VISION ON SOUND: Recent Episodes
Martin Holmes
ADVENTURES IN TWENTIETH CENTURY TELEVISION... AND BEYOND...!Where the television of the past… …becomes the conversation of the present.Join us as we take a nostalgic journey through the television vaults, and my guests and I investigate, discover, enjoy, and chat about a whole world of televisual delights, with some occasional nonsense thrown in from time-to-time.
MICHAEL HERBERT on DOOMWATCH.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 16th 2024.
This week’s returning guest from our ever growing group of returning regulars is MICHAEL HERBERT who, you might remember from some earlier editions of VISION ON SOUND, has spent a lot of the last few years researching the life of MALCOLM HULKE, which, of course, because everything in the world of television is all interconnected somehow, means that he comes across other things that interest him, and he got in touch to see if I fancied having a natter about DOOMWATCH.
Now, despite rumours to the contrary, I absolutely adore DOOMWATCH. Perhaps it’s because it simply appeals to my own inflated sense of pessimism, but there’s just something very entertaining about a television series built around the potential disasters that humanity is capable of causing through its own hubris if we allow ourselves to go ahead with our experimentations unchecked and without a certain amount of accountability, and there is an enduring appeal to the stories it told more than half a century ago, many of which still feel very relevant today, when some of the actions of governments and individuals really do feel as if they still need reining in.
Created by DR KIT PEDLER and GERRY DAVIS following their successful collaborations on DOCTOR WHO, and broadcast on the BBC across three series between 1970 and 1972, DOOMWATCH explored new and unusual threats to humanity which were appearing in many ways, as the human race was busily developing the white heat of technology in the post-nuclear age, in a series of stories involving subjects as diverse as plastic-eating viruses, artificial hearts, toxic waste, and rats with a genetically enhanced taste for human flesh.
The series involved the dramatic experiences of the fictional DEPARTMENT FOR THE OBSERVATION AND MEASUREMENT OF SCIENTIFIC WORK – You can see why they preferred to use DOOMWATCH as a title – as they attempted to protect the world from the dangers of unprincipled scientific research, as they were set up “to investigate any scientific research, public or private, that could possibly be harmful to man” which basically meant that DOCTOR SPENCER QUIST and his team were often irritants to those who were heavily invested in the steady march of progress.
No change there then.
Starring JOHN PAUL, JOBY BLANCHARD and SIMON OATES, amongst others, the series made a star of ROBERT POWELL, whose character TOBY WREN’s untimely demise at the end of the first series sent shockwaves through the pages of the RADIO TIMES in a way that the serious concerns being talked about in the storylines seldom did.
It may surprise you just how many of the stories told in this series seem to be about things humanity has only recently begun to have concerns about, when the writers involved were trying to warn us about it decades ago, but, well, that’s human beings for you, isn’t it?
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER considers the TV life of HADLEIGH.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 9th 2024.
A few weeks ago on VISION ON SOUND, STEVE HATCHER took us on a brief tour through the television lives of several characters who were the kind of testosterone-fuelled monsters that used to inhabit the boardrooms and bedrooms of those high-profile dramas of the sixties and seventies whose dodgy dealings and shady shenanigans somehow came to define the notion of what the world of big business resembled for generations of viewers.
It was in VISION ON SOUND 186, if you are the kind of listener who might want to look that sort of thing up.
One character who was initially on that list ultimately didn’t manage to make the cut as he turned out - unexpectedly - to be rather too nice to be included on such a list, and that was JAMES HADLEIGH, as played by former ADAM ADAMANT GERALD HARPER, across four incredibly popular series of a show which was created by ROBERT BARR and ultimately consisted of 52 hour-long episodes (unsurprisingly titled HADLEIGH), which was produced by Yorkshire Television that ran across the ITV network between 1969 and 1976.
HADLEIGH told of the various ups and downs in the life of the local squire – something I’m sure we can all relate to - as he protects the welfare of his tenants in the role of a kind of knight in shining armour, correcting social injustices from behind the wheel of his Aston Martin as one description would have it, although it’s probably more about HADLEIGH’s financial trials and tribulations, and the ups and downs of a complicated personal life, all of which seemed to become compulsive viewing for anything up to 17 million viewers during the years that it was being broadcast.
Also, as STEVE will explain, the HADLEIGH series was itself a sequel to a very different hour-long drama series that was also created by ROBERT BARR and produced by YTV in 1968, GAZETTE, which was an altogether much harder-hitting and more working class drama based around the activities of a local newspaper based in the north.
Anyway, as STEVE’s now finished watching all of HADLEIGH’s televised adventures, he thought it might be fun to come back onto the show and discuss what he made of a series that he actually found quite compelling viewing despite it sounding like it really would not exactly be his cup of Earl Grey in a bone china teacup at all.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER considers his TV happiness.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 2nd 2024
This week PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself is back once again for another of our cosy chats that might take the subject of television as its starting point, but then plays fast and loose with the self-imposed restrictions VISION ON SOUND has set itself.
I was in something of a downbeat, sombre mood when I arranged to talk to PAUL, and so I thought that I might try something slightly more philosophical than our usual run through his most recent archive TV discoveries, or something fresh, new, and exciting that he was going to try and persuade me of the virtues of, and, instead, I thought that I might try and get PAUL to help me pin down what it is about the kind of television he watches, or his interest in the subject of television itself, that brings joy and happiness into his world, in another of our experimental formats that are usually for one week only.
As ever, by the end of the hour, I’m not sure that we come to any real conclusions really, but PAUL takes us on a very personal journey through the friendships that he has made by sharing his love of certain television shows with other people, and tells us a little bit about some of the creative elements in his life that have come about from simply having an interest in the process of making television.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy what he has to say in this week’s edition, and, should our conversation inspire you to want to take part in a similar discussion, feel free to get in touch with me via @visiononsound1 in the social media service formerly known as TwitWorld.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
LISA PARKER on DIXON OF DOCK GREEN and more!
This week’s returning guest from our panel of returning regulars is LISA PARKER from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast who volunteered to take part in another of our more random chats which sometimes happen when there’s not much going on in the wider world of ever decreasing telly appreciation circles, at least nothing much that I’m paying all that much attention to.
But things have been getting rather exciting lately with regards to the rediscovery of missing television, and whilst we can’t quite get the flags and bunting out because the entire missing ABC archive hasn’t turned up, there are still those occasional golden nuggets that are found that give some of us jaded old hands just a little bit of hope that there are indeed still many archive TV gems to be found out there.
And so, knowing that LISA is a big fan of crime dramas, and has been something of a champion when it comes to advocating just how good DIXON OF DOCK GREEN is in the face of much suggestion of its perceived air of cosiness (often from many who’ve never bothered to watch it), it was something of a joy when TPTV announced the discovery of DUFFY CALLS THE TUNE from its fifth series in 1959, one of those finds from the missing episodes of 1950s telly that are just about as rare as hen’s teeth, and unfortunately, mess with the previously neat mathematics of missing DIXONS.
Perhaps more amazing too is the fact that TPTV were allowed to actually broadcast the episode very quickly after its discovery, and make it available to all of exactly the sort of viewers who are most eager to see such newly rediscovered gems.
So anyway, with LISA (and, you may notice, a sleeping cat) in place, it didn’t take long before we got talking about this find, DIXON OF DOCK GREEN in general, and several other topics across a free-flowing hour of exactly the kind of telly-related chat that VISION ON SOUND is here to provide.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 26th 2024
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
SANDY McGREGOR considers those ROCK FOLLIES.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 19th 2024
This week SANDY McGREGOR returns and, wearing his incisive musical expertise hat, he’s going to talk us through the various madnesses that are the ROCK FOLLIES, a BAFTA award-winning drama series about the experiences of women in the music business which starred CHARLOTTE CORNWELL as ANNA, JULIE COVINGTON as DEE, and RULA LENSKA as Q, a series which was made by THAMES TELEVISION, first broadcast in 1976, with a sequel ROCK FOLLIES OF 77 the following year.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER looks at some of the more obscure 1960s sitcoms.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 12th 2024
This week, STEVE HATCHER returns and we’re going to start a short occasional series in which STEVE talks about some of the more obscure or forgotten sitcoms of the 1960s.
Whilst we’re all probably rather over familiar with the more famous sitcoms of that era, the likes of HANCOCK”S HALF HOUR, STEPTOE AND SON, and DAD”S ARMY were all on TV during that decade, and rightly went on to become mainstays of the conversations we as a nation often have about the comedy of that era, we do sometimes neglect many of the lesser known TV comedies that were on during that rather innovative decade.
Several have, of course, been quite rightly forgotten because they were awful, and many suffer from the problem that is the bane in the lives of many archive TV enthusiasts, in that they were largely wiped, but, as STEVE explains, amongst the ones that do at least partially survive, there’s rather a lot of largely forgotten TV gold to be found.
Well, I say forgotten, but this week’s selection include several very familiar and even rather iconic TV sitcom titles, but I do sometimes suspect that even these are largely forgotten in the wider world as they are all from the nineteen sixties, were mostly shot in black and white, and haven’t enjoyed quite as much exposure over the years as some of the more well-known comedies of the 1970s have enjoyed as their repeats endlessly cycle around.
So today we’ll be talking about the demob happy BOOTSIE AND SNUDGE, the workplace trials of THE RAG TRADE, the domestic travails of MARRIAGE LINES, and the age old battles of GEORGE AND THE DRAGON, along with a few other shows that happen to get mentioned along the way.
STEVE’s drawn up a list of around fourteen of these kinds of shows for us to talk about, and, given that this first hour only covered around four of them, I suspect that we will be returning to the topic at least a couple more times as the year rolls along, so you’ve all got that to look forward to over the coming weeks.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, returns with some telly set in the middle of nowhere.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 5th 2024
This week, because he felt like getting away from it all, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself is back, and, in coming on this show, he’s obviously picked exactly the right place to do it.
Well, perhaps not, but PAUL has been watching several shows that he realised were basically set in the middle of nowhere, and, as such, thought that they might make for a pleasant edition of VISION ON SOUND, so here we find ourselves chattering about a rather eclectic mixture of shows both old and new including SURVIVOR, A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, DEATH AND OTHER DETAILS, and TREASURE HUNT, as well as a whole life-raft of other stuff that gets bunged into the mix whenever we get going.
Anyway, it makes for a fun hour of telly related chat, and I really hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER considers some TELEVISION MONSTERS (but maybe not the ones you were expecting)
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 28th 2024
Today on VISION ON SOUND, “HERE BE MONSTERS!” as the saying goes, but not necessarily the kind of monsters that you might be expecting.
Well, they certainly weren’t the ones that I was expecting when our regular contributor STEVE HATCHER got in touch and told me that he wanted to do a show on the theme of monsters.
After all, amongst other things, STEVE is very much one of the movers and shakers of DOCTOR WHO fandom, and so I kind of assumed that those sort of monsters were the ones that he most probably had in mind, although, as I was reaching out to grab my copy of the monster book, he explained that he had the more human kind of monster in mind, the kind of testosterone-fuelled monsters that used to inhabit the offices, boardrooms and bedrooms of those high-profile dramas of the sixties and seventies which used to clog up our TV screens with ambitious pant-dropping capitalist anti-heroes involving themselves in dodgy deals and shady shenanigans that somehow came to define the notion of what the world of big business resembled for generations of viewers.
And so, in today’s show we involve ourselves in a whistle-stop tour of the melodramatic corporate power games of THE POWER GAME, MOGUL, THE TROUBLESHOOTERS, THE MAIN CHANCE, MAN AT THE TOP, and HINE, and a couple of others that get mentioned along the way.
So, let’s take a trip into a toxic world of back-stabbing, ladder-climbing power-grabs, where everyone is out to get to the very top by any means necessary…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI talks about THE TRAITORS
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 21st 2024
This week, VISION ON SOUND moves into uncharted territory… Or does it?
Certainly our main topic this week is not the kind of thing that we usually talk about on the show, as it’s a programme that’s shiny and new, and pretty much up to the minute, and is something that you might even regard as “trendy” if you were of a mind to do so.
And whilst the realms of the kind of television that is grabbing the headlines right now, and leading to the sort of public conversations that usually set my eyes a-rolling are really not our normal subject matter hereabouts, do bear with me, because not everything is as it might seem.
Unless it is, of course.
This week, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself really, really wanted to talk about latest blockbuster TV game show that “everyone” (in inverted commas) has been talking about: THE TRAITORS, because he’s been watching a lot of it, in several variant forms, over the past few weeks, and might possibly be said to have got somewhat addicted, and maybe even a little evangelical about it.
Anyway, if someone is happy to come onto the show and talk about anything that can quite reasonably be said to be at least vaguely related to television, I’m not going to stop them, even if they want to talk about a television series that I’ve not seen any episodes of.
To be quite honest with you, sometimes those shows where I’m having a programme described and explained to me by someone who is a fan make for the most fun and exciting editions of VISION ON SOUND anyway.
Luckily for me, our conversation also manages to take in such joys as older game shows like TREASURE HUNT, THE INTERCEPTOR, BIG BROTHER and SURVIVOR, and we do also try (in a small way) to examine the psychology of what makes such shows quite so appealing to people who do happen to like such things, whilst wondering just what tricks ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE may one day have in store for the unwary gameshow contestant.
Now, normally, the telly that we are talking about on this show is often so old that spoilers are not something that are likely to be an issue, however, despite me hanging on to this recording for several weeks since we recorded it, I still ought to warn you that there might be one or two things talked about during this hour that you might not yet want to hear if you are still planning to give one or more versions of THE TRAITORS a try, so you have been warned!
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
LISA PARKER considers the series SHADOW OF THE NOOSE
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 14th 2024
This week, LISA PARKER, one half of the team behind the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast returns to VISION ON SOUND to talk about a series that combines her love of television dramas about Law and Order with her love of period dramas.
The series is SHADOW OF THE NOOSE, an eight part series which was first broadcast on BBC2 in 1989 which does that tricky thing of building a drama series set around the background of true life events, but which also presents fictionalised versions of some of the real people once involved.
In this series we are presented with JONATHAN HYDE playing the celebrated defence lawyer SIR EDWARD MARSHALL HALL, who had a formidable reputation as an orator, and who successfully defended many people accused of murder in many high profile cases that occurred in the late VICTORIAN and EDWARDIAN eras, some of which remain notorious even to this day, and, because of the harsh penalties that were in place during those times, most of such cases did often have, as the series suggests, the shadow of the noose looming over them, at least as far as the defendants were concerned.
Despite being well-regarded at the time, a second series was never commissioned, so, unfortunately, some of the more notorious cases that SIR EDWARD defended were not covered by this ground-breaking legal drama series, but that does not reduce the legacy of the programme, especially in more recent times, as almost any well-known murder case from history seems to still be a source of endless fascination to modern viewers.
It’s always a joy to welcome back LISA, whose research into these shows is always pretty comprehensive, by the way – which always pleases me. Here she presents the case for the defence whilst representing this, perhaps often overlooked, and fascinating case study of a life lived in the legal spotlight in what could possibly nowadays be considered to be a somewhat obscure archive TV drama series.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
WARREN CUMMINGS pays tribute to LAURIE JOHNSON
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 7th 2024
Last time we had him on the show, WARREN CUMMINGS turned up with a whole load of notes on the career of a great film & tv music composer that we ended up not using, so it only seemed fair to use them this week instead as VISION ON SOUND pays tribute to the late, great LAURIE JOHNSON.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER on the multiple TV adaptations of DRACULA
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 31st 2024
This week, STEVE HATCHER wanted to talk about, amongst other things, four distinct television adaptations of Bram Stoker’s book DRACULA, so that’s exactly what we did.
So let’s set those FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL Time Engines to “GOTHIC” and take a trip to the dark side…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
WARREN CUMMINGS discusses some of the grim reaper's recent work...
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 24th 2024
We don’t often acknowledge the work of the Grim Reaper on VISION ON SOUND, but with Arabella Weir spooking me with talk of SNIPER’S ALLEY on the Christmas GONE FISHING, and the scythe striking down so many TV icons in the past few months, I thought I’d get together with WARREN CUMMINGS to chat about the TV lives of a few of them.
So why not sit back as we remember such great names as DAVID SOUL, DAVID McCALLUM, MICHAEL GAMBON, BRIDGET FORSYTH, ANDRE BRAUGHER, and LANCE REDDICK over the next hour which I promise you isn’t half as maudlin as you might fear, although sadly, our FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL time machine can’t bring any of them back…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, on guilt-free TV.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 17th 2024
This week we welcome back one of our more regular contributors to the show, PAUL CHANDLER, the SHY YETI himself, hotfooting it over from his endless production routine of making THE SHY LIFE podcast.
For this show, I decided to give PAUL a prompt to give us something to talk about, and this was due to the fact that one of the streaming services that I use at home offered me an option of watching some GUILT-FREE TV and, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think that I was particularly sure what it even meant by that.
Did it mean that I could just watch a whole chunk of it without feeling guilty at quite how much time I was wasting? Or was it offering me permission to watch a whole selection of the type of television that I might never feel comfortable in admitting to watching? Or was it referring to some other, more sinister possibilities in the line of popular entertainment…?
Whichever it was getting at, I swiftly mistranslated its purpose as being all about those guilty televisual pleasures that might not be popular choices if you happened to mention them in polite company, and then realised just how little time I actually spent in polite company anyway.
So, the upshot of all that pointless introspection is that I decided that PAUL was exactly the person I should choose to talk about this stuff, and that became the prompt for our programme this evening, and, even if I suspect we very swiftly moved away from that as the main thrust of what we ended up talking about, I think that the conversation we actually did have did, ultimately, still make for a fairly fascinating hour of telly-related chat, which is, of course, what we always try to bring you here on VISION ON SOUND.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
TYLER ADAMS explores the roots of his GOONPOD podcast.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 10th 2024
This week we welcome another new voice to VISION ON SOUND in the form of TYLER ADAMS, although his won’t be an unfamiliar voice to you at all, if you happen to be a listener to his phenomenally successful GOON POD podcast, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, takes as its starting point the 1950s BBC radio comedy series THE GOON SHOW, and has attracted many brilliant people to expand and expound upon the show’s impact into all sorts of worlds beyond.
But I found myself asking what what what what what was it that led a young lad who grew up on the other side of the world in New Zealand, far away from the hallowed halls of the BBC, to form such an enthusiastic connection to this British show which was made long before he was even a twinkle in a farmer’s eye, and I think you’ll find his story, steeped as it is in a whole host of British sitcom classics, a fascinating one…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI revisits the video age.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 3rd 2024
This week one of my more regular guests on VISION ON SOUND, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself is back, and we’re going to take a nostalgic meander that starts off with a few reflections on what it was like growing up in the video age, or rather, growing up in an era when we consumed our films and, perhaps to a lesser extent, television – at least as far as the video rental shops were concerned – via the medium of videotape.
But, of course, because it’s PAUL and I, we also meander off into topics like how we consume such media in more recent times, too, the whole world of collecting physical media, PAUL’S own dalliances with television production, and we even give a mention to his pet cat Deeley, and his efforts to sabotage PAUL’S viewing and editing routines…
So, why not join us as we head back to an age of chunky buttons, programming, top-loading, and VHS…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER considers The Rivals of Hercule Poirot
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 25th 2024
This week STEVE HATCHER returns and wants to talk to me about what he calls THE RIVALS OF HERCULE POIROT, and, I think we’ll just let him explain what that might be as we go along…
But, as it includes two television versions of LORD PETER WIMSEY, CAMPION, and THE MRS BRADLEY MYSTERIES, I think you’re all in for a very interesting evening of classic sleuthing…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
LISA PARKER looks at the various variants of LAW & ORDER...
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 18th 2024
This week we welcome back LISA PARKER from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST and we’re going to have a bit of a natter about one of my favourite USTV shows, the phenomenally successful LAW AND ORDER, the recently revived crime series that launched a franchise consisting of a whole raft of spin-offs, and we’ll also be talking about its UK counterpart unsurprisingly called LAW AND ORDER UK
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
WARREN CUMMINGS and I have a grumpy old hour...
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 11th 2024
It’s been suggested to me recently that AGEISM has become the last prejudice that television seems happy to tolerate. In an era when inclusivity and tolerance of all kinds of people has quite rightly finally become the norm on TV, it still appears to be apparently quite okay to mock the elderly in advertising, dramas, comedies, and everyday life.
Now it’s sometimes been said that when WARREN CUMMINGS and I get together on the show, it’s like we become the grumpiest of grumpy old men, so who better, I thought, to consider this topic with me? But, of course, because we’re both very old, and likely to drift off topic, the following hour drifts into all sorts of the sort of other television-related grumbles, which may prove that they do have a point.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON on THUNDERBIRDS
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 4th 2024
This week ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON wanted to talk about the exciting and colourful GERRY & SYLVIA ANDERSON produced series from the mid-1960s "THUNDERBIRDS," so… well, that's exactly what we did, and, without a fast-cutting montage of highlights of this week's episode, I think you'll enjoy it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
SANDY McGREGOR on MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 28th 2024
We don’t often deal with all that much outrage in the generally cosy world of VISION ON SOUND, where often the most controversial opinion I make is about whether a fifty year old television series is still acceptable for modern viewing, how certain shows came to be wiped, or disagreeing with my guests as to whether certain TV shows can be considered to be absolute rubbish or not, or whether we should, perhaps, only award that dubious accolade to anything produced in the last ten years or so.
Equally, we don’t often consider much in the way of modern or recent television to come under what we loosely call our watching brief.
And yet, because a certain recent ITV television drama has been causing a lot of discussion, and indeed outrage, I felt that we couldn’t really ignore it for twenty years in the hope that it might become worthy of our attention.
So, having already borrowed - and devoured - his copy of the book THE GREAT POST OFFICE SCANDAL by NICK WALLIS, I invited SANDY McGREGOR back onto the show to have a chat about the implications of the recently broadcast powerful four-part drama series MR BATES VERSUS THE POST OFFICE, the story of what has been called one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British History, written by GWYNETH HUGHES and directed by JAMES STRONG, which starred TOBY JONES alongside MONICA DOLAN and JULIE HESMONDHALGH as some of the “little people” doggedly and determinedly pursuing justice by taking on the POST OFFICE in a two decade battle to clear the names of over five hundred of his fellow sub-postmasters in a story which, finally, largely because of the broadcast of this production, has rightly been front and centre in the news agenda.
And whilst neither of us can claim any insights or personal involvement with the story, other than having taken a keen interest in it, and reading rather a lot about it, as well as discussing the series itself, our discussion does try to consider the power of television to occasionally make great positive changes happen, so we do briefly consider some of the – surprisingly few - other TV shows that can claim to have actually changed lives, and wonder just why it is that an important news story such as this somehow failed to make the same kind of impact in documentary form as it managed to as a drama series, and whether in future, that might be the only way any of us are likely to get the rest of the population to take much interest in some of the important things that are happening but which remain largely ignored.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, is back to discuss TV ghosts...
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 21st 2024
This week we welcome back PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, that prolific podcaster from his very own THE SHY LIFE podcast, and we’re going to talk about GHOSTS, but probably not the GHOSTS that you might think we are.
Because, whilst we ought to note the passing of that much-loved sitcom of recent years on VISION ON SOUND - and who knows, perhaps on another week we will – our topic today is more about the ghosts that have appeared on other television shows that we have enjoyed over the years.
So whilst PAUL and I will be having a general chat about the subject, we will be touching upon RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED) in both of its incarnations, PAUL’s perennial favourite DARK SHADOWS, the RICHARD CARPENTER classic THE GHOSTS OF MOTLEY HALL, taking a brief sideways trip into the TWILIGHT ZONE, considering the supernatural elements of SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, pulling off the mask of another janitor with the SCOOBY-DOO gang, chattering about some of those GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS, and even making brief references to Nigel Kneale’s classic THE STONE TAPE.
Not that we’re going into any great depth about any of these shows, as every one of them could be worthy of an hour all to itself – and will be if any listeners fancy joining me to talk about any or all of them.
Instead PAUL and I are just meandering through some of those dark places beyond the mortal realm, and lifting the veil briefly to take the merest glimpse into those worlds beyond, and our human interpretations of what they might be.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER is back to guide us over to the flipside...
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 14th 2024
What better way to welcome in another year than to take a time travelling journey to the flipside? We’re another year nearer to the future, and one further away from the television that we tend to talk about the most here on VISION ON SOUND.
Anyway, to start us off on our latest brand new shiny adventure, this week we welcome back STEVE HATCHER, and we’re going to talk about a pair of eccentric entries from the later era of PLAY FOR TODAY that rather flew in the face of some of the more usual type of stories that tended to get told in that series, by being rather clever little SCIENCE FICTION time-travel tales attempted on a BBC budget.
These were the 1980 play THE FLIPSIDE OF DOMINICK HIDE and its sequel from two years later ANOTHER FLIP FOR DOMINICK, which told tales of a time-travelling future society visiting the strange and mysterious world of the 1980s, and the interesting outcomes that such visits caused.
Starring, amongst others, PETER FIRTH, CAROLINE LANGRISHE, PIPPA GUARD, and PATRICK MAGEE, the plays were written by JEREMY PAUL and ALAN GIBSON, from an idea by ALAN GIBSON, who also directed, so it was very much a labour of love for them, and certainly the original play was a very well received example of the sweeter side of science-fiction storytelling, and has some strange connections with some other pop culture icons, as STEVEN will explain.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
BEN BAKER returns to talk about his book THE DREAMS WE HAD AS CHILDREN
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 7th 2024
Forty years ago this very week, after experimenting with the format through a strand called WATCH IT! during the previous three years or so, CHILDREN’S ITV was launched as an attempt at a coherent approach to children’s television output with linked presentations transmitted across the whole of the ITV network in the afternoon slot from 4:00pm to 5:15 on weekday afternoons.
And, to a lesser or greater extent, with an eventual switch to a designated Freeview Channel, the CITV brand managed to stagger on for nearly forty years until the plug was finally pulled in September last year, and Children’s programming was shifted to ITVX.
This fascinating era produced a whole wealth of fondly – and not so fondly -remembered programming of course, as Children do become very attached to their favourites, and, after far too long an absence from VISION ON SOUND which is all down to me sometimes being a little bit forgetful about these kinds of things, BEN BAKER is back this week to talk about the very personal book he has written THE DREAMS WE HAD AS CHILDREN which picks out his personal choice of the very best CITV had to offer between 1983 and its demise in 2023.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
A SHY YETI ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 31st 2023
It’s New Year’s Eve and everybody at Fab Towers is off doing whatever it is that they might do to give the ratty old year the old heave-ho, and welcome in another one with its fresh clean slates and all those opportunities to be different that rarely come to pass.
Anyway, here on VISION ON SOUND we didn’t want to try anything too heavy or “in your face” (or should that be “in your ears”?) to see out 2023, so tonight’s show basically consists of returning regular guest PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, and me simply sitting around and having a good old natter about a few things prompted by one or two of the telly-related things that have cropped up during the year just gone.
So over the course of this amiable and relaxed hour we’ll give some thought to the consequences of PAUL’s on-going journey through the YouTube archive, and the additions it may have prompted me into getting for my own shelves, tiptoe briefly around the fact that all of DOCTOR WHO is now on the iPlayer, consider the possibilities that the CHEWITS monster could have had on INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS, meander inevitably down RAMSAY STREET, and mull over the enjoyment (or otherwise) of comedy on the old tellybox.
It’s New Year’s Eve, my friends, so we’re taking it easy, relaxing, and, perhaps, trying for once not to be too incisive or informative. So why not park yourself upon your handiest soft furnishing, grab a little early evening refreshment, and start off what can turn into a long evening, by spending it with us, with not even the merest glimpse of the White Heather Club, probably…?
