Super Catchphrase is made up of basic 8 bit graphics before they slightly modified it around the time when they started to use catchphrases that didn't have black backgrounds.
The contestant also manages to win the endgame meaning that we don't hear the now innoffensive noise at the end of the 60 seconds, but at my age I can't sit through the sound played when they run out of time in the Ready Money Round.
I'm not sure if it was the same back in 1989, but from 2000 onwards when
Nick Weir started hosting the show, it was referred to as "The Cosmic Blowout" due to the fact that it started off with electronic bleeps and finished with the noise of an air horn.
Apologies for going into too much detail but I may regret what I've done tomorrow morning which may result in that and jokes about parrots being directed at me as a sign of revenge that many of those who hate me,
would feel I deserve.
Then I really will end up in a mental breakdown.
(That probably really is too much detail)
Anyway it gave me the idea of adding the sound effect of Noel Edmond's Gunge Tank to a load of records I really liked, in the same way as Tim Westwood's bomb and Zane Lowe's noise sounding very similar to the said "Cosmic Blowout" to signify a really good record.
Two examples can be heard here, the first being EWF's "In The Stone" (apologies), and the second being the Dave Grusin original of my favourite ever love song "First Time Love" which I plan to play minus the Gunge FX on my soul show this week.
I think it's a good time for a lie down until around 6:20am when Greg invites listeners to give Chris Moyles a ring, before the hour's Newsbeat.
Good Night.
Monday, April 27, 2009
"Tell Us Where You Want To Start, And We'll Start The Clock!"
The cooker has buggered up once again in next door's kitchen and I'm coming close to destroying the halls reception in the same way as what they've done to our kitchen.
Undeterred I managed to fulfill part of tonight with the Blockbusters episode of Gameshow Marathon which was the second programme of the 2007 series and a show that I'd wanted them to do for a long time.
Especially as for me it was one of ITV's most prolific and playable gameshows they had ever broadcast in their 50 year history.
The way the contestants were set up was a bit complicated with two playing one as always, but overall it was everyone for themselves. This was illustrated by Andrea Catherwood playing against Ben Shephard and Jamelia which Ben and Jamelia won.
However to decide who would go onto the Gold Run they had to answer one more question first on the buzzers, and it was Ben who went through to the Gold Run meaning that Jamelia was eliminated.
Then Ben went back in the second game as a solo contestant against Michael Le Vell and Wendy Richard.
It did look a bit complex but the game itself was so addictive to the point of playing at home as always.
Some of the funny moments came when Vernon asked the question "What 'S' Do You Get On The Bottom Of Your Shoe?" and everyone just burst out laughing.
The answer of course was "sole".
I also found it amusing when during one of the Gold Runs there was a hexagon with the initials "STD", but the question actually related to Larry Grayson's catchphrase "Shut That Door".
Ben managed to win both games and both Gold Runs meaning he qualified into the quarter final where he appeared with his wife in "Mr And Mrs". However it was to be his swan song in the Marathon.
Back to Blockbusters and I also managed to spot someone in the audience that not many of you will know, but I had worked with him four months earlier at BXFM during the December of 2006. That being Phil Dave, a fellow radio presenter who's now presenting at community station Hayes FM and has appeared in the audience for several TV shows.
And he also sounds like Kevin The Gerbil from Roland Rat.
Anyway that's me more or less done with for the Gameshow Marathon, but not gameshows overall as when I return from the Undercroft tonight, I'm hoping I'll be tipsy enough to enjoy a vintage edition of a show that I recently found on Youtube and despite it's popular status was never actually featured on the Gameshow Marathon.
I can possibly understand why as it wouldn't really fit into the "people show" format and was mainly based around the game itself, and judging by the expensive production values (at the time) there was probably a good reason for it being the case.
And for it's first 7 years on air, the theme tune was composed by the same man who wrote the theme to Blockbusters.
If you haven't guessed by now, just keep pressing!
Anyway time for drinky poos, and the possible attendance of a birthday girl who is possibly my favourite girl on the radio course.
Undeterred I managed to fulfill part of tonight with the Blockbusters episode of Gameshow Marathon which was the second programme of the 2007 series and a show that I'd wanted them to do for a long time.
Especially as for me it was one of ITV's most prolific and playable gameshows they had ever broadcast in their 50 year history.
The way the contestants were set up was a bit complicated with two playing one as always, but overall it was everyone for themselves. This was illustrated by Andrea Catherwood playing against Ben Shephard and Jamelia which Ben and Jamelia won.
However to decide who would go onto the Gold Run they had to answer one more question first on the buzzers, and it was Ben who went through to the Gold Run meaning that Jamelia was eliminated.
Then Ben went back in the second game as a solo contestant against Michael Le Vell and Wendy Richard.
It did look a bit complex but the game itself was so addictive to the point of playing at home as always.
Some of the funny moments came when Vernon asked the question "What 'S' Do You Get On The Bottom Of Your Shoe?" and everyone just burst out laughing.
The answer of course was "sole".
I also found it amusing when during one of the Gold Runs there was a hexagon with the initials "STD", but the question actually related to Larry Grayson's catchphrase "Shut That Door".
Ben managed to win both games and both Gold Runs meaning he qualified into the quarter final where he appeared with his wife in "Mr And Mrs". However it was to be his swan song in the Marathon.
Back to Blockbusters and I also managed to spot someone in the audience that not many of you will know, but I had worked with him four months earlier at BXFM during the December of 2006. That being Phil Dave, a fellow radio presenter who's now presenting at community station Hayes FM and has appeared in the audience for several TV shows.
And he also sounds like Kevin The Gerbil from Roland Rat.
Anyway that's me more or less done with for the Gameshow Marathon, but not gameshows overall as when I return from the Undercroft tonight, I'm hoping I'll be tipsy enough to enjoy a vintage edition of a show that I recently found on Youtube and despite it's popular status was never actually featured on the Gameshow Marathon.
I can possibly understand why as it wouldn't really fit into the "people show" format and was mainly based around the game itself, and judging by the expensive production values (at the time) there was probably a good reason for it being the case.
And for it's first 7 years on air, the theme tune was composed by the same man who wrote the theme to Blockbusters.
If you haven't guessed by now, just keep pressing!
Anyway time for drinky poos, and the possible attendance of a birthday girl who is possibly my favourite girl on the radio course.
"Keep Out Of The Black And In The Red"
With the Sun reporting that Simon Amstell is to leave Never Mind The Buzzcocks, I decided to revisit his first appearance on the show as a guest in October 2003.
Mark's introduction to Simon was probably a hint of what was to come, where he mentioned that on Popworld, Simon had called Rosie Ribbons "thick", insulted Girls Aloud, and made Britney Spears storm out of an interview crying;
"He's stealing my act!"
Simon was on Phill's team alongside Kym Marsh, while Bill's team had So Solid solo performer Romeo and Gary Wilmot who at the time was playing the lead in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Mark's opening gag about Gary was about rumours that he couldn't read until reaching 35 being false; "But if it was true he would have missed out on a lot of bad reviews"
Gary came across pretty well on the show knowing just about all the songs in the intros round and cottoning on to the rather naughty humour.
Simon's funniest moment in the episode was when he talked about an S Club Juniors appearance on Popworld and one of the girls had her first "becoming a woman experience" in the dressing room.
To which Simon introduced the band as "The best band in the world, period"
Some of the other funny jokes included one about Primal Scream who's song "Bomb The Pentagon" had to be changed to "Rise" in America as a mark of respect for 9/11;
"Unknown to the Americans, "Rise" turned out to be an even bigger atrocity over here"
There was also another brilliant one about the Walker Brothers fan club having more members than the Beatles; "Five."
Possibly the standout joke was Mark taking the piss out of The Stereophonics' Kelly Jones being "kicked up the arse by other songwriters" by writing songs on an electronic keyboard about kicking Welshmen.
Bill being Bill wanted to have a go himself but ended up accidentally switching on the demo tune which lead to a brilliant gag about it being a great busking act.
I was probably even more poor to notice that the tune the demo was playing was an arrangement of Rick Astley's "Together Forever" which possibly sounded exactly like the original tune.
Moving onwards, I also managed to watch the final two episodes of Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon where the semi final was Bullseye.
This was another show that had been recommisioned following the first series, albeit on Sky Digital channel Challenge with Dave Spikey as the host.
However it didn't perform well to warrant a second series which by the time this was transmitted felt nostalgic despite being only a year.
Tony Green was on hand as ever to keep score and yell "One Hundred And Eiiiiigghhh-Tay!" although that line came at Vernon's request as they very rarely scored three treble twenties in a row on Bullseye.
The semi finalists were Andrea Catherwood, Michael Le Vell and Graeme Le Saux and like the last series all three of them had professional darts players throwing for them.
Andrea's was Martin "Wolfie" Adams who Vernon would always howl at when it was his turn to throw, Michael's was Dutch Champion Raymond "Barney" Van Barneveld, and Graeme's was Phil "The Power" Taylor.
As there were professional darts players this time round each one came onto their own music like in a real game so Wolfie's was "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran, Barney's was "Eye Of The Tiger" and Phil Taylor's was of course "The Power" by Snap!.
