"I know it’s wrong…it just tastes so good."
Like the addicted customers of Mr Hilary Briss, the butcher, we are back for more, as we watch the second episode of The League of Gentlemen TV series, The Road to Royston Vasey...
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Saturday, 26 October 2024
COMMENTARY CLUB Minisode 64 - The Road to Royston Vasey
Friday, 10 November 2023
COMMENTARY CLUB - Minisode 057 - The Young Ones - Sick
"It's funny, but being ill makes me lose my usual tolerant and easy-going approach to communal living!"
In this episode, the boys are all ill, but there's worse to come, including riots and a visit from Neil's parents - The Good Life it ain't!
Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here plus more articles on the weird and wonderful here-
Sunday, 29 January 2023
HYPNOGORIA 233 - Remembering Moviedrome
In another special episode, Mr Jim guested on the excellent Grognard Files Podcast to chat with Dirk the Dice about seminal BBC2 TV series Moviedrome, in which director Alex Cox hosted a screening of a different cult movie every week.
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - HYPNOGORIA 233 - Remembering Moviedrome
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Saturday, 21 January 2023
COMMENTARY CLUB - Minisode 050 - The Young Ones - Bomb
"Oh, I think that would be very fine behaviour for a Cliff Richard fan!"
In this episode, the boys wake up to discover they can't get into the fridge as there's a nuclear bomb in the way...
Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here plus more articles on the weird and wonderful here-
Sunday, 30 October 2022
HYPNOGORIA 226 - The Origins of Halloween Part XIII
In a special chapter, we celebrate the 30th birthday of the most infamous Hallowe'en television special ever screened - Ghostwatch (1992)! In this show we investigate the origins of the show, how it was made, examine its turbulent aftermath, and celebrate its lasting legacy!
Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here plus more articles on the weird and wonderful here-
Sunday, 23 October 2022
HYPNOGORIA 225 - The Origins of Halloween Part XII
In this epic length episode we journey through the later half of the 1980s, rounding up a variety of Halloween themed movies and TV specials. On the big screen we have the likes of Trick or Treat , Night of the Demons, Cemetery of Terror, and Lady in White plus the return of Michael Myers in Halloween IV and V. While on TV we have the birth of the Treehouse of Horror, comedy horror in The Midnight Hour and an infamous British Halloween hoax!
Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here plus more articles on the weird and wonderful here-
Sunday, 16 October 2022
HYPNOGORIA 224 - The Origins of Halloween Part XI
We have reached the 1980s in our history of Halloween, and in this chapter we look at the first half of that decade, discovering Halloween TV specials galore from well-loved shows, various movie Tricks and Treats, the return of Michael Myers, and the rise of Elvira!
Find all the podcasts in the HYPNOGORIA family here plus more articles on the weird and wonderful here-
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
COMMENTARY CLUB MINISODES 023 - Blackadder II - Bells
In a new mini season of our stay in, stay safe comedy podcasts, we look at the first episode of Blackadder II in which we catch up with Blackadder, Percy and Baldrick in Tudor times, where merry England is ruled by Queen Elizabeth I (played Miranda Richardson),aided by her stalwart advisor Lord Melchett (Stephen Fry) and long-serving Nursie (Patsy Byrne). In this episode, romance is in the air and we have a guest appearance from the late great Rik Mayall as Lord Flashheart!
COMMENTARY CLUB HOME DOMAIN
If you enjoyed the show, we have a little campaign to raise money for Alzheimer's Disease research! Any donations gratefully received!
Friday, 4 December 2020
COMMENTARY CLUB - Minisode 022 - Blackadder's Christmas Carol
We have a festive visit to Mr Ebenezer Blackadder for Blackadder's Christmas Carol! First aired back on 23rd December 1988, this classic Yuletide comedy special features an all-star cast which includes Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Robbie Coltrane, Miranda Richardson, Miriam Margolyes, and Jim Broadbent!
If you enjoyed the show, we have a little campaign to raise money for Alzheimer's Disease research! Any donations gratefully received!
Friday, 22 November 2019
THE BOX OF DELIGHTS IS OPEN!
I've just opened a brand new section in the Great Library of Dreams devoted to The Box of Delights in all its incarnations. Here you will find writings and podcasts covering the original book by John Masefield, the well-loved TV series, plus details of all its various radio incarnations too!
CLICK HERE TO GO SWIFT TO THE BOX OF DELIGHTS!