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER & ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON join me to chat about DOCTOR WHO's SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS.
A VISION ON SOUND CHRISTMAS BONUS EXTRA EPISODE
Here’s a bit of a Christmas Bonus for you… After the DOCTOR WHO SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY SPECIALS (THE STAR BEAST, WILD BLUE YONDER, and THE GIGGLE) were shown on television for the first time, that pair of regular contributors to VISION ON SOUND, STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON from the DERBYSHIRE WHOOVERS, suggested we get together to talk about those, and the sixtieth anniversary as a whole, so that’s what we did.
Unfortunately, however, there wasn’t a free slot in the schedule between our recording dates and the release of the brand new DOCTOR WHO episode launching the NCUTI GATWA era on CHRISTMAS DAY, so we agreed to pop this one out as a bonus edition and what I hope is a little extra festive treat.
Though please don't forget to listen to the regular Sunday Evening edition that was broadcast on Christmas Eve.
Happy Christmas.
WARREN POPS IN FOR A CHRISTMASSY NATTER.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 24th 2023
Here we are once again having a Christmas Edition of VISION ON SOUND – don’t they come around so fast these days? – and this year I’ve invited one of our more regular guests – WARREN CUMMINGS - to come around to FAB TOWERS, raid the FAB TOWERS fridge and sit in front of our crackling FAB RADIO fireplace with our tiny little twelve-inch black and white portable telly for that authentic seasonal telly experience from when we were both a lot younger, and far less likely to be sharing a bit of amiable curmudgeonly pre-Christmas banter.
Naturally, because we’ve got guests, and have to be sociable, the telly will be staying resolutely off, but, because this is VISION ON SOUND, we’ll just be nattering about our Christmas telly favourites instead, and hoping that nobody’s filled that fire bucket with Gin instead of water, should the roaring fire get out of hand whilst we’re all distracted by mountains of mince pies and fizzy pop.
So, before I open the door, let all the heat out, and welcome WARREN in, let’s stash away all the expensive bottles, hide the good biscuits, and fire up those FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL Time Engines to bask in the warm, mellow glow of some more Christmas Telly memories.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
NEW VOICES: LYNNE HARVEY on TV DRAMA.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 17th 2023
This week we welcome another new voice to VISION ON SOUND, LYNNE HARVEY, a creative writing tutor who has an interesting tale to tell involving WHEN THE BOAT COMES IN, as well as having some fascinating memories of PUBLIC EYE, and she’s someone who is also very fond of TV theme tunes, which makes for a rather fascinating hour.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
NEW VOICES: SUKY KHAKH's TV MEMORIES.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 10th 2023
This week we welcome a new voice to VISION ON SOUND, although I’m sure it will be a familiar one, as he’s the prolific podcaster SUKY KHAKH from the TREK THIS OUT, AROUND THE CONSOLE, and TAKE YOUR SEATS podcasts.
I first met SUKY at WHOOVERVILLE THIRTEEN, which only goes to show that you lot should always be careful who you talk to, as you might find yourself getting invited to do this show.
Happily SUKY was eager to oblige, and so we spent a fascinating hour discussing how he became such a fan of old TV through a love of books and science-fiction - despite growing up in a household that was far less interested in watching TV than he was - and our chat takes in the idea of season arcs, spoilers, and the addictive nature of some television, as SUKY seems to have found the perfect way to balance his enjoyment of television both archive and modern, which to me seems like an enviable talent to have.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
THE SHY YETI RECOMMENDS SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 3rd 2023
This week PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, is back, but instead of continuing his journey through the history of American television shows that he’s discovering through YouTube recommendations, this time he wanted to make a few recommendations of his own.
More specifically, he wanted to share some of his enthusiasm for the darker side of dramatic television shows and tell me about his selection of the current range of psychological thriller series that have been cropping up on the streaming platforms lately.
And so, VISION ON SOUND is going to have one of those rare weeks when it looks into some of the more current television that’s available, rather than delving into the archives this week.
I know… I know…
But, as the suggestion that we’re selling out to the dark forces of popularism die down, PAUL will be telling us all about the series “YOU” – A Netflix serial killer drama starring PENN BADGELY which currently has been running for four seasons, and the black comedy DEAD TO ME, also from NETFLIX, starring CHRISTINA APPLEGATE and LINDA CARDELLINI which ran for three seasons from 2019 to 2022.
He’ll also touch upon the Horror Anthology series SLASHER, which, given some of PAUL’s past appearances on the show, sounds just his kind of thing. This show has run for five seasons on three different networks, and features a revolving recurring cast of actors in each season, which sounds like a very interesting idea.
Finally, PAUL will introduce us to WILDERNESS, a six-part British miniseries created for AMAZON PRIME, and starring JENNA COLEMAN and OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN which was available for viewing as recently as September 2023.
And, because it’s PAUL, we cant avoid mopping up a few details about a few of his favourites, so we also have a brief chat about the return of NEIGHBOURS, and he tells me all about his latest convert to the sublimely ingenious series that was THE AVENGERS.
The cult of Archive TV Fans is out there, people, and it only wishes to bring more joy into your world. If only you’ll let it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
WARREN CUMMINGS REMEMBERS PARKINSON
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 26th 2023
Back in August this year, the lights came down on yet another of the broadcasting giants from the younger lives of many of us, when MICHAEL PARKINSON, the person who many considered to be one of the greatest television interviewers ever, passed on at the grand old age of eighty-eight.
A cornerstone of British television throughout the 1970s and beyond, “PARKY” was a no-nonsense Yorkshireman whose journalistic career took him from the Manchester Guardian via CINEMA on Granada Television, all the way to the BBC where he was finally given his eponymous chat show PARKINSON which ran from 1971 to 1982, and again from 1998 to 2007.
In his own distinctive style, he interviewed many of the most famous people in the world, including many of the brightest stars from the golden era of Hollywood that he would have grown up watching in the cinemas of Barnsley, in shows that have since become some of the most memorable and valued video documents of their time.
And whilst his presenting skills were utilised on radio in DESERT ISLAND DISCS, and in many television shows such as GIVE US A CLUE, meaning he has over 450 television presenting credits to his name, including a memorable acting turn in the VISION ON SOUND favourite GHOSTWATCH, he was also one of the “Famous Five” who helped set up GOOD MORNING BRITAIN in 1983.
Anyway, WARREN CUMMINGS is a huge fan of dear old PARKY, and so we got together a few weeks ago and had a good old reminisce about our own memories of watching MICHAEL PARKINSON’s television interviewing career, and we also talk a little about the legacy he left, and the current state of the art of the television interview.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE HATCHER ON DOCTOR WHO
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 19th 2023
There’s a lot of anniversary celebrations going on at the moment to commemorate the sixtieth birthday of one of those television perennials that crosses the void between archive and modern TV, DOCTOR WHO, and as here on VISION ON SOUND we rarely avoid any archive TV bandwagons, we thought we might have a bit of a chat this week about this old favourite.
With that in mind, this week I’ve invited back STEVE HATCHER to talk about the show and the part it has played in his life as an S-F fan who came to active DOCTOR WHO fandom comparatively late in life, but who then embraced it to the point where he has become something of a leading light of fandom, certainly as far as the DERBYSHIRE WHOOVERS are concerned anyway.
I think you’re really going to enjoy what I hope you’ll find a slightly different, slightly contemplative, and occasionally reflective hour, as we have a bit of a natter about STEVE’s life in relation to this remarkable and seemingly indestructible children’s television science-fiction series that adults still seem to enjoy and follow in a manner that few other shows seem to quite manage.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
GRAHAM WARD ON RICHARD CARPENTER
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 12th 2023
This week, we welcome GRAHAM WARD, yet another new voice to the ever expanding list of contributors to the VISION ON SOUND pool of talent, and, whilst we do start off today with my usual introductory interrogation about his own fascinating earliest television memories and so forth, we very swiftly move onto the topic that he primarily wanted to talk very fondly about, which is the television screenwriting career of RICHARD CARPENTER, who, after a brief career as a jobbing actor in the 1960s, is possibly best known to the general public these days for his work on HTVs stunning ROBIN OF SHERWOOD.
That particularly high profile 1980s hit still appears regularly on the daytime ITV channels, but, of course, fans of his work will also remember such delights as CATWEAZLE, THE GHOSTS OF MOTLEY HALL, THE ADVENTURES OF DICK TURPIN, a large contribution to THE ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY, and THE FAMOUS FIVE, and the swashbuckling adventures of SMUGGLER and ADVENTURER, and he could very much stake a claim for having reimagined the children’s historical adventure series, most often on the ITV channels, for more than one generation.
RICHARD CARPENTER sadly passed away in 2012, but leaves behind him a huge legacy of television work which, whilst remaining much loved by generations of Archive TV fans like the people who listen to this show, is still being discovered by new generations of fans even today.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
Another 1970s USTV Quartet with THE SHY YETI
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 5th 2023
This week, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI is back for another in his series of trawls through what YOUTUBE has to offer in the way of classic American TV, and this time he’s reached the mid-to-late-1970s, and his quartet of choices are DIANA, a 1973 American sitcom built around the considerable talents of DIANA RIGG; THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN featuring NICHOLAS HAMMOND in a short-lived action series from 1977 featuring everybody’s friendly neighbourhood web-slinger; RHODA, a 1974 sitcom featuring VALERIE HARPER in a highly successful spinoff from THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW that lasted five seasons; and MRS COLUMBO, a perhaps misguided attempt at a COLUMBO spinoff featuring KATE MULGREW which, despite being retitled KATE LOVES A MYSTERY in order to divorce it from the original show, sank without trace after thirteen shows but may have been the spark that inspired MURDER, SHE WROTE.
At the end of the hour, PAUL also introduces me to one far more successful show, the long-running daytime mystery drama known as THE EDGE OF NIGHT that qualifies as being in this 1970s selection simply because it ran from way, way before it in 1956 until deep into the 1980s.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
STEVE GETS RANDOM
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 29th 2023
This week it’s STEVE HATCHER’s turn to sit in the chair and face up to some of the questions designed to prompt one of our random chats, and, as ever, this prompts a fascinating telly-related conversation that heads off in all sorts of unexpected directions.
So, by taking the recent untimely passing of PETER VAUGHAN CLARKE as our starting point, we discuss THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, in which he played STEPHEN for several years, at some length, as well as giving some thought to the feelings of our own mortality that the losses of the TV icons of our youth can bring along with them, especially if they are more or less the same age as we are.
Moving on from THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, we give some thought to the performances of child actors, consider the merits of other series of that era like ACE OF WANDS and TIMESLIP, and we briefly call in at GRANGE HILL, before mentioning the whole notion of YOOF TV before moving on to debate the world of the television remake, touch upon the tricky topic of conspiracy theories, meander briefly amongst the many iterations of STAR TREK, and ponder upon the knotty issue of fan fiction.
All-in-all, it makes for a fascinating journey around the world of television, which I hope you’ll enjoy sharing with us.
And because we are both getting on a bit, we manage to completely forget the names of several actors that we were hoping to mention along the way, so I’m going to name-check LENNY RUSH, MISAKO KOBA, KRISTIAN SCHMID, DEBRA MESSING and MORENA BACCARIN if you want to get your checklists ready for when they pop up later.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
LISA GETS RANDOM
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 22nd 2023
This week we welcome back our good friend LISA PARKER, one half, alongside ANDREW TROWBRIDGE, of the team behind the rather fabulous ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST for yet another of our random chats about this wondrous thing that we still prefer to call Archive Television rather than simply “old telly”.
“I can’t watch that sort of stuff, it’s before my time!” might be the kind of words we are hearing more and more these days, but between us, the Archive TV community are doing our best to keep those fascinating programmes very much in the here and now.
Anyway, during the next hour, LISA will be updating us on their progress through that mammoth DVD box set of CROSSROADS that both of them joined me to talk about a few months ago, before our discussion moves on to the undeservedly rather obscure detective series which was broadcast around the cusp of the dawn of the 1970s, THE MIND OF MR J G REEDER, and we have a little chat about that in anticipation of their own podcast covering the show in far greater detail.
We also have a short discussion about the link between television and literary detectives before moving on to consider whether THE GREAT EGG RACE has any modern television equivalents, and finally we have a chat about MODERN FAMILY, the differences between American and British sitcoms, and all sorts of other nonsense that I know that you’re going to enjoy.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
A QUARTET OF USTV SEVENTIES COP SHOWS
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 15th 2023
This week, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, is back with another quartet of TV shows that he’s been watching in his quest to discover what sort of television he might be able to find when he’s off on his travels and far, far away from his own personal archive of DVDs, blu-rays, and other television that he might have about the house to entertain himself with.
This week he’s reached the early 1970s and has been watching four American series that, coincidentally, all happened to be popular crime dramas from that era, which, perhaps shouldn’t be all that surprising to us really, as, with the popularity of the Western fading fast in the television output of the time, it was the crime drama towards which the Networks and Production Companies turned in order to find their next sure fire hit in a turbulent and often gritty, grimy, and crime-ridden decade in which fear and anxiety often stalked the urban streets on both sides of that vast continent, and TV crime was fought mostly by the Cops, the Lawyers, or the Private Eyes.
So, during the next hour, PAUL will be talking about BARNABY JONES in which BUDDY EBSEN moved from spending many years as a comic oil millionaire into the more murky world of Private Detective work in L.A., KOJAK, in which TELLY SAVALAS was a streetwise cop fighting crime in the bankrupt city of NEW YORK, PETROCELLI, in which BARRY NEWMAN took on cases in Californian Courtrooms, and POLICE WOMAN featuring ANGIE DICKENSON as PEPPER ANDERSON in a ground-breaking yet hard-hitting police drama.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
THE FUTURE OF ARCHIVE TV WATCHING.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 8th 2023
Recently I was pointed in the direction of a particular streaming platform because it happened to have made available, gratis, for free, and without any need to subscribe to anything, the opening episode of STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS season two, so that the more disinclined, or financially challenged, amongst us might have a look at it and perhaps find out what all of the fuss was about when it comes to this new iteration of STAR TREK that seems to have made fans of the classic series very happy.
The series does take several of the elements that made the original 1960s series so popular, give them a modern twist so that they can be viewed without the perceived shortcomings that the old show might have to modern audiences, and take the show broadly as it appeared in its original Pilot, and boot it well into the television landscape of this century.
But watching it did set me thinking about modern styles of television in general, because, whilst I did find that episode to be a very enjoyable hour of television, with its effects heavy visuals, smart, snappy dialogue, and complex storytelling techniques, it resembled the original in very minor ways, and I began to wonder whether viewers brought up on this brand new spin on the old show, might find little to enjoy in the original series any more if they went off to watch it after seeing this high octane version.
In the end I was wondering whether the old series would now seem far too slow, creaky, simplistic, or downright silly once this sophisticated, glossy new version, often resembling the high speed narratives involved in playing a video game, had been experienced.
And that set me wondering how many, or indeed if any, older television series might still appeal to viewers brought up almost exclusively on such programmes, and whether the kind of Archive Television that I enjoy talking about on this show, will one day be consigned to sitting unwatched, mouldering in dusty archives somewhere, whilst all the newer, flashier descendants are being loved and adored in their place.
In short, are we perhaps the last generation who will remember watching the old style of television that we adore, and, more to the point, are we the last which will want to watch it?
And as to whether future generations will be as interested in them, I do wonder, and the same can also be said for the television of the distant past, and, as I was recently told, even the more recent past.
Sometimes, it would seem that, no matter how much we might bang on about classic comedies, or significant dramas, or just fun old shows, even television that is as little as five years old has little appeal to the general viewer in the modern era.
This week, VISION ON SOUND once again welcomes back WARREN CUMMINGS from THE CINEMATIC SAUSAGE podcast, and we both try to get to the core of the knotty problem of whether, in the future, once the likes of us have slipped from this mortal realm, anyone else will care about the kind of television we enjoy watching, or will it be left to fester unloved in such archives as might exist whilst the mighty television machine rolls ever onward without looking backwards for anything other than inspiration for far flashier, and yet possibly lesser works.
Basically, what do we have to do to persuade anyone growing up in the modern television era, that the Archive TV we watch is actually worth watching, and isn’t just boring old nonsense as destined to be forgotten about as, apparently, even those brand new “must see” shows of the moment are.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
A FOR ANDROMEDA & THE ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 1st 2023
This week, our resident researcher of some of the earliest examples of television science-fiction, MICHAEL HERBERT returns, this time to talk all about the seven-part 1961 BBC television serial A FOR ANDROMEDA, and its six-part sequel from the following year, THE ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH.
Mostly remembered as being a breakthrough role for JULIE CHRISTIE, and possibly as one of the stepping stones towards the creation of DOCTOR WHO in 1963, all but one episode of A FOR ANDROMEDA is lost, presumably forever, although the surviving episode, alongside episode reconstructions based upon surviving film clips and the telesnap archive mean that you can sort of get to watch the serial, albeit in a somewhat fragmented form.
THE ANDROMEDA BREAKTHOUGH, however, survives in its entirety - although sadly for home viewers, in a long-deleted DVD set. Such are the quirks of the television industry of that time, however, it now featured SUSAN HAMPSHIRE in the role of Andromeda.
Written by FRED HOYLE and JOHN ELLIOT, both serials feature a rare leading role for PETER HALLIDAY playing the hero JOHN FLEMING. HALLIDAY is an actor who listeners might know better for his roles in several DOCTOR WHO stories such as THE INVASION and CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, but, as we discuss, that’s not the only DOCTOR WHO connection that A FOR ANDROMEDA has.
Incidentally, as well as all of his insights into A FOR ANDROMEDA, MICHAEL also has a brief update to share about his continuing work on his biography of MALCOLM HULKE that he shared in a previous edition of the show, so you’ve also got that to look forward to as we head back to the radio astronomic new frontiers of the early 1960s…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
PAUL CHANDLER on THE INVADERS, THE WILD WILD WEST, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, and BEWITCHED.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 24th 2023
This week, all the way from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself is back here on VISION ON SOUND because, well, he had an idea that he thought that I might like to talk about for the show, and knowing - as he does - that I’m always eager to grab at any such demonstration of enthusiasm from the team, he suggested that I might like to try it out.
So, basically, PAUL asked himself the question about what sort of Archive TV he might be able to see if he was up and about and away from home and didn’t have his extensive collection of television with him. What kind of programmes, essentially, could he watch on a website like THE TUBE THAT IS YOU that might just scratch that itch when he was far, far away from the shelves of YETI TOWERS…?
Over the course of several evenings he picked out a few random choices of single stories from four American television series that were popular in the 1960s, and whilst narrowing this down to choices from a single decade might not be quite as completely random as he initially planned, it does give us the opportunity to return to this theme on another occasion by selecting shows from another decade.
Anyway, future planning aside, the four very popular and successful series PAUL chose were THE INVADERS, a QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION from 1967 which featured ROY THINNES as ARCHITECT DAVID VINCENT in an era of deep paranoia when you had to have a responsible profession in order not to be a complete “ALIENS ARE HERE” spouting crackpot, apparently.
After that he ventured into THE WILD, WILD WEST featuring ROBERT CONRAD and ROSS MARTIN, before taking a VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA with RICHARD BASEHART and DAVID HEDISON, and ended up being BEWITCHED by SAMANTHA the urban witch as played by ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY.
For THE INVADERS PAUL picked out THE TRIAL from the second season, from THE WILD, WILD WEST, he chose THE NIGHT OF THE SIMIAN TERROR from late in the third season, and from VOYAGE he picked TERROR ON DINOSAUR ISLAND from the second year. Finally, it’s a pair of fifth season offerings from BEWITCHED, that he chose, in order to keep the running times consistent, the two-part story COUSIN SERENA STRIKES AGAIN.
So if you want to watch the specific shows we’re talking about after the programme, at time of recording PAUL found all of these episodes on YOUTUBE, and it’s always a joy when I can present a show where my guest has done all of the homework.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
WARREN CUMMINGS on T J HOOKER...!!!
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 17th 2023
This week WARREN CUMMINGS is back and we’re talking about a show we touched on when we discussed TV CHEESE a few weeks ago, the strangely successful WILLIAM SHATNER Police Series from the early 1980s, TJ HOOKER...!
So let’s kick up those FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL TIME ENGINES and do an unnecessary forward roll back to 1982…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
VoS live on stage at WHOOVERVILLE 14 with guests GARY RUSSELL, TIM TRELOAR, JONATHON CARLEY and STEVE HATCHER.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 10th 2023
As an Archive TV fan, I’m always very impressed whenever I hear about any kind of organized event where fans of a certain type of television gather together to celebrate and appreciate any kind of archive television show.
This is, after all, how we keep the memory of these classic series alive and pass on the knowledge of them to future generations.
Some series, of course, have a bigger following than others, and are able to offer much larger events for people who love those shows to gather together, and so we get huge events that celebrate the great series that almost everybody in the “NOT WE” world have at least heard of like STAR TREK, THE PRISONER, and, of course DOCTOR WHO.
Now, in STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON, we have a couple of regular contributors to this show who also happen to be the movers and shakers behind one of the more popular, inclusive, and friendly annual DOCTOR WHO conventions, in that every year on the Saturday after the AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY – pandemics permitting – for the past decade and a half or so, they’ve organized – with the help of their loyal fan group known as the WHOOVERS - a one-day gathering in DERBY for fans of DOCTOR WHO that is known as WHOOVERVILLE – and they’ve recently released their fourteenth WHOOVERVILLE into the world on SATURDAY THE SECOND OF SEPTEMBER 2023.
Happily STEVE was also able in their busy schedule to arrange an afternoon slot for me to attempt to record this VISION ON SOUND so I could once again try to do a live show in front of an audience, with several of the guests who had been invited to WHOOVERVILLE made available to talk to me.
Rather less happily, on the day, and entirely due to my own shortcomings, the gremlins got into the recording equipment, and so the sound quality of the following is rather sadly not the greatest, but hopefully you’ll be able to hear enough of what this fantastic quartet of guests had to talk about on the day.
And so, after hearing me explaining to the audience a little bit about what I think VISION ON SOUND is all about, you’ll also hear STEVE HATCHER co-hosting the discussion with me from the safety of a necessary armchair, with GARY RUSSELL, JONATHON CARLEY, and TIM TRELOAR joining us on stage.
GARY RUSSELL was the editor of Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995 and the original executive producer for Big Finish Productions from 1998 to 2006, and has written many Doctor Who comics and novels. In recent years he has been executive producer of one of the groups working on animations of missing Doctor Who stories.
JONATHON CARLEY voiced the War Doctor and the Twelfth Doctor in the Doctor Who Lockdown webcast Doctors Assemble! In 2021, he took over the role of The War Doctor for Big Finish and has delighted audiences with his extraordinarily accurate recreation of the late Sir John Hurt, and you may also recognize him from the recent series THE POWER OF PARKER.
TIM TRELOAR's interpretation of the Third Doctor has garnered great acclaim since 2015, including from many of those who worked with Jon Pertwee on television. Beyond Doctor Who, he has appeared in TV shows such as Casualty, Lewis, The Bill, Midsomer Murders, Doctors and Russell T. Davies' Mine All Mine. You may have seen him recently in Agatha Christie's Why Didn't They Ask Evans? and the six-part BBC miniseries WOLF.
So, let’s transport ourselves back to SEPTEMBER the SECOND 2023, and the stage of CINEMA TWO in THE QUAD in DERBY for our live discussion at WHOOVERVILLE 14.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 3rd 2023
This week we welcome back PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself for another one of our more random television-related chats, which will take us on one of those journeys where neither of us are really certain of where we’re going.
However, somehow PAUL managed to make at least some little sense out of my usual word salad, and so we ended up tip-toeing lightly around the subject of celebrity podcasts in our own non-celebrity manner, made a brief visit to soap-land so that PAUL could revisit SONS AND DAUGHTERS and inevitably update us about NEIGHBOURS, before taking us INSIDE NUMBER NINE, visiting RUBY WAX CASTAWAY on her desert island, having a brief but BIG STEAM ADVENTURE, and settling down to talk about cliffhangers.
All in all, quite a convoluted journey for us to be making this week, but with PAUL to navigate us, what could possibly go wrong…?
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 27th 2023
Like a lot of other archive TV fans, over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of Telly-related ephemera, much of which seems destined to sit around undisturbed in dark corners of the house waiting for me to notice that it’s there.
Anyway, in a recent rare moment of churning, I randomly picked up a copy of the RADIO TIMES that was in a festering stack in a forgotten corner of the room. That particular edition was dated 24 – 30 AUGUST 1996, and, because it had STAR TREK on the cover, I thought it might be fun to whizz through it with WARREN CUMMINGS, and so I gave him a call, and I think you’ll find the next hour quite a lot of fun as we natter about pretty much everything from Cabbage patch dolls to Bilbo Baggins, Sister Wendy and the Saturday Banana, and all manner of television that was broadcast across one not quite forgotten August Bank Holiday weekend over a quarter of a century ago.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 20th 2023
Often it was the exciting thumping nature of the theme music that became most identified with so many TV series, and was remembered long after the various shenanigans of that week’s episode was forgotten, and so, for one week only, VISION ON SOUND presents an hour of what might be the most exciting TV theme tunes ever...!
In a playlist including STINGRAY, SUPERCAR, FIREBALL XL5, THUNDERBIRDS, UFO, CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS, SPACE: 1999, THE AVENGERS, REDCAP, THE NEW AVENGERS, THE PROFESSIONALS, Z CARS, THE PRISONER, HAWAII FIVE-O, KOJAK, IRONSIDE, THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, THE APOLLO LAUNCHES, DEPARTMENT S, RETURN OF THE SAINT, and THE SWEENEY, with me burbling on in between them trying to make some kind of sense of what makes each of them feel so very, very exciting...!
Whilst we can’t quite promise to deliver the most exciting hour of radio you’ve ever heard, I hope that you enjoy it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 13th 2023
Fans of archive television didn’t used to talk about CROSSROADS much, despite it having an iconic theme tune written by TONY HATCH, an amazing array of guest performers, a whole host of top behind-the-scenes talent often cutting their teeth on this show, and being a series that ran for twenty-four years across several golden ages of British television production, which, for a lot of its long history produced an astonishing five episodes of drama week after week after week.
Produced by first ATV and later Central Television, CROSSROADS, the story of the ups and downs in the lives of the people populating a Midlands-set Motel, was created by HAZEL ADAIR and PETER LING and started in November 1964, and would clock up a staggering 4510 episodes before finally closing its doors in April 1988, and then even managed to be resurrected for another 320 episode run between 2001 and 2003 which may, or may not, have all been a dream.
Despite the fame of its most high-profile star, NOELE GORDON, around whom the series was initially built, and creating a whole host of iconic – and much imitated - TV characters, CROSSROADS was never considered to be the highest quality television series ever made.
In fact, in certain quarters it became the benchmark for everything that was bad about cheaply made television, and yet it may have inspired some comedy gold from the mind of VICTORIA WOOD, and been an inspiration for NEIGHBOURS in Australia.
However, in recent times, CROSSROADS has been getting a lot more favourable reappraisal, both with RUSSELL T DAVIES’ high profile drama NOLLIE telling the story of the troubled era in the show’s production when it chose to dispense with its star, and with arguably the last great release from the much-missed NETWORK DISTRIBUTING, who sold a box set containing over 700 episodes across more than ninety discs earlier this year, a box set which sold out, by the way, as it found a new and very delighted audience.