When they did it in the first series Andy Fordham's music was "I'm Too Sexy" whilst crafty cockney Eric Bristow came onto Chas and Dave.
The other differences were that the order of play would be decided out of the highest darts score from the celebrity contestants, and the pounds for points round had the piano music playing in the background.
And the good news was that they didn't have that ridiculous sound effect from Play Your Cards Right if a player hit a black section on Bully's prize board, as they did on Ant & Dec's version.
They must have had an obsession with that noise in the same way as I do with Noel Edmonds's Gunge Tank as it was used on Saturday Night Takeaway when they each fell off a tight rope in an Ant Vs Dec challenge which made it look not just stupid but embarrassing.
Then again on the original Bullseye it used to make a funny noise when a dart missed a category but that fitted in with the game.
Michael and Graeme went through to the grand final with Andrea being eliminated although it was Graeme who scored the highest to go through to Bully's Prize Board.
In the 9 throws allotted they managed to get some good prizes but not the Bullseye so Vernon rather naughtily gave "The Power" another chance where he managed to hit the Bullseye in his first throw.
However they decided not to gamble as the prizes were for the viewer's prize mountain so Michael and Barney were brought back to take the 101 gamble.
Michael having won a Showbiz Darts championship in the previous year ensured that they won the gamble so the lucky viewer did indeed a speedboat.
I liked how at the beginning and at the end of the series, Vernon acknowledged he was a contestant on the last series getting through to the final but lost to Carol Vorderman when they played Family Fortunes with their real families.
It was also surprising to see how the format got sold around the world with the US and many European countries staging their own Gameshow Marathons succesfully.
However as Vernon was already presenting Family Fortunes as a series, they brought back Play Your Cards Right for the final where the highlights VT even featured Bruce Forsyth himself. He mentioned that he got annoyed when contestants would use the word "stick" when they made the decision to "freeze".
Both Graeme and Michael played in pairs for the game, where Graeme's partner was rugby player and then current Dancing On Ice champion Kyran Bracken.
I had know idea at the time that Graeme would end up on the show himself two years later but his success was a far cry from his mate as Graeme was eliminated after the first show.
Michael's partner was one of his Coronation Street co-stars that being Kym Ryder who I didn't expect to see mentioned twice in this blog post, although another appearance may come even sooner as I've yet to watch her episode of "Bookaboo".
One of the problems with when Ant & Dec did Play Your Cards Right in the last series was that they didn't get a pair so they resorted to using the catchphrase in a rather desperate manner when explaining ther rules, but luckily Vernon did and allowed to to yell out the famous catchphrase;
Vernon: "You get nothing for a pair!"
Audience: "NOT IN THIS GAME!"
Michael Le Vell came out as the winner of this and the Gameshow Marathon 2007 trophy although as I was never really a fan of the original Play Your Cards Right, it felt a bit of an anti-climax.
The show ended with a highlights montage accompanied by a tune that would (and still is) used a bloody great deal on television and radio, that being the Mark Ronson cover of Coldplay's "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face".
Then again I don't suppose that song would offend me as much as it would for R Denis.
I'm not quite finished with the series however as before heading to the Undercroft tonight I plan to revisit my favourite one of the series where the contestants asked Vernon for a "P".
It should be good fun.
Mark's introduction to Simon was probably a hint of what was to come, where he mentioned that on Popworld, Simon had called Rosie Ribbons "thick", insulted Girls Aloud, and made Britney Spears storm out of an interview crying;
"He's stealing my act!"
Simon was on Phill's team alongside Kym Marsh, while Bill's team had So Solid solo performer Romeo and Gary Wilmot who at the time was playing the lead in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Mark's opening gag about Gary was about rumours that he couldn't read until reaching 35 being false; "But if it was true he would have missed out on a lot of bad reviews"
Gary came across pretty well on the show knowing just about all the songs in the intros round and cottoning on to the rather naughty humour.
Simon's funniest moment in the episode was when he talked about an S Club Juniors appearance on Popworld and one of the girls had her first "becoming a woman experience" in the dressing room.
To which Simon introduced the band as "The best band in the world, period"
Some of the other funny jokes included one about Primal Scream who's song "Bomb The Pentagon" had to be changed to "Rise" in America as a mark of respect for 9/11;
"Unknown to the Americans, "Rise" turned out to be an even bigger atrocity over here"
There was also another brilliant one about the Walker Brothers fan club having more members than the Beatles; "Five."
Possibly the standout joke was Mark taking the piss out of The Stereophonics' Kelly Jones being "kicked up the arse by other songwriters" by writing songs on an electronic keyboard about kicking Welshmen.
Bill being Bill wanted to have a go himself but ended up accidentally switching on the demo tune which lead to a brilliant gag about it being a great busking act.
I was probably even more poor to notice that the tune the demo was playing was an arrangement of Rick Astley's "Together Forever" which possibly sounded exactly like the original tune.
Moving onwards, I also managed to watch the final two episodes of Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon where the semi final was Bullseye.
This was another show that had been recommisioned following the first series, albeit on Sky Digital channel Challenge with Dave Spikey as the host.
However it didn't perform well to warrant a second series which by the time this was transmitted felt nostalgic despite being only a year.
Tony Green was on hand as ever to keep score and yell "One Hundred And Eiiiiigghhh-Tay!" although that line came at Vernon's request as they very rarely scored three treble twenties in a row on Bullseye.
The semi finalists were Andrea Catherwood, Michael Le Vell and Graeme Le Saux and like the last series all three of them had professional darts players throwing for them.
Andrea's was Martin "Wolfie" Adams who Vernon would always howl at when it was his turn to throw, Michael's was Dutch Champion Raymond "Barney" Van Barneveld, and Graeme's was Phil "The Power" Taylor.
As there were professional darts players this time round each one came onto their own music like in a real game so Wolfie's was "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran, Barney's was "Eye Of The Tiger" and Phil Taylor's was of course "The Power" by Snap!.
When they did it in the first series Andy Fordham's music was "I'm Too Sexy" whilst crafty cockney Eric Bristow came onto Chas and Dave.
The other differences were that the order of play would be decided out of the highest darts score from the celebrity contestants, and the pounds for points round had the piano music playing in the background.
And the good news was that they didn't have that ridiculous sound effect from Play Your Cards Right if a player hit a black section on Bully's prize board, as they did on Ant & Dec's version.
They must have had an obsession with that noise in the same way as I do with Noel Edmonds's Gunge Tank as it was used on Saturday Night Takeaway when they each fell off a tight rope in an Ant Vs Dec challenge which made it look not just stupid but embarrassing.
Then again on the original Bullseye it used to make a funny noise when a dart missed a category but that fitted in with the game.
Michael and Graeme went through to the grand final with Andrea being eliminated although it was Graeme who scored the highest to go through to Bully's Prize Board.
In the 9 throws allotted they managed to get some good prizes but not the Bullseye so Vernon rather naughtily gave "The Power" another chance where he managed to hit the Bullseye in his first throw.
However they decided not to gamble as the prizes were for the viewer's prize mountain so Michael and Barney were brought back to take the 101 gamble.
Michael having won a Showbiz Darts championship in the previous year ensured that they won the gamble so the lucky viewer did indeed a speedboat.
I liked how at the beginning and at the end of the series, Vernon acknowledged he was a contestant on the last series getting through to the final but lost to Carol Vorderman when they played Family Fortunes with their real families.
It was also surprising to see how the format got sold around the world with the US and many European countries staging their own Gameshow Marathons succesfully.
However as Vernon was already presenting Family Fortunes as a series, they brought back Play Your Cards Right for the final where the highlights VT even featured Bruce Forsyth himself. He mentioned that he got annoyed when contestants would use the word "stick" when they made the decision to "freeze".
Both Graeme and Michael played in pairs for the game, where Graeme's partner was rugby player and then current Dancing On Ice champion Kyran Bracken.
I had know idea at the time that Graeme would end up on the show himself two years later but his success was a far cry from his mate as Graeme was eliminated after the first show.
Michael's partner was one of his Coronation Street co-stars that being Kym Ryder who I didn't expect to see mentioned twice in this blog post, although another appearance may come even sooner as I've yet to watch her episode of "Bookaboo".
One of the problems with when Ant & Dec did Play Your Cards Right in the last series was that they didn't get a pair so they resorted to using the catchphrase in a rather desperate manner when explaining ther rules, but luckily Vernon did and allowed to to yell out the famous catchphrase;
Vernon: "You get nothing for a pair!"
Audience: "NOT IN THIS GAME!"
Michael Le Vell came out as the winner of this and the Gameshow Marathon 2007 trophy although as I was never really a fan of the original Play Your Cards Right, it felt a bit of an anti-climax.
The show ended with a highlights montage accompanied by a tune that would (and still is) used a bloody great deal on television and radio, that being the Mark Ronson cover of Coldplay's "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face".
Then again I don't suppose that song would offend me as much as it would for R Denis.
I'm not quite finished with the series however as before heading to the Undercroft tonight I plan to revisit my favourite one of the series where the contestants asked Vernon for a "P".
It should be good fun.
