A Feast of Lycra and not-so Lycra Men/Women in Snow and Ice 1972-2002

Alright, we end our Winter Olympics special with this rough, but brilliant highlighting music video of recent Winter Olympics bar 2006 and 2010, of course. Some really good footage of the earlier Olympics which are hard to find on Youtube. The Sports genre will take a break, but we'll be back to good ol' football and more.

List of Winter Games shown:

1972 -Sapporo, Japan

1976 - Innsbruck, Austria

1980 - Lake Placid, USA

1984 - Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)

1988 - Calgary, Canada

1992 - Albertville, France

1994 - Lillehammer, Norway

1998 - Nagano, Japan

2002 - Salt Lake City, USA

It's a very good highlights video with small clips of each Games opening ceremonies, and the features the most awe-inspiring and most excelled athletes of the games, so we see the likes on Torvill and Dean for '84, Alberto Tomba for '88 and so on. Also, period music of the time from each Olympics, If you want to know what the songs are, well, I'm horribly bad at naming these earlier ones. I've heard the 1972 one loads of times, I just can't put a name to it?

1972 -???

1976 -???

1980 -???

1984 - Irene Cara - What a Feeling

1988 -Erasure -Give a Little Respect

1992 - Snap - Rhythm Is A Dancer

1994 - Whigfield - Saturday Night

1998 - ???

2002 - James Williams - Call of the Champions

Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! COOL RUNNI...Did they Actually Say That Though?

Jamaica Olympic Bobsled team 1988



We now enter Bobsleigh territory in our Winter Olympics season, once again from the Calgary 1988 games. Yes, it's the first ever Jamaican bobsleigh team, a tropical country with no snow/ice whatsoever, that became famed for their glorious failure (which could've turned to tragedy, mind you) which embodied the spirit of "The taking part" under the Olympic banner, not just winning that counts. Of course, the event would be even more well-known after the based 1993 film "Cool Runnings" starring one of my favourite North American actors, Canadian comedy actor John Candy. Anyway, this is perhaps a good time to seperate fact from fiction..later on.

The sport of Bobsleigh (made a winter sport in 1924) is a trecherous, horrendously fast slide down narrow ice chutes that turn and slope, reaching possible speeds of 118 mph. There are 3 divisions of Bobsleigh in the Winter Olympics, the 4-man bob, 2-man bob and 2-woman bob.

First of all, it's annoying to find out, the Jamaican bobsleigh team were not setting the standard before they crashed. No world record pace here. They did though impress, with some fast starts. However, real footage was of the crash was shown on the film "Cool Runnings". The Bobsleigh goes to one side, and one or the men could've broke their neck as the their helmets are hitting the ice as it continues to slide around 2 more turns pretty fast! But they were lucky.

The four men were not accurately portrayed in the film, but they were sprinters, just not Olympic-standard ones, but from the army. However, the idea of a Jamaican Bobsleigh team was inspired by pushcart racers, from which the American backers of a Jamaican team saw. The names of the real Jamaican Bobsleigh team were Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White and Samuel Clayton. They had a team of coaches, not just one coach. John Candy's Irving 'Irv' Blitzer was a fictional character, and there was no connection to any cheating scandal, and there was no hot rivalries from other countries. Everyone wanted to see the Jamaicans do well.

They didn't carry the Bobsleigh to the finish line like you see in the clip. Would be too heavy I guess. Instead it slid to the finish line, with the men walking along. But what about some of the catchphrases of the film like "Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! Cool Runnings!" they guys' chant as they begin to dash with the Bobsleigh? What about one of the characters who kissed a lucky egg? Did they sing "Jamaica have a Bobsleigh Team!"? Still unanswered questions, but I think it's likely to be from the film only!

The Best Skier of All-Time?

