A Barely Cultured Lockdown Binge

There's signs of hope over the coming months.

Provided no one in power, or any stupid people (in some cases, both)
mess things up, many will be able to spend the summer at festivals,
or in my case walking from Sutton to Skegness listening to
compilations of radio recordings from the early 90s.

Whatever happens, the months up to at least September should be covered
via one-episode-per-night binges of entertainment series that may not be
"culturally significant" enough to be uploaded onto legit streaming services.

Currently three series into Noel's House Party, with all the episodes (just
about) posted on Youtube, and by this stage Mr Blobby was on course
to topping the charts and the then controller of BBC1 hailed the show as
"the most important on BBC Television".



I'll post a series-by-series review of the whole lot around November time
to coincide with the show's 30th birthday.

Though two of the actors with regular bit parts in the Gotchas may have inspired
future binges, with the occurrences of Geoff McGivern and Rebecca Front
prompting viewings of "Back" and "The Thick Of It" respectively.

But it's not just Saturday evenings being revisited, having just finished
the first series of ITV's early 90s Saturday morning puppet fest "What's Up Doc?".



A series that upset my Dad, not so much for the risque content,
but the cheese-obsessed Simon Perry, a character who dad thought was
taking the mickey out of people with special interests and learning disabilities.



A good chance then, that he would have lost his rag on seeing
Chris Jarvis's "Anorak" on CBBC around the same time.

I've never took offence to it, as while the character may have 
the visual stereotype traits, they're not made fun of directly and it's them
providing the laughs intentionally with the many double entendres.

On the other hand if I see any "Zzzzip!" comments or related GIFs
on social media then they're deserving of an unfollow.

Digressing, it's a show that may be even funnier now than seeing it first time aged 7,
all too aware that the complaints about the innuendos and not-so-subtle swearing
lead to a mass revamp halfway through series 2.

All down to the resignation of producers Ged Allen and Vanessa Hill,
not wanting to be involved in the watering down of their show,
and eventually forming their own indie, returning to ITV's Saturday mornings
a decade later when the "Ministry Of Mayhem" filled the space left by SMTV.

The 2005 episodes of MOM currently being uploaded weekly so they'll most likely
become the next Saturday (and Sunday) morning binge after finishing "What's Up Doc?".

Having already skimmed through the 2004 episodes, it's a tough slog
and no surprise that Dick and Dom were hammering them. 

As for What's Up Doc, I'll spare any blogs as there's already
a very comprehensive insight Into the Warner Brothers inspired
Saturday morning show, telling the whole rather depressing story.

Had it not been for Ant, Dec and Cat, it could have ended up
as ITV's last great Saturday morning show.