Those regular contributors to VISION ON SOUND, LISA and ANDREW were amongst those eager purchasers, and have become huge advocates for the series, and so they offered to join us today to share their views on CROSSROADS as they continue to work their way through that stack of shiny discs crammed full of high drama, controversial issues, and unintentional moments of hilarity.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 6th 2023
“DOCTOR WHO IS THE MISS MARPLE OF SCI-FI!”
This week, once again, that regular contributor to VISION ON SOUND, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, is our returning guest, and is sitting in the hot seat as I fling another of our random chat topics in his general direction, and, when we set out on our journey, neither of us have a clue where it’s going to go.
Happily, this week we talk quite a lot about THE AVENGERS in both its Black & White EMMA PEEL, and colour TARA KING phases, before moving on to such hot topics as RECEIVED OPINIONs in FANDOM, the whole notion of COLLECTIBLES, and some of the new and exciting ways to experience television in the modern era.
So, without any further ado, let’s kick up those FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL Time Engines and dive right in, and see where we end up, which, presumably, won’t be anywhere too BIZARRE…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 30th 2023
ANDY TATE who we’re welcoming today is a fan of the show, and got in touch with me with a whole list of exciting suggestions of subjects for shows we might want to do on VISION ON SOUND, so it only seemed fair to invite him along and talk to him about some of them.
And what a fun guest he turned out to be, as I think you’ll discover over the next hour, in which, after a bit of a preamble in which we talk about some of his earliest TV memories, we tackle one of the subjects taken from his list of suggestions, a TV topic which is very close to his heart, and talk about one of his favourite TV series, COLUMBO, a series with its roots forged in the very furnace of American television.
Created by RICHARD LEVINSON and WILLIAM LINK, who would also go on to create MURDER SHE WROTE, COLUMBO was apparently inspired in part by both PORFIRY PETROVICH in DOSTOEVSKYs CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and G K CHESTERTON’S FATHER BROWN, and evolved out an episode from the early 1960s anthology series THE CHEVY MYSTERY SHOW called ENOUGH ROPE, which featured BERT FREED in the role of the Detective, and then transformed into a stage play called PRESCRIPTION: MURDER, which was then adapted into a TELEVISION MOVIE in 1968 starring PETER FALK which acted as an unofficial Pilot episode for the television series which later became so iconic.
A second pilot RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN followed in March 1971, before the series proper began in September 1971 as part of the NBC WEDNESDAY MYSTERY MOVIE strand in which three detective series would be broadcast in the slot on different weeks.
Initially COLUMBO alternated with DENNIS WEAVER as the urban cowboy detective McCLOUD, and ROCK HUDSON and SUSAN SAINT JAMES as the crime fighting duo of McMILLAN AND WIFE, with RICHARD BOONE adding to the mix in the second year as HEC RAMSEY, mixing the western formula with forensic investigations.
COLUMBO was a POLICE LIEUTENANT attached to the HOMICIDE DEPARTMENT of the LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT, and as such, the homicides he dealt with were often – but not exclusively - committed amongst the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood lifestyle, and, more often than not involved people living at the richer and more privileged end of the American dream.
The show was unusual in that the WHODUNNIT aspect was discarded in favour of a HOWDUNNIT, with the murderer often being identified from the outset, and the mystery itself being more about how COLUMBO would trap the criminal into giving themselves away, often after believing that they had committed the perfect crime.
COLUMBO himself was famously charming and courteous to everyone he met, and this, alongside his shabby outfit of a battered raincoat worn over a rumpled suit and tie, his choice of a battered old Peugeot to park alongside the high value sports cars owned by the suspects, and his seemingly easily distracted demeanour, all caused the criminals to underestimate him, often right up until the moment when they would fall into the trap he set them, usually accompanied with that phrase that rather became his catchphrase: various variations on “Just one more thing…”
Forty-three more episodes of COLUMBO aired across seven seasons in the 1970s, featuring a whole host of celebrity killers who pitted their wits against what they considered to be this shambles of a man.
After a break of 12 years, the series was revived in 1989 for a further six editions, and another fourteen films followed across the next fourteen years, with the final – sixty ninth - COLUMBO first airing in 2003.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 23rd 2023
A couple of years ago, back in our forty-eighth edition of VISION ON SOUND in September 2021, I welcomed ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON onto the show for the first time, and we spent a happy hour discussing his artistic life, creating his witty television-themed illustrations and graphic images, and about how his love of archive television inspired many of them.
His creation of spoof adverts featuring characters from shows like SAPPHIRE AND STEEL being used to promote products that never actually existed had given ANDY exactly the kind of internet presence that draws attention to people, and, little did I know at the time, but even as we recorded that show he was on the very brink of being commissioned to produce a collection of his artwork in book form.
Two years later, and here, in the summer of 2023, that rather beautiful book is in the process of being released at last into the world, courtesy of DAVID J HOWE and his TELOS PUBLISHING Company.
The book is called THIS IS A FAKE – after the words infamously scribbled onto the back of several MONA LISAs in felt-tipped pen by TOM BAKER’s DOCTOR WHO in the story CITY OF DEATH penned by DOUGLAS ADAMS in 1979 - and is a lovingly crafted volume of delightful and witty works of art which somehow manages to weave an alternative history of the DOCTOR WHO series that we sort-of know and love, and many of the television shows existing alongside it, as seen through the kind of promotional material that could only exist in some other, far stranger, parallel dimension.
So the book takes us on a visual journey right back to DR WHO’s post-war radio serial roots, which would inspire so much incredible familiarly unrecognizable merchandise, and even a celebratory Garden Fete held in deepest, darkest Sussex, that led to a specifically 1960s form of traffic chaos.
Sadly, as this book is indeed a celebratory pastiche, none of the products pictured within has ever been produced or placed on sale, which is, in several cases, rather unfortunate, as there are many that many Archive TV fans would have snapped up in a heartsbeat.
Obviously, with a brand-new glossy and shiny fresh great big book to promote, ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON has been busily doing the rounds promoting his Magisterpiece, so I was rather delighted that he – or at least someone who looks and sounds very much like him - has taken the time out of his now frantically busy schedule to join me once again to spend a rather delightful hour talking about how the book came into being, his processes, ideas, and inspirations, some of which I hope that you might actually not have heard before, and I hope you enjoy spending time in his company as much as I did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 16th 2023
It’s been rather too long since we last heard from our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR on the show, so when I did finally manage to remind myself of this and get in touch, it was a joy to find out that he was still keen to contribute to the show, despite those pesky time differences that can sometimes make finding suitable moments to record slightly difficult to organize.
But RICK was still keen, even if it meant rearranging our dates and wondering about whether any time lag in the question and answer process might mean adding those NASA style BLEEPS to the end of every sentence and calling each other Roger all of the time.
Neither was necessary, of course, but that moment of nostalgia did remind me that we’d never done one of our EARLIEST TV MEMORIES shows with RICK, and so that’s what we decided to talk about, and I think that if your own TV memories feature POGLES’ WOOD, NORMAN WISDOM, BASIL BRUSH, JACKANORY, VISION ON, THINK OF A NUMBER, ITC series like RANDALL & HOPKIRK (DECEASED) and PLANET OF THE APES, or if you’re someone who just likes to cosy up and watch TV with your own nearest and dearest, I think you’ll find the following hour a rather charming one to spend in his company.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 9th 2023
I’ve wanted to cover the iconic TV series THE TWILIGHT ZONE on the show since almost the very first episode of VISION ON SOUND, but for some reason, things seemed to keep getting in the way of me getting around to it, so I was very pleased when ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON joined me for a bit of a chat about the series in all of its many manifestations.
THE TWILIGHT ZONE, created by the legendary television writer ROD SERLING was first transmitted on American TV on the CBS network in October 1959.
Despite being often thought of as a Science-Fiction series, THE TWILIGHT ZONE was something far more insightful, and far stranger than that. Because whilst the overall notion of slipping into THE TWILIGHT ZONE is a fundamentally S-F concept, the stories that it featured were often more about life, and fate, and the whims of chance, or choice, than being about starships and aliens.
Of course, such tales did feature, some so memorable that they have inspired some of the finest moments on THE SIMPSONS decades later, as well as presenting half hour versions of stories that later went on to inspire the minds behind several blockbuster movies.
Taking as its source stories featuring people from all walks of life, themes as diverse as jazz music, boxing, military life, and aircraft pilots would feature alongside the astronauts exploring the final frontier at the start of the space race, as well as the melancholic angst of life in post-war atomic-age America.
THE TWILIGHT ZONE aired for five seasons, but sadly was not as much loved in its day as it would later become, and had only moderate ratings meaning that it was twice cancelled and revived, ultimately running for five years and 156 Episodes, 92 of which were written by ROD SERLING himself.
It has since been revived several times, with varying degrees of both success, and, in the case of the feature film version, tragedy, but these versions have rarely proved to be as lasting, or as iconic as that original series born in the 1950s.
Of course, with a topic as huge as THE TWILIGHT ZONE, we may feel the need to return to it at some point, so do feel free to share your own thoughts on the series with us.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 2nd 2023
This week I really wanted to talk about some TV CHEESE, by which I mean the sort of television that can become anybody’s guilty pleasure, even if they might never want to fess up to watching it, or the sort of television that’s so bad it’s actually quite good, or, at the very least, enjoyable.
Old curmudgeons like myself, of course, might like to bang on about how that’s pretty much everything that comes on our screens now, especially in the name of light entertainment, but I don’t think that’s quite what I meant either.
There are some shows which have reputations that precede them, shows the mere mention of which can cause people to roll their eyes in mock (or genuine) horror, and wonder why on earth anyone would want to watch them, and yet, when you do watch them, still prove to be satisfying half or full hours of viewing when you take the time to.
Unsurprisingly, several American series from the 1970s and eighties do tend to fall into this category. Shows like THE WALTONS, CHARLIE’S ANGELS, TJ HOOKER, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, and HAPPY DAYS can be mercilessly mocked and shunned by the classic TV watching community, alongside such bonkers BRITISH TV series like BONEKICKERS, BUGS or CATS EYES, and SF shows like BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and its sequel GALACTICA 1980, and plain afternoon romantic nonsense like THE LOVE BOAT.
So, in order to put us on the launch pad for covering some of the lesser-loved classic TV shows from time-to-time on VISION ON SOUND, WARREN CUMMINGS joined me for a wild hour just musing over some of the very worst contenders for qualifying as genuine TV cheese.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 25th 2023
Way back in October 2021, in the fifty-fifth edition of the show if you want to seek it out, LISA and ANDREW joined me to chat about the then relatively brand new release of the BBC’s 1960s version of MAIGRET on Blu-Ray and DVD, so, with eighteen months having passed since, it doesn’t seem too soon to return to talking about the Belgian writer GEORGES SIMENON’s Detective creation, who featured in an astonishing 75 novels and a further 28 short stories across a very long and successful writing career.
Especially as it is a Detective series, like SHERLOCK HOLMES, that has been returned to time and again and has been presented in many forms and variations over the decades, so, whilst that version starring RUPERT DAVIES which ran from 1960 to 1963 may hold a special nostalgic place in the nation’s heart, on UK TV alone there have been at least two new versions produced, a very well received version starring MICHAEL GAMBON in the early nineties, and a short-lived variant made about eight years ago featuring ROWAN ATKINSON which proved to be something of a hit at the time but failed to be recommissioned.
All three of these versions have attempted adaptations of the book MAIGRET IN MONTMARTRE, which in itself makes for a fabulous opportunity for the archive TV viewer to see how different eras treat the same source material.
Then there are the other successful versions made both in FRANCE and in other countries across the world, featuring actors like GINO CERVI, JEAN RICHARD, and BRUNO CREMER, all of which have been terribly popular in their counties of origin, and some of which have even managed to make in onto British TV screens so that we can make even more comparisons of how other countries choose to do MAIGRET.
Anyway, STEVE HATCHER is back this week, and, in that thorough way he has of viewing television series in as many of its manifestations as he can get his hands on, he’s been watching several of the versions of MAIGRET made for both film and television over the decades, and he’s joining us to give us the background to as many as he can, whilst putting some VIANDE SUR LES OS of what we call THE SIX FACES OF MAIGRET.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
BONUS EPISODE!
Available from 6:00pm, FRIDAY JUNE 23rd, 2023
ADDITIONAL CONTENT featuring LISA PARKER, ANDREW TROWBRIDGE, PAUL CHANDLER, and WARREN CUMMINGS.
For our recent edition which paid tribute to the late, lamented NETWORK DISTRIBUTING, the UK video imprint company that had an eclectic and eccentric range of archive TV releases, STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON suggested that I might want to add some memories and contributions from some of the other regulars into the show, and, for timing reasons, they had to be trimmed to keep us inside our timeslot.
The thing is that, having gathered LISA and ANDREW from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST, and PAUL, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST together, they were never going to keep down to just the ten minutes, and so there was about an hour of material sitting there unused.
Despite looking fondly at all of that extra content, I felt it might have been a little TOO self-indulgent to put ANOTHER whole show on the loss of NETWORK out on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL, but still thought that there was lots of lovely stuff in that hour that was worth hearing, so I’ve decided to put it out as an extra bonus edition, which is (because I never do this) pretty much unedited, and so I hope you’ll forgive any technical flaws that might have crept through.
And do hang on to the end, because I’ve also tagged on the fifteen minutes of chat with WARREN CUMMINGS from THE CINEMATIC SAUSAGE PODCAST which got trimmed for the show, so you get to hear a little bit more of that, too.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 18th 2023
In a change to our schedule, with the sudden unexpected demise of NETWORK DISTRIBUTING, the UK video imprint company that had, with its eclectic and eccentric range of releases, served fans of Archive TV very well for the last 25 years, STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON got in touch and said they wanted to talk how they felt about it, and, along with other some memories and contributions from some of the other regulars, WARREN, LISA, ANDREW and PAUL, VISION ON SOUND presents an hour in which we fondly remember the company, and what it did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 11th 2023
My regular co-collaborator on the show, WARREN CUMMINGS, has been hosting his CINEMATIC SAUSAGE podcast all about classic movies for the past couple of years, and the thought struck me recently that an enormous amount of the kind of films that he and I both find we enjoy aren’t from the sort of time when we would have been able to see them at the cinema, so the only reason that young whippersnappers like us could possibly have come to know that such movies even existed was because they used to turn up on the telly and we would find ourselves drawn to them, whether it was on long wet summer holiday and weekend afternoons, or in those rather special seasons that used to turn up occasionally, and usually at a time when the news was the only other choice of viewing.
So our young minds would be exposed to extensive seasons of early evening Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce SHERLOCK HOLMES films, or SCIENCE-FICTION CLASSICS, or GOLDEN TURKEYS and late night HORRORS, and our interests would be shaped by these, alongside the afternoon WEEPIES, COMEDIES, or those stone-cold classics – often WAR FILMS - that tended to cling doggedly to BANK HOLIDAY weekends and become instant traditions in many households.
Anyway, WARREN is here to talk about all of those things, as we reminisce about the kind of films we enjoy, and how we first found them, and I hope you enjoy what he had to say as much as I did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 4th 2023
This week, our regular visitor is my occasional co-presenter on VISION ON SOUND, SANDY McGREGOR, that connoisseur of the cleverer end of classic telly who I am always keen to welcome back to the show in order to elevate my usual choice of topics to chat about above the usual television fayre that I tend to squander my days watching so that I can talk to you about it.
As well as his love of the more “grown up” aspects of classic telly , SANDY is also a bit of a fan of lists, or at least the sort of lists compiled by the GUARDIAN of the “fifty favourite television moments” variety.
And it was because of one of those lists that he happened to spot that, as part of our ongoing occasional series of television anniversaries that ought to deserve a mention on the show, we’d somehow completely failed to notice that the American Television production company HOME BOX OFFICE (HBO) had marked fifty years of service towards the end of 2022.
Responsible as they are for such well recognised television gold as THE SOPRANOS, THE WIRE, SEX AND THE CITY, GAME OF THRONES, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, and the latter-day hit SUCCESSION, amongst a whole heap of other highly-regarded series, the success of HBO seems counter-intuitive when you consider its roots in the form of “pay-per-view” sporting events.
And yet, despite such a background, HBO has most definitely thrived, and so SANDY joined me to have a bit of an old natter as we rattled our way through the GUARDIAN’s list of THE FIFTY GREATEST HBO SERIES ever, as compiled by MICHAEL HOGAN and SAMMY GECSOYLER, a list so packed in quality television programmes that shows like WESTWORLD, JOHN ADAMS, and GENERATION KILL don’t even get a mention.
Honestly, this is a list of such rich pickings that it can even afford to omit series from its younger sister HBO MAX.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 28th 2023
Despite the slick operation we try to give you the impression that we are running here as we take our weekly deep dives into the world of archive television here on VISION ON SOUND, sometimes my regular co-host, WARREN CUMMINGS, and I agree to meet up and record our latest show with not much actually planned for what we’re going to talk about.
I nearly said “with little in mind” there, but regular listeners might have quite reasonably felt able to suggest that we rarely have much in mind on the shows we do, but, knowing that might be just too much of a temptation for all of you, I decided to think again.
TWO thoughts already this week? My! I must be spoiling you!
Anyway, this week I did actually have something of a plan in mind, but WARREN had other ideas, and our conversation set off down quite a different path from the one I expected, and, perhaps rather surprisingly, I think it makes for a strangely fascinating show despite ourselves.
Because, by simply prompting us with the name one of those fine character actors from back in the day that we often enjoy the work of here on VISION ON SOUND, we went on something of a journey which involved FOGGY, BLAMIRE and ENTWISTLE, a LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE trio that never happened, as well as touching upon the world of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS?, CORONATION STREET, and DALLAS in a whistle-stop tour of popular television that made for a rather disparate set of travelling companions for us this week.
And whilst we don’t often get too philosophical or thoughtful when we get together to do these shows – WARREN and I both being people who have not very well hidden shallows where other people’s depths might be – we do have a rather interesting conversation about regional television, the use of regional accents, whether genuine or otherwise, and that tricky little matter of the portrayal of ethnic minorities in some of the old telly we watch, some of which you might perhaps find massively inappropriate for a couple of blokes like us to be chatting about, but which I hope you’ll at least find interesting if nothing else.
Incidentally, it sometimes happens that, because these chats catch us unawares (as it were), one or two of the facts and figures don’t quite spring as easily to mind as they might do if we were more professionally prepared.
“Professionally…!”
Anyway, this meant that I completely forgot the name of SAM in GETTING SAM HOME, as well as struggling with names such as DINO SHAFEEK and CARMEN MONROE which, whilst we usually get there in the end, sometimes fall out of mind in the cut and thrust of these recording sessions.
And, whilst we did finally get around to talking about what I had been originally going to suggest, that all featured in a separate and quite throat gravelling second recording that I’m now saving for another time.
So, with that blatant attempt to add a certain amount of intrigue and anticipation into our keen and eager audience, I’ll simply hop over to the controls and kick up those FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL time engines, click on the randomiser, and wonder where the hell we are going to end up. Hopefully it’s not SKARO, and, with my luck, it’s probably not going to be during a Parisian springtime, but we are likely to hop over those Pennines and find ourselves, at least obliquely, in and around Holmfirth with one or two of its better known inhabitants.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 21st 2023
Long time listeners to VISION ON SOUND will already be aware that PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, our returning guest on this week’s edition, is a very avid fan of the TV detective series BERGERAC, and, whilst he has mentioned this from time-to-time on his appearances, we realised that we’d never had a sit down to just talk about that show.
So this week we decided to rectify that omission, and for the next hour we have a nice little chat about what it is about that particular cop show, mostly set on Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, which he found appealing enough to ensure that he not only has the complete series on his shelves so that he can watch it whenever the mood catches him, but also that he has an emergency backup set of BERGERAC just in case the first goes wrong, and yet another set – albeit one featuring inferior edits of the programmes – stashed in another place in case the first two can’t be accessed.
Think of it as being a bit like prepping for archive TV enthusiasts.
The series BERGERAC was first made and broadcast by the BBC in 1981, and continued to make regular appearances in the schedules for more than a decade, finally signing off, nine series, and eighty-seven episodes later on Boxing Day, 1991, and seems slightly unusual nowadays for not being a detective series based around characters adapted from a series of novels.
BERGERAC was created by ROBERT BANKS STEWART, as is rather well known, as a replacement for his previous series SHOESTRING which came to a sudden abrupt end, and left the BBC looking around for a similar but different Detective series to fill its place in the schedules, and, BERGERAC must be considered to be a very successful solution to a rather interesting problem.
The series starred JOHN NETTLES as JIM BERGERAC, a detective with a troubled past, TERENCE ALEXANDER as his troublesome ex-father in law CHARLIE HUNGERFORD, and SEAN ARNOLD as his boss BARNEY CROZIER at the newly formed “BUREAU DES ETRANGES” on the Channel Islands, alongside several glamorous women like CECILE PAOLI, CELIA IMRIE, LOUISE JAMESON, THERESE LIOTARD, DEBORAH GRANT and LISA GODDARD, who seemed to find Jim irresistibly attractive, sometimes for several seasons in lead and guest roles, alongside a whole host of exactly the sort of character actors that the likes of viewers like me enjoy spotting in these kinds of shows.
BERGERAC made the most of its picturesque JERSEY locations, and the vintage 1947 burgundy-coloured TRIUMPH ROADSTER Jim drove, to delight audiences across the 1980s, and PAUL has very fond memories of growing up watching this series, not least because of the childhood holidays he spent on the island.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 14th 2023
It’s long been known, at least in archive television circles anyway, that the charismatic Canadian television pioneering producer SYDNEY CECIL NEWMAN was enticed into working for ABC television in Britain in the late 1950s, and was responsible for such high profile dramas such as ARMCHAIR THRILLER, as well as creating the sixties phenomenon known as THE AVENGERS, before his successes led to him joining the BBC in 1962, which eventually led to the creation of the long-running, and much loved, TV cornerstone that is DOCTOR WHO, although that’s a long and oft-told story which we aren’t going to go into today.
However, before deciding to bring teatime science fiction stories to children on the BBC, SYDNEY NEWMAN did actually have a bit of a track record of trying some quite similar ideas over at ABC, at least when it came to bringing Science-Fiction stories to children.
In April 1960 he was the Producer on TARGET LUNA, a six-part science fiction adventure serial now sadly lost to time and, perhaps, videotape wiping policies, which involved those exciting possibilities offered up by the dawn of the space age in which children and hamsters could occasionally replace trained astronauts when British Rocket Groups were trying to send rockets to the moon.
The success of this serial led to the swift commissioning of three further serials which we now refer to as the PATHFINDERS IN SPACE trilogy to differentiate it from the later 1972 series about World War Two bombers.
PATHFINDERS IN SPACE, a six-part serial, largely recast and now including the chiseled good looks of GERALD FLOOD as Journalist CONWAY HENDERSON, was broadcast in September of that same year, with PATHFINDERS TO MARS following in December, and PATHFINDERS TO VENUS following in MARCH 1961, and proved to SYDNEY NEWMAN at least that Science-Fiction as an exciting storytelling device for family audiences was, on the whole, a pretty neat idea.
TV Historian MICHAEL HERBERT, who recently shared his insights into the life of MALCOLM HULKE on the show, got in touch with VISION ON SOUND and asked if I might like to discuss these series, along with a later set of adventure serials also featuring GERALD FLOOD CITY and SECRET BENEATH THE SEA, on the show, and, of course I was not going to say no to an offer like that now, was I?
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 7th 2023
One of the things that bothers me about modern television is the way I feel it is often directed, written, and designed to deliberately manipulate the viewer into feeling a particular almost designated set of emotions, as if we can no longer be trusted to respond in the right way, and so our sympathies and reactions are manipulated to feel sympathy where the creators decide we ought to, instead of just telling a story and leaving the rest of us to decide whether or not, and how, to feel about the story unfolding in front of us.
What kind of a monster are you if you don’t feel THIS… or THIS…! or THIS!!! even when it is often the same old tropes and clichés that are being churned out, in often very predictable ways, but with the addition of a suitably mournful tune underscoring them to make sure that you all get the point.
And if a large enough chunk of the audience put down their boxes of tissues for long enough to head off and tell everyone in their social media circle just how emotionally draining they found the latest episode of today’s trendiest family drama, and announce to anyone who follows them that it is the best television programme ever, BAFTA awards and future series are almost certain to follow.
Whilst cynical old heads sitting in the corner might be fully aware that, however original this latest series might claim to be, they’ve seen it all before, and often done far better, and without any of that sort of nonsense, this is often not a popular position to take when the tabloids are turning yet another mundane, predictable drama series into a “must-see” unmissable phenomenon.
And whilst Archive TV is sometimes denigrated for being far too linear, or far too predicable in the way it portrayed emotional responses, if it chose to show any at all, some of the smartest, classiest, and most harrowing dramas and sitcoms of yesteryear managed to create many memorable gut-punch moments mostly without needing to fall back on such heightened fast-cutting, enhanced melodramatic techniques.
Anyway, with television’s handling of emotions in mind, WARREN CUMMINGS is back this week to discuss such matters, whether it’s a touch of DOCTOR WHO, CALLAN, MAS*H, or ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, and I do hope that we can all stagger through the hour without finding it all rather too exhausting.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 30th 2023
A few weeks ago, I talked to PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, about his memories of the Children’s TV he grew up with, and afterwards, STEVE HATCHER got in touch because he quite fancied talking about his own memories of such things which, as is the nature of these things, date from at least a decade earlier.
And so, not being one to ignore a good idea for a show when one is suggested, I arranged to talk to him, and we recorded today’s show which covers all sorts of TV including SUPERCAR, HEREWARD THE WAKE, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, TRITON, FREEWHEELERS, CATWEAZLE, TIMESLIP, ARTHUR OF THE BRITONS, and PARDON MY GENIE.
So I hope you’ll stick around for what is a warm, nostalgic hour wandering through STEVE’s memories of Children’s TV, some of which you may never have even heard of, and several of which might come as something of a surprise to you.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 23rd 2023
This week, WARREN CUMMINGS returns for a lightning journey through one of his favourite TV shows, BLAKE’S SEVEN, TERRY NATION’S classic space drama from the late 1970s and early 1980s, which featured a small and possibly foolhardy band of freedom-fighting heroic outcasts (or, if you prefer, terrorist maniacs) battling against the might of an oppressive regime known asTHE FEDERATION in a series that somehow seems to be getting more and moreprescient with the passing days.
THE FEDERATION had, of course, branded our heroes, BLAKE and his followers as criminals, and tried to brush them under the carpet but, of course, they had to fail at that otherwise there wouldn’t be a show, and for four hard-fought years, BLAKE, JENNA, AVON, VILA, GAN, and CALLY, with later additions or replacements TARRANT, DAYNA and SOOLIN used their acquired Spacecraft THE LIBERATOR and later SCORPIO, several super computers, ZEN, ORAC and SLAVE, to strike at the heart of THE FEDERATION, mostly as personified by the exotic SERVALAN and, at least for a couple of seasons, SPACE COMMANDER TRAVIS.
Fifty-two episodes were made across four series, until everything came to a head on the planet of GAUDA PRIME just before Christmas 1981, when this popular and fondly remembered series came to an unexpectedly dramatic conclusion.
Over the next hour we concentrate mostly – but not entirely - on the first season – and, in our enthusiasm, a couple of memory slips do creep in, but I hope you’ll enjoy our take on the show despite those.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 16th 2023
This week, I thought I’d try to make a more musical edition of the show and take a look at - or a listen to - one or two of the many favourite TV theme tunes that we’ve discovered during all of those years of watching TV.
I’ve been thinking about doing a more music-based show for quite some time, but it always comes down to me not wanting to be tempted to try out my DEEJAY voice and end up sounding just as ridiculous as you might expect me to.