ALBERTO TOMBA



Continuing our special focus on the past Winter Olympics from the 20th Century, it was only a matter of time, before we turned to quite simply, the most premier of the Winter and Alpine sports which is skiing. Now Skiing is broken up in different styles of event, featured in this short clip, is one of the most powerful and impressive skiers of all time, Italian Alberto Tomba, at the ultimate peak of his career, winning the gold medal for the Giant Slalom event, and the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. Although the commentary is in Italian, that is only second fiddle to the visual aspect of "Tomba la Bomba", mastering the course with great skill in this nice, short clip.

Alberto Tombo, from Castel de Britti, near Bologna won 2 gold medals at the Calgary Olympics for both the "Slalom" and the "Giant Slalom", following a decent Bronze from the 1987 World Championships. He later won another gold medal for the Giant Slalom event and a silver at the regular Slalom, at the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics. His career declined after this year, and only just managed to win a silver for the Slalom at the 1994 Lillehammer event. He peaked once again 1995, with an impressive winning streak and won the World Cup title for the Giant Slalom. Afer a dismal performance at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, including a non-finish (crashing), he hanged up his boots for retirement.

Although it's pretty much the same aspect as Skiing down a hill, there is some difference between the Alpine sports of Downhill, Slalom, Giant Slalom and Mogul Skiing.

Downhill is one of the faster disciplines, starting from the mountain top or "piste", and make your way through the "Gates", which are the gaps between 2 level flags on a flexible pole-like thingy. The ski lengths are larger, hosting more exhilarating speeds than "Slalom".

Slalom is means to zigzag between obstacles. The course is much like Downhill, but the gates are more plentiful and smaller gaps between the gates, so the turns are more trickier. Men's Slalom has more gates than women's skiing.

Giant Slalom is simply the same as Slalom, but the gaps between gates are slightly larger. There is also "Super-G Slalom"...well, that's easy to find out for yourself!

Mogul Skiing is a mix of freestyle and downhill, but this is nowhere near as fast as Downhill. The skiers perform 2 jumps in the battle for points, which involves aerial skills and acrobatics. They then land of very bumpy terrain, and the important factors are not only speed, but keeping your balance.

All the Best Eddie!

Calgary 1988 Opening Ceremony Highlights



If you have recently enjoyed the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, then why not compare and contrast with the last Winter Olympics in Canada? Also situated in the west of the country, Calgary welcomes the world to all favourite quad-annually portions of Downhill Skiing, the Ski Jump, Slalom, Bobsleigh, Speed Skating, Ice Skating, Biathlon, the Luge and Curling. I'm sure I've missed a few others.

We're sure they have full explainations, but the Opening Ceremony highlights consist of dancing dinosaurs breaking out of eggs, Canadian cowboy drum/percussion bands, celebrating the heritage of the state, you know, some more cowboys, Native Indians and not forgetting lasso artists. Balloons of every colour rage into the sky. You can tell by now, compared to recent Opening Ceremonys, are alot more linear, less artistic in production, but dammit when you think about, these tough sports don't really need fluff around the ears to advertise them really.

12 year old figure skater Robyn Perry, lights the Olympic flame. Of course, she did not compete in the actual competition.

Held in Calgary, Alberta the 15th Winter Olympics was held at McMahon stadium. The stadium wasn't built exclusively for the Olympics, as it has been a Canadian Football stadium. Canadian Football is somewhat similar to American Football -they cheat with their hands- but has a larger playing field and a different number of men in a team.

These are highlights of the Opening Ceremony, however also on Youtube, some wonderful person indeed, has uploaded it, in it's full entirety, 33 parts infact. Now I only want to whet your appetite, because I will posting quite a bit more about more Winter Olympics videos in the days and weeks to come.

This is an highlights clip of the opening ceremony, which is not as impressive as Canada's recent effort, but still here for archives sake. The 1988 Olympics contained some amazing achievements, not forgetting the fact, that the host country failed to win a gold medal. However, us Brits think about the tail-end, or the bottom rung of the talent in this edition, our Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, Britain's best ski-jumper at the time, and the celebrated but unlucky Jamaican Bobsleigh team.

