The Larks Ascending

The Larks Ascending is a complete guide to comedy, humour and downright oddness on BBC Radio 3, from Kenneth Williams’ archival documentaries about strolling players who never existed, through Rowan Atkinson’s academic profiles of public figures who never existed, right up to Armando Iannucci’s interval talks about composers who did exist, but they’re fitting around him and his using his ears whether they like it or not. There’s Chris Morris interviewing Peter Cook (and getting in trouble), BBC Radiophonic Workshop hi-jinks, the first ever proper staging of Joe Orton’s unused film script for The Beatles, some sitcoms that definitely wouldn’t appeal to viewers waiting for Coronation Street, satire, silliness, and a couple of plays about cricket. And if that’s just not highbrow enough for you, then you could always enrol at The Half-Open University…

Featuring in-depth looks at little-known and little-heard works by Peter Cook, Sue Townsend, Ivor Cutler, Kenneth Williams, N.F. Simpson, Peter Tinniswood, Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Malcolm Bradbury, John Sessions, Joe Orton, David Renwick And Andrew Marshall, Rowan Atkinson, Toby Hadoke, The National Theatre Of Brent, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop and more, The Larks Ascending is the full history of silliness and satire on the channel that Dr. Hans Keller called a 'daytime music station'. Priced at just a few pence*!


(*Please direct all complaints about actual price to Peter Weevil and John Throgmorton, Polyphonica Neasdeniensis)

Paperback - Kindle

You can hear me talking about the book and some of the shows featured in it here:

Box Set: Loungecore

A collection of some of my recent features on mid to late nineties loungey indie dance music...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, and this time it's some of my recent features and podcasts about the long-forgotten Britpop spin-off Loungecore...

Come On And Love Me Now - the enduring appeal of Life by The Cardigans

Amongst Them Trevor The Sheep - what really happened when Chris Morris' Blue Jam got taken off-air halfway through a show?

I Love The Gentle People - how did a kitschy lounge/dance act come to be all over daytime television and 'lad' mags?

Food Processors Are Great! - why I still find Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur inspiring and exciting, and why the nonsense about it 'inventing' Brexit should be slung into the nearest burning bin.

Looks Unfamiliar: Emma Burnell - Emma shares her memories of nineties Easy Listening radio station Melody Radio.

Looks Unfamiliar: Jenny Morrill - Jenny talks us through her attempts at looking like Justine from Elastica.

I'm Leaner, I'm Meaner, I Ain't No Inbetweener - late nineties Post-Diana moody trip-hop and the bewildeirng rise of unlikely chart star Jimmy Ray.

Je Suis Perdue Dans La Nuit, Dans Cette Ville Où Je Vis- how I discovered 1968 by France Gall.

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Not On Your Telly is available in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here. And there's several other books to choose from here...

Box Set: Looks Unfamiliar Series One

The first six editions of my podcast Looks Unfamiliar...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, and this time it's the initial run of my podcast Looks Unfamiliar, the show that looks at all of the things that you remember that nobody else ever seems to. Have you missed any of them? Get them listened to now...

Phil Catterall
Podcaster and gamer Phil Catterall on on Madballs Comic, Channel 4 consumer advice show Wise Up!, animation Phantom 2040, the Platoon computer game, Birdseye Steakhouse Grills adverts, and Star Wars: Droids.

Garreth F. Hirons
Musician and writer Garreth F. Hirons on indie band The Bigger The God, action figure range Food Fighters, ZX Spectrum game Saboteur, wrestling tag team The Triangle Of Terror, Sizzlin’ Bacon Monster Munch, and BBC3 sitcom Fun At The Funeral Parlour.

Mark Thompson
Radio host and political pundit Mark Thompson on computer-driven action serial Whiz Kids, Crash ZX Spectrum, ITV filler Night Shift, Public Information Film family The Blunders, sci-fi drama The Last Train, and Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Drak Pack.

Stephen O'Brien
Writer Stephen O’Brien on Steven Moffatt's The Office, LM magazine, You Can Do The Cube by Patrick Bossert, Brilliant (the band), The Beachcombers and other last-minute ITV emergency schedule replacement standbys, and The Morecambe And Wise Board Game.

Ben Baker
Writer, broadcaster and quizmaster Ben Baker on early Chris Evans vehicle TV Mayhem, football comic The Onion Bag, novelty yoghurt range Fiendish Feet, the early internet craze for misidentifying every comedy song as ‘by’ Weird Al Yankovic, Betsy Byars' Bingo Brown novels, and the International Youth Service penpal scheme.