"The One Day Of The Week When You Can't Get A Decent Television Programme"
Here we go then, the final television story of Sylvester McCoy's reign as Doctor Who and "Survival" where at the request of Ace, the TARDIS lands in present day (well 1989) Perivale on a Sunday morning where the former resident wants to catch up with some of her old friends.
The only problem is that most of them are missing and even more residents are disappearing without trace and coincidentally there's an infestation of evil looking stray cats.
Some of the cats in the episode were real but others were animatronics which in the commentary, script editor Andrew Cartmel compared to Stouffer from Harry Hill.
Ace then attempts to find her friends at the youth club only to find that self defence classes are taking place on Sunday afternoons, lead by wannabe soldier/policeman Sgt Paterson, played by Julian Holloway who's dad Stanley was a music hall performer and made a name for himself reading monologues by Marriot Edgar.
With more and more people disapearing both Ace and the Doctor get transported and end up a planet inhabited by Cheetah People. Ace ends up going first where she meets up with her friends Midge and Shreela as well as Derek, a young boy who has also been transported.
The Doctor ends up being transported with Paterson and they then encounter the Doctor's old foe The Master, played for the final time by the late Anthony Ainley.
It emerges that the Master needs the Doctors help in order for him to get off the planet so he can then continue with planning to destroy him later.
After killing one of the inhabitants Midge ends up sharing characteristics of them and leads the Master back to Earth. Luckily Ace has also developed transportation abilities and eventually the Doctor convinces her to transport himself, Paterson, Shreela and Derek back to Earth.
However it's not over as the Doctor is determined to put a stop to the Master's actions. The Master then transports them back to the planet but lets the Doctor go after he refuses to fight.
Around the time the episode was shot, they had no idea that the axe was about to fall but nearer the end of the series, Andrew Cartmel asked Sylvester to record a speech to be played at the end of the final episode which had clever wit and ended with the line "Come on Ace, We've got work to do!"
It's weird hearing everyone on the commentary referring to the new series and how influences from Survival were evident, with the character of Rose living in a similar council estate to Ace.
However there's certainly no negative comments made in comparison
as Sylv, Sophie and Andrew were very complementary in the same way
as several other actors from the original series.
The music for the episode was by Dominic Glynn who was still approached to write incidental music for the show despite his version of the theme tune being dropped after just one series.
However the score for the episode itself was nothing like the Bontempi-esque theme arrangement, and was more natural, and at times aggresive with the use of electric guitars in places.
The DVD itself contains some really good features such as BBC 1 presentation from around the time and 3 documentaries including one based on the episode itself, one about the development of Ace and another called "Endgame" looking at how the series was dropped and what could have happened had there been a Series 27.
Starting off with the "Cat Flap" documentary on Survival itself, I liked how some of the interviews were recorded with the actors as they are now but in the same locations in Perivale where the story was shot.
One of them being Adele Silva who played Midge's younger sister Squeak
on what was her first television appearance at just 8 years old.
Nowadays she's better known for playing Kelly Windsor in Emmerdale, and later in 2007 she came second in series 3 of Hell's Kitchen.
The "Endgame" documentary is brilliantly done containing interviews with various cast and crew members as well as Peter Cregeen, the head of BBC Drama between 1989 and 1993 who was responsible for "resting" the series in 1989.
Peter explained that Doctor Who was one of many series he wanted to remove that had ran for too long, alongside "All Creatures Great And Small" which had lasted where Peter Davison had even played Doctor Who for three years during it's run, and "Howards Way" which for me was awful, all down to that dreadful theme tune by Simon May.
Around the time several changes were set to be made had the series continued including the possible resignation of John Nathan-Turner as producer who had been on the programme for 10 years and worked with four different doctors in the lead role.
JNT had been asked to work on Bergerac which at the time was scheduled directly after Doctor Who on Wednesday evenings although he later regretted his decision to turn down the offer after Doctor Who was dropped.
Script editor Andrew Cartmel had also been rumoured to be leaving with Ben Aaronovitch taking his place but Ben revealed that he wouldn't have taken on the role as he wanted to do more writing for the series.
I'm pretty certain that Andrew Cartmel was one of the only scriptwriters on Doctor Who that never wrote an episode himself, although there was the development of "The Cartmel Masterplan" which had began around the time Ace started as companion and attempted to uncover the true identity of the Doctor.
I seem to remember reading that Cartmel's predecessor Eric Saward resigned in 1986 when he wasn't happy with the new writers who sent in scripts that he had to edit.
Personally I think he thought he was better than them as he actually took time off from the job in order to write "Revelation Of The Daleks" in 1985, and it's probably why JNT wanted someone to take the job who had never actually written an episode before and therefore took him on the instinct of his own potential scripts he'd written.
Sylvester McCoy was unsure about whether to do the role for a fourth series but then gave in when JNT told him that if he wouldn't do a fourth series, then he wouldn't be allowed to be in the third so he stayed on.
Mike Tucker, the visual effects editor also revealed a new design for the TARDIS console room which would have been used from Series 27 and would have had the consol hanging down from the ceiling.
Mark Ayres also spoke about the possibility of a new arrangement of the theme tune and how he would have liked to have a go at it himself.
Apparently the late Delia Derbyshire who arranged the distinctive original version of the theme hated Keff McCulloch's version used in all of McCoy's episodes and
I understand how Mark wanted to bring back the haunting and ethereal nature back, whereas McCulloch's version was very "in your face" and uptempo.
As I've said many times, that version of the theme will always be one of my first memories of the series.
So there we go, that's the Sylvester McCoy marathon done with although there will be several other marathon's of a similar nature before I leave London, including Dennis Potter's "Singing Detective", The Beiderbecke Collection, and best of all the much anticipated Meadows Marathon where in my final week at Uni I plan to watch all the movies from Shane Meadows back to back.
When arriving here I was more or less obsessed with his pictures having only just discovered them and it was good to find plenty of other people who thought the same.
Anyway, I may do some more random rummaging for the rest of today, and finish tonight off with a few drinky poos.
The only problem is that most of them are missing and even more residents are disappearing without trace and coincidentally there's an infestation of evil looking stray cats.
Some of the cats in the episode were real but others were animatronics which in the commentary, script editor Andrew Cartmel compared to Stouffer from Harry Hill.
Ace then attempts to find her friends at the youth club only to find that self defence classes are taking place on Sunday afternoons, lead by wannabe soldier/policeman Sgt Paterson, played by Julian Holloway who's dad Stanley was a music hall performer and made a name for himself reading monologues by Marriot Edgar.
With more and more people disapearing both Ace and the Doctor get transported and end up a planet inhabited by Cheetah People. Ace ends up going first where she meets up with her friends Midge and Shreela as well as Derek, a young boy who has also been transported.
The Doctor ends up being transported with Paterson and they then encounter the Doctor's old foe The Master, played for the final time by the late Anthony Ainley.
It emerges that the Master needs the Doctors help in order for him to get off the planet so he can then continue with planning to destroy him later.
After killing one of the inhabitants Midge ends up sharing characteristics of them and leads the Master back to Earth. Luckily Ace has also developed transportation abilities and eventually the Doctor convinces her to transport himself, Paterson, Shreela and Derek back to Earth.
However it's not over as the Doctor is determined to put a stop to the Master's actions. The Master then transports them back to the planet but lets the Doctor go after he refuses to fight.
Around the time the episode was shot, they had no idea that the axe was about to fall but nearer the end of the series, Andrew Cartmel asked Sylvester to record a speech to be played at the end of the final episode which had clever wit and ended with the line "Come on Ace, We've got work to do!"
It's weird hearing everyone on the commentary referring to the new series and how influences from Survival were evident, with the character of Rose living in a similar council estate to Ace.
However there's certainly no negative comments made in comparison
as Sylv, Sophie and Andrew were very complementary in the same way
as several other actors from the original series.
The music for the episode was by Dominic Glynn who was still approached to write incidental music for the show despite his version of the theme tune being dropped after just one series.
However the score for the episode itself was nothing like the Bontempi-esque theme arrangement, and was more natural, and at times aggresive with the use of electric guitars in places.
The DVD itself contains some really good features such as BBC 1 presentation from around the time and 3 documentaries including one based on the episode itself, one about the development of Ace and another called "Endgame" looking at how the series was dropped and what could have happened had there been a Series 27.
Starting off with the "Cat Flap" documentary on Survival itself, I liked how some of the interviews were recorded with the actors as they are now but in the same locations in Perivale where the story was shot.
One of them being Adele Silva who played Midge's younger sister Squeak
on what was her first television appearance at just 8 years old.
Nowadays she's better known for playing Kelly Windsor in Emmerdale, and later in 2007 she came second in series 3 of Hell's Kitchen.
The "Endgame" documentary is brilliantly done containing interviews with various cast and crew members as well as Peter Cregeen, the head of BBC Drama between 1989 and 1993 who was responsible for "resting" the series in 1989.
Peter explained that Doctor Who was one of many series he wanted to remove that had ran for too long, alongside "All Creatures Great And Small" which had lasted where Peter Davison had even played Doctor Who for three years during it's run, and "Howards Way" which for me was awful, all down to that dreadful theme tune by Simon May.
Around the time several changes were set to be made had the series continued including the possible resignation of John Nathan-Turner as producer who had been on the programme for 10 years and worked with four different doctors in the lead role.