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
COMMENTARY CLUB 017 - Duel
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - COMMENTARY CLUB 017 - Duel
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If you enjoyed the show, we have a little campaign to raise money for Alzheimer's Disease research! Any donations gratefully received!
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
THE 'ORRIBLE 'OUSE OF TERRIBLE OLD TAT - Who Trumped?
Welcome back dear fiends to the 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat! A few weeks ago we were rummaging in the games cupboard and unearthed a fondly remembered deck of cards that was essentially a set of Marvel superhero Top Trumps. They were made by the toy company Jotastar, who held a great many licenses to produce spin-off and tie-in tat for a variety of kid-friendly franchises and properties. However this Marvel card game was not their only foray in the twilight world of exactly-like-Top-Trumps-except-in-name-only card games. For in 1978 they produced another suspiciously Trump-like card game but tied to another legendary fictional universe - Doctor Who.
Back in 1978, Doctor Who was enjoying one of its many golden ages, for this was the era of the Fourth Doctor. And not only was Tom Baker's incarnation of the Time Lord that delighting the kids with his own brand of anarchy, humour and jelly babies. He was teamed up with popular companion (and in particular very popular with the Dads watching), Leela, she of the handy dagger and tribal garb, plus at that time was just coming to the end of a run of particularly scarifying stories, which had greatly expanded the Who canon of iconic monsters and villains.
Now the card game produced by Jotastar was assembled by using pretty much the same template as their Marvel game, with the same rules being were used with minor tweaks here and there. Aside from the rules text being rewritten to include references to the long running SF show, there was a slight change to the stats on the cards - while we still had the attributes Special Powers and Weapons, just like the Marvel deck, instead of Physical Strength we now had Mental Ability - a fitting change as the Doctor tends to outthink his enemies rather than throw buses at them.
Just like the Marvel game, you could divide the pack into to halves and play the good guys vs the baddies. However it is here that this game goes a little weird. For over the years the Doctor has had a long line of companions and assistants, plus he has met a host of good characters who have helped him out, such as the Brigadier, assorted Time Lords, Thals, and so forth. However somewhat weirdly, in the Heroes list the only familiar faces we have are the Doctor himself (obviously) and the TARDIS. And instead of other characters from the show's history, we have the following -
HEROES
Alexander the Great
Annie Oakley
Boadicea
Chaka King of the Zulus
Colonel James Bowie
Davy Crockett
Doctor Who
Geronimo
Hercules
King Arthur
Lord Nelson
Parthian Warrior
Robin Hood
Samson
Sherlock Holmes
Shiao Chi Samurai Warrior
Spartacus
The TARDIS
Thor
Wyatt Earp
Yes for some reason it was decided that famous historical characters should be the good guys. The rules refer to this disparate group as "the Legendary Legion". Now firstly it is only right and proper to question why we have mythological characters (such as Thor) and fictional folks (Sherlock Holmes) rubbing shoulders with actual historical personages. But to kids back in the 1970s the more important question was "Why the hell are this lot in here? They were never in the show!". Well alright, Wyatt Earp had appeared in an First Doctor Story The Gunslingers, back when the show still did purely historical stories without any alien monsters in. But even so, that was back in 1966, well before most of the target audience would have been able to remember, or even been born. So then, here was a Doctor Who game in which nearly the half the cards had bugger all to do with Doctor Who.
Davros
On the whole, looking at the selection of characters in the deck, I rather suspect the deck was devised by someone who had never seen the show properly - which would explain the good guys being pulled from history books. And as for the Aliens selection, it looks like they just went through the seminal Target tie-in tome The Doctor Who Monster Book which was first published back in November 1975 (and you can read about it here). And hence, there are no monsters more recent that Tom Baker's first season (Davros and the Zygons). However while it was suspicious there were no newer monsters and villains, in all fairness it is a rather good list of famous foes!
ALIENS
Gellguards
Omega
Sea Devils
The Autons
The Axons
The Cybermen
The Daemons
The Draconians
The Giant Robot
The Ice Warriors
The Mechanoids
The Ogrons
The Sensorites
The Silurians
The Sontarans
The Spiders of Metebelis
The Wirrn
The Yeti
The Zygons
However there is an obvious anomaly - for although we do have their creator, Davros, their hired muscle, the Ogrons, and two races they fought bloody and bitter wars with, the Mechanoids and the Draconians, the Doctor's most famous enemies, the Daleks do not appear, Possibly this was down to the fact that Terry Nation, who originally created the intergalactic terrors, still owned the copyright to the Daleks, and indeed around this time he was considering various plans featuring the pepperpots from Skaro such as having them appear in Blake's 7 and developing a separate Dalek series.