Emma Burnell
Journalist Emma Burnell on The Miners' Strike Tape Whose Side Are You On?, Sweet Valley High, playground craze Scoubidou, childrens' horror book The Patchwork Monkey, Rutger Hauer movie Split Second, and the Ever Ready ‘Power To The People’ advert.

Series One Compilation
Highlights from all the above plus Tim talking to Georgey Spanswick on BBC Radio York about seventies TV Tie-in board games.

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Higher Than The Sun is the story of Screamadelica, Foxbase Alpha, Bandwagonesque and Loveless, and how, long before Britpop, Creation Records took on the world and nearly won. You can get it as a paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.

Box Set: TV Drama

A collection of some of my recent features on television drama...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, and this time it's some of my recent features and podcast chats about television drama, some of which had the temerity to exist before The Sopranos and Buffy The Vampire Slayer had even been thought of...

That Was This Life That Was - some thoughts on rewatching mid-nineties drama sensation This Life; this is a reworked version of the feature that originally appeared on this blog, with a new section looking at the experience of watching This Life on original transmission.

Doctor Who And The Rosa - a review of the standout episode of Jodie Whittaker's first series, which started out simply as a celebration of Sunday Television but eventually had to tackle the too politacaly correct NOT MY DOCTOR!!!!!! idiots as well...

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist - Channel 4's mid-eighties presentation of Dario Fo's satirical play is one of journalist Emma Burnell's choices on Looks Unfamiliar.

Dr. Pod - I join Emma Burnell and Steve Fielding on The Zeitgeist Tapes, the podcast looking at where politics and pop culture collide, to talk about politics in Doctor Who old and new and whether it really has got 'too politically correct' (clue: it hasn't).

Body Contact - BBC1's 1987 rock musical misfire is one of animator Phil Norman's choices in Looks Unfamiliar.

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Top Of The Box - The Complete Guide To BBC Records And Tapes Singles is available as a paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.

Box Set: Book Reviews

 A collection of some of my recent book reviews...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, and this time it's some of my recent book reviews and a couple of other related bits and pieces...

Ashes To Ashes - The Songs Of David Bowie 1976-2016 by Chris O'Leary

How Does It Feel? - A Life Of Musical Misadventures by Mark Kermode

Psychedelia And Other Colours by Rob Chapman

I'm Not With The Band by Sylvia Patterson

1966 - The Year The Decade Exploded by Jon Savage

The Books I Couldn't Help Thinking About - a look at some of the writers that have had the most significant influence on me, including Richard Herring, Caitlin Moran, Andrew Collins, Nicholas Pegg, Stuart Maconie and more.

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You can find more not especially highbrow literary criticism in The Camberwick Green Procrastination Society, available in paperback here, from the Kindle Store here, or as a full-colour eBook here.

Box Set: Sounds Of The 60s

A collection of some of my recent features on sixties pop music...

It looks as though some of you aren't aware that I now have a new website (which you can find here), and are still hanging around here wondering where all the new 'content' is. Well it's over there, obviously. To give you all some idea of where to start, though, I'm going to be adding some new posts here with themed collections of links, starting with some of my more recent writing on sixties pop music...
  

Sounds Of The 60s - a look back at Radio 2's Sounds Of The 60s and some of the records I discovered through it.

Funny Ha Ha And Funny Peculiar - a look at the hidden beat, psych, funk and soul highlights in sixties comedy records.

The Wind Cries Mickey Murphy - what was Jimi Hendrix really listening to when he wrote The Wind Cries Mary? This is a new version of the article originally published on this blog, with a brand new introduction. 

All Its Wonder To Know - why has the original version of I Was Made To Love Magic by Nick Drake disappeared from history? This is also discussed in Looks Unfamiliar #25: Tim Worthington - People Don't Really Go On About Psychedelic Blue Peter.

You Can't See To Find How You Got There, So Just Blow Your Mind - a review of Psychedelia And Other Colours by Rob Chapman.

Je Suis Perdue Dans La Nuit, Dans Cette Ville Où Je Vis - how I discovered 1968 by France Gall.

All That I Can See With My Mind's Eye - a review of 1966 - The Year The Decade Exploded by Jon Savage.

All Fall Down And Lost In The Mystery - a look at SMiLE by The Beach Boys, and why I preferred it before somebody worked out how all the unreleased bits and pieces joined together.

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Can't Help Thinking About Me includes expanded versions of the Jimi Hendrix, Beach Boys and France Gall features, as well as pieces on The Monkees, The Beatles and David Bowie's early television appearances, and you can get it in paperback here or from the Kindle store here.