If You Thought the Best Bit About Teletext Were the Pictures, Then You'll Love This!

Hands Up! Episode 1




Animated Teletext! This is a brilliantly obscure upload -probably one of the best finds on this blog so far- I have found of many episodes, from a Channel 4 educational show called "Hands Up!", which gives a really good diagnosis of the basic sign language for the deaf. It's blocky graphics galore! Al 10 episodes of the series is on Youtube.

The show was produced by Intelfax, I've never seen anything like it. The usual animation you would get on a normal teletext, would be flashing still images, as well as pressing the "reveal" button on you're remote control, to unveil an appearing and disappearing graphic. Brilliant!

Ooooh! That's All I Have to Say...

Jonathan Ross Frankie Howerd trailer 1991



This was too good to miss out. A trailer for "Tonight with Johnathan Ross", an early Ross chat show lasting 1990 to 1992. This followed his first chat show also on Channel 4 "The Last Resort with Johnathan Ross".

Frankie Howerd here, gives his trademark "oooh" expression. Simple but still funny.

Video Gaming TV Takes Centre Stage in the Early 90's...

GamesMaster S2E3 - Part 1/3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlM3k-4m0GI

And this is a one for all you retro Nintendo/SNES/Sega Mega Drive generation gaming fans out there. It's Channel 4's "Gamesmaster", where acid-tongued Scotsman in a blood-red suit Dominik Diamond (with hair) dabbling with contestants, celebrities and so-called videogame magazine expert, for the aim of one visual ideal : The Golden Gamesmaster Joystick!However, the star of the show is "The Sky At Night" head honcho Patrick Moore, as the big giant computer generated head on the giant screen, that was a great casting choice. Although you fear this "all-knowing gaming god" in real life, may've known diddlysquat about Sonic or Mario, he has a great voice of reason, that made it believeable. This is part 1 of 3 parts, of this episode from the second series, now set in an Oil Rig, changed from it's original 1st series Church setting.

The episode first begins with a game challenge for one worthy contender on one of the best SNES games of all-time, "Super Mario World", to collect 200 coins and complete the "Donut Plain" level in 1 minute flat. This follows with the "Review Booth" where critics from gaming magazines discuss a few of the lastest games, with 3-D industrial themed graphics whizzing around  and cut scenes of critics talking nonsense. In the middle of the show, there would be a celebrity challenge against an ordinary pleb, this one being (at the time) Wimbledon footballer hardman Vinnie Jones playing against said pleb on the appropiate game of "Soccer Brawl", a futuristic soccer game. One of the funniest segments of the show was the Consoletation Zone, where (pre-recorded?) gamers are transported to the Gamesmaster's virtual world set on an oil rig, the entire theme for the second series, and they ask for help with games or ask for a level select cheat. The all-knowing head honcho of course knows the answer. The last part of the show is interesting, a self-confessed gaming expert and games tester challenges anyone in the audience to beat him on any Sega Mega Drive game!

"Gamesmaster" ran from 1992-1998, usually scheduled on a weekday evening once a week. There hasn't really been a successor to the programme after it had finished. Video gaming on terrestrial TV has been flushed down the toilet, regarded as "for kids", but the gaming industry has boomed in the late-90s with kids and young adults alike, and now there are games out there for both sexes and adults, so it's a crying shame whatever gaming shows there have been, are hidden away on at a graveyard slot or on an obscure satellite channel.

The show would differ from setting and look of the Gamesmaster (although still Patrick Moore) each series.

Brookie: Die Harder

Brookside explosion 1.mp4



The soap genre returns in some style tonight, as we see one of the more memorable moments from Merseyside soap "Brookside" on Channel 4. Hollywood couldn't have done it better! This is the gas explosion that occurs on Brookside Parade(an extension to Brookside Close since 1993), thanks to Ron Dixon (Vince Earl) trying to keep the pounds in his pocket and trying to fix the gas leak himself. Was he the daft so-and-so? Well, the background story is, Sinbad (Michael Starke), a Brookie favourite, being a suplier of kitchen equipment and such, sold Ron the gas cooker, for his new flat above his shop.

So this a 2-parter of the event, but not a full episode. Watch out for the shock second explosion after all the hysteria burdgen on, near the end of the second part. Only one dies from the gas explosion and that is Candy the dog, of the new family of the Shadwick's. It's a great episode, it features all of the main characters from the time but no Jimmy Corkhill I see, but the rest of his family is there, like daughter Linda (Claire Sweeney), possibly the most hysterical of the bunch as the fear of her daughter Kylie still inside the complex. There's your old favourites like Jackie Corkhill (Sue Jenkins), Mick of the pizza parlour fame and Max Farnham, who gets caught in the rubble also with anothe regular. In this period, there were 6 fires and explosions over a 5 year period, unbelieveable for a tiny corner of Liverpool. The soap depended more and more on sensationalism rather than realistic hard-hitting issues in it's final years. This was followed by a bomb detonation in the local nightclub "Millenium Club" (or vice versa, but I think it's in the right order).