Forgotten but somehow Long-running Scottish sitcom from the 80's...

City Lights - S2E1 "The Longest Day" Part 1



"City Lights" was a Scottish sitcom set in Glasgow starring Gerard Kelly as Wullie Melvin, a banker with dreams of becoming a novelist. The show piloted in 1985, and after initial success, it was screened across the UK on BBC2.

At last on Youtube, we have rare full episodes of the TV series, which despite being a mainstay for the last half of the 80's, has not been released on DVD. This is the first episode of the 2nd series (might be the 3rd series though) and the episode is entitled "The Longest Day". The 3 first 3 episodes of this series are on Youtube. The theme tune is pretty good with an echoing guitar, that does it a dated feel for these days, but it's got a very Scottish feel, it has "Proclaimers" feel to it. The guitar also sounds in the same vein as the one in the iconic "Arena" documentary series theme. It features some of the soon-to-be main, cream of Scottish up-coming talent, featuring Elaine C. Smith as banking associates Irene, and Johnathan Watson as smug, slimy and always-gets-his-just-desserts Brian, a bank stooge to manager Mr McLelland (played by Dave Anderson).

In this episode, we see Wullie realise his dream of having his "My Childhood Up a Close"novel published andto be premiered in top Glasgow book shop, "John Smith & Son". As he arrives gracefully and fans are queueing up applauding his appearnce, awaiting their own copies to be autographed by the one and only, is this too good to be true?

Other characters featured were, Wullie's scheming, common mate, Chancer (Andy Gray), Chancer's mate dim-witted Tam (Ian McColl) and his awful mother (Jan Wilson).

2000's interpretation of 1988: Lots of Excited People Talking

I Love 1988 part 1 of 9



A recent upload, with a full episode taken from the early 2000's BBC nostalgia series I Love...whatever year from the 70's/80's/90's. This luckily is one of my favourite episodes from the series that profiled 3 decades. You know the format, main presenter introduces the segment, talks over the the clip, followed up with random talking heads, some we know, some from the far reaches of the magazine industry, but also some who were involved in that particular show, then follow some more clips, then some more blah blah blah, and so on...

This show is introduced and presented by a new 3-D animation re-enactment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, voiced by 2 of the actual voice actors, from the cartoon that lauched in the UK in 1988, Cam Clarke (Leonardo -blue mask) and Rob Paulsen (Raphael- red mask). The show features, as described in the video blurb, pop twins Bros,
Brother Beyond, Harry Enfield's iconic 80's stand-up garb Loadsa Money, Richard and Judy, Pub Quiz, Acid House music, Prisoner Cell Block H, Inflatable Bananas at football grounds, The Viz comic, teen singing sensations Tiffany& Debbie Gibson, Sumo on Channel 4 night time, the film "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and the Hitman and Her!

I still really like these kind of shows, well, there are few questionable entries and some of the sections did drag on, however most of the show goes along speedily, maintaining you're interest. The same user also has full episodes of "I Love 1987" and "I Love 1989", and I'm guessing more?

The BBC Took Alot out of their Coffers to Produce this Classic!

BBC Chronicles of Narnia: LWW - Chapter 1/6 Part 1/3



On Youtube, this is the first of six episodes, split into 3 parts, for one of the BBC's most ambitious efforts of the late-80's, if not the whole decade. This was a TV adaption of what was to be 4 of the famous C.S. Lewis books based on the fantasy action/drama "The Chronicles of Narnia". Today we are looking at the first adventure in the series "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe". It was a big event at the time, shown on Sunday evening near Christmas time. Great orchestral music features throughout. Basically it follow the story of 4 evacuated children from London during the Second World War in 1940. The children are Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie. Lucy finds a wardrobe at their new home, and she goes through bundles of coats hanging inside the wardrobe, to a new dimension, a new world which is Narnia. A world where animals can talk, but not exactly wearing business suits yet. Here Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus. The other 3 children discover this new, mysterious land, where they are destined almost, to be Kings and Queens, along with the help of mystical guru Aslan the Lion and Mr. and Mrs Beaver, to defeat the evil ruler of Narina, the White Witch, and her dastardly servant Maugrim the Wolf. She has imprisoned the land and wildlife with a never-ending winter. Edmund is unimpressed with narnia, but falls too easily to the darker side.