JNT had been asked to work on Bergerac which at the time was scheduled directly after Doctor Who on Wednesday evenings although he later regretted his decision to turn down the offer after Doctor Who was dropped.
Script editor Andrew Cartmel had also been rumoured to be leaving with Ben Aaronovitch taking his place but Ben revealed that he wouldn't have taken on the role as he wanted to do more writing for the series.
I'm pretty certain that Andrew Cartmel was one of the only scriptwriters on Doctor Who that never wrote an episode himself, although there was the development of "The Cartmel Masterplan" which had began around the time Ace started as companion and attempted to uncover the true identity of the Doctor.
I seem to remember reading that Cartmel's predecessor Eric Saward resigned in 1986 when he wasn't happy with the new writers who sent in scripts that he had to edit.
Personally I think he thought he was better than them as he actually took time off from the job in order to write "Revelation Of The Daleks" in 1985, and it's probably why JNT wanted someone to take the job who had never actually written an episode before and therefore took him on the instinct of his own potential scripts he'd written.
Sylvester McCoy was unsure about whether to do the role for a fourth series but then gave in when JNT told him that if he wouldn't do a fourth series, then he wouldn't be allowed to be in the third so he stayed on.
Mike Tucker, the visual effects editor also revealed a new design for the TARDIS console room which would have been used from Series 27 and would have had the consol hanging down from the ceiling.
Mark Ayres also spoke about the possibility of a new arrangement of the theme tune and how he would have liked to have a go at it himself.
Apparently the late Delia Derbyshire who arranged the distinctive original version of the theme hated Keff McCulloch's version used in all of McCoy's episodes and
I understand how Mark wanted to bring back the haunting and ethereal nature back, whereas McCulloch's version was very "in your face" and uptempo.
As I've said many times, that version of the theme will always be one of my first memories of the series.
So there we go, that's the Sylvester McCoy marathon done with although there will be several other marathon's of a similar nature before I leave London, including Dennis Potter's "Singing Detective", The Beiderbecke Collection, and best of all the much anticipated Meadows Marathon where in my final week at Uni I plan to watch all the movies from Shane Meadows back to back.
When arriving here I was more or less obsessed with his pictures having only just discovered them and it was good to find plenty of other people who thought the same.
Anyway, I may do some more random rummaging for the rest of today, and finish tonight off with a few drinky poos.
Unsettled Again
Morning.
I managed to finally complete the McCoy Marathon and the final episode "Survival" in the early hours of last night.
I'll post a fuller review later but it's safe to say that in the special documentary looking back at the making of the story that Adele Silva looks gorgeous.
That's Adele as she is now, not as she was then back in 1989.
As always, Chris Moyles is currently on where he's giving away tickets to the Big Weekend taking place in a couple of weeks.
I don't understand why in the last link of Greg James's show he asks listeners to give Chris a ring on his special phone number although they only take listeners to air very occasionally.
I don't often comment on the music but it's good to finally hear the new Ciara track being played more regularly.
The weather's not looking so good outside, although I'll need to go into Sainsbury's as some fucker's stolen my fizzy orange and mango crush.
I'll probably need to by some post it notes as well as they worked last time I had my drinks stolen and stopped it from happening again.
Why do they even sink so low anyway? Tight bastards.
Smoke's pretty much back in full flow although there's the usual set of people who won't be sticking around for our final broadcast towards the end of May due to lectures finishing this week.
One of them being Lee and Lynne who's last show takes place this afternoon although according to the Facebook group it's Lee and right hand man Tom as Lynne's absent again.
I don't really know Lee that well, although he does follow me on Twitter and is also a Chelsea fan which isn't a problem at all.
Speaking of which, next Monday's a Bank Holiday so that probably means there won't be any shows due to the facilities being closed.
I've only been affected once by a public holiday when last year my show took a break for Good Friday. It was actually the second week in a row it had been off air as the week before was my disastrous special for the second 24 hour broadcast where I really did get too big for my boots and paid the price.
I think it should be a requirement of the final show for me to get sprayed, with no plastic bags for protection.
I managed to finally complete the McCoy Marathon and the final episode "Survival" in the early hours of last night.
I'll post a fuller review later but it's safe to say that in the special documentary looking back at the making of the story that Adele Silva looks gorgeous.
That's Adele as she is now, not as she was then back in 1989.
As always, Chris Moyles is currently on where he's giving away tickets to the Big Weekend taking place in a couple of weeks.
I don't understand why in the last link of Greg James's show he asks listeners to give Chris a ring on his special phone number although they only take listeners to air very occasionally.
I don't often comment on the music but it's good to finally hear the new Ciara track being played more regularly.
The weather's not looking so good outside, although I'll need to go into Sainsbury's as some fucker's stolen my fizzy orange and mango crush.
I'll probably need to by some post it notes as well as they worked last time I had my drinks stolen and stopped it from happening again.
Why do they even sink so low anyway? Tight bastards.
Smoke's pretty much back in full flow although there's the usual set of people who won't be sticking around for our final broadcast towards the end of May due to lectures finishing this week.
One of them being Lee and Lynne who's last show takes place this afternoon although according to the Facebook group it's Lee and right hand man Tom as Lynne's absent again.
I don't really know Lee that well, although he does follow me on Twitter and is also a Chelsea fan which isn't a problem at all.
Speaking of which, next Monday's a Bank Holiday so that probably means there won't be any shows due to the facilities being closed.
I've only been affected once by a public holiday when last year my show took a break for Good Friday. It was actually the second week in a row it had been off air as the week before was my disastrous special for the second 24 hour broadcast where I really did get too big for my boots and paid the price.
I think it should be a requirement of the final show for me to get sprayed, with no plastic bags for protection.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
"No Need To Worry About Looking Silly"
Tonight's BAFTAs were disapointing. Graham Norton's jokes fell flat and the wrong people ended up recieving the awards, especially in the comedy categories where Outnumbered missed out.
It was good to hear Geoffrey Perkins acknowledged by those who did win, which relates to the Obituary VT they play every year where there's normally either a director/producer, or actor that I had no idea had deceased.
One of them this year was actress Elizabeth Spriggs who played The Witch in "Simon And The Witch" amongst other roles, and it was just yesterday when I was watching her guest appearance in Doctor Who from around the same time.
Overall let's just say I'm glad I wasn't attending the awards myself.
Almost nearing the end of the Sylvester McCoy marathon and "The Curse Of Fenric" where the Doctor and Ace visit a naval base camp in the far North East Of England in 1943 during the Second World War.
The episode wasn't actually shot in Northumberland and was recorded in Sussex, Kent and Lulworth Cove in Dorset.
The basic plot of the episode involves a Viking Curse of a weird being in search of a body, which brings back the undead from the seas.
They happen to be mutants known as Haemovores who take in normal residents and turn them into more unpleasant looking beings.
Two of them being Jean and Phyllis, two young teenage girls who encourage Ace to join them in the sea but emerge looking more sinister.
Series producer John Nathan-Turner was very specific as to how they would die as he was aware that younger viewers would identify them as normal women and wouldn't want them to die in a horrific manner.
I've always found it hard to get my head round the actual plot of the story but towards the end the Doctor ends up decieving Ace in order for the curse to act against the enemies.
Episode 3 also has what has to be one of my favourite ever Doctor Who cliffhangers where Dr Judson as played by the late Dinsdale Landen gets electricuted by the ULTIMA machine and emerges as Fenric's new body and provides the line "We play the contest again. Time Lord".
Another important element of the story is when Ace meets her mother Audrey as a baby and ends up being repsonsible for sending her to London in order to escape, without knowing that it was her mother who she has a dislike for.
This was meant to be the first story transmitted in Series 26, mainly illustrated by the fact that Sylvester was wearing a duffel coat throughout the first part and removed it to reveal a darker jacket in Part 2.
The commentary with Sylv, Sophie and Nicholas Parsons who played the vicar in the story also revealed that as they shot different scenes on different locations in a non-linear order, there were problems with continuity, especially as Ace made minor changes to her outfit throught the story.
She was also dressed in appropriate 1940s style clothing which added to the nature of the story.
Mark Ayres composed the music for the episode which at one point contained a hint of Glen Miller's "In The Mood" which I bet confused a lot of younger viewers at the time who wondered why Jive Bunny would make an appearance within the programme.
Anyway, onto the final television story with Sylvester McCoy and "Survival" which came out on DVD around this time two years ago, although my account on viewing back then on the site was in no where near as detailed as this.
Definitely worth the buy however mainly for the documentary feature which looks into the series demise.
It was good to hear Geoffrey Perkins acknowledged by those who did win, which relates to the Obituary VT they play every year where there's normally either a director/producer, or actor that I had no idea had deceased.
One of them this year was actress Elizabeth Spriggs who played The Witch in "Simon And The Witch" amongst other roles, and it was just yesterday when I was watching her guest appearance in Doctor Who from around the same time.
Overall let's just say I'm glad I wasn't attending the awards myself.
Almost nearing the end of the Sylvester McCoy marathon and "The Curse Of Fenric" where the Doctor and Ace visit a naval base camp in the far North East Of England in 1943 during the Second World War.