But with such a rich history of brilliant tunes being written and performed throughout television history, it does seem a rather overdue topic for VISION ON SOUND to tackle in its usual offbeat and perhaps unusual manner.
And of course, who is there better from the VISION ON SOUND pool of talent to pick out to take a musical journey through some terrific tunes than that forensic follower of feem toons, and magnifier of all things musical, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, who I’m welcoming back today.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 9th 2023
I often feel very lucky that, with such a lot of telly out there in the world to be viewed, VISION ON SOUND has several regular guests who are prepared to watch certain up-to-the-minute programmes so that I don’t have to, and I can concentrate on the older stuff, which is where we usually like to lurk in this show.
This also means that they can sift through some of the programmes I might otherwise have missed, and tell me whether it’s worth me emerging from the library stacks, and taking a look at some of the more recent gems, and seeing some of the possible future classics that television is making right now.
This week LISA PARKER really wanted to tell me all about RUSSELL T DAVIES’ five-part drama from 2021 called IT’S A SIN which tells the rather important story of a group of friends living under the shadow of the AIDS virus in the 1980s and 1990s.
SPOILER ALERT: Be aware that LISA does reveal a lot of the plot of this series and she herself recommends in this chat that, if you haven’t yet seen the show in the two years it’s been available, you might want to go and watch it now before returning to listen to her overview of it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 2nd 2023
I’m delighted to say that this week our returning guest is the writer MICHAEL SEELY who got in touch to ask if he could return to the show and have a little chat about his favourite comedy series which is (or are) YES, MINISTER and its continuation as YES, PRIME MINISTER, a pair of linked series written by Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn which were first broadcast on the BBC between 1980 and 1988, and which starred PAUL EDDINGTON, NIGEL HAWTHORNE and DEREKFOWLDS as the lead trio of JIM HACKER MP, SIR HUMPHREY APPLEBY, and BERNARD WOOLLEY as they inhabited and manipulated evens in the corridors of power, initially in THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS and later on in the very heart of the British government in a fictionalised, but very convincing, NUMBER TEN DOWNING STREET.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 26th 2023
For various reasons, I’ve been watching quite a lot of television set in and around Scotland over the past couple of months, and, as it rather luckily turns out, for many similar reasons, so has one of our regular visitors to the programme, and, even more luckily, that visitor is SANDY McGREGOR, which means that we can safely talk about all manner of things related to Scottish made and Scotland set television without much risk of upsetting anybody.
Well, at least he can.
So, over the course of the next hour, we talk about a wide range of Scottish-based dramas such as TUTTI FRUTTI, YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART, THE CROW ROAD, SUNSET SONG, and SUTHERLAND”S LAW. We also briefly skirt around the knotty issue of those classic crime dramas TAGGART and REBUS, give a nod to STILL GAME, and, don’t worry, TAKE THE HIGH ROAD does at least get a mention.
We’ll also be touching upon representations of Scotland on television generally, and those pesky “local variations” and whether they tended to annoy a youngster growing up north of the border. And we’ll also be considering at least a few of the issues raised in SANJEEV KOHLI’s excellent programme WHA’S LIKE US.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 12th 2023
Now that the dust has settled, and the year is rapidly hurtling towards the Easter holidays, it seems like there is no better time for us to calmly sit down and have a bit of a chat about the most recent festive season.
We’re nothing if not topical here on VISION ON SOUND.
No, really… Bear with me on this…
Because, sometimes, right around the time of broadcast, it’s rather difficult to fully appreciate the festive season for what it is. We get hung up on certain programmes as if they’re genuinely the BEST THING EVER, but then find that, after a few weeks bitter reflection, we find that the programmes that briefly seemed so very special and shiny and new, might not have turned out to feel all that memorable after all.
So, was CHRISTMAS 2022 a bit of a classic of iconic television moments, or merely another step on the inexorable journey from the giddy heights of days when CHRISTMAS TELLY felt like the hottest ticket in town down some slippery slope towards just being as “ho-hum” and monotonous as some people tend to suggest? Is the inevitable demise of linear television, and entire families gathering together to watch unforgettable programmes truly on the cards?
I’m not certain we manage to get to the resolution of that during the next hour, but WARREN CUMMINGS and I did get together at the end of January to have a bit of a chat about what we found worth watching on the main channels in late December last year, and whether any of it felt truly memorable or special.
Our viewing choices were surprisingly similar, so we talked a little bit about shows as diverse as MORTIMER AND WHITEHOUSE: GONE FISHING, GHOSTS, DETECTORISTS, INSIDE NUMBER NINE, Christmas Ghost Stories, crime dramas, and certain other things which at least manage to draw out one or two opinions on the state of current television programming, which I hope you’ll find as entertaining to listen to as we did in recording them.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 12th 2023
This week, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST is back and, because we have had several chats over on his show about pop music, I thought it might be nice if we sat down and had a bit of a chat about his experiences of growing up watching music-based television programmes, and if (and how) they might have influenced the kind of music that he enjoys listening to.
So, as we meander through the meadow of his memories of TOP OF THE POPS, and THE CHART SHOW, and CD:UK, amongst others, I hope you enjoy the various blooms we stopped to pick along the way.
As ever, this feels like such a rich field for us to be ploughing through, if any of you feel like joining me for a similarly themed chat one week, do get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 5th 2023
A few weeks ago on VISION ON SOUND we celebrated the life of the television writer TERRANCE DICKS and, in passing, we mentioned his writing colleague and mentor MALCOLM HULKE, who co-wrote several television scripts alongside TERRANCE, including contributions to THE AVENGERS and DOCTOR WHO, as well as writing a quarter of the stories (on television) which featured JON PERTWEE as the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, some of which are arguably amongst the most iconic from that era, when TERRANCE DICKS was working as the Script Editor on the series.
As well as his work on DOCTOR WHO, MALCOLM also wrote scripts for the PATHFINDERS series, CROSSROADS, DANGER MAN, GIDEONS WAY, UNITED!, SPYDER’S WEB and many others, in a prolific twenty year career sadly cut short when MALCOLM HULKE died at the age of 54 years old way back in 1979. Perhaps because of this, his story, and his contribution to television writing as a whole, sometimes gets rather overlooked when people talk about the great television writers of the 1960s and 1970s.
Nowadays MALCOLM HULKE is often cited as a huge influence on the careers of the writers that followed in his footsteps, not least because of his efforts as a member of the Writers Guild, and his book WRITING FOR TELEVISION which became a must-read volume for aspiring writers in that era.
Recently, the freelance historian MICHAEL HERBERT, our guest in today’s edition of VISION ON SOUND contributed an essay on the life and works of MALCOLM HULKE to the rather excellent book SURVIVAL TV: 1970s BRITAIN AND THE TELEVISION SERIES which was published and edited by RODNEY MARSHALL.
MICHAEL is also working on a new biography of MALCOLM that he is hoping to complete this year, and he joined me to talk about the intriguingly complex life and work of this often complicated and iconic television writer.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 26th 2023
This week we welcome back our old friend SANDY McGREGOR to look at another series of the more serious and dramatic telly that he tends to be rather fond of joining us for a chat about.
For this week’s show, SANDY has been watching PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, DENNIS POTTER’S acclaimed, BAFTA award winning six-part musical drama serial from 1978, directed by the late PIERS HAGGARD, and which was one of several collaborations POTTER had with Producer KENITH TRODD.
Acting-wise, the serial stars BOB HOSKINS, CHERYL CAMPBELL, and GEMMA CRAVEN, alongside an astonishingly vivid turn from KENNETH COLLEY as the Accordion Man, and a whole host of amazing and very familiar acting talent.
It’s a complex story of longing for another life, love and death, and the inevitability of fate, all accompanied by an extraordinary soundtrack of the popular tunes from the 1920s and 1930s, and represents the first – but not the last – time DENNIS POTTER would require his actors to mime and dance along to the tunes in often breathtaking sequences that attempt to show the inner lives, hopes and dreams of his characters in stark contrast to the mundane disappointments in their humdrum everyday existences.
This is the story of sheet music salesman ARTHUR PARKER (played by Bob Hoskins in a career-making role) who is unhappily and frustratingly married to Gemma Craven’s JOAN. As the serial begins, they are living in an art deco suburban hell, but, because ARTHUR lives the “on the road” life of a commercial traveller, he has a fateful encounter with EILEEN EVERSON, a Gloucestershire schoolmistress with hidden depths, played by CHERYL CAMPBELL, which has the effect of changing both of their lives in surprising and sometimes very dark ways.
As both of their destinies become intertwined in a tale of scandal, deceit, and murder, the narrative finds new and intriguing ways to pick at the various scabs of society, including politics, education, and the legal system, before going inevitably to a very dark conclusion that, perhaps surprisingly, then pulls one or two extraordinary narrative twists from out of the bag.
About a decade later, POTTER’s other masterpiece THE SINGING DETECTIVE would, in some ways, cover very similar ground in parts, and so PENNIES FROM HEAVEN is often considered a prototype, or a trial run, for that later work, even though its story actually goes off in a very different direction.
And PENNIES FROM HEAVEN is an astonishing piece in its own right, although, perhaps because it was unavailable on British TV screens for a long time for legal reasons, sometimes it doesn’t get quite as much love as it deserves.
Sadly, since we recorded this conversation, the director of the series, the prolific and multi-talented PIERS HAGGARD, who also directed the final QUATERMASS serial for EUSTON FILMS in 1979, has passed on from this realm, but, rather strangely, and regrettably, SANDY and I failed to talk about his contribution in the enthusiastic and frantic hour that follows, so I hope that by at least acknowledging him now, you’ll forgive our ridiculous lapse of judgment.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 19th 2023
This week we welcome back PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST and we’re going to talk about, in a magic roundabout sort of a way, our various memories of, or reactions to, the children’s television that we used to watch when we were growing up.
This idea was mostly prompted by two things really; First there was the range of single episodes dating from what many people consider to be a “Golden Age” of children’s television that were put out on BBC4 last year as part of the BBC’s Centenary celebrations, which gave modern viewers a rare chance to see the likes of THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT, VISION ON, and RENTAGHOST on their televisions for the first time in what seems like an absolute age.
Not that our conversation is exclusively restricted to the BBC’s output however, because the other prompt for us to have this conversation was the imminent release of the rediscovered masters of Southern Television’s classic series WORZEL GUMMIDGE which featured JON PERTWEE, UNA STUBBS and GEOFFREY BAYLDON, which has now been lovingly remastered for a brand new high-definition Blu-Ray set.
So, over the course of this hour we mention that, alongside shows like BLUE PETER and the various SATURDAY MORNING options that we were given to view back in the day, and talk about the sort of television that most appealed to us when we were both knee-high to various grasshoppers and hadn’t yet graduated to full control rights for the household remote control box.
It’s a bit of an amiable ramble down memory lane, really, so don’t expect any massive insights, or production details, or anything like that, but I do hope you enjoy travelling along those pathways with us.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 12th 2023
Until recently, the ABC TELEVISION logo animation and accompanying jingle tended to make be immediately think of the very early series of THE AVENGERS because that was almost exclusively what I tended to see it attached to.
ABC TELEVISION LIMITED created a whole host of shows for the ITV network in the UK between 1956 and 1968, and recently NETWORK TV have been releasing a whole load of their content in a series of “theme night” DVD releases which, fortunately, our regular guest team of LISA and ANDREW from THE ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST, have been buying up and watching, and they’ve joined me today to tell us all about them.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 5th 2023
Space… Between my ears…
These are the voyages of the good ship VISION ON SOUND…
It’s ongoing mission…
Nah, let’s not do that…
Basically, WARREN is back this week to talk all about the original version of STAR TREK, so let’s kick up our warp engines to slingshot around the sun, and see if we can find ourselves back in the latter half of the 1960s where the small screen adventures of CAPTAIN KIRK and the crew of the STARSHIP USS ENTERPRISE all began…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 29th 2023
STEVE HATCHER’s back this week to take us on a whistle-stop tour of all those great swashbuckling adventure series from the fifties and sixties, including the likes of ROBIN HOOD, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, THE BUCCANEERS, SIR LANCELOT, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, THE GAY CAVALIER, and many more, so let’s don our doublet and hose (grab our tights), unsheath our swords and head back to those days of old when knights were bold, and all that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, the online connection for this recording was playing up on the ay, but I hope that the occasional technical issues don't diminish your enjoyment of this otherwise fascinating conversation.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 22nd 2023
This week we welcome back our regular contributor PAUL CHANDLER, the SHY YETI himself, who’s found a few spare moments to once again venture into his imaginarium of televisual treats and share his choices for the section of the museum set aside specifically for the strange and quirky subset of television drama – and occasional comedy – that we think of as the ANTHOLOGY SERIES.
Now, of course, you might suggest that much of what we think of as being scripted television is some sort of anthology series, really. A series of serious television plays like PLAY FOR TODAY could be considered to be an anthology of sorts, as can any drama series that features a collection of characters but places them in a different situation to have to cope with each week.
Also, despite featuring the same lovable characters in every episode, many sitcoms place those characters in different situations week after week, often with "hilarious" consequences.
But the anthology series is something different really, despite often having a format in which the different weekly stories and scenarios, and different weekly cast of actors, are introduced by a familiar figure each week. These series were designed to tell different stories under a blanket identity, and were often terribly successful, perhaps simply because the audience knew that even if last week had presented a disappointing edition, maybe this week’s would be a lot better.
I suspect that it’s a format that I’ve subconsciously mimicked in the creation of this very show, hopefully with a similar outcome.
Anyway, over the course of the next hour, PAUL and I will touch upon series as diverse as ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, NIGHT GALLERY, TALES OF UNEASE, BEASTS and, perhaps the most anthology of all anthologies, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, so I hope you’ll stick with us and enjoy what we had to say.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
Episode segments
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 15th 2023
Now the sort of people who like dinner parties, or enjoy partaking in small talk, will always tell you that you should never discuss religion or politics in polite company, and they probably make a good point, especially if you don’t ever want your social event to end in a bit of a punch-up.
Equally, and perhaps to our national detriment, rather a lot of people find the subject of politics a bit of a turn off, or will basically shut off the conversation with an emphatic “Politics is boring!” and, of course, they are entirely entitled to that opinion, even if we all know that politics literally affects every single one of our lives in far more ways than we like to think about, and that so many of us fail to engage with it is exactly the kind of reason that the country is in the mess it currently finds itself.
However, I’m not here to persuade you of the wisdom or otherwise of taking an interest in the world around you on a radio show that’s supposed to be about television.
But television’s relationship with politics and politicians is in itself a rather complicated one, and in an era where some politicians seem desperate to involve themselves in the dealings of broadcasters, and try to force them to mend their ways, or blindly follow the party line in every programme that they make, whilst other, long-running satirical shows that took regular pot-shots at the not-so-great and not-so good characters currently inhabiting the corridors of power are getting cancelled left, right, and centre (as it were), I thought it might be interesting just to have a conversation about politics and its relationship with television in the modern era, and how much it’s changed during the lifetime of broadcast television in this country.
So, some time towards the end of October last year, at a time when the British Government was in a state of particular chaos, I settled WARREN CUMMINGS down in a chair and prompted him to join me in having a bit of a chat about politics on television in what I think ended up being a rather fascinating discussion which took us from observations of satirical series from the sixties to the present day, touched briefly upon a couple of political dramas, and finally settled into an amiable chat about politics on television in the modern age.
Since we recorded this, of course, one of the less delightful ex-ministers has abandoned his constituents, and gone into the television jungle, and also been released from it again, in an effort to boost both his bank balance, and his credibility and standing as a celebrity, and that such a cynical move has broadly rehabilitated him with far too large a chunk of the voting public is something that can hardly be admired. It did certainly also upset a great deal of the population who still hold him personally responsible for a great many personal tragedies that happened during the pandemic.
At least the fact that he only came third is something that we hope he might repeat in other aspects of his life, but with so many of the rats announcing that they will no longer be staying aboard the sinking ship come the next polling day, their desire for celebrity status is something that we need to keep a careful eye upon, and WARREN and I did briefly touch upon this notion of politicians and celebrity during our chat.
Now, of course, nobody is going to claim that we’re going to put the world to rights during an hour of fairly light-hearted observations and insights into this very wide area of broadcasting, but I hope that you’ll at least enjoy what we had to say.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 8th 2023
I like to think that some of the very best editions of VISION ON SOUND have come about when I just have a chat with fans of television about what it is that they like about the television programmes that they love.
At the same time, some of our more regular listeners might recognise just how much I enjoy talking to writers, or talking about those writers who actually sit down and write, or sat down and wrote, the kind of television programmes that we admire and appreciate in these shows.
So this week’s show very much returns us to both of these things, really, in that we are going to be talking with a television fan about two of the television writers that caused him to venture out into the big wide world to discover just a little more about them amongst enthusiastic crowds of like-minded people.
During the last quarter of 2022, our old friend on this show, STEVE HATCHER, was tangentially involved with the organisation of, and also attended, two events that celebrated the lives and works of two of television’s great writers.
The first of these took place at the RIVERSIDE STUDIOS in LONDON on October the 2nd last year, after being delayed for several years due to terrible things happening in the world, and was an event called TERRANCE DICKS, A CELEBRATION. It was organised, not unsurprisingly to celebrate the life of that writer much beloved by whole generations of DOCTOR WHO fans for the prolific number of novelisations he wrote based upon the television stories that were largely unavailable to them at the time, but also for his work on the show in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he was the script editor on the programme, as well as being one of its most respected contributors.
Although Terrance Dicks’ career in television involved far more than just DOCTOR WHO, this is mostly what he is remembered for, despite his many other children’s books, and other television shows to which he contributed.
His death in 2019 was felt by many of his readers, and fans of his work alike, and he is much missed by all those who knew him, and many who never met him, but enjoyed his words. Perhaps his greatest legacy, however, was in passing on his love of reading and writing to the generations that followed him, and the fact that this event could be happening at all is a testament to the high regard in which he is still held.
The second event took place at STEVE’s more familiar territory of THE QUAD on November the 19th as part of DERBY FILM FESTIVAL, and was the NIGEL KNEALE: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION, which was another one-day event dedicated to the life of a much admired television writer who probably needs little introduction to regular listeners to VISION ON SOUND.
But at least it means I get my almost obligatory mention of QUATERMASS into the show fairly early this week.
Mind you, there was much more to NIGEL KNEALE than just QUATERMASS of course, and several events were organised last year to mark the centenary of the birth of this extraordinary storyteller.
And whilst STEVE is by no means wanting to take more than his fair share of credit for his part in greasing the wheels that might just have helped both of these events run as smoothly as they apparently did, he did get to attend both, so it’s very good of him to take the time to share his experiences with us, and share just a little bit of his own enthusiasm and admiration for both the people behind such events, and for the two writers being appreciated.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 1st 2023
VISION ON SOUND’s old friend SANDY McGREGOR is back again this week to take a look at another of the serious television dramas that he enjoys so much and likes to talk to me about.
This time it’s PETER FLANNERY’S epic nine-part drama OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH that he has been watching. It’s a story based upon the original scripts created for a stage show version, written whilst FLANNERY was writer-in-residence at the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, and which, when it came to be produced, was such a huge production that it was allocated half of the BBC’s DRAMA BUDGET for the entire year it was made in.
The story unfolds across a quarter of a century. The story starts in 1964 and the TV version, unlike the stage play, which ends in 1979, takes the story on to the year 1995.
The series follows the lives of four friends who grew up in NEWCASTLE, GEORDIE PEACOCK, NICKY HUTCHISON, MARY SOULSBY and TOSKER COX as played in career-making roles by DANIEL CRAIG, CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON, GINA McKEE, and MARK STRONG, in a variety of hairpieces and make-up.
The series is set around the backdrop of seismic and significant political and social upheavals, and we meet these characters in several historically significant years as they grow up and grow apart, and as their lives continue to cross and diverge over the decades, and we witness the various triumphs and disappointments that they meet along the way.
Much like in real life really.
With a supporting cast of acting greats like PETER VAUGHAN, MALCOLM MACDOWELL, ALUN ARMSTRONG, DAVID BRADLEY, TONY HAYGARTH, PETER JEFFREY and DONALD SUMPTER on the roster, this was the definite “must see” event drama of the year 1996, and won the BEST DRAMA SERIAL BAFTA AWARD in 1997 with several of the actors also being nominated, alongside nominations in several technical categories.
In 2022, the story was rewritten, and updated as a radio series for RADIO FOUR featuring different actors LUKE McGREGOR, JAMES BAXTER, NORAH LOPEZ HOLDEN and PHILIP CORREIA, featuring a tenth chapter written by ADAM USDEN which was set in 2020, so I think, like a lot of the very best sagas, this is a story that keeps on getting more fascinating as the years pass.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 25th 2022
It’s Christmas Day here at VISION ON SOUND H.Q. and everybody else on my usual guest list has slipped away to spend their day catching up with their nearest and dearest, or hiding under their own particular choice of rock, or just generally stuffing their faces, unwrapping their gifts, or simply vegging out in front of what is traditionally meant to be one of the best television days of the year, and wondering whether that plate of mince pies, bottle of something tasty, or bowl of salty snack food is worth stretching out their arm for, especially if it requires them to put down the remote control.
So what does that leave for us to do for you here at VISION ON SOUND? I mean, obviously we can’t compete with such delightful distractions, and yet we’ve still got a show to do, so I thought I might share a little seasonal story with you all, and see how that pans out. Think of it, perhaps, as a little gift from me to you, although, if it doesn’t quite suit you, or you want to return it, unfortunately I do seem to have lost the receipt, so you are rather stuck with it, I’m afraid. At least until the charity shops reopen, anyway.
It’s a familiar tale, of course, because they always are, really, and there might be one or two moments of schmaltzy sentimentality along the way, because the day itself always seems to demand this, and some of the names, events, faces, and dates, have been changed to protect the innocent, and to keep our legal team from having to answer any calls upon this most festive of days.
Christmas spirit or not, Bob’s holiday overtime rates are appalling.
Anyway, in the best traditions of the forgotten gospel according to Max Bygraves, I wanted to tell you a story of that time when one particular KRIS KRINGLE (whose name has been changed to protect the innocent) was busily ringing his hand bell and wishing the world the very best of seasonal cheer outside the very swish and swanky ROYAL SAVELOY HOTEL in the very heart of Manchesterford (because, like I told you, we’re changing all of the names to protect the innocent) upon one wet and soggy Christmas Eve, not so very long ago in a story I’m going to call…
A FESTIVE FADEOUT
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
This is a bit of a bonus episode, really, as WARREN and I were recording something completely different a couple of weeks ago and ended up having this chat that started with us diving into the Cortina from LIFE ON MARS, taking a diversion through the whole idea of television and toys, overtaking Stanley Unwin’s jalopy from THE SECRET SERVICE, and paying a brief visit to our partial namesake VISION ON.
I felt that it might just make a nice extra festive treat for VISION ON SOUND listeners, so I hope you’ll enjoy it.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 4th 2022
Our old friend SANDY McGREGOR got in touch recently to point out that, amidst all of the ballyhoo and hullaballoo surrounding the centenary of one particular British broadcasting institution, it was easy for shows that talk about television like this one to forget that another television Channel had passed a significant milestone this year.Because, on the very weekend the BBC was proudly marking one hundred years of existence, CHANNEL FOUR also reached an impressive and remarkable anniversary, with this young and once troublesome upstart becoming forty years old.This is actually slightly worrying to me, as I remember dashing home on its very first evening of transmission, just so that I could see what seemed like a paradigm shift in British Broadcasting at the time, and, with apologies to CHANNEL FIVE and all that it does, witness the birth of perhaps the last great national broadcaster, and thereby discovered COUNTDOWN.Those next few years would certainly try to give a brand new perspective on the world to its viewers. Often challenging, sometimes controversial, and sometimes looking as if they were making it up as they go along, CHANNEL FOUR staggered along, often with the derision of the tabloids ringing in its ears, until, very suddenly, it suddenly started to gain a certain amount of respectability and become very much the discerning channel of choice, at least amongst a more youthful demographic.In its early years, and indeed throughout its entire history, this enfant terrible of national terrestrial television channels has challenged the status quo and tried to create a genuine alternative to what’s on the other side, and explore the alternative culture in a manner that outlying broadcasters like ourselves can only admire, and we genuinely appreciate the fact that it still does.And, for making much of its back catalogue available, for free, streaming on ALL4, it is still pushing boundaries, which is much appreciated by the likes of us.Programmes like THE WORD, THE TUBE, THE BIG BREAKFAST, VIC REEVES BIG NIGHT OUT, and BIG BROTHER seemed to change our relationship with television itself, and many high profile dramas, which existed for a long time alongside the challenging twenty-one year run of BROOKSIDE, like A VERY BRITISH COUP, GBH, QUEER AS FOLK, THIS IS ENGLAND, NATIONAL TREASURE and IT’S A SIN, have proved that, creatively, this has truly become a channel to be reckoned with.There were also a whole raft of fine comedies; DESMONDS, SMACK THE PONY, FATHER TED, PEEP SHOW, and excellent current affairs programmes like DISPATCHES and the sublime CHANNEL FOUR NEWS still trying in its own way to speak truth to power.Whilst CHANNEL FIVE did come along later on, it never felt quite as significant a moment to me, perhaps because it took a long time to become fully national, but also because television itself had changed since the birth of CHANNEL FOUR, and national free-to-air programming was under threat from the satellite, and later still, the streaming services.These days, unfortunately, certain people amongst the POWERS THAT BE, perhaps some of whom tend to instinctively distrust those alternative or youthful demographics, have CHANNEL FOUR in their sights, and want to change the unique way it operates, despite not appearing to actually understand quite how it operates, and, as ever, when people with power who have vested interests get involved, it doesn’t seem as if they intend to change it for the better.Anyway, SANDY quite rightly pointed out that we ought to do a programme about CHANNEL FOUR and put it out before the actual anniversary year was over, so here we are, trawling through another newspaper top forty list, to wish it all the best from all of us here at VISION ON SOUND.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 11th 2022
A few weeks ago, around about HALLOWEEN, WARREN CUMMINGS and I gathered for one of our little chats about our recent television highs and lows, and, as is often the case with us, we started out with little in the way of a plan, but just thought it might be nice to see where the conversation took us.
With thoughts of GHOSTIES and GHOULIES being much on WARREN’S mind, he felt like talking about BBC’s GHOSTWATCH, the controversial pseudo-documentary drama first broadcast on HALLOWEEN night in 1992 which featured MICHAEL PARKINSON, SARAH GREENE, MIKE SMITH and CRAIG CHARLES (amongst others) trying – and in a large part succeeding – to terrify the nation in a faked live broadcast that attempted to produce proof of certain psychic phenomena from a supposedly haunted house in Northolt, Greater London.
The programme’s now legendary status as a television phenomenon seems to be mostly down to the estimated one million telephone calls that the BBC received in reaction to this much misunderstood drama, when a large proportion of its audience were convinced that it was genuine, and, despite several home media releases over the years, perhaps because of this hullaballoo, the programme itself was never repeated.
Regular listeners to VISION ON SOUND might well be wondering just why this wasn’t a show we put out at the end of October, during the season of the witch, but, as you know, I’m generally not all that great at tying the show to specific moments in the calendar, and we recorded a little too near to that date to get the show out in time.
However the conversation does also touch upon the notion of the Christmas Ghost Story, which makes it slightly appropriate to THIS time of the year. We also talk about several other television spoofs, and, fortunately we even natter briefly about MORTIMER AND WHITEHOUSE: GONE FISHING which takes us off into far friendlier waters, and means that I, for one, might manage to get to sleep tonight.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
Episode segments
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 4th 2022
This week we welcome back the ever popular and ever erudite LISA PARKER, one half of the team behind the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast, for one of our regular catch ups on what’s been happening in her telly world over the past few weeks.