So at the time, there were pretty nifty special effects, as well as introducing the viewers to Animatronics. This was to to mechanise the puppetry of Aslan the lion, to appear more realistic, it's not a man in a costume. However, the emotion displayed is although limited, and so are his mouth movements, as he speaks, but it just about works. Aslan comes across as a very chilled, controlled being, so little movement was needed. A real lion was used in some scenes, obviously, running scenes. It looks dated, but at least you could say, the other actors can see who they are talking to. The other animals, perhaps too complicated to use Animatronics, or not enough budget, but such as Maugrim the Wolf, it was a man in a wolf costume, his human face seeping through the costume, but "done up" as best as they can. Of course, you've maybe seen the 2005 movie now, and the animals are all CGI, with some use of real animals.

The special effects weren't exactly 3-D as of yet, but were good for it's time, however they did use the blue-green screen in the next series (Prince Caspian). I thought the acting was all-round good, and Barbara Kellerman as The White Witch, sometimes accused of "hamming it up" with over-the-top displays of anger and evil sustained into the mix, I thought she was alot more menacing and frightening than Hollywood's version (Tilda Swanton). Having seen all 4 series, it's very hard to name a best one, but this first adventure has the most iconic imagery, with the whole land encrusted in a blanket of snow and the White Witch's prestigious costume, especially her wildly high-looking tiara, or crown. A must-see, but some may prefer the Hollywood version.

Cheestasm at 1980's music TV Show "The Roxy"

Dollar - Oh L'Amour



Ok, we see dancing here, so bad it's good, but the song is pretty good, which was the music male-female duo's last ever hit, in 1988. David Van Day and Thereza Bazaar infact. They have the music group Erasure, to thank for the song, as it's a cover of their 1986 version. In the background, we see what looks like a dummy getting electrocuted by lightning strikes, well, there are some people who would gladly volunteer to be, in the face of "Dollar". However, seriously, one of my guilty pleasures.

"The Roxy" was a very short-lived ITV music show with live acts, running from 1987-1988. I'm taking a good guess this is from 1988, as although the song was published in 1987, it didn't reach the Singles Chart high of No.7 until early '88. The show, presented by former "Top of the Pops" host David Jenson and Irish actor/artist(?) Kevin Sharkey (no relation to Feargal Sharkey). It was an ill-fated attempt to rival the BBC's TOTP. The lack of regular schedule broadcasting times, and the location being in the far-flung north in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, many mainstream acts snubbed the show.

The show was axed after an industrial dispute which gave them no license to broadcast live performances. A hopeful successor to Channel 4's "The Tube", it wasn't.

Also, slightly off-topic, but back in the late-80's from what I can gather, there were a whole host of nightclubs, named "The Roxy". Seemed to be loads of these. The name was not taken from the show itself, but the well-known, popular "The Roxy" nightclub based in New York City.

Youtube Public Information Films Sweepstake

The last in the series of the Sweepstake posts, designed to give you a taste of the vast choice of clips/shows that will feature here on this blog:

Public Information Films or "PIFs", are either adverts, 5-30 minute short films, advising you the citizen how to either evade danger, not to take what is unhealthy for you, or just generally advising you on new features, like the motorway, back in the day.

