Vaguely remembered programmes/ bands/ films from many years ago... what WERE they?

[TJ]

Anyone know the name of this 1980s American film... about a middle class family whose son had tried to commit suicide by superglueing his nostrils shut, and was encouraged by his therapist to befriend an Ally Sheedy-lookalike girl who was suffering from similar mental malady. One scene involved them getting all stroppy and angst-ridden with a bunch of merrymakers celebrating someone's birthday in McDonalds.

Absolute rubbish, but we were made to watch it in school, and I've never been able to put a name to it since...

[Hemorrhoid Shark]

This  has been bugging me for some time. I'd guess that if anyone knows the name of this show, it'd be you lot.

I think it was about 1993-1994 I fisrt saw it - a sitcom (I THINK it was on the BBC) about an average family who moved into a new house, only to find it occupied by the ghost of a neurotic Jewish grandmother. I remember thinking it was quite good, but then I was only about ten at the time.

Anyone else remember it?

[MojoJojo]

Not a childhood film, but I remember around the mid 90s a film set in post apocalyptic  Australia. Gangs of men just roam around looking for women (who seem to be in short supply). The main character was a bloke who roamed around with his dog, who he could communicate with telepathically, and smelt out women for him. I remember a few bits from the ending, but I'll leave them out as they'll be spoilers. Got a feeling it was called something like "Man's Best , but imdb draws a blank.

[TJ]

This  has been bugging me for some time. I'd guess that if anyone knows the name of this show, it'd be you lot.

I think it was about 1993-1994 I fisrt saw it - a sitcom (I THINK it was on the BBC) about an average family who moved into a new house, only to find it occupied by the ghost of a neurotic Jewish grandmother. I remember thinking it was quite good, but then I was only about ten at the time.

Anyone else remember it?

"So Haunt Me".

[Robot DeNiro]

Hemorrhoid Shark, the sitcom was called So Haunt Me.  Not sure about it being "quite good" though.

Okay, mine is a comedy novel that I read in the late eighties.  I'm pretty sure it was written by two people and it was about the end of the world.  I think the plot was a mixture of various typical ways in which the world could end: new ice age, alien invasion, nuclear war and so on.  I know Hitler was in it, back from the dead somehow.  The only other thing I can remember is a character who was obsessed by numerology.  He worked out that anything that was named "Titanic" was cursed to a premature death, and he became a gibbering wreak when a woman referred to his manhood as "Titanic" in the throes of passion.  Ring any bells?

[Morrisfan82]

Anyone remember when Milky Ways used to have a chocolate coloured middle bit rather than white mush?

Yeah. They changed it sometime in the early 90s. They taste a lot better now if you ask me.

Also, anyone remember the chocolate bar 'Secret' (I think it was called that)? It was like a nested chocolate tube, with moose in the middle.

Ha ha, the antlers you can enjoy between meals! Sorry.

Yeh, as mentioned it was sickly as fuck, and fucking expensive too, compared to the Star Bars of this world at any rate.

I remember the advert was some poncy affair with this guy looking for some woman in train stations etc, accompanied by 'Have You Seen Her'. He finds the chocolate wrapper, which is some sort of clue. A kind of inverse Milk Tray saga.

Does anyone remember those coloured, chalky fruit candies shaped like letters that came in a bag? My mother used to buy me them as some sort of bizarre educational tool, I think

Well, that's one way of looking at it. On the other hand, they're probably the only sweets your children can spell 'fuck off' with.

Oh fuck, now I've written that I remember them. Yeh man, they were made out of that really hard stuff that kinda goes chewy when you bite it. Can't remember what they're called though. It might have been something dull like 'Letters'.

A far superior name for them of course would be 'Letra-Bets!'. With the exclamation mark, like that.

[Hemorrhoid Shark]

"So Haunt Me".

Aahhhhh, that's the one. Thanks. I'm reading the BBC comedy Guide entry for it now. Is there anywhere I can download episodes?