However judging from some of the attributes given on the cards, it is equally plausible that the Daleks being missing was just a blunder. For it seems clear that not only had whoever devised the set never seen Doctor Who, they were also wildly oblivious to both history and even what was on the cards. For example, Boadicea has a Weapons score of 0 despite being shown waving a dirty great sword and riding in her famous chariot with spiky wheels!
Sadly also the artwork on the cards isn't quite as good as the Marvel pack. Some cards do like rather nice, and it's fun to see familiar faces for Whoniverse rendered in a pseudo comic-book style. On teh downside though, many are clearly copied from very familiar photos (hello again Target's Doctor Who Monster Book) and some look distinctly wobbly. Also as many of photos used as reference were in black and white (spookily enough just as they all were in Target's Doctor Who Monster Book), you can see where the artist has just been guessing what was in the dark, smudgy areas. The Ogron is a great example of this, with clear guesswork filling in many areas of shadowed detail, and the whole picture looking like a ripply funfair mirror reflection. See also the background face on the Spiders from Metebelis card, whose features have been clearly surmised from a blurry photo.
On the whole then, while it seemed like a brilliant concept, sadly this Doctor Who Trump Card Game didn't deliver on its promise. Nor did it live up to its Marvel cousin - while that card game had felt authentic and official, to the extent it was like a little loose leaf encyclopedia or guidebook for the Marvel Universe, the flawed execution of the Doctor Who game clearly marked it out as cash-in tat. Much like the Doctor Who Annuals of the same era (more on which another day) or the previously discussed TARDIS TUNER, while we were happy to have them - there wasn't a lot of merch about back then remember - at the same time you knew they weren't exactly right; they weren't proper Doctor Who like the Target Books or the Palitoy Talking Dalek. In fact in many ways they were a pale shadow of Doctor Who cards given away free with Weetabix around the time which featured not only better art but an innate understanding of the series (and again, more on those another day)
However despite all that, the set now goes for a hefty price, with many sellers flogging off individual cards for a couple of quid a go. And while my inner collecting geek naturally baulks at breaking up sets and selling off cards one by one in this manner, at the same time I can understand why you might really want, for example, the Sea Devil or Mechanoid cards but be more than happy to pass on the wobbly Ogron...
On the whole then, while it seemed like a brilliant concept, sadly this Doctor Who Trump Card Game didn't deliver on its promise. Nor did it live up to its Marvel cousin - while that card game had felt authentic and official, to the extent it was like a little loose leaf encyclopedia or guidebook for the Marvel Universe, the flawed execution of the Doctor Who game clearly marked it out as cash-in tat. Much like the Doctor Who Annuals of the same era (more on which another day) or the previously discussed TARDIS TUNER, while we were happy to have them - there wasn't a lot of merch about back then remember - at the same time you knew they weren't exactly right; they weren't proper Doctor Who like the Target Books or the Palitoy Talking Dalek. In fact in many ways they were a pale shadow of Doctor Who cards given away free with Weetabix around the time which featured not only better art but an innate understanding of the series (and again, more on those another day)
However despite all that, the set now goes for a hefty price, with many sellers flogging off individual cards for a couple of quid a go. And while my inner collecting geek naturally baulks at breaking up sets and selling off cards one by one in this manner, at the same time I can understand why you might really want, for example, the Sea Devil or Mechanoid cards but be more than happy to pass on the wobbly Ogron...
If you want to see the set without paying an arm or a leg you can download a copy here - DISCLAIMER - I have no idea about the legality of this
Sunday, 27 January 2019
HYPNOGORIA 108 - Bird Box
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - HYPNOGORIA 108 - Birdbox
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Sunday, 8 April 2018
MICROGORIA 53 - Night Voices: The Hospice
In this little episode Mr Jim Moon takes a look at a doubly rare thing - firstly because it's an episode of an obscure TV horror series hardly ever seen since its first broadcast, and secondly for it is an even rarer beast - a screen adaptation of a Robert Aickman story!
DIRECT DOWNLOAD - MICROGORIA 53 - Night Voices: The Hospice
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Sunday, 21 January 2018
HYPNOGORIA 82 - Stranger Things 2 Part I
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Saturday, 20 January 2018
MICROGORIA 51 - Remembering Peter Wyngarde
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Wednesday, 15 November 2017
The 'Orribe 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat - The Mysteries of Mastermind
Welcome once again dear fiends to the 'Orrible 'Ouse of Terrible Old Tat! Now then, last time you popped over we were rummaging in the Old Board Games cupboard, and had uncovered the history of the international bestseller Mastermind - namely that this well-known game was actually an adaptation of an old pen and paper pastime called Bulls and Cows. However we didn't quite reveal all the secrets of this code-breaking game...