Fireworks: Don't Be A Dummy 1988 Public Info Film



80's scare-mongering at it's scariest and finest! Short but downright goosebumps ridden advert-sized PIF. The eerie, hard hitting sounds pound right through you, as the images of children's faces, and then speeds up and and climaxes with a firework exploding, then to portrayed as exploding in the face of a child. What's happening is an indoor experiment of how a loaded firework can do when aimed at child's eye, represented by a grey mould of child's face. Then it gets even more creepy as non-appearing kids shouts "don't be a dummy, don't throw fireworks!" Other firework PIF's followed in the 80's and 90's but nothing as wonderfully deranged and as directful since. I haven't seen firwork PIF's around much these days. Maybe I'm not up at the right times to see. However, after this, firework PIF creators should've just packed up and left, because nothing will surpass this as getting the message across, and a re-introduction of ad would be welcome, come any November.

Public Information Film Charley Says.....Strangers



The "Charley Says" animated series is one of the most well-known of UK PIFs. It ran, especially the "Strangers" episode for literally years. Produced in 1973, it ran through the 80s and possibly the early 90s too, if my memory serves me right. The boy was voiced by an authentic 7 year old boy, who was the son of the producer's (Richard Taylor) next door neighbour. Charley is the name of the cat who in most episodes bar 1, to advise the boy away from danger. The boy seemed to be able to understand what Charley was saying, which were weird, mangled meiows, voiced by Radio personality and future television entertainer Kenny Everett.

Peter Kay on Public Information Films



A flashback with many clips from at the time, future insanely popular stand-up comedian, Peter Kay. Kay has engineered alot of his gentle comedy around nostalgia and that include TV nostalgia quite a bit. Before he made the big time, you could see him many times on certain nostalgic shows like the "I Love" BBC series. Was there to make his face more known on TV, or for his passion for nostalgia? I would say a bit of both, but turning more to passion for nostalgia, he engineered a career from it, for the holy mother. Mentioned are "Splink", the road safety PIF by Jon Pertwee, and David Prowse as the Green Cross Code Man.

Youtube Adverts Sweepstake

The countless, countless edition of the Sweepstake edition. However, the second last edition/genre!

Ads001



The title may look very ordinary, but this is the beginning of an impressive collection of British Ads from the 80s, in mostly 9 min+ clips, in chronological order, starting from 1987. Some of the greats are in there, and some of memorable but forgotten ones are there! As you wield over the collection, watch as the Christmas ads turn up, and then it gets more summer-y as you go along. Some feature many of the toy ads at the time, so there is a wide spectrum of ads there. There's also regional ads, mostly from i think East Anglia and the East. I've watched all 110 videos, and there are few other single large ad collection like this on youtube.

The ad i remember the most from this collection, is the quite clever Tunes advert (the sweets for blocked noses), where the man on the stereo, pictured, is talking with that numb voice you have when having a cold, and a tune is inserted like a tape, and suddenly everything's better, and the man has got his normal speaking voice once again!

Lego commercial - Kipper



You may know, this ad has been brought back from the dead, and is back on our screens. This ad from the early 80's is great. You're not sure if it's Tommy Cooper, or a Tommy Cooper sound-a-like, as Tommy didn't see through the whole decade having been deceased at the beginning of the decade. However, it is him. And it's a great little run-around of dialogue and imaginative creations from the Lego team, hosted by stock animation.

Ford Orion car advert 1980s



This is in reference to the advert collection mentioned in the first clip. This is one of the best ads I've seen from that collection. Like what it describes in the ad, it's unassuming, almost delicate and subtle. This is coming from someone who isn't one of those petrolheads or car-lovers. In the 80's car ads were more geared to men, but this Ford Orion advert has a really good balance, which for me, runs rings around the 2000's car ads overly aloof, artsy and sometimes arrogant commercials. This tows the line very nicely indeed, and not only is the whole proposal of the car being under-rated, so is this bloody advert!

Youtube Documentary Sweepstake

The seventh edition and genre of my Sweepstake series.

