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.

---

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.

---

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: 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.

---

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.

Looks Unfamiliar #25: Tim Worthington – People Don’t Really Go On About Psychedelic Blue Peter

Looks Unfamiliar 25 - Tim Worthington

Looks Unfamiliar is a podcast in which writer and occasional broadcaster Tim Worthington talks to a guest about some of the things that they remember that nobody else ever seems to. This time the guest is Tim himself, who talks to Stephen O’Brien about the fact that almost literally nobody he has ever met has heard of The Only Way by Lisa Stansfield, sixties crime caper movie The Brain, Jackanory‘s adaptation of Starstormers by Nicholas Fisk, the ‘There Were Three Of Them, In A Boat…’ Public Information Film, the original version of I Was Made To Love Magic by Nick Drake, trashy teen novel Secrets From The School Underground, early Mark Radcliffe vehicle Skyman, and forgotten ‘fourth’ Trumptonshire series Rubovia. Not to mention a certain less than reputable film that used to show up on German cable channels late on Saturday Night. Along the way we’ll be finding out whether Kim Wilde Doing Abba is preferable to Abba Doing Kim Wilde, watching the Welsh Brass Eye, hearing about when Billy Elliot exploded (and even then wasn’t as good as Musical Youth), and getting annoyed at a fictional schoolboy’s opinions on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And if you’re listening, Ian Radio 4 Extra, sort those repeats out!

You can get my new book, Can’t Help Thinking About Me, from here.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE - SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES - RSS

You can find more editions of Looks Unfamiliar here.

Looks Unfamiliar is hosted by Podnose.

---

Support Looks Unfamiliar by buying one of Tim's books! Can't Help Thinking About Me is brand new and features loads of brand new material, including plenty about Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley, and you can get it in paperback here or from the Kindle store here.