It’s one of those wide-ranging meandering wanders through various television topics that we’ve been known to do, and takes us from her reflections on the JODIE WHITTAKER era of DOCTOR WHO and LISA’s success at restraining herself from binge-watching GHOSTS, and the whole idea of the binge-watch generally, how it changes how we watch all of those other series where all the episodes magically all appear at once, and how this might affect the idea of the cliffhanger.
We also discuss the picture quality of some of the archive television we get to see, from whatever sources they might come from, and the excitement of seeing old television that you might not have seen before, and what sort of television programmes she’d like to see more of.
She touches upon the joy of watching shows like RENTAGHOST, 3-2-1, and TREASURE HUNT, and how seeing such shows that were around in your youth transports the viewer to their happy memories, as well as the whole problem of watching QUIZ and GAME shows dating from a time when they simply weren’t preserved for future viewing.
We chat about the transition to a more cynical age when it comes to contestants on game shows and people stopped in the street for their point of view being far more knowing about the impact simply being on telly can have on their lives than they used to be.
In a blatant plug for their own show, ROUND THE ARCHIVES, we discuss the long career of the late, lamented BERNARD CRIBBINS (which they had recently been researching), and which leads to some reflection on the woeful state of the JACKANORY archive, and the whole delightful rabbit hole that comes from watching a lot of your Television via YOUTUBE.
When it comes to streaming, however, LISA’s most recent television obsessions have been HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS, or FOUR IN A BED, as well as her old favourite MURDER, SHE WROTE and we do talk a little bit about how whole afternoons can be devoured by the addictive nature of a stack of episodes from any particular television show.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 27th 2022
In the early 1980s, GRANADA TELEVISION produced what is widely considered to be one of the all-time masterpieces of British Television Drama series, much of it filmed on location in India, and which went on to be sold all around the world as an example of the very finest of the kind of television series that British television could produce, although, like many older programmes, it is a series that is often overlooked in more recent polls of the greatest television series ever made, partly because it is based in an era that history is turning out to be far less comfortable with than it used to be, and partly because more recent shows do have a habit of making the modern audience forget pretty much everything that preceded it ever existed.
We’ve talked before about some of the notable absences on those kinds of lists on earlier editions of VISION ON SOUND, and I’m often reminded of the DVD packaging on a certain highly regarded and popular, but otherwise fairly average, TV series which claimed THIS IS ABOUT AS GOOD AS BRITISH TELEVISION GETS! and wickedly thinking to myself “Oh that’s a shame!”, so here on VISION ON SOUND we like to think that we’re doing our own little bit to restore the reputation of certain television gems, and just remind the viewing public of one or two excellent programmes that they might largely just have forgotten all about.
First broadcast between January and April 1984 THE JEWEL IN THE CROWN tells the story of the last few years of British Rule in India, taking place both during, and just after the Second World War, and stars a whole host of then-emerging television talents including ART MALIK, GERALDINE JAMES, TIM PIGOTT-SMITH, and CHARLES DANCE, playing alongside such names as SAEED JAFFREY, ERIC PORTER and PEGGY ASHCROFT to create an epic fourteen-part, thirteen-and-a-half hour television series based upon the four books making up what is known as THE RAJ QUARTET which were written by PAUL SCOTT between 1965 and 1975.
Because he very much enjoyed watching the series on its first transmission nearly four decades ago, my occasional co-host SANDY McGREGOR has recently been re-watching the series, and so, this week, he returns, for once just on his own, to VISION ON SOUND to share his thoughts and observations upon this acknowledged television classic.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 20th 2022
This week’s show is simply WARREN and I nattering about all sorts of our usual nonsense as we talk about the telly he watched on his holidays, and so we chat about all sorts of things, from GAVIN & STACEY to BREAD, from TRIANGLE to RETURN OF THE SAINT, from…
Ah, you get the idea...
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 13th 2022
This week we welcome back the ever popular SHY YETI, PAUL CHANDLER, chief wrangler of THE SHY LIFE PODCAST for another of our meandering rambles around the highways and byways and forgotten short cuts of this complicated matrix we think of as the universe of archive, and not quite so archive television.
The idea behind this week’s show is that I’m going to give PAUL the keys to his very own metaphorical Museum of Television in which he can give pride of place to some of his favourite programmes, all divided for displays of the mind inside various collections, galleries, and storerooms.
And for the first of his galleries, he chose to discuss his favourite COMEDY DRAMAS and pick out those that he would preserve for the public to meander around and gaze in awe upon.
Whether or not we quite managed to keep to the topic in hand is, as usual whenever we get to the job of nattering, debatable, but I hope you’ll enjoy the next hour as we flitter about talking about all sorts of things from the shocking revelation of PAUL not watching television as we once knew it at all any more, to the frustration of not being able to get some shows on a collectable format.
However, this discussion does cover a wide range of shows from the brand new ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, via almost forgotten gems like CLASS ACT, to the long gone delights of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. Inevitably, because it’s PAUL, he touches upon some of his regular favourites, including the Australian Soaps, and BERGERAC, as we stroll around the museum space thinking about how best to set up the displays.
Well, that’s my excuse, anyway.
The Museum is yet another new strand we’re thinking of pursuing with other guests on VISION ON SOUND, and, as ever, I’ve been using PAUL as a guinea pig to see whether the idea works, so if you feel like setting up your own metaphorical museum of the mind do get in touch through TWITTER via @visiononsound1
PAUL will hopefully be back another week to consider what he might put into another section, but for today, let’s vanish into the Comedy Drama section of a television museum as imagined by a very SHY YETI.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 6th 2022
Over the past couple of years, the BBC has been taking several of its landmark television plays off the shelf, blowing the dust off them, and treating viewers to BBC4 who are so inclined to a chance to see some of the highlights of its often influential and sometimes controversial flagship drama series from the 1970s and early 1980s PLAY FOR TODAY, which was the successor to the WEDNESDAY PLAY strand which had brought one-off dramas and often original works for television into the living rooms of the nation in the latter half of the 1960s.
At the same time, recently the BFI have released several sets of these plays on home media, all of which are well worth seeking out, if the one-off television play, a section of television’s output that is all but gone from our screens nowadays is something you are interested in.
The BFI have also just released a collection featuring many of the works of one of the key contributors to both THE WEDNESDAY PLAY and PLAY FOR TODAY, the Wallasey-born director and film-maker ALAN CLARKE, who brought a whole range of often hard-hitting productions to the screen including THE LAST TRAIN THROUGH HARECASTLE TUNNEL, ROAD, SCUM, and THE FIRM across an eclectic career which was sadly curtailed far too early by his death, at the age of fifty-four, in July 1990.
Sadly this new collection is not quite as comprehensive as some previous releases, which is a point mentioned by one of our regular contributors to VISION ON SOUND, SANDY McGREGOR who, as he has been known to before, also invited along a new voice for the show, MATT DODSON, to add to our ever-widening pool of television knowledgeables.
They are both huge fans of live theatre, and also big fans of watching the sort of television that includes this more serious kind of dramatic output, so it was an absolute joy to discuss their mutual appreciation of the work of ALAN CLARKE in this episode.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 30th 2022
The last few weeks do seem to have brought a lot of endings along with them, some of which have felt life-changing on a grand scale, others of which have been sad on a personal level for perhaps fewer people, and some of which simply involved something as inconsequential as a TV show which, whilst perhaps seeming insignificant or unimportant to many, do somehow feel very significant and extremely important to fans of a show that might have invested a great deal of their own lives in the characters, storylines, and situations that something like a television show can bring into their lives.
So, several weeks ago, in a VISION ON SOUND conversation that has been delayed a couple of times because of other events, some of which involved endings themselves, I was joined by PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI and host of THE SHY LIFE PODCAST to have a bit of a chat about the endings of much-loved favourites, and, because it was PAUL, regular listeners will understand that the ending of one of his particular favourites, a certain long-running drama set in suburban Australia, was very much on his mind.
But don’t worry if you’re not a fan of that show, because we talk about quite a lot of other stuff, too, over this particular hour.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
I don’t normally do this, but here’s an unedited chat WARREN CUMMINGS and I had last night (24 OCTOBER 2022) about Sunday’s DOCTOR WHO finale episode THE POWER OF THE DOCTOR, which I thought might make a nice (well, maybe not that nice) grumpy old bonus.
NB This does contain strong language.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 23rd 2022
For my latest catch-up with WARREN CUMMINGS, this month I decided to focus on a set of film DVDs that had been lent to me by VISION ON SOUND regular SANDY McGREGOR that featured the films of MICHAEL POWELL and EMERIC PRESSBURGER, and the reason I thought they might be of interest was because of the number of actors who turned up in them in minor or supporting roles who later went on to feature in the kind of television of the fifties, sixties, and seventies, that we often focus our attention upon in this show.
It’s often quite interesting to spot the actors you recognise from roles far later in their careers at a point when they are sometimes almost unrecognisable, all full of youthful vim and vigour.
Anyway, with his own podcast, THE CINEMATIC SAUSAGE being very much focused upon the films of that era, it seemed only natural to pick WARREN out of the co-presenter’s hat to examine this topic further, even if we do end up briefly mentioning two series - BONEKICKERS and STRANGE - that are perhaps rarely mentioned in the same breath as such cinematic classics as those made by POWELL and PRESSBURGER at their peak.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 16th 2022
On this week’s show we welcome back that perennial pair of regular contributors LISA PARKER and ANDREW TROWBRIDGE from the headquarters of their ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast, lurking, as they often do, somewhere on the south coast of England.
This week ANDREW suggested the topic of REACTIONS might be something he’d like to talk about on the show, and, given his explosive history as a professional chemist working in the scientific laboratories, my first guess at what he was referring to was to wonder whether we were going to head off into the realms of exploring and observing SCIENCE ON TV again, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My second guess was to ask whether there had been some huge new series called “REACTIONS’ that had become hugely popular but which had somehow passed me by, but, again, I was not getting any warmer, despite the many flasks of mysterious notions bubbling up all around in my mind.
Because, in recent times, enjoyment of those television programmes we enjoy from yesteryear can take many forms, and LISA and ANDREW both have history in encouraging the creativity of all manner of people when it comes to discovering and exploring the world of archive television, and so ANDREW in particular wanted to draw our attention to the online phenomenon that is REACTION VIDEOS on websites like YOUTUBE where viewers who have never seen a programme or series or just a particular episode post their immediate reactions to these shows whilst watching them, and discuss what they thought of them.
ANDREW has several favourites that he mentions in the next hour – so you might want to jot a few of them down, but there’s a whole universe of them to explore, although I’d like to think you might at least hang around for the rest of this hour before you go off into the latest final frontier and seek any of them out, because we also briefly discuss with LISA our own reactions to finding new series to watch, and whether our own unconscious bias might be tainted by our own baggage when we approach watching anything that is new to us.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 9th 2022
On this week’s VISION ON SOUND we welcome MICHAEL SEELY who is well known in Archive Television circles for the books he has written about certain television series, and for his biographies of some well recognised names from television production from the sixties and seventies.
PROPHETS OF DOOM, his unauthorised history of the BBC television series DOOMWATCH is very possibly the definitive current work detailing the production of that well-remembered and influential show that ran for three series between February 1970 and August 1972. This series, which told terrifying tales based around the fears of the possible corruption and future progress of science, as well as breaking the hearts of a nation after an incident at the end of a pier, was created by KIT PEDLAR and GERRY DAVIS, who had both written scripts for 1960s DOCTOR WHO which also examined the dramatic possibilities that came about when you chose to imagine what horrors some areas of modern science might unleash into the world.
Whether it was COMPUTERS seeking world domination, or the dehumanising possibilities of overzealous replacement of human organs and body parts with artificial equivalents, you can be pretty sure that they had a hand in it, as it were, and the controversy-creating series DOOMWATCH does seem to be the natural progression of all of their “What if…?’ discussions, dealing, as it did, with the terrors of plastic viruses, super evolved rats, pollution, and the consequences of unscientific experimentation when unfettered by any kind of morality or control.
KIT PEDLAR was brought aboard by the DOCTOR WHO production team to add his scientific imagination into the mix of the types of stories they wanted to tell, and his own somewhat fascinating life story was one of those that MICHAEL also felt compelled to cover in his well-received biography.
MICHAEL also wrote a biography of the much loved and well-regarded television director DOUGLAS CAMFIELD, whose distinctive touch graced many a series in the 1960s and 1970s, from SWIZZLEWICK, to BEAU GESTE, Z CARS to THE SWEENEY, PUBLIC EYE to THE LOTUS EATERS, DANGER UXB to VAN DER VALK, and many others, quite a few of which we have discussed in this show over the past couple of years.
In preparation for today’s programme, and because he also has a new book looking into the series coming out fairly soon, I rewatched one of his later works, the four part serial THE NIGHTMARE MAN adapted by ROBERT HOLMES for the BBC from the book CHILD OF VODYANOI by DAVID WILTSHIRE which terrified viewers on Friday evenings back in May 1981, so we also chat about that for a while.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 2nd 2022
This week we welcome back STEVE HATCHER who, for several years now, has been regularly sharing his thoughts and reviews on television, both ancient and modern, to his friends, followers, and anyone else who might care to read them online, and his insights are often so very perceptive that they’ve tended to cost me an arm and a leg when it turns out some of the shows he’s been talking about so enthusiastically have become available to buy on whatever form of physical media they happen to be released upon.
In this hour we discuss a couple of the shows that he has pointed me towards, ITCs FOUR JUST MEN, and ABC’s REDCAP, both of which date from before I was born but are still excellent TV series, as well as discussing a whole range of related topics like the demise of FORCES TV, the French version of MAIGRET starring Bruno Cremer, the various incarnations of STAR TREK, and much, much more.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 25th 2022
As most of you will be aware, the second Elizabethan era recently came to an end in the early part of September, and, for a lot of the time over the subsequent couple of weeks, television went into a kind of not exactly “limbo”, but very much shifted its attention to the life of the late Queen, and the public paraphernalia of the succession.
Now, I’m not a huge follower of Royalty “stuff” on the whole. I’ve spent a great deal of energy in refusing to engage with the various births, marriages, jubilees, and deaths that have happened during my adult life, so it might come as some surprise to you that we’re attempting to talk about that very subject in this week’s show.
But as that long and now finished reign happened to cover pretty much the entire history and growth of popular television in this country, with a lot of that popularity being triggered by the amount of sets that were bought just so the so-called “ordinary” people of the nation could view the Coronation in the comfort of their own homes via one of those new-fangled television things way back in 1953, and so much of the visual language of the past seventy years is tied up with the iconography of this particular reign, I thought it might be interesting to have a chat about the late Queen’s relationship with television as it unfolded both in the immediate aftermath of her passing, but also during those seventy years.
I always think that VISION ON SOUND works best when we take our subject of the week from something television-related, but then allow the conversation to head off in a completely different direction, so, rather happily, because LISA PARKER, one of our regular visitors to VISION ON SOUND has a much greater sense of history than I have, it was to her I turned, and I hope that, whether you are someone who engages with the notion of Royalty or not, you will at least enjoy what we found we had to say when recording this conversation about half way through what some people chose to refer to as that strange period of national mourning.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 18th 2022
It’s perhaps a bit of a weird one this week, or possibly not, as I invited PAUL CHANDLER, the SHY YETI back to attempt a bit of a chat about the philosophy of television, and to look into why it is that the likes of us latched on to television as a thing we enjoyed at an early age, and turned it into an interest, a fascination, a hobby, or whatever, and certainly made it take up a larger part of our lives than, perhaps, our contemporaries did.
Why, of all things, was it television that excited and stimulated us in such a way as to mean that we’re not sitting here discussing bread-making, or the intricacies of macramé, or fly fishing, or the stripping down the engines of classic motor cars, or the results of this weekend’s footballing games on Sunday evenings at this time?
Well, of course, you could say that all of these things turn up under the broad banner of things seen on television from time to time, but I’m not sure that’s what I was driving at, really, but nevertheless, as is often the case when we start a show with a specific prompt, sometimes the actual conversation goes off in all sorts of other directions, and so I hope you still enjoy this hour which, whilst it might not actually ever get around to answering the question of “Why Television?” does at least allow us to explore the influence that that glowing box of delights has had in shaping PAUL’s creative life through his film-making, script writing, and podcasting.
We do briefly touch upon the impending demise of NEIGHBOURS in the conversation, which was still running at time of recording, but has since sailed off into TV HEAVEN, and I’m sure that another time when we get PAUL back, he’ll have something to say about that, too. If nothing else, dear listener, it shows off how far in advance we record some of these pieces.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 11th 2022
Two former guests on VISION ON SOUND happen to be the chief movers and shakers behind WHOOVERVILLE, an annual DOCTOR WHO convention held in DERBY in September, and this year they were kind and supportive enough to ask VISION ON SOUND to join them and take part.
So, we packed up our trusty FAB GEAR and took VISION ON SOUND on the road for the very first time to do a couple of interviews in front of a live audience in the cinema at DERBY QUAD where at very short notice for them, I was kindly allowed to interview the well-known television actor FRAZER HINES (who you’ll be familiar with from a whole host of shows including EMMERDALE and DOCTOR WHO) and the television writers ANDREW SMITH and STEPHEN WYATT who between them, amongst many other writing credits, wrote several scripts for DOCTOR WHO in its classic era.
Any technical shortcomings in the recordings are entirely my own doing, but I hope you’ll still be able to enjoy what they all had to say.
With grateful thanks to FRAZER HINES, ANDREW SMITH and STEPHEN WYATT for their fascinating and entertaining insights, and STEVE HATCHER for dropping by. I’ve a long list of other people to thank for contributing to this week’s show, including STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW MARK-THOMPSON for the invitation, kindness, and support, DERBY QUAD for all their help on the day, PAUL RIPLEY for lending us the FAB GEAR, PHILIPPA for acting as my assistant (and carer) on the day, SANDY McGREGOR for acting as my MINDER when asked, as well as all of those kind and wonderful people attending WHOOVERVILLE for just being fabulous and very supportive company, as well as FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL for all that they do, including supplying STEVE SOUTHERN’s music.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
Episode segments Edit audio
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 4th 2022
I didn’t want to make a big deal of this being the one hundredth edition of VISION ON SOUND but, given that another broadcasting institution is also celebrating its own version of a century, I invited WARREN CUMMINGS back to pick through the list of BBC TV favourites as chosen by the viewers of THE ONE SHOW, so we got to crank up our celebratory FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL time engines, and found rather a lot to talk about it…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 28th 2022
This is a show that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, ever since our guest and regular contributor, STEVE HATCHER appeared on the ITV quiz show THE CHASE – and, to be honest, I possibly thought about it even earlier than that, when he first let us know that he was GOING to be on that show.
That his appearance was such a success for his team - so much so that it led to a certain amount fleeting notoriety in impressed corners of certain social media by showing us all what a right old cleverboots he is – is testament to his extraordinary quizzing abilities, and I thought it might be interesting to chat to him today not only about the world of quizzing, but also his experiences of recording such a show in the scary and brain-bleaching, thought-quenching environment of a glitzy and glamorous old TV studio.
It also turns out that THE CHASE was not STEVE’S first venture into a broadcasting environment in order to take part and hold his own in some of the hardest broadcasting quiz formats that television and radio have managed to conjure up to addle the minds of clever young hopefuls over the years.
Our chat also considers what it is about certain personalities that makes them more likely to succeed in being able to summon up the necessary answers from the dark corners of the dusty attics of their minds when lights, cameras, and make-up are all being wrangled around their moment in the spotlight.
This leads to several interesting diversions in which we discuss linguistics, cricket broadcasting, and the various merits of the television presenter in the modern era.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 21st 2022
In a rather scratchy throated edition of VISION ON SOUND, happily recorded before the lurgy struck, tonight’s interview is with LISA PARKER from THE ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST, and we had a little chat that was supposed to be about the archive TV watcher’s take on MODERN TELEVISION, although, first of all, we discussed the possible myth of the existence of any true Golden Age of television, before moving on, via a detour into make-up, to talk about some of Lisa’s favourites, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, CALL THE MIDWIFE, INSIDE NUMBER NINE, and THE REPAIR SHOP, as well as considering the entire notion of programmes made by, and for, women.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 14th 2022
WARREN CUMMINGS is back again this week, as we are both transported back to the mid-1960s to have a chat about the obscure Science-Fiction adventure series UNDERMIND, an eleven part ABC television series starring Jeremy Wilkin and Rosemary Nichols.
As ever with us, this sets us both off on a unexpectedly roundabout stroll through the television universe, and so, in the next hour we’ll also touch upon the work of Robert Holmes, the apocalyptic nature of special effects technicians, another obscure series called THE CORRIDOR PEOPLE which was made by Granada TV, featured JOHN SHARP, and lasted for an astonishing four episodes in the mid 1960s.
We also touch briefly upon its contemporary spy series, THE AVENGERS and THE PRISONER before turning our attention to modern day children’s television as more channels are announced as being on the brink of extinction.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 7th 2022
These days I’m often told that, when it comes to my thoughts on things, and the emphatic stances I tend to take on events that seem not to bother other people in quite the same way, or, indeed, vice-versa, I need to loosen up a little, and learn to be a little more flexible. This seems to be especially pertinent when it comes to the small matter of the acquisition and storage of the television series which I have accumulated over the years and still want to watch, or share my insights upon.
Why, I am often asked, in this era of streaming and downloading, do you still feel the need to get hard copies of all these things? Why are you so attached to the shiny disk in all its formats, and, when it comes to those boxes of old videotapes that still sit mouldering in the darkest corners of your increasingly cramped and cluttered little house, hiding behind the piles of books and CDs and magazines that also seem increasingly anachronistic to some, can you still not bring yourself to get rid of them?
And, to be honest, there are a lot of people, probably a lot younger than me, and who grew up in a different era of digital accessibility, who would roll their eyes impatiently at this strange, perhaps slightly desperate, need to cling on to physical objects in order to enjoy watching certain television series of the kind I watch.
And yes, whilst certain shows (because there’s one born every minute), have tempted me to single, double, and even triple dip their releases through VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and more, quite a lot of the television and films that I choose to watch in the pursuit of bringing you VISION ON SOUND each week are not widely available in any other format, and some of us are still very grateful to the companies that choose to make their products available to us in these various formats.
Whilst I’ve not yet been persuaded of the wisdom of the resurgence of the Vinyl LP as a music-playing choice, and I have been looking at ways of retrieving data from some of my old VHS collection through digital conversion, I still get a small thrill at the announcement of a brand new blu-ray set crammed full of delightful looking VALUE ADDED MATERIAL, or even a DVD release of a series that I’ve never actually heard of, or which I genuinely never believed was likely to ever be seen again.
So this week, I’m joined once again by PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, curator of THE SHY LIFE PODCAST and we take a delightful journey through the upsides and downsides of the curious world of collecting PHYSICAL MEDIA in a digital age, a topic prompted, mostly, by PAUL extolling its virtues in response to an article in the national press which seemed to imply that this is something of an eccentric attitude for us to have.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 31st 2022
Our returning co-presenter this week is once again the ever popular WARREN CUMMINGS, joining me for another meander around the highways and byways of whatever and wherever our conversations prompted by the topic of television may take us, whether it’s up to the minute stories from the news, or fond memories of television shows made before either of us were various twinkles in a meaningful look or three.
This week our journey starts with fond memories of the work of two actors who in recent months have both passed on from this world, DENNIS WATERMAN and PETER BOWLES, and our conversation takes a slightly dark turn as we consider the effect that high profile celebrity deaths have upon those of us who appreciate and remember their work despite most of us often never having ever actually met them.
Then, via a brief look at TURTLE’S PROGRESS, we take some time to consider the filming locations used for television programmes we have enjoyed through the years, which takes us, perhaps not too surprisingly, to a layby in Gerrard’s Cross.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 24th 2022
This week we welcome back those old friends of the show LISA PARKER and ANDREW TROWBRIDGE from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST for what, when we started out, was supposed to be another of our random chit-chats about telly, but ended up being something completely different indeed.
It’s no secret that a lot of fans of archive television, myself included, admit that their gateway to this perhaps peculiar fascination for the telly from a bygone era started out with an interest in the series DOCTOR WHO, a show about which so much information got documented over the decades that certain more enquiring minds started to seek out and discover television connections to other shows that were in production at around the same time.
Inevitably, the names of certain directors, or bit-part actors, or other members of the production teams, might feature in other programmes that might pop up in lists, or the books and magazines that eager young fans might read, or they might pop up unexpectedly on credits at the end of other shows, and so an interest in another show, and another, and another, might get kindled as we wove a tangled web of connections, and tried to unpeel the onion of what made early television in its entirely, tick, to mix as many metaphors as our vast VISION ON SOUND mixing bowl can handle.
During the following hour, I decided to start of by asking them both about what started their podcasting life, which might have been fascinating enough in itself for any of you budding narrowcasters out there, and we have a very pleasant chat about all that, before we move on to discussing some of the most recent revelations of DOCTOR WHO news, and have a nostalgic natter about our memories of regeneration and what it means to inject another lease of life into this near sixty-year television institution.
And whilst we would never want VISION ON SOUND to become yet another DOCTOR WHO themed programme – the world already has more than enough of those, all of which go into far more detail with far more enthusiasm than we could hope to maintain – it seems that for this week, at any rate, we have managed to contribute in our own small way to the endless discussions of that much appreciated television phenomenon as it sits on the very brink of a new era, if only...
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 17th 2022
This week, STEVE HATCHER returns for another in our short series of chats about the cinema films based upon popular television series. This week, STEVE wanted to talk a little about the movies based on TV comedies, and chose DAD’S ARMY, AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, THE LIKELY LADS, WHOOPS APOCALYPSE, and IN THE LOOP as five of his personal favourites to take down from the shelves and share with you, so let's head down to the local fleapit at the end of the pier on another soggy summer afternoon in the early nineteen-seventies…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 10th 2022
A few weeks ago, you may remember, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST who is one of our regular visitors to us all here at VISION ON SOUND was trying to persuade me of the delights of one of his favourite shows, SEX AND THE CITY and, because I’m always open to fresh new ideas about some of the TV shows that I’ve never personally got around to watching, he thought he might like to try again with a couple of other shows that I’m mostly unfamiliar with, and so the next hour, recorded, incidentally, on a terrible connection for which I can only apologise, we take a short - but hopefully fascinating - diversion into the dark world of DEXTER, the American series with a serial killer in the central role which ran for eight seasons between 2006 and 2013, and which has recently been resurrected for a final bow.
And staying amongst the darker shadows of television, we then take a detour INSIDE NUMBER NINE, another show that I’m fairly unfamiliar with, but which, because of being written by STEVE PEMBERTON and REECE SHEARSMITH, shares a lot of DNA with an old favourite of mine from the turn of the century THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, and which seems to be the inevitable spawn of both that series and its offspring PSYCHOVILLE.
There’s also a little DOCTOR WHO chat in this context, and we might also briefly touch upon what it actually is that draws us into watching a TV show, or, indeed, choosing not to, and the whole notion of revisiting TV series a few years later on.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 3rd 2022
This week we welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS once again for another of our loosely television-themed chats where we pick a few topics out of our random grab bags of recent thoughts and musings and see just where they take us.
So this week, prompted by THE PROFESSIONALS we chat a little about cars and Mr Hudson, look back at the career of JUNE BROWN, lurk in the wings of vaudeville, mull over the dark side of certain characters who were once considered to be National Treasures, think about the VOX POP in modern news, and finally ponder over the effectiveness or otherwise of those creatures known as SEA DEVILS.