Crude Animation Humour Brought to you by Channel 4...

Beastly Behaviour - The Dog



Don't be fooled kids by the bright colours! "Beastly Behaviour" was an adult animation that was screened on late-night Channel 4 in the mid-90s. Not all of the episodes are on Youtube (There's a cat one too). These 1 minute plus animations, feature the very different way animals and other beasts like marine life, have male-to-female mating. The animations are crude, but the narration is pitched in the style of a wild-life narrator, and if your not aware alot about animal biology and how they mate, well many of the facts may astound you, as they're all true. The show was produced by eggtoons, which has it's own website, but the main brains behind it is Andrew Wyatt. Wyatt was a freelance animator who had worked on such well-known cartoons like the Ninja Turtles and the Ducktales movie for Disney. He joined Honeycomb animation, and produced this obscure classic.

4 episodes feature on Youtube, but I'm sure there are more. Rodents, Mantis and Marine Bristleworm are the other 3, however I feel this Dog one is the funniest of the lot, and the least gory. I like the dig at humans in this one too. This is definitely not for kids! The Mantis one is probably the most gory, as true to life, as the female bites the male's head off, as he is having sex with her. Thank god that doesn't happen in humans, I'd be a virgin all my life then!

Oh, Stop All this Canoodling! I'm trying to Eat my Pop Tart!

Paula Yates and Micheal Hutchence on the Big Breakfast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHI_G1QFfIs

A classic moment from the show, which in hindsight, has a sense of the bittersweet and tragic. This is from Channel 4's "Big Breakfast", that really did break new ground as regards to weekday mornings, giving a more fun and sometimes surreal edge compared to mugs and woolly jumpers, and middle class P's and Q's that were a feature on TV-AM (ITV really) and the BBC's comparative shows.

Can Paula Yates be in any more head-over-heels love with "INXS" singer Michael Hutchence, with that long-winded introduction? This was a slighty edgy segment for morning TV, where Yates was a seconadary presenter on the show and starred in an interview section called "In Bed With...". This is from 1994, regarded as the "golden age" of the show when Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin were the main presenters. Yates established a relationship with hutchence, although being married to musician and charity fund-raising machine Bob Geldolf. It's rumoured that it was in this moment, was when it began, however, Wikipedia claims it started some time before. They seem helluva cosy in support to that.

Michael Hutchence was the lead singer of Australian rock-pop band "INXS". They had success in the 80s, with a range of hits including "Need You Tonight", "Devil Inside" and "New Sensation". Hutchence had met Yates back in the 80s, when she presented "The Tube". The tragedy is, that to complete surprise, Hutchence was found dead in an hotel room, hanging himself with a belt. Depression and drugs were the main factor over the strained relationship with Yates, the pressure to get married and hassle with Geldof's fight for custody of Paula's daughter Tiger Lilly. However the famed cause of death was that Hutchence had died accidentally, according to many from Erotic asphyxiation. This is attempting to cut off oxygen from the brain to increase sexual arousal in the person.

What was even more tragic, is that Paula Yates was never really the same after Hutchence's death, who she clearly loved. No longer appearing as the quirky and bubbly personality we once saw, she appeared emotionally drained up to her tragic death. She continued to look after her daughter, until her own death, from drugs too, but this was accidental. A sad demise to one of Britain's most natural female presenters.

Person-being-pinned-against-a-glass-shower-screen-possibly-sending-a-coded-message-for-help. Don't you just Love that Continuity?

Channel 4 Interlude (Late 1980s)



Here we have the ending and credits to the award-winning and long-running, US Children's educational series "Sesame Street" created by Jim Henson. This was a main feature on Channel 4 back in the 80's and early 90's, introducing the UK to what all the fuss was all about. Running since 1969, here we see on the left, deaf Sesame Street presenter, Linda Bove, along with lesser-known puppet character, Buster the Horse, can't name the other woman, but I'm sure it's not who I think it is. This is followed by "Sesame Street was brought to you today by the number letter...etc". Then, prepare to fast forward or skip, if you don't like classical, relaxing music. This is simply an on-screen schedule after 9am in the morning, with an questionably artistic photograph behind, and that is all.