[Fuckwittio]

Anyone know the name of this 1980s American film... about a middle class family whose son had tried to commit suicide by superglueing his nostrils shut, and was encouraged by his therapist to befriend an Ally Sheedy-lookalike girl who was suffering from similar mental malady. One scene involved them getting all stroppy and angst-ridden with a bunch of merrymakers celebrating someone's birthday in McDonalds.

Absolute rubbish, but we were made to watch it in school, and I've never been able to put a name to it since...

Is it maybe Better Off Dead with John Cusack? He makes numerous suicide attempts such as stuffing his nostrils with cotton buds, and I believe, drinking petrol. One of the first videos I ever rented, I barely remember anything about it, but it doesn't sound too far off your description.

[MojoJojo]

Not a childhood film, but I remember around the mid 90s a film set in post apocalyptic  Australia. Gangs of men just roam around looking for women (who seem to be in short supply). The main character was a bloke who roamed around with his dog, who he could communicate with telepathically, and smelt out women for him. I remember a few bits from the ending, but I'll leave them out as they'll be spoilers. Got a feeling it was called something like "Man's Best , but imdb draws a blank.

It's "A Boy And His Dog". Had the same dog as the Brady Bunch in it.

Wonderful thing, google.

[TJ]

Anyone know the name of this 1980s American film... about a middle class family whose son had tried to commit suicide by superglueing his nostrils shut, and was encouraged by his therapist to befriend an Ally Sheedy-lookalike girl who was suffering from similar mental malady. One scene involved them getting all stroppy and angst-ridden with a bunch of merrymakers celebrating someone's birthday in McDonalds.

Absolute rubbish, but we were made to watch it in school, and I've never been able to put a name to it since...

Is it maybe Better Off Dead with John Cusack? He makes numerous suicide attempts such as stuffing his nostrils with cotton buds, and I believe, drinking petrol. One of the first videos I ever rented, I barely remember anything about it, but it doesn't sound too far off your description.

Nah, this was no comedy, believe me...

[shit as fuck]

Comedy - This will probably be a very easy one for most of you.  It was a sketch show and it had one section about a branch of christianity that worshipped Michael Jackson as a prophet.  They had a nativity-scene style model of the 'evil' Jarvis Cocker trying to attack some children at the Brits and the vicar gave sermons on how great MJ is and stuff.

Must be quite recent so I don't know how I've forgotten it so comprehensively.  Until a couple of weeks ago I was convinced it was a 'Fist of Fun' sketch but I have both series now and it's not in there, besides it only happened in '96 and S2 of FoF was in '95.  Now I think about it I don't even remember Lee or Herring being present, even though it was their kind of thing.

TMWRNJ?  Or something else?  Was it any good?

Comedy - Fairly sure this was Friday/Saturday Night Armistice but would like confirmation.  It was a fake-docusoap about junior hospital managers and involved the line (or a similar line) "If we are forced to shut down wards then we shut them down in such a way as to spell out the word 'ARSE' [in lights, on the hospital when viewed from the outside]"

Genius.  What was it?  Where can I get a copy?

Sweets - Anyone else remember those dark chocolate, tetrapyramidal things full of thick minty liquid?  I think they were made my Terry's but not sure.  Were very expensive and only for very special treats, individually packaged and very, very hard to eat in a dignified manner.  Probably about an inch high with an inch square base.  They were the fuckin mutt's.

Paranoia - I was young when TDT was first on and, being simple country folk, we didn't have a VCR until a year or so after it came out on commercial release.  As soon as we got the player I bought the first video and then about a week later I bought the second one, planning to pick up the third within a few more weeks.  The third TDT video - which is of course a figment of my imagination - was green and marked '3' in a similar way to the first two, I thought i'd somehow missed these 3 episodes when they were boradcast.  I can still visualise it on the shelves and before gaining access to the internet (where I found confirmation that only the 6 eps I had seen on telly years before had been made) I was convinced the tapes had been withdrawn from circulation and their existence erased from history because they contained some kind of hidden message revealing a massive politcal/royal scandal or something similar.