All-in-all, a thrill-packed hour, and I hope you will enjoy the ride.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 26th 2022
This week we welcome back one of our regular contributors, the encyclopaedic and telly fact-filled mind that belongs to STEVE HATCHER, who has suggested that we might want to talk about the movie spin-offs and adaptations of television series that used to feature prominently in the cinemas in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, several of which proved to be very successful, and some of which were decidedly less so.
Some of these films have gone on to become the more familiar versions of series that no longer seem to get much airtime simply through their regular appearances on television over the years and decades since they were made, and for many viewers, they might even have become the definitive versions of a whole host of television favourites.
Often these films were adaptations of much-loved sitcoms, but also several drama series were deemed worthy of being transferred to the big screen, in colour, sometimes featuring the original television cast, and sometimes bearing little relationship whatsoever with the source material.
STEVE has picked out five dramas (as well as five sitcoms which we’re going to talk about some other time), for us to talk about as specifically British examples that demonstrate the various ways in which these adaptations were achieved by the film-makers of those eras, and, whilst our conversation might touch upon a few others that spring to mind, it’s those five films that we are going to mostly focus our attention on.
So sit back as we mull over the most exciting colourful eccentricities of DR WHO AND THE DALEKS, the colourfully dark and compelling re-imagining of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT in the London Underground Station at Hobb’s End, the strangely detached environmental disaster that prompts the DOOMWATCH team to not exactly leap into action themselves but instead nominate a proxy, the government assassin CALLAN somehow managing to revisit his own past, and the bizarre, much-truncated, late 1990s re-invention of John Steed and Mrs Emma Peel in THE AVENGERS.
We might not get the time to cover all them in any great depth, so there’ll be little in the way of my usual VISION ON SOUND nonsenses of the kind that point out details like the future Roj Blake turning up working at Hobb’s End that I might usually start to weave the interconnectedness of all things around to intrigue you with, especially as one of those five films does actually obliquely name-check this very show, but I hope you’ll enjoy this quick time-trip through some great TV shows dressed up in their best clothes for their various trips to the ROXY and the REGAL.
And once we’ve got back to base, STEVE will return in a few weeks time for a follow-up in which we chat in much the same way about those sitcoms.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 19th 2022
This week we welcome back SANDY McGREGOR and TIM BOURNE for another in our occasional peeks at series that maybe fall under the banner of perhaps the more surreal end of the television drama spectrum.
After our previous examinations of both THE PRISONER and THE SINGING DETECTIVE, a couple of months ago, SANDY announced that he was planning to revisit both of the 1990s series of TWIN PEAKS and he just happened to mention that his old pal TIM was also a huge fan, so, of course, it went without saying that I had to schedule both of them in for another of our online chats.
TWIN PEAKS, the dark twisted brainchild of Mark Frost and renowned movie director David Lynch, was something of a cultural phenomenon in the early nineteen-nineties, as many television viewers were as eager as AGENT DALE COOPER to find out just who killed LAURA PALMER, the bright seemingly golden girl of the quiet-seeming rural logging town of TWIN PEAKS.
Both the town and Laura seemed to have been living, at the very least, a dual existence, and, once you scratched beneath the surface of this ordinary-seeming community, or looked into the background of the sad victim of a mysterious killer, nothing about either of them seemed to be exactly what you might have expected, and the impact this one brutal event has upon this whole town populated with eccentrics, monsters, and crammed full of secrets, led to two seasons, and around thirty episodes of one of the most compelling, challenging, memorable, and downright peculiar series ever made on American TV, a series which placed some indelible images inside the minds of viewers, and which remains a cult favourite even today.
Some people believe that the show tended to fall away a little once the initial mystery had been resolved, but others maintain that the further layers of mystery, taking place across at least two interlinked worlds and which presented some utterly bizarre and terrifying imagery, were where the fascinations of TWIN PEAKS truly begin.
Either way, there was enough interest for the feature film FIRE WALK WITH ME to be made a couple of years after the series itself was wrapped in plastic, and twenty-five years later, as promised by the original narrative, TWIN PEAKS did return for a short, but very welcome, limited event series, with both DAVID LYNCH and MARK FROST in charge to add even more confusion to all of the mysteries, if you had been hoping for some kind of closure.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 12th 2022
This week we welcome back LISA and ANDREW from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST who have agreed to be subjected to our FAB RADIO RANDOMISER and be guided on a long journey through the universe of television via a series of random topics to see just where the conversation takes us.
This week, with the simple prompt of the words TERRY NATION, we will flit via THE AVENGERS, skirting around the world of ITC, and television Science-Fiction, take a couple of orbits of CHARLIE BARLOW, pause to think a little bit about modern day viewing options, before heading off into the deepest recesses of THE SKY AT NIGHT.
I always feel that VISION ON SOUND is often at its best when it’s just a couple of people just having a natter about the subject of the old telly which we all love, and taking these trips just lets us have a quietly informed chat about all sorts of telly-related nonsense, and I hope that you enjoy taking the journey along with us.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 5th 2022 Some regular listeners to our little show will realise that I’ve been shifting the schedules around and making vague excuses in recent episodes because plans have had to change due to illness, so it’s with great joy that we have WARREN CUMMINGS back this week after his latest battle with the Covids. Because there hadn’t been much opportunity for him to prepare anything for this programme, I decided to use another of those programme ideas that has been hanging around the corridors of VOS HQ for a while now, and simply consult my long, long list (Oh…! So very long!) of possible show topics and try and bung a few at him at random to see what sort of conversation they inspired, and if they created ten minute bursts of inspiration, or nothing at all, or led to a whole hour just talking about the one item, it would make for an interesting show, and it’s definitely a format we’ll be coming back to again. It’s kind of like a television smorgasbord, or perhaps a Pot Luck programme, or one of those Lucky Dips which never win you anything, although, in the end, we’ll probably call it TV Bingo, and this week your ears are definitely the winners as we moved from the recent release of NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR to the nature of reality, the experience of watching television in the past and present, and old-style children’s TV, amongst other things. PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 29th 2022
One of the many series that PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI is an enthusiastic fan of is the HOME BOX OFFICE series SEX AND THE CITY, which ran for six seasons, which started in the last couple of years of the last century, and continued through into the first few years of the twenty first, and has since been revived for two feature films, and has now resurfaced in the spin-off series AND JUST LIKE THAT which, he assures me, does not involve any magic tricks or fez wearing that he’s aware of.
SEX AND THE CITY told the stories of the friendship between four smart and dynamic women living in New York City around the time of the millennium, who seem to have no secrets from each other, and share frank details of every matter in their personal lives, whilst living at the more successful, fashionable, and privileged end of life in the city that never sleeps.
The series was based upon the newspaper column in THE NEW YORK OBSERVER and subsequent book written by CANDACE BUSHNELL, and consisted of ninety-four episodes broadcast over six seasons from June 1998 through to February 2004.
It features SARAH JESSICA PARKER as CARRIE BRADSHAW, whose newspaper column gives the series its title and much of its subject matter. Her three friends, who have varying degrees of success in their personal lives, are CHARLOTTE YORK (played by KRISTIN DAVIS), who works in an Art Gallery, SAMANTHA JONES (played by KIM CATTRALL), an independent business woman who had a career in PR, and MIRANDA HOBBES (played by CYNTHIA NIXON), who is a very successful lawyer.
SEX AND THE CITY is a series that is hugely popular with its fans all around the world, but, despite having a few vague memories of dipping in and having a peek at a couple of episodes when it first appeared on terrestrial television in the UK, it was never a series that I was particularly drawn towards, so PAUL is here to persuade me, as my guests often are these days, how wrong I was to ignore it, and to tell me why it’s one of his favourites and why I ought to perhaps give it another try.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 22nd 2022
Ground floor: street level, front door and parking lots, stairs and keyboard accessing, mailboxes and tat. Going up.
First floor: studio, magic happening. Songs, chat, ads, plugs, microphones and chairs. Going up.
Second floor: this week, Lisa and Andrew back, for fun-filled chattering about Are You Being Served? Going down
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 15th 2022
Vision On Sound is currently, like many, a House of Disease, so several of our planned programmes have had to be postponed as our guests recuperate, and we hope that they will get well soon. Luckily for me, and the show, and hopefully all of you out there, I can usually rely on one or two of our regular visitors to step up at short notice and find something television-related for us to talk about, so that we don’t have to vanish into any dark dimensions ourselves for a couple of weeks.
So, I am more than pleased this week to welcome back PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, who is a big fan of the anthology mystery and terror television series, of which there have been several over the years, including ORSON WELLES’ GREAT MYSTERIES, THRILLER, CHILLER, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, TWILIGHT ZONE, and many more.
PAUL joined me for a very off-the-cuff chat about two of his favourites as we grabbed hold of a giant iron knocker, and rapped timorously on the imposing, and frankly terrifying, doors of two of the great HAMMER HOUSES of television.
THE HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR presented ITV viewers with thirteen fifty-minute tales of terror in late 1980, and, about four years later, THE HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE was released, and gave us another thirteen disturbing and edgy tales to ponder upon, this time lasting seventy minutes a week.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 8th 2022
"All the regulars will be handling the forces controlling your reception. Traditional heavy-hitters may not be used as they cause strife. The usual suspects are available. Paul, Lisa, Andrew, Ben, Toby, Andy, Warren, Sandy, and Martin. Warren and Martin have been assigned."
WARREN CUMMINGS is back and very kindly ventures into his personal nightmares to help me to talk about the television series SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, which starred DAVID McCALLUM and JOANNA LUMLEY across six multi-part stories, serials, adventures or assignments, the thirty-four episodes of which were broadcast between 1979 and 1982.
Those six supernatural stories of hauntings and time interventions were filled with the sort of mind-invading early-evening terrors that managed to shape a generation, and created just the kind of unforgettable, haunting imagery that still gets talked about forty years later by those who saw it, and still grips viewers who are still discovering this remarkable series even today. WARREN particularly still has "issues" with the second story (the one set in a railway station, also featuring GERALD JAMES as George Tully), which is, rather naturally, the story both of us chose to watch in preparation for this show, and which gets the bulk of our attention.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 24th 2022
This week’s show started off, appropriately enough, as something of a mystery, as I wasn’t quite sure when we started off what SANDY McGREGOR was going to take as our topic for our latest television-themed prompt, so it was quite pleasant to find out that he really wanted to investigate the tropes, clichés, and golden rules that are used in the course of the average television crime drama, and, whilst I know crime drama is a subject we keep on returning to here on VISION ON SOUND, it’s always a joy to take a look at another point of view on it, especially when so much of the history of TV drama has been spent looking for clues about, and the reasoning behind some of the worst aspects of what humans can do.
It made for a jolly hour that, quite frankly, whizzes by quite joyously, so just think of this as the pilot for that hard-hitting, up-to-the-minute, classic, yet modern, atmospheric, thoughtful, action-packed, mindless, cerebral, yet devil-may-care investigative series involving McGREGOR AND HOLMES INVESTIGATIONS as we stumble down into various dark cellars, fail to switch on any lights, forget to call for backup, and generally remain baffled, hand over our guns and badges, until the penny finally drops and we unmask the villain that was the name at the top of this week’s guest star list, all courtesy of our FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL Time Transporter and its distinctive custom paint job, if you’ll give us just twenty-four hours, or even just the one, captain, and we’ll have this whole thing wrapped up.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 24th 2022
A little over sixty years ago, a television series began that would, in many ways, come to encapsulate a particular view of nineteen sixties Britain that never really went away. It was so popular in certain countries that this particular image of Britain and the British seems to have stuck in their minds and shaped their perception of us ever since.
Or perhaps one version of it has, anyway, because THE AVENGERS, the series PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, is joining me to talk about today, went through several incarnations – and lapel carnations – as it progressed through most of the 1960s from its grey, grimy, and gritty origins in 1961, to its colourful, almost pop-art, last hurrah in 1969, and, in many ways, could be said to almost reflect that transformational decade on screen like almost no other television series of its time.
Featuring PATRICK MACNEE as John Steed, a charmingly eloquent, and dapper, spy, who wears a bowler hat sometimes cast in stainless steel, and who carries a rolled umbrella which sometimes conceals a sword, who spends his professional career dealing with diabolical master minds intent upon some fiendish, eccentric, and freedom-threatening plot, usually with the assistance of a strong, plucky woman who seems far more adept at handling the rough stuff than he could ever hope to be.
CATHY GALE, EMMA PEEL, and TARA KING were those fabulous, ground-breaking, and astonishingly independent women, and were played by three actors destined to become almost as iconic as the series itself: HONOR BLACKMAN, DIANA RIGG, and LINDA THORSEN.
Although those other, grittier incarnations, also featured JULIA STEVENS as VENUS SMITH, JON ROLLASON as DR MARTIN KING, and the sublime and ridiculously talented IAN HENDRY who, as DR DAVID KEEL, was there right at the start, might be the person we have to thank for the series even existing at all, but who then chose to leave to pursue other career options, leaving JOHN STEED to step into the breech, and become the calm centre around which the series would carry on though such astonishing changes, not only in the lead actors, but from the technical point of view of switching from live studio videotape, to black and white, and later colour film, and a very successful penetration into the American market.
In fact, if any show could be said to demonstrate the evolution of British television in the 1960s, I think THE AVENGERS may be the one that shows it off best, so much so that anyone who watched the 1961 version would barely recognise it as the same show if they tuned in again in 1969, with MOTHER and RHONNDA adding to the cast of eccentric regulars to battle each week with the very cream of 1960s acting talent.
This other brainchild of Canadian Television supremo SYDNEY NEWMAN might not be your idea of what the Britain of the 1960s was really like, but it certainly is an image that has persisted since it first aired back in 1961 as a replacement for another series featuring its main star as a police surgeon, right through to its final episode in 1969, and the series was so internationally successful that it even got a fairly successful two year reimagining in the mid-1970s featuring PURDEY and GAMBIT as played by JOANNA LUMLEY and GARETH HUNT.
PAUL is unashamedly a fan of the final year featuring TARA KING, so our conversation does inevitably spend a lot of time covering that era, but we do our best to give you a broader overview on our way there.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 17th 2022
The subject of tonight’s conversation. SHARPE, based upon the novels by Bernard Cornwell, set during the Napoleonic Wars, and starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, which was one of those long format film series that appeared on ITV for sixteen feature-length stories across about fifteen years from 1993 to 2008 that somehow I was never particularly drawn to, and so I never actually saw one.
Luckily, our regular contributor and History Woman LISA PARKER, from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast, was on hand to guide me towards seeing its greatness, and I hope that you’ll agree with me that her enthusiasm for the show is infectious and truly makes for a fascinating hour as we discuss what turns out to be a rather interesting sounding series of TV films, some of which was filmed in the Crimea, and that now much-troubled country of Ukraine, which just goes to show that, unfortunately, two hundred years later, when it comes to people disputing the ownership of pieces of land in many ways little has really changed.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 10th 2022
Today’s theme is a topic I’ve been wanting to address for a while now on the programme, as I kind of think that it’s something that is quite important to talk about, so we’re going to take television and its relation to mental health, and, to a lesser extent, television as therapy, as our starting point.
This not a subject we wish to take lightly, but neither is it something we want to be too heavy-handed about, but I’m hoping you’ll find the next hour as fascinating as I did, and it’s a subject I think I’d like to come back to again, so if anyone else would like to come onto the show to talk about these, or other related issues, well, do feel free to get in touch.
Rather bravely, one of our regulars, WARREN CUMMINGS has stepped up to the plate to take a chance on being grilled about his own mental health situation, and how television helps, or hinders him, as he copes with his own personal situation, which I think we’ll let him explain after the time engines have done their thing…
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 3rd 2022
Dennis Potter is considered by many to be one of the all-time great playwrights who was working in British Television during the twentieth century, and for many fans of his work, his masterpiece if you will, standing alongside such memorable productions as PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, LIPSTICK ON YOUR COLLAR, BLACKEYES, the NIGEL BARTON PLAYS, CASANOVA, BRIMSTONE AND TREACLE, BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS and so many others, as well as the posthumously produced duet of KARAOKE and COLD LAZARUS, was THE SINGING DETECTIVE, the award-winning six-part serial, controversial in its day, first broadcast by the BBC in 1986, an incredible thirty-six years ago.
The serial tells the complex tale of one PHILIP MARLOW (as played by MICHAEL GAMBON), who is a writer of detective fiction stricken by a crippling psoriasis which has isolated him from work, friends and family. He is trapped by his illness into long-term care on an acute hospital ward, where his anger, the daily humiliations his illness brings with it, and bitterness and lack of trust in the motivations of his ex-wife, cause memories of his childhood in the Forest of Dean, hallucinations from his present circumstances, and his attempts to rewrite one of his detective novels, THE SINGING DETECTIVE in his mind, to all combine in a brilliant swirling maelstrom of storytelling which remains as devastatingly original and iconic all these years later. With the memorable use of several of the old remembered “cheap” songs, those songs that “remind us of the tremendous feelings we had when we first heard them”, which are lip-synched in a series of devastating set-pieces, and a multi-layered narrative in which the characters from his past and present, alongside the kind of ciphers who inhabit the typical film noir, start to interact in his fevered imagination, events in both his real life and his childhood start to mingle to create an astonishingly complex series.
My regular co-host SANDY McGREGOR, along with his pal TIM BOURNE (who joined us a few weeks ago to talk about THE PRISONER), got together online to talk about THE SINGING DETECTIVE. So… With our elbows at the ready, our pots of grease on the bedside cabinet, and the winds of villainy blowing a well-remembered tune or three on the breeze, we travel back in time and ask “What’s the story? Who’s the dame…?”
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 27th 2022
This week I wanted to try something out for the show that I’ve been thinking about doing for a long time. Such a long time, in fact, that it’s rather become a bit of a redundant idea. You see, a few years ago, I thought it might be fun to try writing a kind of “Collector’s Guide” to what might make up the perfect collection of television for anyone who’s new to having an interest in this Archive Television stuff we talk about each week, and give them a few hints and tips about what might be considered “Essential Viewing” in order to get through all of those awkward “What do you mean you’ve never seen…” type conversations that can happen whenever new blood introduces themselves to someone whose been around the Cathode Ray Tubes a few times.
You know the sort of thing – fifty TV shows to see before you die, or the truly outstanding “must see” television shows to watch if you want to have any understanding of what this thing we call Archive Television is truly about.
Anyway, in this edition of VISION ON SOUND I set out to begin finding out just what recommendations one or two of the regulars might make if asked to guide someone through putting together their idea of a perfect collection of Examples of Classic TV, and so – as I always seem to turn to him when experimenting with these ideas for new semi-regular editions of the show - I suggested to PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST that he might like to gather together a few thoughts on what he might put together as his idea of the perfect TV COMEDY COLLECTION, and we ended up having this entertaining conversation that encompasses such disparate series as HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR, I LOVE LUCY, BEWITCHED, and GET SMART.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 20th 2022
Evenin’ all!
That loveable scamp WARREN CUMMINGS is on the run from his RASPBERRY MIVVI AND A FOOT LONG DOG classic movie podcasting duties again, and has turned up in the FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL TARDIS this week, bringing all of his cinema-related ways with him to infest our cosy telly-themed world here on VISION ON SOUND.
But that’s actually quite handy because, for once, this week we were planning to look at a film anyway, as it was the inspiration for a long-running and once much-loved television series which ran from 1955 until 1976, and told the tales of an ordinary copper who’s patrolling his beat around Dock Green.
So, join WARREN and I for the next hour, as we discuss THE BLUE LAMP which was filmed in the post-war London of 1949 and saw PC George Dixon as played by Jack Warner fatally wounded in the doorway of a cinema, a scene so iconic that Ted Willis saw fit to resurrect the character five years later for that incredible 21 year run of over 400 episodes of DIXON OF DOCK GREEN, most of which sadly no longer exist, and even our trusty time engines don’t seem to be able to solve that particular problem for us.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 13th 2022
A few months ago, I was joined by PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, for an episode in which we discussed his ideas of what he thought of as COMFORT TELEVISION, and, because I enjoyed that episode so much, and, perhaps, because I think that exploring aspects of good mental well being perhaps ought to be one of the things we occasionally try to do more of with this little show of mine, I asked during that show if anyone else fancied coming on to talk about the same sort of thing, especially as so many of us lonely humans are sitting more and more frequently inside our own individual boxes, turning to our televisions and radios for comfort, and seeking out the familiar and the favourite - those safe, marvellous programmes that we know will transport us, however briefly, to our happy place.
Anyway, LISA PARKER, one half of the team behind the rather excellent ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast got in touch and, over the course of the next hour, we take a short tour through some of her fond memories of – amongst other things - a childhood spent mere inches from the TV screen, a New Year’s Eve spent with Basil Brush, people getting Tudor England wrong, tissue-wrangling through CALL THE MIDWIFE, and how you can never find a Mr BRONSON when you need one.
So, snuggle up in your various blankets, huddle around your sonic devices, and maybe, as we travel along this path give some thought as to what your own comfort viewing may be, and, should you ever wish to share what your own COMFORT TV choices are with the rest of the VISION ON SOUND community, let me know.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 6th 2022
With a little bit of a shimmy and a shuffle to our schedules, we’ve got PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI back this week in a natter we recorded relatively recently in VISION ON SOUND terms, because, when we arranged one of our regular meet-ups to record a show, we were planning on talking about something completely different, which, hopefully, we’ll be able to return to another time.
When we came to record, circumstances in the world of current telly had taken a turn in a dark direction for fans of a certain long-running Australian Soap opera, of which, as regular listeners to VISION ON SOUND will know, PAUL is indeed one of their number, and this was very much on his mind as we settled down for our conversation.
So much so, in fact, that we spent pretty much an entire hour with PAUL extolling the virtues of the thirty-seven year old phenomenon that is known as NEIGHBOURS, and what, perhaps, ought to be done to save one of his favourite television programmes from falling into the dustbin of history.
His enthusiasm for the show is pretty infectious, as I hope you’ll agree, and it just seemed best to let him carry me along with that perfect wave as we went surfing somewhere off the sunny beaches of Melbourne and its suburb Erinsborough in a show in which we find out about the lives and loves of the people living in and around Ramsay Street, as they have been doing on TV screens five times a week on both sides of the world since the mid-nineteen eighties.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 27th 2022
In last week’s VISION ON SOUND, WARREN CUMMINGS joined me to talk about NIGEL KNEALE’S classic 1950s creation QUATERMASS II starring JOHN ROBINSON in a beautifully crafted and ambitiously epic tale of paranoia, conspiracy, human self-deception, and an alien invasion by stealth and guile played out in front of the backdrop of a post-war Britain still held in the grip of rationing, conformity, and cold-war fears.
By the time our episode ended, we’d only got up to the point in the story just before the end of episode four when ROGER DELGADO playing journalist HUGH CONRAD is desperately trying to tell the world about the alien invasion taking place at the industrial plant at Winnerton Flats which had previously only been thought to be creating synthetic food through some mysterious new process.
Once we’d realised that we’d overshot our allotted running time talking about that, I invited WARREN to give me his impressions of another classic collaboration between the BBC, Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Kneale first broadcast just under a year earlier in DECEMBER 1954, their twice-performed live adaptation of George Orwell’s novel “NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR” the recording of at least one version of which does survive, which was quite difficult for modern viewers to track down, but is about to get a brand new release from the BFI.
NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR stars one of WARREN’s favourite actors, PETER CUSHING, alongside YVONNE MITCHELL, DONALD PLEASANCE, LEONARD SACHS and another actor associated with a later QUATERMASS serial, ANDRE MORELL, alongside a couple of prolific actors and familiar television faces who would also both appear in QUATERMASS II, WILFRED BRAMBELL and HILDA FENEMORE, because, in the end all things are connected.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 20th 2022
Regular listeners to the programme will already be aware of how big a fan of QUATERMASS I am. Honestly, just give me the slightest opportunity and I’ll find a way to steer the conversation back to NIGEL KNEALE’S classic 1950s creation at the drop of a guided meteorite, but, whilst I’ve talked quite a lot about the brilliant QUATERMASS AND THE PIT over the years, sometimes I’ve kind of neglected the other fully surviving serial, 1955’s QUATERMASS II starring JOHN ROBINSON in the title role, which feels like a mistake well worth rectifying, because it’s definitely not one to be overlooked, and given the small miracle of anything surviving in its entirety from the 1950s BBC output, I think this beautifully crafted and ambitiously epic tale of paranoia, conspiracy, human self-deception, and an alien invasion by stealth and guile all played out to the backdrop of a post-war Britain still held in the grip of rationing, conformity, and cold-war fears, deserves a lot more love and attention than it sometimes gets in relation to its perhaps smarter younger brother.
Luckily, it turns out that WARREN CUMMINGS is a bit of a fan of QUATERMASS II, as well, and he’s joined me in this edition of VISION ON SOUND to have a good old natter about this piece of mid-1950s TV treasure.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 13th 2022
The BBC has been coming in for quite a lot criticism lately, and seems to have been targeted by the forces of darkness currently inhabiting the corridors of power so, as we Archive TV fans generally tend to be quite big fans of a lot of what the BBC do, I thought I might grab one or two of the regulars to ask them about what they think about the BBC as an institution, warts and all.
And so I talked first to STEVE HATCHER to ask him to give his political insight to the subject, and then to LISA and ANDREW from THE ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast to think about the BBC in more general terms, in a fascinating hour that was first proposed as being titled "In Defence of the BBC" but proved to me that, even amongst its fans (and I think it can be safely said that all four of us are people with a fondness for the corporation), the questions (and indeed the answers) are often far more complicated than you might originally have seemed, and I do sometimes put the same questions to both sets of guests, and the conversations prompted are, I hope you'll agree, all rather fascinating.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 6th 2022
Regular listeners will be more than happy to discover that my old pal SANDY McGREGOR is back this week to talk about how we watch telly these days, and we thought the best way to do that was to take a look at our personal choices of viewing during the most recent Festive Season.
I have to be honest with you and say that these days that particular time of the year kind of passes me by, but I think that enough time has now passed for us to examine the last one from a televisual perspective, and ask whether seasonal telly is quite as special as it used to be.
And I’ve got to be honest with you here, for me it certainly isn’t. I pretty much knew from the moment we cracked open the latest festive double issue of the TV GUIDE that there simply wasn’t all that much – at least on the main channels – that I’d be tuning in for.
This, rather naturally I suppose, led to me thinking a little about whether our modern viewing experience was pretty much the same as that of everyone else, and so I thought that I’d contact SANDY and have a bit of a chat about it. So, just after the start of the year, slightly before the last of the puddings had been set alight, but after the gaudy baubles had been packed away inside their gaudy bauble box, we did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 30th 2022
This week I had about thirty seconds to tell you all about the minty fresh goodness that’s in tonight’s episode before the time engines launched us on our way. Featuring the lovely fresh combination of a sprinkle of LISA, and a soupcon of ANDREW, that pair of the very best ingredients that make up the cool, fizzing chocolatey goodness that is the glass and a half of full fat content that goes into every one of their ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcasts, they join me for the latest VISION ON SOUND to talk all about the adverts they remember from several golden eras which might not actually be as good today as they always were.