Back then, TV was more slower paced, but usually more prolonged around Schools TV on both BBC/ITV and Channel 4. You hardly see this kind of continuity nowadays, although Schools TV did keep up with it, but still-frame pauses like this became shorter and shorter into the 1990's and 2000's. The belief being that, people's attention spans were getting shorter -probably true with younger generations brought up on the internet- and now 100's of channels from satellite competing against the "Big Four" or the ahem, "Big Five". You only get this type of continuity on "Ceefax" on the early hours of BBC2 mornings, now and again. Isn't there times, you want the TV of today to take a chill pill? We don't want to be informed all the time, being shown your big flashy graphics, and editing camera angles every millionth of a second. It can sometimes get annoying or depressing. What's wrong with listening and watching to nice music, while you're mind wanders, giving you time to think, on perhaps, the previous TV viewings or, what's to come, or maybe it allows you into some deep philosophical though about your own life. Some will say, "Just turn the TV off then", however, a minority of people say " You just don't understand".

Yes, "Sesame Street" was an American show but it was a large part of some British children's childhood and should not be detracted from UK TV nostalgia! So anything goes here, if the programme is mainstream and well-known. The series was one of the first to entertain as well as educate, not basic stuffy professors in stuffy studio's telling us how the world works. Learning can be fun, as proved by Sesame Street. We'll be seeing more of this show in later posts.

Gooopheeeeeeerrrrrsss!

Gophers - Episode 1. Moving day (part 1 of 3)



Very, very cult Children's show from 1990, shown and produced by Channel 4 on weekend Sunday mornings, created by Mark Mason. Think "Dinosaurs", people dressed in animatronic human/gopher cross-breeds, wearing sensible clothes. The first 3 episodes are on Youtube, but episodes 4 and 5 are in Dutch. There were 13 episodes altogether and only 1 series, sadly.

This focused on an American family of Gophers moving a new neck of the woods, Sycamore Heights, where funnily enough, they all speak in a British accent, apart from the Merv Wombat character. The gophers, comprising of father Chuck Gopher family(played by American Lou Marsh, who appeared as "Arnie" in the UK sitcom "My Hero), mother Lillian Gopher, son Junior Gopher and baby son Chiplet Gopher. They live next door to family of rabbits called the Burrows. The father, Arthur Burrows, is an obsessive compulsive when it comes to gardening. Wife Beatrix Burrows and daughter Flora Burrows complete the family. The villain of the set piece have their HQ somewhere underground, a fox by the name of Dr. Wince and his daft sidekick Sly, a tiny Crocodile/Alligator. Wince wants to build a road through the 2 families plot of land and home!

There's also some off-beat comedy from other characters including the 2 crows up by the nest, Frankie and Ollie, a pack of well-groomed talking vegetables from Arthur Burrows shed. They are Charlotte Cabbage, Percy Cabbage, Knowitall Carrot, Weepy Cauliflower and Barry Pumpkin. Then you have the Shakespearean Tree, and The Cockroaches, who appear in those bloody dutch-speaking episodes called Nacho, Mimi - A waitress and Lupe - The Bartender. They live in one of the Gophers walls in the Kitchen.

It was a great little obscure show, and hopefully somebody will upload the last episode, which I vaguely remember. Other noteworthy voice actors from the show was Arthur Burrows' Francis Wright, who voiced The Psammead in the CBBC series "Five Children and It".

Gibberish Talkers Over-taken by the Lord of Gibberish Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed - After Dark original TV clip. Part 1



Ah, a classic, classic moment and episode from the very acquired taste that was "After Dark" on Channel 4. The infamous, drunken Oliver Reed, confusing and bemusing a gang of well-seasoned intellectuals discussing on the subject of "Do Men Have To Be Violent?". Can't understand a thing, but still entertaining. From 1991, funnily enough, the same year the TV series finished, the main controversy of this episode was Reed fondling and rolling on top of feminist Kate Millett, as well as swearing at various moments. Transmission of the episode stopped, as it was live TV. This is the sort of edgy stuff, Channel 4 should be doing again, drunken Oli Reed or none. Arts and culture back on live TV!

"After Dark" ran from 1987-1991, but has been revived several times as one-off's and then another series on the BBC in 2003, still courting controversy. It's always shown late-night, and it's hard to believe this type of programming was allowed to run for 3-4 hours on a Saturday night.

For most of this first initial run on Channel 4, from one end of the spectrum you had highly intellectual banter on Four, and then you had almost the polar opposite of "Hitman and Her" on ITV. I like both shows, so maybe that just says I have intelligence to "switch on" to the discussions at "After Dark" in halves, quarters, or fifths, but be eased in by the non-thinking "Hitman and Her"!

Club X on Channel 4 - Drag Queen Discusses Victorian Items, Dogs and Bobbing Head to Keyboard Maestro

Regina Fong on Club X Part 1



The title strikes you as weird? Yes, and telling from the number of views of this clip, the largely forgotten 90-minute, late-night "Club X" an infamous arts/music live TV for the "yoof" of the late-80's. Regina Fong is the Drag Queen in question, in this section of the show, in which she is allied with a chubby ally named Fou Fou L. Hunter I believe, who we see at the end of this part. It all feels rather random.