Bulls and Cows was a game which involve guessing a sequence of numbers, or in a popular variant, words. Now obviously any game involving numbers raises the spectre of mathematics, which for many folks is the polar opposite of fun. And therefore a key factor in Mastermind becoming a global hit was the simple but genius decision to replace the numbers with colours. To begin with this gives the game a visual appeal, but also the placing of multi-coloured pegs gives the game a pleasing tactile quality too. And it should be noted too that having a choice of six colours to create a sequence to be guessed by the other player actually cuts down the odds of guessing it correctly, hence making the game a little bit easier and more accessible for younger players. Now at this point I would to the maths to show the reduction in possibilites but you'd all stop reading. Such is the dread power of maths!
Anyhow, instead of scoring "Bulls or "Cows", the board game used a system of black and white pegs. A correct colour in the right place gets a black peg, whereas a correct colour in the wrong spot gets a white peg. Now the board in Mastermind has a number of rows for the player to make his guesses, and each row of peg-holes has an additional quartet of slots for marking the guesses. Dr John Billingsley, who played a key role in developing the game, cunningly decided that the marking holes should be placed in a square to disrupt the tendency for players to mark each peg in sequence, thus making the game a little too easy.
Now it was also Dr Billingsley that gave the game its name. And here lies one of the great mysteries of Mastermind. For around the same time as the board game hit the shelves, there was a hit TV show on the BBC in England which was also called Mastermind. Devised by a chap called Bill Wright, the inspiration for this quiz show was actually Wright's experiences in World War II being interrogated by the Gestapo! The show's format is both iconic and brilliantly simply - basically each episode sees four contestants face two rounds of questions. Each in turn takes their place in a black leather chair lit only by a spotlight and faces two minutes of questions. The first round is on their chosen specialised subject, with the second round comprising of general knowledge questions. Winners of each show then go on to compete with each other until at each series's finale an overall winner is decided and awarded an ornamental glass bowl. And no, I'm not making that up! You really did only win a bowl.
Now the TV show Mastermind has something on an interesting history in itself. It first aired in 1972 on a Sunday evening in a late night slot. Given its cerebral nature, it was thought that the show would only ever have a niche audience - for there were no flashy prizes or big cash giveaways, and the questions were of a high level of difficulty. Not your usual quiz show in other words. However in 1973, the BBC found itself in a bit of a bind. A raunchy sitcom Casanova '73 which starred Leslie "Ding Dong!" Phillips had proved to be a bit too lecherous and had drawn a flood of complaints. After three episodes, a full scale public outcry was taking place and the Beeb decided to swiftly move the sexy show to a later time slot. However this snap decision to appease shrill self-appointed voices of the probably mythical Silent Majority such as Mary Whitehouse left a gap in the schedules. And so, as a stop-gap Mastermind was given the troubled sitcom's old slot. This was of course only meant to be a temporary move, but to everyone's surprise became a huge hit.
Now while competing to win a glass bowl by answering questions on subjects nobody at home knew a thing about might sound like the dullest thing ever, Mastermind was actually riveting television. To begin with we had that brilliantly atmospheric theme tune - a piece called "Approaching Menace" by British composer Neil Richardson - usual playing over a very simple title sequence that just showed the famous black leather chair lurking in its single spotlight. Whereas most quiz and game shows are wheeling out bright colours and the kind upbeat music produced by a surfeit of sugar and e-numbers, Mastermind could be mistaken for the opening of a dark thriller or even a horror movie! And while the original run of the show was hosted by the charismatic Magnus Magnusson, who managed to be both a genial and a somewhat sinister quiz master, the real star was always that infamous chair lurking in the dark.
And what really made Mastermind such tense viewing was a very simple device employed by the show from the very beginning. And that was that as each contestant took their place in the ominous black chair and began their round of questions, the camera very slowly and oh-so-steadily zoomed in, so that by the time the buzzer sounded to mark the end of the round, the camera was squarely on the contestant's face. Filming the rounds in this way proved to be a stroke of genius, for it allowed to viewer to taste the rising tension of answering a barrage of relentless questions against the clock.