The episode wasn't actually shot in Northumberland and was recorded in Sussex, Kent and Lulworth Cove in Dorset.
The basic plot of the episode involves a Viking Curse of a weird being in search of a body, which brings back the undead from the seas.
They happen to be mutants known as Haemovores who take in normal residents and turn them into more unpleasant looking beings.
Two of them being Jean and Phyllis, two young teenage girls who encourage Ace to join them in the sea but emerge looking more sinister.
Series producer John Nathan-Turner was very specific as to how they would die as he was aware that younger viewers would identify them as normal women and wouldn't want them to die in a horrific manner.
I've always found it hard to get my head round the actual plot of the story but towards the end the Doctor ends up decieving Ace in order for the curse to act against the enemies.
Episode 3 also has what has to be one of my favourite ever Doctor Who cliffhangers where Dr Judson as played by the late Dinsdale Landen gets electricuted by the ULTIMA machine and emerges as Fenric's new body and provides the line "We play the contest again. Time Lord".
Another important element of the story is when Ace meets her mother Audrey as a baby and ends up being repsonsible for sending her to London in order to escape, without knowing that it was her mother who she has a dislike for.
This was meant to be the first story transmitted in Series 26, mainly illustrated by the fact that Sylvester was wearing a duffel coat throughout the first part and removed it to reveal a darker jacket in Part 2.
The commentary with Sylv, Sophie and Nicholas Parsons who played the vicar in the story also revealed that as they shot different scenes on different locations in a non-linear order, there were problems with continuity, especially as Ace made minor changes to her outfit throught the story.
She was also dressed in appropriate 1940s style clothing which added to the nature of the story.
Mark Ayres composed the music for the episode which at one point contained a hint of Glen Miller's "In The Mood" which I bet confused a lot of younger viewers at the time who wondered why Jive Bunny would make an appearance within the programme.
Anyway, onto the final television story with Sylvester McCoy and "Survival" which came out on DVD around this time two years ago, although my account on viewing back then on the site was in no where near as detailed as this.
Definitely worth the buy however mainly for the documentary feature which looks into the series demise.
The Darker Doctor
Almost nearing the end, with the first two stories from Doctor Who Series 26.
It was pretty much evident that the axe was nearing at the beginning of transmission, with newspapers reporting that the BBC were "resting" the show with the possibility of it being sold to an independent production company.
But to suggest that the series itself was on it's last legs in terms of storylines was far from the truth as the bond between the Doctor and Ace was getting even stronger and this series really did put things to the test.
The opening episode was "Battlefield" set in the near future where an army at a village in England were invaded by knights from another time and dimension.
The Doctor and Ace respond to a distress call within the TARDIS and meet up with Brigadier Winifred Bambera who's first name certainly isn't reflective of her young and aggressive persona.
The character was played by Angela Bruce who had appeared in several TV drama series such as Coronation Street and Bad Girls, but I recognised her more from Only Fools And Horses as Councillor Murray, the woman who was rescued by Del Boy dressed up as Batman.
With the situation in even more danger, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is called out of retirement to assist the Doctor and Ace within the fight, where they encounter the knight Mordred and his mother sorceress Morgaine who recognise the Doctor as Merlin for his abilities to travel in time.
The episode is best remembered for the cliffhanger in Part 2 where Ace is trapped inside a water tank with increasing levels, although the recording of the scene almost cost Sophie Aldred her life due to the glass cracking whilst she was still in there.
As far as I'm aware it was also the final episode to include scenes inside the TARDIS and on it's return in 1996 it certainly looked as if the Doctor had given it more than a lick of paint.
Nicholas Courtney also made his last appearance as the Brigadier although he made a return in the last series of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" in the same role last year.
Keff McCulloch was back providing the music although they removed his credit at the end as the arranger of the then current version of the theme tune, possibly because so many people hated it.
Like most of the stories, the DVD has an audio option of just hearing the music.
I must be the only person who appreciates it and when Battlefield was repeated on BBC 2 back in April 1993 it really was much anticipated just for the opening titles as I had not seen them for 5 years.
The second episode in the series was "Ghost Light" where the Doctor took Ace back to Gabriel Chase in the late 19th century, which was a house she burnt down a hundred years later aged 13.
This was one of the major aims of the series to show a darker nature to the Doctor bringing Ace to locations in order to confront her demons.
The costume change to a darker jacket helped reflect this.
I was never really a fan of this story mainly due to the low lighting and slow moving historical plot but Marc Platt who wrote the story was keen to do a story set in Victorian times and was influenced by Tom Baker's "The Talons Of Weng Chiang" from 1977.
It was also the last story from the original series to be recorded, and back in August 1989 the team had no idea that the series was to disapear with all the crew saying to each other that they would see each other again next year.
The majority of stories from Series 26 have been given special feature length bonus editions on the DVDs to accompany the orginal transmitted episodes and with Ghost Light there was enough material shot to make it a four part story.
However broadcast quality footage had been destroyed from the original rushes which made it impossible to edit a feature length version although some of the old VHS scenes with the timecodes have been left on the DVD as extra features.
I'll finish the marathon later tonight when the BAFTA's have finished, starting off with possibly the stand out episode of the series "The Curse Of Fenric", which tends to be the favourite epsiode of those who hated the Sylvester McCoy era.
I've seen it a few times so I'll probably watch it with the commentary from Sylv, Soph and guest star Nicholas Parsons who challenges them to do the commentary without any hesitation, repetition or deviation.
It was pretty much evident that the axe was nearing at the beginning of transmission, with newspapers reporting that the BBC were "resting" the show with the possibility of it being sold to an independent production company.
But to suggest that the series itself was on it's last legs in terms of storylines was far from the truth as the bond between the Doctor and Ace was getting even stronger and this series really did put things to the test.
The opening episode was "Battlefield" set in the near future where an army at a village in England were invaded by knights from another time and dimension.
The Doctor and Ace respond to a distress call within the TARDIS and meet up with Brigadier Winifred Bambera who's first name certainly isn't reflective of her young and aggressive persona.
The character was played by Angela Bruce who had appeared in several TV drama series such as Coronation Street and Bad Girls, but I recognised her more from Only Fools And Horses as Councillor Murray, the woman who was rescued by Del Boy dressed up as Batman.
With the situation in even more danger, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is called out of retirement to assist the Doctor and Ace within the fight, where they encounter the knight Mordred and his mother sorceress Morgaine who recognise the Doctor as Merlin for his abilities to travel in time.
The episode is best remembered for the cliffhanger in Part 2 where Ace is trapped inside a water tank with increasing levels, although the recording of the scene almost cost Sophie Aldred her life due to the glass cracking whilst she was still in there.
As far as I'm aware it was also the final episode to include scenes inside the TARDIS and on it's return in 1996 it certainly looked as if the Doctor had given it more than a lick of paint.
Nicholas Courtney also made his last appearance as the Brigadier although he made a return in the last series of "The Sarah Jane Adventures" in the same role last year.
Keff McCulloch was back providing the music although they removed his credit at the end as the arranger of the then current version of the theme tune, possibly because so many people hated it.
Like most of the stories, the DVD has an audio option of just hearing the music.
I must be the only person who appreciates it and when Battlefield was repeated on BBC 2 back in April 1993 it really was much anticipated just for the opening titles as I had not seen them for 5 years.
The second episode in the series was "Ghost Light" where the Doctor took Ace back to Gabriel Chase in the late 19th century, which was a house she burnt down a hundred years later aged 13.
This was one of the major aims of the series to show a darker nature to the Doctor bringing Ace to locations in order to confront her demons.
The costume change to a darker jacket helped reflect this.
I was never really a fan of this story mainly due to the low lighting and slow moving historical plot but Marc Platt who wrote the story was keen to do a story set in Victorian times and was influenced by Tom Baker's "The Talons Of Weng Chiang" from 1977.
It was also the last story from the original series to be recorded, and back in August 1989 the team had no idea that the series was to disapear with all the crew saying to each other that they would see each other again next year.
The majority of stories from Series 26 have been given special feature length bonus editions on the DVDs to accompany the orginal transmitted episodes and with Ghost Light there was enough material shot to make it a four part story.
However broadcast quality footage had been destroyed from the original rushes which made it impossible to edit a feature length version although some of the old VHS scenes with the timecodes have been left on the DVD as extra features.
I'll finish the marathon later tonight when the BAFTA's have finished, starting off with possibly the stand out episode of the series "The Curse Of Fenric", which tends to be the favourite epsiode of those who hated the Sylvester McCoy era.
I've seen it a few times so I'll probably watch it with the commentary from Sylv, Soph and guest star Nicholas Parsons who challenges them to do the commentary without any hesitation, repetition or deviation.
"Well Are We Going In Or Aren't We?"
I'm now two thirds of the way through the Sylvester McCoy marathon with the final story of Series 25 "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy".
It all begins when the Doctor and Ace receive an advertising satellite inside the TARDIS for The Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax, where several bizarre beings from other planets take part in the talent contest, alongside the clowns and a rapping ringmaster.
Reluctantly Ace agrees to go with the Doctor who is more enthusiastic about going.