The show was a pre-cursor to Channel 4's, modern, tacky but edgy "The Word" in 1990, and a successor to show's like "Network 7", in which the absolutely "charming" Janet Street-Porter, came to the public eye. Martina Attille, Murray Boland & Joel Colman presented the show, along with TV critic Victor Lewis-Smith as the light relief.

"Club X" was trashed, because of the direction and amateurish feel of the show. The magazine-format focused on certain low-brow art projects like body painting. It was accused of dumbing down the Arts, and it only lasted for 5 months in 1989.

With hindsight, with practically little Arts or Culture shows on mainstream TV, you can say at least they made an effort, however bad it was. Give me this over T4 anyday! However, seriously, on mainstream TV there's only really the BBC's "The Culture Show" for the youth, and ITV's soon-to-be-ending "South Bank Show". That isn't alot, but there is "Sky Arts", and BBC Four, I guess.

Regina Fong, real name Reg Bundy, was a theatrical actor and dancer, well known for his drag routine, beginning the character in 1985, and was a regular host for the London Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival. Reg died of cancer in 2003.

Ooh-Ar Jethro! Anneka Rice in Devon!

Treasure Hunt - Devon (1986, series 4) part 1



A full episode of Channel 4's "Treasure Hunt" pummeling through a course in Devon, from 1986. From my diet of gameshows, this show comes as much relief, from the heavily formulaic indoor-studio-what's you're-name-and-where-are-from-round-one-ask-question-answer-question routine. 2 contestants help solve clues in the indoor studio along with presenter Kenneth Kendall keeping the show stringed together, using a large array of books, while the extra component, namely skyrunner Anneka Rice's posterior, runs to these locations under a time limit, hopefully the right locations, as ordered by the contestants.

There would be five clues, to various locations around the local area, which would finally lead to the treasure. Anneka Rice would sometimes travel not only by foot, but by sea and air, however, all of these items were given permission to be used, and nothing was simply "gatecrashed" apart from normal members of the public, looking bemused, being asked for directions, or looking at that..

In this episode Rice is seen travelling in Helicopter, then landing it(by pilot Keith i might add) on a mid-sea submarine. All very exciting stuff, and you get some really nice scenery shots too. The show ran from 1982-1989, and the concept was taken from the original French version,"La Chasse au Trésor", created by Jacques Antoine. Do-gooder Anneka Rice hasn't changed much since then, and has been off the box for quite a while now, after her appearance in "Hell's Kitchen" in 2007, and presenting "Sunday Feast" in 2006.

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 Music Sweepstake

The Tube - Depeche Mode - 'See You' 1982



This was Depeche Mode's first single release after the departure of Vince Clarke in November 1981. Clarke was a highly significant member of the group, having wrote their last 3 hit songs including "Just Can't Get Enough". The departure was to problems over the direction of the band. Well, with this single they did better than ever, and probably their most critically revered era was still to come...

Jimi Hendrix - Top of the Pops 1967 - Purple Haze



Short clip of Hendrix from TOTP, but still classic. Watch out for the smoozy American narrator as he libs sexually suggestive remarks about his action on the guitar.

Old Grey Whistle Test - the Pogues - Streams of Whiskey



Ah, the Old Grey Whistle Test, and this song is a right "knee-slapper". From 1986, near the end of show's shelf life, starring one of the most famous Irish tradional music bands, "The Pogues". The band formed in 1982 under the leadership of singer Shane MacGowan. MacGowan brought great vocal punk energy and vigour to the act. The song is from their 1984 album "Red Roses for Me". The Pogues peaked in 1989, not only for the 1989 album "Peace and Love", but his solo duet (make sense?) with the late Kirsty MacColl for the very timeless and popular "Fairytale of New York". MacGowan split from the group in 1991, then the group broke up in 1996, then they reunited in 2001, but with little success so far.

Youtube Soaps Sweepstake

1st Episode ever of Coronation Street, 1960



Absolute brilliance uploaded here. Whoever uploaded this should get a gold star. Stars a very young Ken Barlow, along with such greats like Elsie Lappin,
Florrie Lindley & Elsie Tanner.

Brookside Half Episode from 1991

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq-jGVaGkz8

A wedding takes place between Sammy & Owen. rom November 1991. Also features Brookside favourites Sinbad, Mike & Frank Rogers. Episode begins with a bizarre coversation about having a preference for "little fat frogs". Marvellous!

Peggy & Pat, FIGHT!



Classic moment from 1996. A serious conflict between pocket rocket Peggy Mitchell ("Carry On" films star Barbara Windsor) and undefeated heavyweight Pat Butcher(Pam St. Clement), but by god is it unintentially hilarious! Glasses are thrown and slaps are exchanged in a stilted, almost sportmanship manner. Non-sensical running to the doorbell ends the scene!

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.