The show ran every year until 1997, when it was decided that perhaps old Mastermind was a bit long in the tooth. But you can't keep a classic off the air long, and while TV execs might have thought the show old and boring, audiences still loved it. After all, there was a very good reason the show had ran for a quarter of century with the only changes to the format being tweaks to the title sequence. Hence it was revived almost immediately on radio, then on the Discovery Channel with Clive Anderson hosting. And then in 2003, it returned to its rightful place on BBC 1 with John Humphreys as the host, where it is still running to this very day.
Now then, to get back to our original specialised subject of old tat, what has all of the above got to do with the board game? Well, that is in fact the very question that bedevilled generations of TV viewers and game players. Was there some connection between the game and the TV show? They had the same name, and given that the box showed a distinguished man in a darkened room, looking ominous, the game seemed like it was somehow related to the TV show. But that wasn't Magnus Magnusson sat in a stylish modern armchair chair! And he never had a beautiful assistant like the suave chap on the game box. Plus if the game was a tie-in to the TV show, why wasn't it effectively Trivial Pursuit a decade or so early?
Well now, at last we can reveal the truth! And what is more, once again it is down the Dr John Billingsley. As Mastermind the TV show was just becoming a huge hit, the good doctor provisionally entitled the new board game with the same name, never thinking that it would hit the shelves with that monicker. Our genial boffin assumed that there would be all manner of legal difficulties and another name would be chosen for the game's release. However the makers of the new game Invicta loved the name and went with it, and somehow the BBC never challenged them over the use of the same title. Possibly if the game had featured questions and a quiz the BBC might have had something to say about it, but I suspect the prevailing thinking at the time was that "mastermind" was simply a term in common usage and no one, neither Invicta nor the Beeb, could lay claim to it.
However, who was that chap in the chair? Well, there's an interesting tale too. Given the name 'mastermind' and the brief that this was a code-breaking game, the marketing folks thought they'd invoke a James Bond/spy vibe, and so started looking for a suave-looking gent, a beautiful girl, and also hired a cat. The original model they had booked didn't turn up, so a local man who ran a string of hairdressing salons, Bill Woodward was suggested at short notice to fill the chair. And with his neatly trimmed beard and sharp suits, Bill certainly fit the bill. Likewise his glamorous companion was also a bit of chance casting. The mysterious lovely lady was Cecilia Fung, who at the time was studying computer science at Leicester University - a rather nice coincidence that chimed with the game's origins in a computer version called Moo! Cecilia was literally stopped in the street by folks from the modelling agency and offered the job on the spot, and being a struggling student she jumped at the chance.
And thus history was made! The iconic cover photo looked intriguing, glamorous, and stylish - with the aura of sophistication and mystery it generated, it undoubted it helped the game become the global smash it was. Bill Woodward did many promotional tours for the game, so much so that at one stage he had "Mr Mastermind" on his passport! However more than a few players over the years were perplexed to discover the game rules made no mention of this suave fellow and were left wondering who he was and what was his deal? Was he an M type of guy, giving the orders for secret missions? Or a Blofeld, plotting some nefarious scheme? In fact, they were going for a Bondian supervillain look, hence the hiring of the cat. Bill later recalled that several shots were taken of him holding the kitty in full Blofeld mode, but in the end it was decided to ditch the moggy. However unfortunately that wasn't before the cat itself had registered its own unique protest against the concept by pissing all over Bill's trousers.
Sadly now, although you can still buy Mastermind, made by Hasbro these days, the iconic packing featuring Bill and Cecilia has now gone. And I can't help feeling that the game has lost some of its mystique and magic with this departure. However I am willing bet that if they were reinstated on the box, there would be a sharp spike in sales, for I am sure that that mysterious air of style and sophistication would once again have prospective buyers picking up the game just to find out who they were. Rumours that the cat is now lurking in a secret volcano base of its own and plotting world domination are entirely made up by me just now.
Saturday, 30 September 2017
HYPNOGORIA 71 - Scarred For Life
Do you remember the '70s? Strange decade wasn't it? Post apocalyptic dramas, weird crime fighters, spooky SF shows, and some genuinely terrifying ghost stories... And that was just the children's television! Come take a trip back to that very disturbing decade where terror and horror lurked everywhere from TV to comics to board games and even snack foods! Relive those golden days with Mr Jim Moon as we take an in-depth look at Scarred For Life Volume 1 by Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence, a marvellous tome that both catalogues and celebrate that was weird and unsettling in the 1970s!
Get your own copy of Scarred For Life Volume 1 here!
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