Thinking about it now, it must have been a copy of the second volume that had suffered water-damage or something to cause discolouration.  The '3' on the case must have been a trick of the mind.

I don't know why I typed all that out, especially as it's off-topic; I suppose at the back of my mind that paranoid 13 year old is still hoping someone else will come forward and comfirm that it existed.  Not holding my breath though.  [/catharsis]

[Cambrian Times]

Sweets - Anyone else remember those dark chocolate, tetrapyramidal things full of thick minty liquid? I think they were made my Terry's but not sure. Were very expensive and only for very special treats, individually packaged and very, very hard to eat in a dignified manner. Probably about an inch high with an inch square base. They were the fuckin mutt's.

Terry's Pyramints. Yes they were the bollocks.

Terry's also did coconut bar in which the segmants were all roundy coconut shapes.

That Jarvis Cocker thing was from TMWRNJ. It was Richard going on about the church of Michael Jackson. Or what if Michael Jackson was the second coming or something.

[Morrisfan82]

Didn't Armistice do a thing about worshipping Jacko? They had a huge effigy of him in a church, which revolved and bent over, allowing the sun to shine out of his arse onto the congregation. Armando was the vicar, going on about praising all things Jackson-related, including Michael Jackson (the TV exec), and the film Action Jackson.

[fanny splendid]

A short series in a similar manner to GBH, about the labour party trying, and eventually succeeding in winning a general election in the eighties. The series ended with the country nearly going broke, but being saved by Soviet gold?

Also, I'm in search of a book about a college lecturer who is politically active, leaning way to the left, and trying to organise his students to protest the imminent arrival of a Eugenics professor to give a lecture. In amongst all of this he tries to sleep with as many women as possible, culminating at the end of the book in a big party in which his wife commits suicide.

I think.

[Cambrian Times]

Didn't Armistice do a thing about worshipping Jacko? They had a huge effigy of him in a church, which revolved and bent over, allowing the sun to shine out of his arse onto the congregation. Armando was the vicar, going on about praising all things Jackson-related, including Michael Jackson (the TV exec), and the film Action Jackson.

I think it was the same one, but I'm pretty sure it was TMWRNJ not FNA.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

A short series in a similar manner to GBH, about the labour party trying, and eventually succeeding in winning a general election in the eighties. The series ended with the country nearly going broke, but being saved by Soviet gold?

A Very British Coup.

[Fucknose]

kids programme - in the nineties, where a pyramid shaped thing that glowed spoke to the main characters in this really  scarey voice saying 'yamada' or summat like that. Proper wierd

Advert - Years ago, during the school holidays me and my brother would get up to watch an ad that was on at about 9.20am every day. it was like a series and the character was called 'Herbert the Terbert'. No fuckin idea what it was advertising but this has been bugging me for YEARS.

Sweets - Awesome big chocolate bars that  were really thin and  had little crunchy pieces of either orange or mint. (Could have been called Bitz actually)

[Synchronised Cocks]

Sweets - Awesome big chocolate bars that  were really thin and  had little crunchy pieces of either orange or mint. (Could have been called Bitz actually)

I remember a bar from the 70's called an Ice Breaker. It was thinnish and full of little crunchy bits. Probably not the same bar as you're thinking of though as it didn't come in an orange flavor.

Mmmmmm! Match Makers. Do they still make these? (I'll be hankering for a packet of Spangles next!)

[Munday's Chylde]

Didn't Armistice do a thing about worshipping Jacko? They had a huge effigy of him in a church, which revolved and bent over, allowing the sun to shine out of his arse onto the congregation. Armando was the vicar, going on about praising all things Jackson-related, including Michael Jackson (the TV exec), and the film Action Jackson.