We spend a jolly hour rambling through the kitchen cupboards of our memories and discussing the nostalgia, philosophy, and effectiveness (or otherwise) of several campaigns (one or two of which - perhaps confusingly - do pop up to illustrate some of the points we are making) and pointing out one or two familiar faces who held out their hands and took the filthy lucre in order to sell us all those familiar items that we might never have otherwise known that we needed. Expect several long-forgotten brand names, familiar slogans, jingles, and cultural links in our less-than-fully comprehensive examination of the past, present, and future of advertising, all of which is now available at very affordable rates in this one weekly part.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 23rd 2022
Today we welcome back the ever popular WARREN CUMMINGS to present another in our recurring occasional series looking at SPY DRAMAS on TV, and this time we’re looking at one of his favourites, THE SANDBAGGERS, a series made by YORKSHIRE TELEVISION during the turbulent political power-shifting period of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and which starred ROY MARSDEN as NEIL BURNSIDE and RAY LONNEN as WILLIE CAINE.
For a series that only lasted for twenty episodes, it is very fondly remembered as being the very pinnacle of what a series set in the world of espionage could be, and it might have carried on a lot longer if it wasn’t for the untimely disappearance – in very mysterious circumstances – of its creator and main screenwriter IAN MACKINTOSH.
As you’ll discover in our conversation, it’s a series that both WARREN and I enjoy very much, so much so in fact that we do get rather excitable at times and SPOILER ALERT! We do give away several significant plot points from this forty year old series as we get somewhat carried away – not (for once) in a pair of diplomatic bags – but by our own enthusiasm, so don’t say I didn’t warn you, but if you feel like you need to look away now, I perfectly understand, and won’t be sending an operative round to deal with you in some kind of a diplomatic exchange.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 16th 2022
This week, SANDY McGREGOR returns to VISION ON SOUND and introduces his very good friend TIM BOURNE who is a huge fan of the 1967 ITC classic adventure series THE PRISONER starring PATRICK McGOOHAN in perhaps his most iconic role as Number ("I am NOT a number") Six in this complex tale of espionage, imprisonment, multiple escape attempts, and a long, dark look inside the human condition, a series that has cast an enormously long shadow from its seventeen-episode run.
So for a jolly hour, the three of us discuss the series, and we also get to hear all about what it's like to be exactly the sort of fan who enjoys attending fan events over in PORTMEIRION in an episode that I hope you'll enjoy as much as we enjoyed recording it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 9th 2022
This week, VISION ON SOUND is drawn towards 1980s regional dramas the titles of which start with the letter B, as our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR returns to talk about a British show that he's currently enjoying rewatching, BOON.
BOON was a highly successful CENTRAL TELEVISION adventure series made for the ITV Network which ran for seven series and which featured the misadventures of the motorcycle-loving former fireman Ken Boon, as played by MICHAEL ELPHICK, alongside DAVID DAKER as Harry, and, from series two, NEIL MORRISSEY as Rocky.
We then move on to have a brief chat about another of his favourites, Alan Plater's sublime 1980s BEIDERBECKE TRILOGY (AFFAIR, TAPES, and CONNECTION) which was made by YORKSHIRE TELEVISION and starred JAMES BOLAM and BARBARA FLYNN as schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne, and which we're almost certain to return to another time.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 2nd 2022.
A Happy New Year to you all as we plummet headlong into the space year 2022 with another action-packed year of our show. Well, perhaps not exactly action-packed, but I think we’ve certainly got a few exciting tasty morsels to tempt you with over the coming weeks, and they’re not all of them simply the stale leftovers from our Christmas hamper.
This time last year, Sandy and I gathered here at VoS HQ and discussed the various telly faces that had been lost to us in the previous year, but this year we’ve decided that we’re really not in the mood to do that again, and instead, I decided to strap Sandy into his recording chair as I went through the list of shows we produced for VISION ON SOUND last year, many of which he hadn’t been involved in, and ask if he had any further nuggets of information or extra insight he might have into our various topics and, as you’ll hopefully find out as well, even when he didn’t, it was just nice for me to rediscover what an eclectic mixture of topics we’d covered during the past twelve months.
In the course of the hour, we revisit Scandi Noir (some filmed in Stockport - The new Hollywoodford!), ponder upon the binge watch, chat about some of our favourite new shows, the Christmas Panto, police dramas, Flash Gordon and the urge to bellow "All Hail Ming!" at Stockport County. We also touch upon SPIRAL, TOMORROW'S WORLD, SCHITT'S CREEK, SPIES, BIG BROTHER, not being the fan of THE WEST WING that I think he is, music, THE SWEENEY, Simon Park, CALLAN, THE HUNDRED, Concert-going Post-Lockdown, SHERLOCK HOLMES, FRANKIE HOWERD, and CORONATION STREET.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 26th 2021
Once again I find myself on Boxing Day sorting through the mountains of boxes that are gathering dust here at VISION ON SOUND HQ, and amongst all of the tat and debris, I found a filth-covered old bottle and, because it is panto season, I gave it a rub with the sleeve of my jumper.
That was disappointing, but this did set me thinking. What if it had been a magic bottle? And what if I had found a genie trapped inside? And what if I had been granted those three wishes of legend? Would I have used one of my precious wishes to restore all of the wiped and otherwise lost television programmes to the archives, and, if I had done that, which shows would be the first ones I would want to see.
Over the course of recording interviews for various shows, I put this question to several of my guests over the past couple of months, and tonight I’m going to share the answers given by STEVE HATCHER, WARREN CUMMINGS, PAUL CHANDLER, TOBY HADOKE, ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON, AND LISA PARKER & ANDREW TROWBRIDGE, in a series of short conversations that still managed to head off in some fascinating and unexpected directions.
So yes, it’s a clip show of sorts, but they are, at least, clips you won’t have heard before.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 19th 2021
Today’s guest is, as previewed briefly on last week’s show, the one and only BEN BAKER who, as he may have mentioned, is the author of several books about Christmas television, and is someone who is fast becoming the go-to person if you want to find out all sorts of trivial and detailed information about just the sort of television programming that has been lurking in the schedules around this time of year since the doldrums of the sixties, through the glory years of the seventies and eighties, and continuing on through the decline of terrestrial television’s dominance and the fragmentation of family viewing through the growth of home video recording, satellite television, streaming services, and a whole host of other viewing options that seem to have conspired to try to prevent the nation from sitting down as one and enjoying some great programmes together in that no longer traditional manner.
His latest offering BEN BAKER’S CHRISTMAS BOX is now available, and BEN joined me to natter about that, but also to have a bit of a jolly old chat about telly, the universe, and everything, and, as yet another festive VISION ON SOUND offering, I hope that you’ll all enjoy the following hour in his company as much as I did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 12th 2021
This week I’ve got SANDY McGREGOR with me for our now traditional pre-Christmas mildly festive natter (Well, we did one of these last year so it counts, and that’s how traditions start), even though we’re a bit earlier with this year because I’ll be doing another Christmas show next week as well, you lucky people.
So, as we don our festive jumpers to sweat through another July afternoon, we are transported back to a typical Christmas at McGregor Towers back in the days of three-channel television with push-button tuning. Amongst other things, we discuss Christmas movies on TV (including the terrors of CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG), various attitudes towards watching the Queen's Speech, the strange transformation of Christmas Day news reports, the abundance of circuses, television shows bothering folk in hospital, TOP OF THE POPS (including a rather surprising first music purchase), the popular science of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and the strange and mysterious world of the Christmastime football fixture list.
In addition, as a preview of next week's longer chat with him, there's also an extra segment featuring BEN BAKER talking about his new book "BEN BAKER'S CHRISTMAS BOX" another in his fascinating series of publications celebrating all things Christmas TV related.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 5th 2021
This week’s show is, I suppose, a bit of an experiment in which we take the starting point of COMFORT TV and see just where that conversation may take us. My first guest for this new (and perhaps recurring) strand is PAUL CHANDLER, a SHY YETI rather than a guinea pig or white mouse, and I hope that you enjoy the next hour as you all snuggle up in your blankets, huddle around your crystal sets, and maybe give some thought as to what your own comfort viewing may be.
This wide-ranging chat covers the kind of shows its nice to have to hand, the comfort in having a physical media collection, the anxiety of shows dropping off a platform before you've seen them, new shows, old sows, recommended shows, binge-watching, watching with friends, and the joy of watching old shows for the very first time. We touch upon (although not to any great extent) shows like DOCTOR WHO, NEIGHBOURS, HOME & AWAY, V, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, DARK SHADOWS, BLAKE'S 7, BERGERAC, THE AVENGERS and Paul's love of horror movies.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 28th 2021
We welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS who has moved from his usual VISION ON SOUND comfort zone to move across into the realms of science-fiction, and has joined me to discuss Gerry Anderson’s popular live-action series called UFO which was, and is, a television favourite we both share, and which graced our screens with a vision of the future over fifty years ago, involving the groovy future fashions of 1980, purple wigs, sexism, beautiful production design, production problems, and the various star-studded adventures of yet another Gerry Anderson Organisation With An Acronym which were about as far removed from Captain Scarlet as you can possibly imagine and, ultimately, would lead to the world of Moonbase Alpha and SPACE: 1999.
It's a much-loved series, which, despite any intruding flippancy you may have detected, I think comes across in our chat, and I hope that you all enjoy it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 21st 2021
In a change to another earlier planned episode, in this week's VISION ON SOUND I welcome back STEVE HATCHER, who got in touch because he wanted to contribute his own tribute to the television writer BOB BAKER with whom he was acquainted, and who recently passed away.
As you know, I'm always happy to embrace an idea for a programme whenever it's suggested, so we got together on a Thursday morning in November and had a conversation about the long and varied career of this television writer who worked for many years in collaboration with his long-term writing partner DAVE MARTIN, as well as his own Oscar-winning solo career.
Over the course of what I hope you'll agree is a fascinating hour, we cover their DOCTOR WHO scripts, the creation and afterlife of the robotic character K9, several of Bob's other television credits, and, of course, his tremendous successes as the co-writer of the WALLACE AND GROMIT films of NICK PARK.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 14th 2021
In this week's VISION ON SOUND I am very pleased to welcome back an old friend of the show, who’s taken some time out of his extraordinarily busy schedule to talk to me, the actor, comedian, prolific podcaster and all-round good egg, TOBY HADOKE.
It’s been around a year since we last spoke to TOBY on VISION ON SOUND and for him it has indeed been quite an astonishing year. He’s launched a trio of podcasts looking at the subject of the television series DOCTOR WHO from various points of view, all of which go out under the banner of TOBY HADOKE’S TIME TRAVELS and can be found via TOBYHADOKE DOT COM. Alongside those he’s contributed to the Value Added Material on several DVD releases, written scripts for both national radio and television, kept his weekly comedy club going throughout various national lockdowns, and, of course, taken on the role of FERGUS DUNFORD in one of the highest profile programmes on British Television, CORONATION STREET.
In this edition we talk about all these things, including a chat about what it's like joining the cast of a national institution, as well as gaining some insight into the mechanics of turning part of your own home into a television studio, and, as a lifelong DOCTOR WHO fan, we also discuss his reaction to the announcement of the return of RUSSELL T DAVIES to his role as showrunner.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
The original version of this episode was first broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 14th 2021
In this week's VISION ON SOUND I am very pleased to welcome back an old friend of the show, who’s taken some time out of his extraordinarily busy schedule to talk to me, the actor, comedian, prolific podcaster and all-round good egg, TOBY HADOKE.
It’s been around a year since we last spoke to TOBY on VISION ON SOUND and for him it has indeed been quite an astonishing year. He’s launched a trio of podcasts looking at the subject of the television series DOCTOR WHO from various points of view, all of which go out under the banner of TOBY HADOKE’S TIME TRAVELS and can be found via TOBYHADOKE DOT COM. Alongside those he’s contributed to the Value Added Material on several DVD releases, written scripts for both national radio and television, kept his weekly comedy club going throughout various national lockdowns, and, of course, taken on the role of FERGUS DUNFORD in one of the highest profile programmes on British Television, CORONATION STREET.
In this edition we talk about all these things, including a chat about what it's like joining the cast of a national institution, as well as gaining some insight into the mechanics of turning part of your own home into a television studio, and, as a lifelong DOCTOR WHO fan, we also discuss his reaction to the announcement of the return of RUSSELL T DAVIES to his role as showrunner.
This extended cut also includes a much longer edit of a fascinating discussion we had about keeping the comedy club MALARKEY running during the lockdowns caused by the global pandemic which I had to trim because the conversation ran far longer than our time slot on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL would allow and, sadly, as it was the least "telly" themed part of the conversation, it was the easiest (and also the most difficult!) to trim down, so I hope you can appreciate it far better here in its uncut form.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 7th 2021
Internet artist and archive television fan ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON returns to guide us through the paper archives of the late actor IAN FAIRBAIRN (1931 - 2014) which he was given by the actor himself after they met when Andrew was working on the TIMESLIP website back in the day. IAN's surviving scripts and other documents give a fascinating insight into the television working life of a jobbing actor from playing bit parts for directors who would employ their "regulars" like DOUGLAS CAMFIELD and JOHN COOPER, to acting as a stand-in in rehearsals, to being the lead villain in a children's TV serial. Across a long career, IAN also made appearances in EMERGENCY WARD TEN, SERGEANT CORK, DOCTOR WHO, THE LOTUS EATERS, and VAN DER VALK.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 31st 2021
Be it ABRACADABRA or HOCUS POCUS, the preposterous worlds of prestidigitation or magic and magicians used to have a big part to play in the television schedules, and despite the objections from certain quarters about these dark arts being used for entertainment purposes, our evenings would once feature such household names as DAVID NIXON, ALI BONGO and PAUL DANIELS to entertain and delight us with their demonstrations of “how did they do that” sleight of hand, trickery, and other chicanery.
And for families up and down the land, they may very well have claimed to have liked it “not a lot” but, until the dawn of the more flamboyant and spectacular stage magicians, these cosy little tricksters and japesters were as big a part of our collective television lives as the Saturday Night Spectaculars are to modern audiences.
Returning guest PAUL CHANDLER - the SHY YETI himself - is back to talk about all kinds of television magic, so, along the way we touch upon what remains of the delightful ACE OF WANDS (and the spin-offs featuring MISTER STABS), the Belor-baffling INTO THE LABYRINTH, CHILDREN OF THE STONES, and THE MAGICIAN amongst others. Paul also touches upon other magical shows such as THE BOX OF DELIGHTS and MOONDIAL before we tiptoe into the strange world of magic as entertainment via the television shows featuring PAUL DANIELS, and we even pause for a moment to consider a whole magical boxful of shows such as CHARMED, SABRINA, JONATHAN STRANGE & MISTER NORRELL, MOON & SON, JONATHAN CREEK, RENTAGHOST and BEWITCHED.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 24th 2021
Inspired by their purchase of the recent blu-ray release of the entire 1960s BBC series, LISA PARKER and ANDREW TROWBRIDGE from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST return to talk about MAIGRET in his various television incarnations, but mostly the RUPERT DAVIES version. That said, sometimes the conversation train from VISION ON SOUND HQ heads off in several completely different directions, so all sorts of series get at least a namecheck, including SERGEANT CORK, QUATERMASS II, DIXON OF DOCK GREEN, VAN DER VALK, DIAL 999, NO HIDING PLACE, NEW SCOTLAND YARD, THE SWEENEY, NYPD BLUE, CADFAEL, and the Z CARS universe.
We also ponder briefly upon the different structures of various TV Cop Show formats like MIDSOMER MURDERS, INSPECTOR MORSE, CRACKER and PRIME SUSPECT, and give some consideration to which television detectives you might want investigating any crime that you might have been wrongly accused of.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 17th 2021
Returning guest expert STEVE HATCHER returns to the show to talk all about the life and career of the late FRANCIS ALICK HOWARD, who was far better known as the actor and comedian FRANKIE HOWERD, who is probably best known on television for UP POMPEII! which returned to television in several versions, alongside a feature film version. This wide-ranging conversation, however, covers many of the other series and pilots that he made in a career which lasted several decades, including THEN CHURCHILL SAID TO ME which wasn't shown on television until after his death because of a strange decision to ban it due to the invasion of the Falkland Islands, which accorded it a perhaps undeserved "legendary" status, which is another strange twist in a career which involved several comebacks from the very brink of obscurity.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 10th 2021
Our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR returns to continue with our bit of a natter about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of British Sitcoms, which started three months ago in VISION ON SOUND NUMBER 40, and, carrying on with his long list of around ninety shows cross-indexed across several decades, over the course of our hour-long chat, we chat about his memories of the sitcoms from the 1980s & 1990s. As before, if you're a fan of these shows, you may not learn much that you didn't already know, but I hope you'll enjoy our amiable nostalgic meander.
This edition starts off with EVER DECREASING CIRCLES, briefly nods in the direction of THE BRITTAS EMPIRE and SORRY, heads over to Whitehall for YES, MINISTER, and YES, PRIME MINISTER, dallies with A FINE ROMANCE, goes into the far future with RED DWARF, ponders the fate of the strangely all-but forgotten MULBERRY, and considers perhaps the closer future of WAITING FOR GOD, amongst several others, and once again, I hope that you'll enjoy our conversation.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 3rd 2021
As VISION ON SOUND rather astonishingly arrives at the point where we've done a full year of weekly shows, SANDY McGREGOR joins me (well, via a Wi-Fi link anyway), and we finally get a chance to discuss one of his favourite shows from a list we talked about way back in the early days of the show. So we spend a happy hour chatting about Alan Bleasdale's television play THE BLACK STUFF and the subsequent series THE BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF, as well as taking a brief look at some of his other works.
The show also signs off with a brief "thank you" to everyone who's helped it to stagger through towards reaching this minor milestone (in something of a wonder year) which I hope you'll enjoy.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 26th 2021
WARREN CUMMINGS returns to have a jolly hour-long natter about another of his favourite police-themed television shows, THE BILL - or, more specifically, the first ten years of this THAMES TELEVISION classic. An, of course, the conversation meanders into whether or not the series accurately reflects the life of an "ordinary copper" working in the force at the time.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 19th 2021
As I wallowed in my continuing recent poorly-sickedness, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself returned to the show to bring along a little chicken soup for the soul (naturally with a file concealed inside it), to join me for an episode-length chat about one of the TV genres that he has watched an awful lot of, the Women's Prison Drama series.
So, over the course of this week's hour we natter about WITHIN THESE WALLS - including some conjecture about the one that got away - and PRISONER (as he calls it, although I know it better as PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H). We also briefly travel back in time to the Second World War drama TENKO, take a quick peek at those BAD GIRLS, idly wonder whether ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, take a look inside WENTWORTH, and brings us right up to date with Channel Five's CLINK.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 12th 2021
I've been a little bit poorly-sick lately, so, in order to cheer myself up in the insomniac wee-small hours, I've been rattling through some of the DVDs I've been accumulating of 1970s television dramas. So this meant watching the jolly japes of a post-apocalyptic Britain in which the people have turned against the machines; a cheeky romp to a village doomed to repeat the same tragic cycle of events throughout eternity; and a story from a series about self-proclaimed Superior Beings in which they cross paths with a space alien who is using humanity's fundamental racial hatred to create enough energy to finally release his species from their earthly prison.
It's all got terribly surreal and bewildering, at least in my fevered imagination.
Joining me to haul me kicking and screaming me back to some semblance of reality is returning regular guest WARREN CUMMINGS, and we have a jolly natter about THE CHANGES, CHILDREN OF THE STONES (a particular favourite of his), and THE TOMORROW PEOPLE story - "The Blue And The Green".
Finally in this episode I include the last few minutes of my interview with ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON which formed the bulk of last week's episode but, because I was struggling a little with my editing skills for a while, didn't quite fit the time-slot.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 5th 2021 Andrew-Mark Thompson is a classic television fan who has gained a certain amount of internet fame (or notoriety) producing witty and powerful illustrations and graphic images based around his hilarious takes on certain classic tv series. He joins me in this edition for a bit of a wide-ranging natter about his experiences of growing up watching wooden television sets, how media studies changed his life, his love of shows like (amongst others) BEWITCHED, SEINFELD and DAD'S ARMY, as well as talking a little bit about his artistic endeavours. In fact I was enjoying our conversation so much that we over-ran the available time, so we leave it on a bit of an appropriate cliffhanger, and the final section will appear in another edition of the show.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 29th 2021
There's a little bit of sunshine creeping into the dark corners of VISION ON SOUND HQ this week, as STEVE HATCHER returns to the show to talk about the MICHAEL J BIRD QUARTET. This is the popular collective term for the four series - THE LOTUS EATERS, WHO PAYS THE FERRYMAN, THE APHRODITE INHERITANCE, & THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN - .written by this great television writer in the 1970s and 1980s, and which were all set in various sun-soaked corners of the Mediterranean, an element which no doubt pleased almost everyone involved in the making of them.
Alongside a general overview of Michael J Bird's television writing career, we discuss the four series as well as touching upon a fifth - MAELSTROM - in a wide-ranging, conversation that definitely makes for a packed and entertaining hour, which I hope you'll enjoy, which occasionally (and appropriately, given the subject matter) goes off in some quite unexpected directions.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 22nd 2021
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE podcast returns, and we just have a simple chat about what it's like living the life of being a fan of old telly. It may very well be one of the more simply structured hours of VISION ON SOUND that we've done so far, but is one of the most enjoyable, and I do hope you like it as much as we did.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 15th 2021
LISA and ANDREW from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast both return (this time together on VISION ON SOUND for the first time in conversation!) for an hour-long discussion about one of their favourite series: From THAMES TELEVISION in the early 1970s - "THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES"
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 8th 2021
As crickety-cricket returns to terrestrial television in yet another exciting new format, episode forty-four of VISION ON SOUND finds SANDY McGREGOR returning for a nostalgic ramble through our memories of watching cricket on television in our youth.
Regular listeners will no doubt expect an hour of total silence given my usual response to anything sport-related, but, happily for non-cricket fans, it's Sandy & I, so we rarely stick to the point for too long, so it's an enjoyable nostalgic chat mentioning highland games & caber tossing, Peter Davison's influence on this strange fascination, a school reunion, the strange combination of cigarette advertising and sport, the BBC's TEST MATCH SPECIAL on the radio, pre-second-world-war sports coverage, fielding positions, a weird fascination of numbers & statistics, Charters & Caldicott, Peter West & Tony Lewis, the poetry of the commentary of John Arlott, the legend of Ritchie Benaud, the eclectic career of Fred Trueman, the development of television graphics, and how people of a certain age followed overseas tours.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 1st 2021
Episode forty-three of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning for a bit of a natter that is - at least initially - supposed to be all about literary detectives as seen on our television screens.
In another of our rambling conversations roaming around the topic in question, we talk about shows that it might surprise you to find are inspired by literature like HETTY WAINTHROPP INVESTIGATES and VERONICA MARS, a show inspired by other literary detectives - MURDER, SHE WROTE - involving a writer of crime literature, and even THE HARDY BOYS/NANCY DREW MYSTERIES and THE FAMOUS FIVE. We also touch upon HART TO HART (inspired by Dashiell Hammett's THE THIN MAN), JEMIMA SHORE INVESTIGATES, FATHER BROWN and CADFAEL, as well as, naturally, MISS MARPLE in her various iterations, and SHERLOCK HOLMES in his.
Along the way, we briefly dabble with LORD PETER WIMSEY, MISS FISHER'S MURDER MYSTERIES, CAMPION, and even shows like ANGEL, MOONLIGHTING and JONATHAN CREEK get a nod - even if perhaps they shouldn't in this context - as variations on the theme and televisual portrayals of the literary form of the locked-room mystery, and, because it's Paul, BERGERAC gets a mention as we inevitably vanish into the worlds of television detectives in general, although we do finally get back on track with POIROT, WEXFORD, DALGLEISH, MAIGRET, and, whilst we don't actually get around to INSPECTOR MORSE this time around, we do at least ponder upon returning to him at some point.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 25th 2021
Episode forty-two of VISION ON SOUND finds WARREN CUMMINGS returning to have an extended natter about one of his television favourites, CALLAN.
Way back in episode twenty-one of VISION ON SOUND, Warren and I had a long natter about the good, the bad, and the ugly of POLICE SERIES on TV, and it seemed natural to follow that up with a programme devoted exclusively to one of his favourites, which we eventually did in our thirty-sixth edition based upon THE SWEENEY. Similarly, in episode twenty-nine, we had one of our chats about SPY AND ESPIONAGE series on television, and so it seemed only natural to pluck one of Warren's favourite espionage shows down from the shelf, and we chose one of the greatest, the series CALLAN starring Edward Woodward.
Our conversation covers the entire run four series run of the show from its roots in the black & white ABC television era of the ARMCHAIR THEATRE series in A MAGNUM FOR SCHNEIDER right through the 1970s THAMES TELEVISION colour series, to the one-off resurrection in WET JOB a decade after the series finished, and briefly touches upon the feature film version. Along the way we discuss several aspects of the series including the many faces of Hunter, the several faces of Toby Meres, the real life of James Mitchell, the various themes that surface in the series, the sweaty horrors of making of studio-based thrillers, its parallels with other spy dramas, and even the general rattiness of official cardigans.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 18th 2021
Episode forty-one of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning to talk about his passion for watching all manner of Horror stories on television.
In another of our rambling conversations roaming around the topic in question, we tiptoe gingerly around such topics as late night horror films, THE HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY & SUSPENSE and its sibling THE HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR before having a wide-ranging conversation that includes THE TWILIGHT ZONE, DOCTOR WHO, SAPPHIRE & STEEL and, perhaps more unexpectedly, MIDSOMER MURDERS and BERGERAC.
We carefully - and briefly - creep past the Christmassy horrors of writers like M.R. JAMES, and more obscure series like THE OMEGA FACTOR, THE NIGHTMARE MAN and the writings of NIGEL KNEALE, and the gut-wrenching terrors of DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, before turning our attention towards THE PAN BOOK OF HORROR, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, RENTAGHOST, and THRILLER before landing up in Collinsport to appreciate the gothic weirdnesses of DARK SHADOWS and where to find them. Finally, we move on to the anthology horrors of SHADOWS OF FEAR and the real world horrors of THE MAD DEATH, and we discover why he walked away from THE WALKING DEAD, and was drawn towards the domestic horrors of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 11th 2021
Our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR returns to have a bit of a natter about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of British Sitcoms, and, whilst he starts off with a long list of around ninety shows cross-indexed across several decades, over the course of our hour-long chat, we don't even manage to escape from the 1970s. If you're a fan of these shows, you may not learn much that you didn't already know, but I hope you'll enjoy our amiable nostalgic meander.
This obviously means that we'll be returning to the topic in at least one other future edition to cover the rest, but I hope that you'll enjoy our conversation, as we tiptoe around some uncomfortable content in certain shows, but also cover some of the greats like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS, DAD'S ARMY, FAWLTY TOWERS, and LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
The original POLITICAL DYSTOPIAS ON TELEVISION episode 39 was first broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 4th 2021.
For timing reasons, the original interview with STEVE HATCHER had to be trimmed to fit our weekly VISION ON SOUND hour-long timeslot.
The first edit of our original almost two-hour conversation came out at around 1hr 16min, and features a lot more background from Steve on the politics of the times the shows THE GUARDIANS, THE DONATI CONSPIRACY, and 1990 were being made, but, as I thought we should concentrate more on the television series themselves for a radio show about television, much of that didn't make the final cut, but I'm publishing it here as BONUS MATERIAL which I hope will prove of interest.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 4th 2021
In a very early edition of VISION ON SOUND, we discussed DYSTOPIAN TELEVISION and our guest in another episode got in touch to point out that we hadn't addressed the sub-genre of POLITICAL DYSTOPIAS. To rectify this omission, episode thirty nine of VISION ON SOUND finds STEVE HATCHER returning to talk about POLITICAL DYSTOPIAS ON TELEVISION.