Glasgow Transport 1980 - Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lIfubhHZDQ

This is a very interesting documentary produced by the old Strathclyde council(West of Scotland really) showing the modernisation of the underground system, which became known as "The Clockwork Orange", because of their gaudy orange colour. The Glasgow underground was one of the oldest underground systems in the world, and the Victorian-style trains and old format of lifting them off the tracks to be stationed, all came to an end in 1977. The programme, shows the sheer extent of the work involved in the city centre, demolishing old Victorian tenement slums and just giants areas of cement were carved up to extend and re-modernise the track system. Although, the finished product is nothing compared to the complexity of say, the London underground. This is still a fascinating documentary.

Jonathan Meades on J'accuse Vegetarians 1 of 3



"J'accuse" was a series of programmes made for Channel 4, in 1995, that featured on different subjects each episodes, chaired by different intellectual presenters. Johnathan Meades, although very intelligent, gives a biased right-wing account on how Vegetarians came into being. Also includes talking head bearing pro and con views, and some obscure celebrities from the time. It's rather in-depth and long-drawn for one issue, something you wouldn't see getting made today, in this suppoesedly shorter-attention spanning era, or would only be made on the backburner, for BBC4.

World In Action - Acid House Report PT.1



"World in Action" was an iconic investigative current affairs ITV programme that ran from 1963-1998. The format was taken to various countries, following it's success in the 1960s and 70s. Hard as it may seem but at it's peak it was watched by 23 million viewers. So this programme deals with the acid house culture that goes mainstream in the summer of 1988. Various teens (underage?) are interviewed, and only increased parents fears of what was going on.

Now, the coolest club venues are not seen as your typical Roxy nightclub, but in empty warehouses and open fields. Oh, and they're illegal as well. This followed with media hysteria over the drugs associated with the culture. This ran for years and years, but it was true to an extent, but the music itself wasn't the pre-dominating factor, it was based on the other people attending these parties. For the youth of the late-80s, with only yuppies having mobile phones at that time, and no internet, it was an achievement within iself to amass these unofficial conurbations, which is something the youth of today don't have. The complexity to organise in mass movements, and well, they wouldn't be seen dead in a muddy field nowadays.

Youtube Comedy Sweepstake

This is the first of a series of "sweepstake" posts, to primarily "wet your whistle" for what is in store, each focusing on a different genre:

Whose Line Is It Anyway? Season 1 Episode 1

Due to it being part of "4 on Demand" the video is unembeddable(that a word?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2n_21cMCfM

I've just recently discovered the huge wealth of selection, concerning the brand new ability to watch full shows (without being split into 10 min sections) thanks to Channel 4 working in accordance with Youtube. I'm impressed, as the full 1st season of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", the classic comedy improvisation show, on a shoe-string budget. In this first episode from 1988, Clive Anderson is understandably nervous, and in the 4 leather chairs are Archie Hahn, Josie Lawrence, Paul Merton & John Sessions. It's a pretty good episode, but my main attention goes to Archie Hahn and Paul Merton. Although looking a lot more inexperience being on TV, you still see that bullish persona from Paul Merton his quips are what he's best it, but looks awkward when it comes to physical comedy, well, in this episode at least. And Archie Hahn, whatever happened to him? When i see him i think "Spinal Tap", "Police Academy 5" and Tv series "Eerie Indiana", but that's from all years and years ago. Also, in his very short Wikipedia description, some of his last WLIIA episode were infamous for him bringing false teeth and castanets to the show. Anyone know why it was so infamous?

Alf Garnett on the British Empire



Tory supporting Alf Garnett talks up the British Empire emblazoning hang-up pictures of Churchill and the Queen Victoria and blasting the Labour government. Probably no different from today, somewhere? But still, changed days indeed. However, you know you can't take the man seriously, as his vitriol is the whole joke of the show. He always gets his comeuppance in the end.



The Gem in the pudding. Fiddles me tiddles! A rare stage sketch starring Wilfred Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. Corbett looking unusually dressed up in suit and bow tie as Harold Steptoe, as they prepare to bathe in the sun and some golf later, in this sketch, appropiately staged in Blackpool.