This episode happens to be the only one in the 1988 series with scenes inside the TARDIS interior and they use it pretty well with Ace coming out of the wardrobe with the Fourth Doctor's scarf, which I reckon may have pissed off a few purists at the time.
Upon arrival they encounter the pompous Capitain Cook, an intergalactic explorer and his friend Mags who has to put up with tales of his travels. Then when entering the tent they discover the disturbing truth that if any of the acts fail to impress the audience conisisting of only three people, they will die.
I'd imagine that's what some people wish was the premise of Britain's Got Talent.
The Doctor, Ace and Mags attempt to escape from the tent whilst avoiding the Chief Clown and his henchmen, (or hench-clowns) and Ace encounters Kingpin who is trying to find a key component for a medallion.
When he manages to find it he gains his confidence and the two work in order to help the Doctor uncover what is really going on inside the tent.
The Doctor, the Captain and Mags decide to perform their act together and after a special lighting request from Capitain Cook to superimpose a moon, it is revealed that Mags is a werewolf.
Luckily for the Doctor it is the Captain that she is preying on and after his death the Doctor transports through the time tunnel (which is really a dreadful video effect of Sylvester McCoy messing about which shiny paper) and meets the Gods of Ragnarok who are the real identies of the sinister audience.
When Ace, Mags and Kingpin attempt to deliver the object to the Doctor, the Captain re-emerges attempting to grab the medallion and uses it to defend the attacks from the Gods, inevitably destroying the circus tent.
With the Psychic Circus destroyed, Kingpin and Mags set out to build a new circus on another planet inviting the Doctor and Ace to assist them.
The Doctor flattered by the offer however, politely declines;
"Thank you Kingpin. But I'm afraid we've got other galaxies to be travelling.
And besides, I've always found circuses a little sinister"
The episode is one of many in terms of location, that is set on an alien planet but actually shot on a quarry in Dorset. Oddly enough, none of the interior scenes were shot at TVC due to it being shut down during recording whilst they were searching for asbestos.
Luckily the newly acquired Elstree studios where they shot Grange Hill were loaned for the filming of the circus tent.
As always there's a supporting cast of familiar faces including the character of Nord being played by Daniel Peacock who's barely any different to his lead singer of the "Bunch Of Wallies" in Only Fools and Horses.
It more or less proves that Daniel was the Ross Kemp of his day, proving that he was only capable of playing one type of character.
Mags is played by Jessica Martin who was known at the time as Bobby Davro's right hand girl providing the female impressions on his TVS series.
I thought Jessica was superb, proving that there was an awful lot more to her than a load of silly voices, and had Sophie decided to leave the series, she would have been a superb replacement companion for the Doctor.
Ian Reddington appeared as The Chief Clown and later went on to play market operator Richard "Tricky Dicky" Cole in Eastenders a few years later, and Maria Way's twin sister Peggy Mount played that slightly more cynical stallslady on the planet.
I've always thought Peggy Mount was really a man and her character in Doctor Who helps to hint at this with no bounds.
The stand out character had to be "The Whizzkid" a teenage boy who you could say really was my stunt double, as the character was designed to be a direct parody of the more obsessive Doctor Who fan such as "I've got all your posters!" and "Although I never got to see the early days, I know it's not as good as it used to be but I'm still terribly interested."
The character was played by Gian Sammarco, better known as the TV Adrian Mole and as one of the presenters on the ITV summer Saturday morning show
"Get Fresh" with Gaz Top and Gilbert The Alien.
The story was the first to feature incidental music from Mark Ayres would would become quite prolific in later episodes. The majority of the music consists of high pitched synth drones and chimes, although there's also the music inside the circus itself consisting of hints of "March Of The Gladiators" and the music to accompany the ringmaster when he's rapping.
Mark also mentioned later on that he nearly came close to rearranging the Doctor Who theme tune although I'll go onto that in more detail later.
As for now I'll continue with the first episode of Series 26 and one that I haven't seen for over 15 years, "Battlefield" which sees a return appearance from Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, and the third Doctor's car "Bessie".
It all begins when the Doctor and Ace receive an advertising satellite inside the TARDIS for The Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax, where several bizarre beings from other planets take part in the talent contest, alongside the clowns and a rapping ringmaster.
Reluctantly Ace agrees to go with the Doctor who is more enthusiastic about going.
This episode happens to be the only one in the 1988 series with scenes inside the TARDIS interior and they use it pretty well with Ace coming out of the wardrobe with the Fourth Doctor's scarf, which I reckon may have pissed off a few purists at the time.
Upon arrival they encounter the pompous Capitain Cook, an intergalactic explorer and his friend Mags who has to put up with tales of his travels. Then when entering the tent they discover the disturbing truth that if any of the acts fail to impress the audience conisisting of only three people, they will die.
I'd imagine that's what some people wish was the premise of Britain's Got Talent.
The Doctor, Ace and Mags attempt to escape from the tent whilst avoiding the Chief Clown and his henchmen, (or hench-clowns) and Ace encounters Kingpin who is trying to find a key component for a medallion.
When he manages to find it he gains his confidence and the two work in order to help the Doctor uncover what is really going on inside the tent.
The Doctor, the Captain and Mags decide to perform their act together and after a special lighting request from Capitain Cook to superimpose a moon, it is revealed that Mags is a werewolf.
Luckily for the Doctor it is the Captain that she is preying on and after his death the Doctor transports through the time tunnel (which is really a dreadful video effect of Sylvester McCoy messing about which shiny paper) and meets the Gods of Ragnarok who are the real identies of the sinister audience.
When Ace, Mags and Kingpin attempt to deliver the object to the Doctor, the Captain re-emerges attempting to grab the medallion and uses it to defend the attacks from the Gods, inevitably destroying the circus tent.
With the Psychic Circus destroyed, Kingpin and Mags set out to build a new circus on another planet inviting the Doctor and Ace to assist them.
The Doctor flattered by the offer however, politely declines;
"Thank you Kingpin. But I'm afraid we've got other galaxies to be travelling.
And besides, I've always found circuses a little sinister"
The episode is one of many in terms of location, that is set on an alien planet but actually shot on a quarry in Dorset. Oddly enough, none of the interior scenes were shot at TVC due to it being shut down during recording whilst they were searching for asbestos.
Luckily the newly acquired Elstree studios where they shot Grange Hill were loaned for the filming of the circus tent.
As always there's a supporting cast of familiar faces including the character of Nord being played by Daniel Peacock who's barely any different to his lead singer of the "Bunch Of Wallies" in Only Fools and Horses.
It more or less proves that Daniel was the Ross Kemp of his day, proving that he was only capable of playing one type of character.
Mags is played by Jessica Martin who was known at the time as Bobby Davro's right hand girl providing the female impressions on his TVS series.
I thought Jessica was superb, proving that there was an awful lot more to her than a load of silly voices, and had Sophie decided to leave the series, she would have been a superb replacement companion for the Doctor.
Ian Reddington appeared as The Chief Clown and later went on to play market operator Richard "Tricky Dicky" Cole in Eastenders a few years later, and Maria Way's twin sister Peggy Mount played that slightly more cynical stallslady on the planet.
I've always thought Peggy Mount was really a man and her character in Doctor Who helps to hint at this with no bounds.
The stand out character had to be "The Whizzkid" a teenage boy who you could say really was my stunt double, as the character was designed to be a direct parody of the more obsessive Doctor Who fan such as "I've got all your posters!" and "Although I never got to see the early days, I know it's not as good as it used to be but I'm still terribly interested."
The character was played by Gian Sammarco, better known as the TV Adrian Mole and as one of the presenters on the ITV summer Saturday morning show
"Get Fresh" with Gaz Top and Gilbert The Alien.
The story was the first to feature incidental music from Mark Ayres would would become quite prolific in later episodes. The majority of the music consists of high pitched synth drones and chimes, although there's also the music inside the circus itself consisting of hints of "March Of The Gladiators" and the music to accompany the ringmaster when he's rapping.
Mark also mentioned later on that he nearly came close to rearranging the Doctor Who theme tune although I'll go onto that in more detail later.
As for now I'll continue with the first episode of Series 26 and one that I haven't seen for over 15 years, "Battlefield" which sees a return appearance from Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, and the third Doctor's car "Bessie".
Unfinished Business
I've finally managed to finish viewing "Silver Nemesis" the third story of the 1988 series of Doctor Who and what I reckon was the weakest in that series.
I know it was designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary but the story itself was rather dull and took quite a bit of time to develop despite being a three part story, and it didn't help being overshadowed by the more superior Daleks episode at the beginning of the series.
Anyway the story takes place in Windsor on the 22nd of November 1988 where two people from the 17th century have been transported through time.
The Doctor and Ace meanwhile are watching an outdoor performance by jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine where the Doctor discovers a story in the paper about a comet heading towards Earth but Ace is more interested in how Charlton Athletic are doing.
I'm pretty certain that was one of Sophie's influences on the character as she is a Charlton supporter in real life although I doubt the character of Ace would be the sort of person to have been awarded two Blue Peter badges earlier in her life.
Although I don't understand how if it was meant to be November, why they are sat outside in the bright warm sunshine. A gaffe made more evident with the spoof continuity announcement in "Remembrance Of The Daleks".