After we touch upon the BBC's 1954 version of George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, and the alternative history sub-genre of "What would have happened if..." with AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE, we mostly look in detail at three series: THE GUARDIANS, THE DONATI CONSPIRACY (and its linked sequel STATE OF EMERGENCY), and 1990, as well as putting a certain amount of these productions in the political context of the times in which they were made, and we do mention other shows like A VERY BRITISH COUP.
For reasons of timing (and not because I'd been "got at" by the Powers That Be) the conversation had to be cut to length to fit our time slot. This means that a longer cut of this episode (which runs about twenty minutes longer) will also be available hereabouts should you wish to hear it.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 27th 2021
Episode thirty eight of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning to talk about his passion for quiz and game shows on television.
Starting, rather naturally, with TELLY ADDICTS, we consider the shows featuring such hosts as Bob Monkhouse and Paul Daniels before moving on to the extraordinary adventures of TREASURE HUNT, and Paul's own very personal connection with BLOCKBUSTERS.
Games shows like RUNAROUND are name-checked, and Crackerjack [CRACKERJACK!!!] makes another fleeting appearance, as well as wallowing in the general nostagia of SCREEN TEST and PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT. We also take the time to ponder upon the viewers' relationship with the game show on television, and the general difficulty of coming up with yet another brand new concept designed to give people the opportunity to win prizes, points, and pounds in the modern era.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 20th 2021
Episode thirty seven of VISION ON SOUND finds that "Man Of The Theatre" SANDY McGREGOR returning (Huzzah!!!) to discuss all things about theatre on television.
This means that we take a long look at the version of THE BBC TELEVISION SHAKESPEARE which debuted in 1979, as well as taking our seats for THEATRE NIGHT, and a couple of AYCKBOURN and PINTER productions as seen on TV. There's also a certain amount of discourse on the experience of watching theatrical productions on television, the obligatory mention of QUATERMASS comes from a brief discussion of live television generally, and we mull over the career of the greatest actor of his generation, and whether he was or not.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 13th 2021
Episode thirty six of VISION ON SOUND finds WARREN CUMMINGS returning to have an extended natter about one of his television favourites, The Sweeney.
In preparation I did rewatch the Armchair Cinema sort-off pilot, "REGAN", and the opening episode of the series proper "RINGER", but our off-the-cuff conversation is fairly wide ranging, and includes some of Warren's real-world tales of dealing with the actual Sweeney, and a little bit of the history of the Flying Squad, but we also discuss seedy villains, wonderful dialogue, the various guest stars, some atrocious accents, crockery, and 1970s motor cars, as well as giving a little attention to the episode featuring Morecambe & Wise.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 6th 2021
Episode thirty five of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning to talk about his passion for those pop bands who were primarily manufactured for television programmes.
So we talk about cartoon bands such as The Archies, and Josie and the Pussycats (In Outer Space!) - as well as briefly considering the cartoon variants of The Jackson Five and The Beatles - and briefly ponder upon those puppety television icons Pinky and Perky. We discuss the whole strange phenomenon of costumed bands such as Animal Kwackers, The Banana Splits (including their appearance in a Horror Movie), and The Wombles - adding a slight touch of credibility by segueing into memories of Gorillaz, KISS, and, um, Lordi.
The more human end of the scale is covered by our conversation moving on to The Monkees, The Partridge Family, and Flintlock, alongside S-Club-7 and the Spielbergian possibilities of Supergrass, before we move on to the more recent era and shows like The X Factor and its ilk.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 30th 2021
Episode thirty four of VISION ON SOUND finds the writer PAUL EBBS returning. Since we last spoke, way back in episode fourteen of the programme, PAUL has created the #SLEDGEHAMMER podcast in which he talks to various professional DOCTOR WHO writers about their individual writing processes, as well as deconstructing a favourite story from the point of view of just the writing. Good stuff, by the way, and well worth seeking out.
Not being one to let a good idea go uncopied, I got in touch with PAUL and wondered if he might like to try and do a bit of deconstruction on some other TV shows as well, which is basically how we ended up having an episode-long chat about the PILOT episode of the American political drama, THE WEST WING, which I think made for quite an entertaining hour of radio, which I hope you'll enjoy.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 23rd 2021
Episode thirty three of VISION ON SOUND finds regular co-host SANDY McGREGOR returning for possibly the most annoying episode of the programme yet, from a particular eardrum-bashing point of view.
After I share my own memories of growing up watching children's TV programmes far longer than might have seemed appropriate for a gentleman of my advancing years, (and obliquely musing upon the cult of BLUE PETER), SANDY and I spend the rest of the episode nattering about his memories of watching CRACKERJACK (CRACKERJACK!) with far, far too many interruptions of a very predictable nature*.
But I like to think that, despite this, it is a warm and affectionate look at a fondly remembered television perennial, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.
- Although the playback shows that I did miss at least one, which is fun to listen out for.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 16th 2021
Episode thirty two of VISION ON SOUND finds LISA PARKER from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast returning to share her insight into three early 1970s BBC HISTORICAL DRAMAS set in the Tudor era.
The three series we concentrate on are THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII, ELIZABETH R, and THE SHADOW OF THE TOWER, although we touch upon AN AGE OF KINGS and several other series, including some of the television SHAKESPEARE adaptations, and I do get more than one or two proper history lessons - which basically prove how little I listened to Mr Williams at school.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 9th 2021
Episode thirty one of VISION ON SOUND finds PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST returning to share his knowledge and wisdom of all manner of REALITY TELEVISION SHOWS, an area about which, I freely admit to knowing very little.
So, to make things easy for me, we discuss both BIG BROTHER and its CELEBRITY stablemate, before moving on via STRICTLY COME DANCING to BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT, and THE X FACTOR. Paul fondly recalls a favourite of his COME DINE WITH ME and we take a tentative dive into the perceived psychology of both the contestants and the viewers of such programmes, including their impact upon social media. We also ask what the definition of reality television really is, and whether it has a far longer history than either of us realise. Paul then reels me into the mysterious world of CATFISH, and I summon up a few memories of the documentaries, quiz shows, and Vox Pops which I think of as being reality tv by any other name.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 2nd 2021
Episode thirty of VISION ON SOUND is a little bit of a mish-mash of an episode as, amongst my own nonsense, I introduce TOBY THE DALEK in a new strand THINGS TOBY GUARDS in which I'll be looking at some of the archive TV memorabilia that I've accumulated over the years, which this week is a commentary on me flicking through the pages of the 1975 Christmas edition of the TV TIMES.
After this, I present various bits of conversations that have somehow failed to make it to air on the show so far, which include a short extract from chat I had about the TV 0f 1966 with PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, on his show THE SHY LIFE PODCAST episode 415, and a conversation I had with both him and ANDREW TROWBRIDGE from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast about the DOCTOR WHO story HORROR OF FANG ROCK that wouldn't fit into out LIGHTHOUSES themed episode a few weeks ago.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
THE ESSAY is an occasional new strand that I've introduced alongside VISION ON SOUND (at least for now), in which I take a particular loosely television-related topic or issue, and attempt to approach it with a slightly more intense eye which I'm hoping still manages to be entertaining and not too dry. Obviously, it may eventually become at least a semi-regular feature of the show, but, as I get around to writing them, I'm putting a few out to test the waters, because they might not cosily sit snugly within the episodes I'm currently working on.
That said, with the way VISION ON SOUND devours content, don't be surprised if you hear it again in a future edition.
Equally, if you feel like you might like to suggest a topic (or even contribute an essay yourself) do let me know either via the Twitter account @VisionOnSound1 or via email at vos@fabradiointernational.com
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 25th 2021
Regular contributor WARREN CUMMINGS returns to VISION ON SOUND to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of SPY DRAMAS on television, in a wide-ranging discussion that takes us from ESPIONAGE and RATCATCHERS, via Gerald Flood's chin and Glyn Owen's gravel, through the movie HELL DRIVERS, to shows like DANGER MAN, THE PRISONER, MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE, THE AVENGERS, CALLAN and THE SANDBAGGERS.
We toy briefly with lost shows like THE SPIES, SPYCATCHER, and SPY TRAP, and dance around the delights of ITC series like JASON KING, DEPARTMENT S, and THE SAINT. We also consider some of the more troubling aspects of RETURN OF THE SAINT before moving on to THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE CHAMPIONS. Then we briefly discuss spy comedies, and the strange light entertainment shenanigans of the game show MASTERSPY.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 18th 2021
SANDY'S BACK!
Regular listeners will no doubt have been missing my regular co-host SANDY McGREGOR who recently found he had far less free time for telly viewing, but promised to return. This week we have a long conversation about one of our mutual favourites, the 1990's American cop show HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, in our usual haphazard manner, but I think it makes for an enjoyable show.
Sadly, the week after we recorded our chat, the sad death of series star YAPHET KOTTO was announced, but we like to think that we were kind in our observation on the part he played in the success of the series.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 11th 2021
In this episode, I talk to my pal RICK LAWLOR who migrated with his family to Canada around six years ago, and who is now a full citizen.
It's a long conversation in which we talk about the many differences between experiencing television in the UK and those of Canada, including the vast number of channels, the strange bombardment of advertising, sitting on a continent in the second largest country in the world with the United States as a next door neighbour, and some of the more recent output from the CBC.
We then move on to a more nostalgic view of the television we used to watch, and how much of it is available to be easily viewed in a completely different broadcasting environment, and what sort of choices are made with hanging on to your DVD collection when you relocate to a brand new country.
Weirdly, perhaps, we don't even mention SCHITT'S CREEK, possibly because my recent binge-watch hadn't even started at that point.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 4th 2021
In another of our loosely themed VISION ON SOUND episodes, I give a lot of (mildly) illuminated thought to the topic of LIGHTHOUSES in TV programmes. We travel with TARA KING from THE AVENGERS to find out that it's ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS, and tussle briefly with THE GIRL WHO WAS DEATH alongside THE PRISONER, and head off - with the help of regular guest ANDY PRIESTNER from the WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME podcast - to talk about THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE-DEVIL.
After this, I am joined by a returning ANDREW TROWBRIDGE to talk about the lighthouse-based antics in episodes of both THE GOODIES and DAD'S ARMY, which, I hope you'll agree, is quite a lot of fun. We actually ran out of time for this topic (I kid you not!) and (because we never like to waste good content) one or two of the pieces we recorded are bound to turn up in a future episode.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
THE ESSAY is an occasional new strand that I've introduced alongside VISION ON SOUND for now, in which I take a particular television-related topic or issue, and attempt to approach it with a slightly more intense eye which I'm hoping still manages to be entertaining and not too dry. Obviously, it may eventually become at least a semi-regular feature of the show, but, as I get around to writing them, I'm putting a few out to test the waters, because they might not cosily sit snugly within the episodes I'm currently working on.
That said, with the way VISION ON SOUND devours content, don't be surprised if you hear it again in a future edition.
This fourth essay is basically all about flags.
Equally, if you feel like you might like to suggest a topic (or even contribute an essay yourself) do let me know either via the Twitter account @VisionOnSound1 or via email at vos@fabradiointernational.com
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 28th 2021
ANDREW TROWBRIDGE from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast returns to VISION ON SOUND to talk about SCIENCE PROGRAMMES ON TV in a wide-ranging nostalgic conversation which ranges from THE OPEN UNIVERSITY, via HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE, to programmes like COSMOS, TOMORROW'S WORLD, THE COMPUTER PROGRAMME, MAKING THE MOST OF THE MICRO, LIFE ON EARTH, CONNECTIONS, and THE GREAT EGG RACE.
We talk about the various eccentric presenters like MAGNUS PYKE, PATRICK MOORE, CARL SAGAN, ARTHUR C CLARKE and JAMES BURKE, whilst heading off on tangents that include MULTI-COLOURED SWAP SHOP, TOP OF THE POPS, the APOLLO COVERAGE, ZX81 computers, and playing Pong on a black & white television set.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
THE ESSAY is an occasional new strand that I've introduced alongside VISION ON SOUND for now, in which I take a particular television-related topic or issue, and attempt to approach it with a slightly more intense eye which I'm hoping still manages to be entertaining and not too dry. Obviously, it may eventually become at least a semi-regular feature of the show, but, as I get around to writing them, I'm putting a few out to test the waters, because they might not cosily sit snugly within the episodes I'm currently working on.
That said, with the way VISION ON SOUND devours content, don't be surprised if you hear it again in a future edition.
This third essay tries to answer the question about why I chose television to talk about on my radio show, and I hope that you enjoy it.
Equally, if you feel like you might like to suggest a topic (or even contribute an essay yourself) do let me know either via the Twitter account @VisionOnSound1 or via email at vos@fabradiointernational.com
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 21st 2021 (theoretically) Regular contributor SANDY McGREGOR returns to VISION ON SOUND to talk about (amongst other things) TEST MATCH CRICKET returning to terrestrial television, INTERPOL CALLING, STAGED, lead actors leaving TV shows, shows he's never heard of that I've been watching on DVD, BLAKE'S 7, and THE BORGIAS, before things settle down and we natter about CILLA BLACK and other Saturday night entertainment series, before finally moving on to talk about the French thriller, SPIRAL. PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 14th 2021
Regular contributor PAUL CHANDLER returns to VISION ON SOUND to talk about one of the areas of television viewing he is most enthusiastic about, Australian TV, including PRISONER (CELL BLOCK H); SONS & DAUGHTERS, HOME & AWAY, and, of course NEIGHBOURS, as well as lots of other Australian TV shows like YOUNG DOCTORS that we used to enjoy.
In a long interview, we also discuss CALL MY AGENT!, comedy dramas, French movies and European horror films, remakes, characters you love to hate, EASTENDERS, CORONATION STREET and ELDORADO.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
Episode analytics All time
THE ESSAY is a new strand I'm hoping to introduce to VISION ON SOUND in the near future, in which I take a particular television-related topic or issue, and attempt to approach it with a slightly more intense eye which I'm hoping still manages to be entertaining and not too dry. Obviously, I'm hoping that it will eventually become at least a semi-regular feature of the show, but, as I get around to writing them, I'm putting a few out to test the waters, and because they might not cosily sit snugly within the episodes I'm currently working on.
That said, with the way VISION ON SOUND devours content, don't be surprised if you hear it again in a future edition.
This second essay is basically an oblique response to some recent news about satire, and I hope that you enjoy it.
Equally, if you feel like you might like to suggest a topic (or even contribute an essay yourself) do let me know either via the Twitter account @VisionOnSound1 or via email at vos@fabradiointernational.com
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 7th 2021
Regular contributor ANDY PRIESTNER returns to VISION ON SOUND to talk about one of his favourite shows from his youth, the Universal Pictures FLASH GORDON serials that used to feature as morning entertainment for a generation of children during the school holidays.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
THE ESSAY is a new strand I'm hoping to introduce to VISION ON SOUND in the near future, in which I take a particular television-related topic or issue and attempt to approach it with a slightly more intense eye which I'm hoping still manages to be entertaining and not too dry. Obviously, I'm hoping that it will eventually become at least a semi-regular feature of the show, but I'm putting this one out to test the waters, and because I've been struggling to find a home for it in the episodes I'm currently working on.
That said, with the way VISION ON SOUND devours content, don't be surprised if you hear it again in a future edition.
The first essay takes the format of Granada TV's WHAT THE PAPERS SAY, and attempts to explain my own frustrations with British Press and how I perceive it in the modern era, and I hope that you enjoy it and, if you do - or don't - you'll let me know what you think.
Equally, if you feel like you might like to suggest a topic (or even contribute an essay yourself) do let me know either via the Twitter account @VisionOnSound1 or via email at vos@fabradiointernational.com
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 28th 2021
Regular contributor WARREN CUMMINGS returns to VISION ON SOUND to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of POLICE DRAMAS on television, in a wide-ranging discussion that takes us from G F Newman's LAW AND ORDER through DIXON OF DOCK GREEN, BETWEEN THE LINES, LINE OF DUTY, DIAL 999, NO HIDING PLACE, Z CARS, "MURDER ISLAND" (ahem!), through INSPECTOR MORSE to, um, DUCK PATROL.
But we also touch on corruption, the Thames Valley documentary, MITCHELL AND WEBB and 'professional advisers", the thirty minute drama, DOCTOR WHO, and the strangely extreme and heightened worlds in shows like SPECIAL BRANCH, THE SWEENEY, and TARGET, and even get quite philosophical from time to time about the area of law and order generally.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 21st 2021
We try a whole new recoding technique for this edition of VISION ON SOUND in the sense that we bring together LISA & ANDREW from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast and PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE podcast for a three-way online streamed meeting to talk - at least initially - about the children's television classic RENTAGHOST, before moving on to discuss children's television in general, and then the conversation moves on to the trials and tribulations of watching and enjoying archive TV in general.
Well, when you don't consider yourself an expert of a particular aspect of television, it's best to get in touch with some people who actually do know what they're talking about, and I think it makes for an interesting hour to tickle your earholes.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 14th 2021
Regular co-host SANDY McGREGOR returns with a suggestion that we might talk about THE FIFTY BEST SHOWS OF 2020 as published in THE GUARDIAN newspaper towards the end of last year and so, after I make a few brief reflections on the need to make lists generally, that's what we do.
It turns out that, as a fan of older television usually watched on shiny discs, I've not seen an awful lot of the best of that year's new television, but it still makes - I hope - for an interesting conversation, and certainly leaves me with another huge list of stuff to watch.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 7th 2021
PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST returns to natter about TV comedy and, to a lesser extent, horror shows, in a conversation briefly covering his recent viewing including DEATH TO 2020, SWEET HOME, POSE, THE OFFICE (US), GHOSTS, PAUL MERTON, and HANCOCK'S HALF HOUR.
Then HAYDEN GRIBBLE from the DIDDLY DUM PODCAST returns for his Earliest Memories chat which covers shows as diverse as I, CLAUDIUS, THE SIMPSONS, the BBC's early evening CULT TV strand, and US TV, as well as almost inevitably returning to DOCTOR WHO and the recent animated recreations of missing episodes, and the Blu-Ray releases.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 31st 2021
Sometimes, television can actually be a force for good, and so it means that it's actually a bit of a charity event on VISION ON SOUND this week as our main guest is MATTHEW RIMMER who is the creator, editor, and driving force behind the TIMESCOPE publications which have been produced in aid of the disability support charity SCOPE. In our interview he talks about producing both the first edition of TIMESCOPE last summer, and its festive follow up TWICE UPON A TIMESCOPE as an attempt to make something positive result from the various COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, and, in doing so, managed to demonstrate the kind of good things that fans of any television show can and do achieve when they are inspired to do so.
In the preamble, SANDY and I have a brief chat about charity events on television such as LIVE AID and COMIC RELIEF.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 24th 2021
It's an episode of two halves this week in which SANDY and I have a natter about SCANDI NOIR, prompted by watching THE VALHALLA MURDERS recently, but we touch upon series like WALLANDER, THE BRIDGE, and THE KILLING, as well as many others.
After this, the second half features a new contributor to the show, but he's someone I'm hoping will become a VISION ON SOUND regular. PAUL CHANDLER (a.k.a. THE SHY YETI, prolific creator and host of THE SHY LIFE PODCAST) talks about his earliest television memories.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 17th 2021
The main guest this week is LISA PARKER who is one half of the team behind the popular ROUND THE ARCHIVES archive television podcast, which is one of the reasons VISION ON SOUND exists at all. As she is here mostly to discuss her television memories, SANDY and I have a brief chat about our more recent viewing which involves modern historical dramas like THE CROWN, THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT and THE TRIAL OF CHRISTINE KEELER.
In her interview, LISA talks about topics as diverse as her life as a young DOCTOR WHO FAN, spotting the difference between video and film on screen, FRAGGLE ROCK, THE BOX OF DELIGHTS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, childrens TV, horror films, TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, THE GENERATION GAME and Z CARS, as well as lots of other adventures in the life of a young telly viewer at the dawn of the VHS age.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 10th 2021
This episode is made up of one long interview with the writer PAUL EBBS in which he talks about the life of a writer generally, television in general, and he also shares a lot of his advice and theories on structure and writing realistic characters. As well as all that, he spends some time sharing some of his experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly - of writing for television on such shows as DOCTORS, CASUALTY, and EASTENDERS.
We also talk about his new work of fiction, the book TREE FACE AND THE CRIPPLE of which he is very proud and which he'd love you to read - this may have you thinking you've tuned in to BOOK OF THE WEEK, but, heck, if we do want to take VISION ON SOUND in such an entertaining direction from time-to-time, I don't see why we shouldn't.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 3rd 2021
SANDY McGREGOR and I have a natter that reflects briefly on watching TV during the Festive Season before moving on to the main topic of the day which involves us reflecting - in no particular order and with no sense of precedence - upon the sad passing of several of the iconic TV performers who we lost over the course of the year just ended. So we cover - perhaps with an astonishing lack of detail - an eclectic list of names such as Terry Jones, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Roy Hudd, Sean Connery, Nicholas Parsons, Michael Angelis, John Sessions, Jill Gascoigne, Heather Couper, Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Geoffrey Palmer, Bobby Ball, Eddie Large, Earl Cameron, Derek Fowldes, and Dave Prowse.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 27 2020
Things are a little quiet round at FAB RADIO TOWERS in the day after Boxing Day, and so, as I spent yesterday deep inside the cellars churning a few of out many storage boxes around, it seemed like as good an opportunity for me to simply talk about QUATERMASS for a while. So, if you grab a leftover mince pie, and perhaps something tasty from the drinks trolley, you can snuggle up within earshot of your radiogram, and have a nice cosy listen.
Happily, there is some method in VISION ON SOUND's madness here, as this also gives me a good excuse to share with you that oft-promised (but until now undelivered) last extract from that long conversation I had with TOBY HADOKE back in October in which we, well, nattered for quite a while about QUATERMASS in all of its forms, which I hope you will find as fascinating as I did.
Happy New Year when it comes from all of us at VISION ON SOUND.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 20 2020
The eleventh edition of VISION ON SOUND attempts to be a vaguely festive edition, so I start off in a strangely poetic mood, rather grumpily examine the American Television version of the festive seasonal episode of long-running dramas in my opening monologue, and then SANDY joins me for a long chat that attempts to be an in-depth examination of BLACKADDER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL, but soon veers off into all manner of other Christmas Television thoughts and never quite gets back there. Some of this chatter had to be nipped out for the broadcast edition, but I've included the "uncut" version in the podcast edition ("You lucky, lucky people...") to give you the Christmas gift of BONUS CONTENT.
Ahem.
Happy Christmas.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 13 2020
In the tenth edition of VISION ON SOUND, because of lockdown restrictions, SANDY and I tried to do our usual thing via a telephone link and it all kind of worked out swimmingly.
Mostly.
After I share a few musings on THE MACHINE STOPS, SANDY and I have one of our natters which starts with ROADKILL and by way of some musings upon modern ways of viewing television shows, ITV drama, we end up in Sandy's STAR TREK dreams. We also discuss the genius of the 22 minute episode format, WESTWORLD, LoveFilm, THE PRISONER, and the television Westerns of the 1960s.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 6th 2020
In the ninth edition of VISION ON SOUND, I share more leftovers from both of those long interviews I did for our DOCTOR WHO themed edition a couple of weeks ago that our running time didn't allow.
So, there's more TOBY HADOKE which starts off from where we left off with a bit of a natter about English Cricket and listening to TMS, but don't worry, we get back to more telly stuff fairly rapidly, as well as more HAYDEN GRIBBLE (from the DIDDLY DUM PODCAST), as well as a little natter I had with LISA & ANDREW about the career of the recently late, always great GEOFFREY PALMER.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 29 2020
In the eighth edition of VISION ON SOUND, because I'd been away on a mini-break, SANDY and I headed into the studio with little prepared and without much clue as to what we were going to talk about.
No change there then.
And yet... Despite this unpromising start, we managed to chat for the entire hour about some of SANDY'S "Desert Island TV" in a conversation that covered THE BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF, PLAY FOR TODAY, THE WORLD AT WAR, DAD'S ARMY, FATHER TED, STOCKPORT COUNTY, and, erm, VACUUMING COMPLETELY NUDE IN PARADISE (!!!)
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 22 2020
The seventh edition of VISION ON SOUND features a short interview with Andy Priestner (from the "World Enough And Time" podcast), part of a quite long interview with Hayden Gribble (from the "Diddly Dum" podcast), and about twenty minutes from an extremely long interview with Toby Hadoke (from loads of things I'm sure you already know far more than me about).
This now means that the "In case nobody agrees to be interviewed so not Doctor Who at all" themed Alternative Episode Seven (in which Sandy & I burble on in the Fab Radio International studio with little in the way of a planned programme) will now become Episode Eight.
Far, far more of those interviews with Hayden and Toby will be featured in future episodes, so stay tuned.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 15 2020
In the sixth edition of VISION ON SOUND, I have a long ZOOM chat with STEVE HATCHER of the Derbyshire WHOOVERS about running a fan group, working with BIG FINISH to produce the annual BIG FINISH DAY, and his several television-related writing projects..
In something of a smorgasbord of an episode, LISA and ANDREW from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST share some thoughts on RAINBOW, and listeners will finally, FINALLY, get to hear that long-promised other half of the interview with MARTIN UNSWORTH from STARBURST MAGAZINE, the first part of which featured in EPISODE TWO of VISION ON SOUND.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 8 2020
In the fifth edition of VISION ON SOUND, SANDY McGREGOR returns to the studio to talk with me about politics, which, as we all know, is never discussed in polite society, so instead we talk about politically themed television programmes.
It's a long, wide-ranging chat covering programmes such as THE WEST WING, HOUSE OF CARDS, YES, MINISTER, THE THICK OF IT (about which I have to apologise on air for several startling errors which seems highly appropriate given the topic), and VEEP, amongst others, and, as ever, we run out of time to delve into any of them as deeply as we'd like to, but we hope it gives you an enjoyable hour of listening.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 1 2020
In the fourth edition of VISION ON SOUND, the topic we are discussing is DYSTOPIAN TV and one or two dark visions of the future.
We briefly revisit the 1979 QUATERMASS serial, before spending some time In conversation with ANDY PRIESTNER, who literally co-wrote the book on SURVIVORS, and there's a previously unheard extract from my remakes and reimaginings chat with SANDY McGREGOR which seemed more appropriate to use in this edition as we discussed the remake of SURVIVORS.
WARREN CUMMINGS also returns to talk about his unique take on what might be considered to be dystopian vision.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 25 2020
In the third edition of VISION ON SOUND plans have changed from those announced at the end of episode two as, instead of discussing DYSTOPIAN TV (see NEXT WEEK for more of that delight) my studio guest SANDY McGREGOR returns to continue our talk about remakes and reimaginings of TV series. In the process we move from WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS? and CALLAN through CHARLES ENDELL ESQUIRE to THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT and more.
We also talk to WARREN CUMMINGS (no relation), who did our Diana Rigg tribute back in episode one, about his memories of growing up watching TV in the seventies..
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 18 2020
In the second edition of VISION ON SOUND I have a studio guest as my pal SANDY McGREGOR and I talk about remakes and reimaginings of TV series. In the process we discuss DALEKS INVASION EARTH 2150AD (a reimagining of DOCTOR WHO), MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, STAR TREK, and THE SINGING DETECTIVE, amongst others.
I also interview MARTIN UNSWORTH, the assistant editor of STARBURST MAGAZINE, about the 1970s feature film versions of all those sitcoms of the time.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.
First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 11 2020
In the first edition of VISION ON SOUND we visit THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, I talk about my own memories of growing up watching television in the 1970s, I interview ANDY PRIESTNER about writing DVD notes and guide books about classic TV series like SURVIVORS, SECRET ARMY, and TENKO, and there's a brief tribute to Diana Rigg.
PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.