I think it was the same one, but I'm pretty sure it was TMWRNJ not FNA.

Personally i think it was Fist Of Fun series 2.

[fanny splendid]

A Very British Coup.

Ah, thanks for that!

[Gazeuse]

Waht was that fillum where an American soldier had his arms, legs and face blown off and the story was mainly about the goings on in his head and him trying to communicate to the outside world???

I don't know why, but I was thinking about it last night.

[fanny splendid]

Can't remember, the name of the film, but I can remember that Metallica own the rights to it, because they used it in the video to their song One, which was based on the story.

Edit: Johnny Got His gun?

[Jemble Fred]

There was this programme that used to be on when I was just a nipper. It had, I think, Sandy Gall in it, and he would tell everyone about things that had been going down in the world recently. They used to have a section all about weather conditions as well, unless that's a false memory. It had a great theme tune, but that's all I can remember. Is it on DVD, does anyone know?

[fanny splendid]

Gosh, advertising's gain is comedy's loss, eh?

[Jemble Fred]

Advertising?

[Gazeuse]

Can't remember, the name of the film, but I can remember that Metallica own the rights to it, because they used it in the video to their song One, which was based on the story.

Edit: Johnny Got His gun?

That's the one...Thanks Fanny!!!

It's a great film with a VERY depressing end.

[Morrisfan82]

Sandy Gall used to scare the shit out of me.

[phantom power]

Didn't Armistice do a thing about worshipping Jacko? They had a huge effigy of him in a church, which revolved and bent over, allowing the sun to shine out of his arse onto the congregation. Armando was the vicar, going on about praising all things Jackson-related, including Michael Jackson (the TV exec), and the film Action Jackson.

I'm not certain either, but I think this was Armistice, as I always associate it with Armando Iannucci's voice.

Also, I'm in search of a book about a college lecturer who is politically active, leaning way to the left, and trying to organise his students to protest the imminent arrival of a Eugenics professor to give a lecture. In amongst all of this he tries to sleep with as many women as possible, culminating at the end of the book in a big party in which his wife commits suicide.

This is driving me spare, because I remember hering an adaptation of this on Radio 4, then being quite surprised that I'd already heard of the book when I heard the title. Can't remember it now though, which is infuriating.

Here's something that I recall seeing: somebody, in the late eighties or early nineties, did a spoof of Blackadder- a sci-fi version called Blackadder 5. This is such a vague memory that I've often wondered if I'm really just thinking of the future bit from the Christmas special, but I'm sure it was just a short spoof done for another programme.

Also, does anyone remember a bizarre American series from the 4 Later strand called Spy Game? Or possibly Spy Games, I think there was a film with a similar name. It was a slightly surreal drama series about a US intelligence agency that seemed to be privately funded. In order to get into the secret base, they had to drive their car very fast towards a brick wall that would open up at the last second to let them in. I distinctly remember one episode about a woman who wanted to stop all of the traffic lights from working. I think it got cancelled pretty quickly in America... which is a shame, becuase from the handful of episodes I saw it was very entertaining in a nonsensical sort of way...

[shit as fuck]

Yeah, I saw it too phantom, it was quite good wasn't it?  In a post-pub kind insomnia kind of a way.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118478/

[Mr Skinnylegs]

Didn't Armistice do a thing about worshipping Jacko? They had a huge effigy of him in a church, which revolved and bent over, allowing the sun to shine out of his arse onto the congregation. Armando was the vicar, going on about praising all things Jackson-related, including Michael Jackson (the TV exec), and the film Action Jackson.

I'm not certain either, but I think this was Armistice, as I always associate it with Armando Iannucci's voice.
, but I'm sure it was just a short spoof done for another programme.

Yup. Also featured David Schneider dressed as Michael Jackson, with white face make-up.

And a dog possessed by the spirit of Jarvis Cocker.

And whenever you mentioned Jarvis's name, the congregation chanted "Cocker! Cocker!" in an angry manner.