The episode was meant to be the final one transmitted in the series but it ended up being shown third so it could be transmitted at the exact time of the anniversary, following the series being put back by a month due to the BBC's coverage of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul in September.
This didn't do too much damage to the original running order as the only continuity error was Ace pinning Flowerchild's spiral shaped earring to her jacket in "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy" which was meant to go out after the Dalek episode and Ace can be seen wearing said badge in the other episodes.
The problem with the episode was that the Cybermen didn't even appear until the very end of Part 1 and they weren't really justified as established Doctor Who enemies in this episode.
I certainly don't remember them at all from the original transmission although I liked how they were introduced in the cliffhanger of Part 1 where a shuttle lands in Windsor just as the Doctor and Ace are about to be gunned down by an army.
Ace: "They saved my life!"
Doctor: "Don't thank them yet. You might live to regret it."
(Cybermen emerge from shuttle)
Ace: "What are they?"
Doctor: "Cybermen."
David Banks returned in his role as the Cyberleader, having appeared before with Peter Davison and Colin Baker.
David also appeared as the understudy for the Doctor in the 1989 stage play by Terrance Dicks, where Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker reprised the lead role respectively over the 6 month tour.
Ace continued to prove that she was no ordinary companion by actually getting in on the action and helped defeat the enemies rather than screaming at them. Having used a baseball bat to destroy the Daleks, this time round she used a slingshot to take out the Cybermen where necessary.
Whilst this was probably the weakest of the episodes, after Robbie's show on Jazz FM I plan to re-view quite possibly my favourite Sylvester McCoy story in terms of originality and cleverness "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy".
I know it was designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary but the story itself was rather dull and took quite a bit of time to develop despite being a three part story, and it didn't help being overshadowed by the more superior Daleks episode at the beginning of the series.
Anyway the story takes place in Windsor on the 22nd of November 1988 where two people from the 17th century have been transported through time.
The Doctor and Ace meanwhile are watching an outdoor performance by jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine where the Doctor discovers a story in the paper about a comet heading towards Earth but Ace is more interested in how Charlton Athletic are doing.
I'm pretty certain that was one of Sophie's influences on the character as she is a Charlton supporter in real life although I doubt the character of Ace would be the sort of person to have been awarded two Blue Peter badges earlier in her life.
Although I don't understand how if it was meant to be November, why they are sat outside in the bright warm sunshine. A gaffe made more evident with the spoof continuity announcement in "Remembrance Of The Daleks".
The episode was meant to be the final one transmitted in the series but it ended up being shown third so it could be transmitted at the exact time of the anniversary, following the series being put back by a month due to the BBC's coverage of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul in September.
This didn't do too much damage to the original running order as the only continuity error was Ace pinning Flowerchild's spiral shaped earring to her jacket in "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy" which was meant to go out after the Dalek episode and Ace can be seen wearing said badge in the other episodes.
The problem with the episode was that the Cybermen didn't even appear until the very end of Part 1 and they weren't really justified as established Doctor Who enemies in this episode.
I certainly don't remember them at all from the original transmission although I liked how they were introduced in the cliffhanger of Part 1 where a shuttle lands in Windsor just as the Doctor and Ace are about to be gunned down by an army.
Ace: "They saved my life!"
Doctor: "Don't thank them yet. You might live to regret it."
(Cybermen emerge from shuttle)
Ace: "What are they?"
Doctor: "Cybermen."
David Banks returned in his role as the Cyberleader, having appeared before with Peter Davison and Colin Baker.
David also appeared as the understudy for the Doctor in the 1989 stage play by Terrance Dicks, where Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker reprised the lead role respectively over the 6 month tour.
Ace continued to prove that she was no ordinary companion by actually getting in on the action and helped defeat the enemies rather than screaming at them. Having used a baseball bat to destroy the Daleks, this time round she used a slingshot to take out the Cybermen where necessary.
Whilst this was probably the weakest of the episodes, after Robbie's show on Jazz FM I plan to re-view quite possibly my favourite Sylvester McCoy story in terms of originality and cleverness "The Greatest Show In The Galaxy".
Heated In Both Senses
Morning.
It's been an interesting few hours since my last post, as after PY I ended up falling asleep two thirds into the Doctor Who story "Silver Nemesis".
I'll post a fuller review later but I'd say that it's the weakest story from the 1988 series.
I got woken just before 7pm by a phone call from Chilvers asking me to pop over for a few celebratory drinks at his house where on my arrival was him, Denis, Stewart, Steven and Caroline.
Stewart decided to leave us about halfway into the night but we managed to stay entertained mainly through the music video channels and this week's "Britain's Got Talent" as well as the ITV2 supplementary show.
Kelly Brook made her appearance as an extra judge and I didn't think she was as bad as we'd all been lead to believe. Chris got into a bit of an argument with Steven when saying that popularity counted towards success despite Chris saying that he couldn't understand why the show was so popular.
It got even more heated when they got into a debate about whether commercial radio would survive as Steven was annoyed that Chris thought he hated commercial radio and wanted it to fail, and it all ended up as a very heated debate between myself, Chris, Phil Harris and Steven.
It was enjoyable and didn't result anything nasty but my own personal view is that commercial radio does need to get it's act together if it is to survive in the long term, and stop blaming the BBC for it's failures.
As for the rest of today, I aim to complete the Sylvester McCoy marathon, taking a break at 10am as always as Robbie's spinning the good stuff on Jazz FM.
It's not looking bad in terms of weather for the London Marathon is it?
I should have really aimed for something slightly more practical, especially as Mum managed to complete the course 5 years ago.
It's been an interesting few hours since my last post, as after PY I ended up falling asleep two thirds into the Doctor Who story "Silver Nemesis".
I'll post a fuller review later but I'd say that it's the weakest story from the 1988 series.
I got woken just before 7pm by a phone call from Chilvers asking me to pop over for a few celebratory drinks at his house where on my arrival was him, Denis, Stewart, Steven and Caroline.
Stewart decided to leave us about halfway into the night but we managed to stay entertained mainly through the music video channels and this week's "Britain's Got Talent" as well as the ITV2 supplementary show.
Kelly Brook made her appearance as an extra judge and I didn't think she was as bad as we'd all been lead to believe. Chris got into a bit of an argument with Steven when saying that popularity counted towards success despite Chris saying that he couldn't understand why the show was so popular.
It got even more heated when they got into a debate about whether commercial radio would survive as Steven was annoyed that Chris thought he hated commercial radio and wanted it to fail, and it all ended up as a very heated debate between myself, Chris, Phil Harris and Steven.
It was enjoyable and didn't result anything nasty but my own personal view is that commercial radio does need to get it's act together if it is to survive in the long term, and stop blaming the BBC for it's failures.
As for the rest of today, I aim to complete the Sylvester McCoy marathon, taking a break at 10am as always as Robbie's spinning the good stuff on Jazz FM.
It's not looking bad in terms of weather for the London Marathon is it?
I should have really aimed for something slightly more practical, especially as Mum managed to complete the course 5 years ago.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
"GILBERT M!"
Onto the second episode of DW Series 25 and "The Happiness Patrol".
The story takes place on the planet Terra Alpha where the overall law there is for all inhabitants to be happy all the time or die. Probably safe to say that I wouldn't survive on that planet for a second.
Anyway the Doctor and Ace arrive with their overall intention being to get arrested where they encounter people such as leader Helen A played by Sheila Hancock who was meant to be a caricature of Mrs Thatcher.
As is normally the circumstances in a Doctor Who story, the Doctor and his companion get separated from each other where Ace befriends Susan Q as played by Lesley Dunlop and the Doctor joins forces with Earl Sigma, a blues musician from Earth.
It is at this point of the epsiode where we're introduced to the infamous Kandyman, a rather unpleasant looking monster assisted by Gilbert M, and bears an ugly resemblance to Bertie Basset with one of the most irritating voices ever from a Doctor Who character.
Well, apart from Melanie Bush.
The company wrote to the BBC saying that the character could potentially damage the sales of their Liquorice Allsorts so producer John Nathan-Turner made sure that the Kandyman's appearance in this story would be it's sole appearance in the series.
According to Wikipedia, Channel 5 listed this episode amongst the 50 Most Shameful Moments in television suggesting that this was where Doctor Who "jumped the shark" which I thought was a bit unfair.
It was a lot more creative, yet satirical in places than most of the preceeding stories, even if it did reflect the overuse of bright colours on television around the time.
It's worth mentioning some of the conventions used within the series that had even become commonplace by the time of transmission.
In this episode it was the way that "killjoys" were executed by having red slime dropped on them, and around the same time Noel Edmonds had began doing the same on his Saturday Roadshow.
In the previous episode with the Daleks, a plasma ball was used as a prop for the Time Controller, as well as a Dalek being disabled by fiber optics, both of which are now popular bedroom items and familiar sights in Oxford Street tourist shops.
Other familiar faces in the episode included the late Ronald Fraser as Joseph C and Daisy K was played by Georgina Hale who took over from Liz Estensen as T-Bag in the popular children's series from Thames Television.
I'm taking a break from the episodes for a couple of hours as PY's about to provide the good stuff on Jazz FM, although it looks as if I may get through the rest quicker than I thought I would.
The story takes place on the planet Terra Alpha where the overall law there is for all inhabitants to be happy all the time or die. Probably safe to say that I wouldn't survive on that planet for a second.
Anyway the Doctor and Ace arrive with their overall intention being to get arrested where they encounter people such as leader Helen A played by Sheila Hancock who was meant to be a caricature of Mrs Thatcher.
As is normally the circumstances in a Doctor Who story, the Doctor and his companion get separated from each other where Ace befriends Susan Q as played by Lesley Dunlop and the Doctor joins forces with Earl Sigma, a blues musician from Earth.
It is at this point of the epsiode where we're introduced to the infamous Kandyman, a rather unpleasant looking monster assisted by Gilbert M, and bears an ugly resemblance to Bertie Basset with one of the most irritating voices ever from a Doctor Who character.
Well, apart from Melanie Bush.
The company wrote to the BBC saying that the character could potentially damage the sales of their Liquorice Allsorts so producer John Nathan-Turner made sure that the Kandyman's appearance in this story would be it's sole appearance in the series.
According to Wikipedia, Channel 5 listed this episode amongst the 50 Most Shameful Moments in television suggesting that this was where Doctor Who "jumped the shark" which I thought was a bit unfair.
It was a lot more creative, yet satirical in places than most of the preceeding stories, even if it did reflect the overuse of bright colours on television around the time.
It's worth mentioning some of the conventions used within the series that had even become commonplace by the time of transmission.
In this episode it was the way that "killjoys" were executed by having red slime dropped on them, and around the same time Noel Edmonds had began doing the same on his Saturday Roadshow.
In the previous episode with the Daleks, a plasma ball was used as a prop for the Time Controller, as well as a Dalek being disabled by fiber optics, both of which are now popular bedroom items and familiar sights in Oxford Street tourist shops.
Other familiar faces in the episode included the late Ronald Fraser as Joseph C and Daisy K was played by Georgina Hale who took over from Liz Estensen as T-Bag in the popular children's series from Thames Television.
I'm taking a break from the episodes for a couple of hours as PY's about to provide the good stuff on Jazz FM, although it looks as if I may get through the rest quicker than I thought I would.
"Unlimited Rice Pudding"
So onto the second leg of the McCoy Marathon and "Remembrance Of The Daleks".
It had been quite a while since the most popular enemy of the Doctor had been on television as their last appearance was in 1985's "Revelation Of The Daleks" with Colin Baker, the last one before the series 18 month hiatus.
Michael Grade, the then controller of BBC 1 had wanted enemies like the Daleks and the Cybermen to be phased out on the series return in 1986 but after his departure to Channel 4 in 1987 and the 25th anniversary approaching the BBC immediately asked for a story in Sylvester's second series to feature the legendary aliens.
It was probably the first Doctor Who story I can remember seeing at an early age and what you could call the perfect introduction.
It also provided a good introduction to the relationship between the Doctor and Ace and I love it when she lies to the Doctor about not carrying any Nitro 9 explosives and then during an attack, the Doctor asks Ace to give him
"some of the Nitro 9 you're not carrying".
She also establishes her habit of addressing the Doctor as "The Professor", only using his real name if the situation is serious or in danger.
Ben Aaronovitch was approached to write the four part episode and it was only the beginning of his talents for writing which almost resulting in him becoming the script editor had the series continued after 1990.
The story itself involves the Doctor returning to the Coal Hill School in 1963 where it all began and becomes involved with Doctor Rachel Jensen and Group Captain Gilmore who are investigating an invasion between rival Dalek factions, the Imperial Daleks in white with gold studs, and Renegade Daleks in grey with black studs.
Gilmore was played by Simon Williams who was familiar to viewers in the popular LWT drama series "Upstairs Downstairs".
Ace meanwhile befriends a man by the name of Mike Smith who unknown to her works for Mr Ratcliffe, an agent of the Renegade Daleks played by the late George Sewell.
In the DVD commentary Sylvester and Sophie mentioned how all the cast really got on well together when recording the episode. The problem however was that there would be moments during filming where they would constantly crack up laughing, meaning the scenes would take a long time to film.
Other actors who appeared in the episode included the late Michael Sheard as the headmaster who was better known for playing deputy headteacher Mr Bronson in Grange Hill, and Harry Fowler who played Harry the cafe owner who Sylvester was really excited about working with as he used to appear in a lot of Ealing Comedies in the 1950s.
There's also a really nice scene in that same location where the Doctor goes in to the cafe at night and asks John the black owner for a mug of tea without sugar and when asking what good it would do, John explains how if the sugar plantation had never happened, he'd still be living in Africa.
John was actually played by Joseph Marcell who would become a cult figure throughout the 90s and to this day as Geoffrey the butler in "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air".
Quite a lot of 60s music featured in the background in a lot of the scenes, especially the ones set in the cafe such as "Do You Want To Know A Secret", "Apache" and "Lollipop".
Keff McCulloch provided a fantastic incidental score which can actually be heard on it's own on the DVD as an audio option.
One such example being in the final scene where the Doctor and Ace decide to leave before Mike's funeral is about to take place and it just matches the downbeat mood so well.
Doctor: "Time to leave"
Ace: "Yes."
"Doctor, we did good didn't we?"
Doctor: "Perhaps. Time will tell. It always does"
The trivia text on the DVD mentioned that they were originally going to use a slower version of the song "Runaround Sue" but they decided to abandon the idea shortly before editing.
I thought that to use the song really would have been inappropriate and I doubt it would have made me react in the same way as it did in the final edit.
Onto the second episode and a slight return to the "pantomime" style stories with "The Happiness Patrol" guest starring Sheila Hancock, and Lesley Dunlop who later went on to star in "May To December".
It had been quite a while since the most popular enemy of the Doctor had been on television as their last appearance was in 1985's "Revelation Of The Daleks" with Colin Baker, the last one before the series 18 month hiatus.
Michael Grade, the then controller of BBC 1 had wanted enemies like the Daleks and the Cybermen to be phased out on the series return in 1986 but after his departure to Channel 4 in 1987 and the 25th anniversary approaching the BBC immediately asked for a story in Sylvester's second series to feature the legendary aliens.
It was probably the first Doctor Who story I can remember seeing at an early age and what you could call the perfect introduction.
It also provided a good introduction to the relationship between the Doctor and Ace and I love it when she lies to the Doctor about not carrying any Nitro 9 explosives and then during an attack, the Doctor asks Ace to give him
"some of the Nitro 9 you're not carrying".
She also establishes her habit of addressing the Doctor as "The Professor", only using his real name if the situation is serious or in danger.
Ben Aaronovitch was approached to write the four part episode and it was only the beginning of his talents for writing which almost resulting in him becoming the script editor had the series continued after 1990.
The story itself involves the Doctor returning to the Coal Hill School in 1963 where it all began and becomes involved with Doctor Rachel Jensen and Group Captain Gilmore who are investigating an invasion between rival Dalek factions, the Imperial Daleks in white with gold studs, and Renegade Daleks in grey with black studs.
Gilmore was played by Simon Williams who was familiar to viewers in the popular LWT drama series "Upstairs Downstairs".
Ace meanwhile befriends a man by the name of Mike Smith who unknown to her works for Mr Ratcliffe, an agent of the Renegade Daleks played by the late George Sewell.
In the DVD commentary Sylvester and Sophie mentioned how all the cast really got on well together when recording the episode. The problem however was that there would be moments during filming where they would constantly crack up laughing, meaning the scenes would take a long time to film.
Other actors who appeared in the episode included the late Michael Sheard as the headmaster who was better known for playing deputy headteacher Mr Bronson in Grange Hill, and Harry Fowler who played Harry the cafe owner who Sylvester was really excited about working with as he used to appear in a lot of Ealing Comedies in the 1950s.
There's also a really nice scene in that same location where the Doctor goes in to the cafe at night and asks John the black owner for a mug of tea without sugar and when asking what good it would do, John explains how if the sugar plantation had never happened, he'd still be living in Africa.
John was actually played by Joseph Marcell who would become a cult figure throughout the 90s and to this day as Geoffrey the butler in "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air".
Quite a lot of 60s music featured in the background in a lot of the scenes, especially the ones set in the cafe such as "Do You Want To Know A Secret", "Apache" and "Lollipop".
Keff McCulloch provided a fantastic incidental score which can actually be heard on it's own on the DVD as an audio option.
One such example being in the final scene where the Doctor and Ace decide to leave before Mike's funeral is about to take place and it just matches the downbeat mood so well.
Doctor: "Time to leave"
Ace: "Yes."
"Doctor, we did good didn't we?"
Doctor: "Perhaps. Time will tell. It always does"
The trivia text on the DVD mentioned that they were originally going to use a slower version of the song "Runaround Sue" but they decided to abandon the idea shortly before editing.
I thought that to use the song really would have been inappropriate and I doubt it would have made me react in the same way as it did in the final edit.
Onto the second episode and a slight return to the "pantomime" style stories with "The Happiness Patrol" guest starring Sheila Hancock, and Lesley Dunlop who later went on to star in "May To December".
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