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

Started by 23 Daves, January 28, 2005, 03:08:27 AM

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Mr Colossal

i think i've seen it, and it is that second film i was vaguely reffering to.  Im sure the plot, or one of the plotlines centered around perhaps the leads kid brother having aspirations above his station and getting hurt trying to impress fighting in the game or something?

I've just got a vague reccolection of  them duelling on half pipes, and the film possibly starting with some kind of downhill street lunge style race...


i've found something called 'prayer of the rollerboys' with Corey Haim, though i dont think thats it, as i think i'd remember  the clcokwork orange-eqsue similarity.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102703/

Also 'Solarbabies'


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091981/


though i dont remember a sci-fi element either...


EDIT  Also, ive just remembered that i accidentally stumbled upon one of my own film ID requests a few months back.

Quote from: "In another thread, I "

This one was film i saw on normal television ages ago, i just remember it was about this group of people who woke up to find they were the only people on earth... They later all came to the conclusion that the last memory each of them had of the 'normal' earth was a near death experience...

I was quite young at the time, and the concept was a little over my head and scared me a bit... I dont remember anything else, it must've been made in the 80's.

I was browsing around on play.com when i remembered that I really liked the film 'When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth'  when i was little, so punched it in. They didn't have it,  but look what cropped up in the search results...

http://playcom.at/cookdandbombd?DURL=http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/129144/The_Quiet_Earth/Product.html

Quote

'The Quiet Earth' centres around a scientist called Zack who wakes on morning to discover he is alone in the world. The global top-secret energy project (Operation Flashlight) which he has been working on for a year, has changed the world. Humanity seems to have been wiped out.

Zac begins a frantic search for other survivors. At the same time he has the chance to live out his fantasies. In a world where excess and wealth have no meaning, he switches from dwelling to dwelling and vehicle to vehicle. He soon realises the emptiness and loneliness of his nightmare situation. 'I have been condemned to live' he says.

The discovery of two survivors, first a woman and then a man sets the scene for a critical struggle for survival and adds an intriguing spiritual and emotional dimension to the film.


Catalogue Trousers

Robot DeNiro wrote (over a year ago):

Quoteall sorts of strange conspiracy theories/world ending bollocks book by two guys

This, perhaps?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus!_Trilogy

actwithoutwords


Blue Jam

Quote from: "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

Wasn't Mike and Angelo, was it? I seem to remember Angelo coming to earth in a big spinning pyramid-shaped spacecraft. Anyone else remember the title sequence?

For years my vaguely remembered programme was Alphonso Bonzo, I could remember practically eveything about it apart from the title, until I asked on a forum years back. Everyone seemed to remember the theme.

Quote from: "Catalogue Trousers"Dark Season, perhaps?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101074/

A Russell T Davies production, no less!

Which is out on DVD on Monday!

Robot DeNiro

Quote from: "Catalogue Trousers"
This, perhaps?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus!_Trilogy

No, but I could see why you might think that.  In the year since I made that post I have found out that the book was 'Earthdoom!' by David Langford and John Grant.  I haven't bothered to track down a copy though, so don't know if it is any good or not.

http://www.ansible.co.uk/books/edoom.html

The Masked Unit

There was a kids TV series in the mid-to-late Eighties, adapted from a book, about a boy who could perform superhuman tasks (strength, speed etc) when he wore a certain t-shirt, which I'm pretty sure had a tiger's face on it. Any clues as to what that was?

Also, a kids book about a family that make their money from inventing a bizzarre flavour of ive-cream. Also, it possibly had something to do with football.

The human memory is a funny place. I've been looking at old threads about old TV shows and the like, and it's incredible that you can forget something entirely, before seeing an episode of something like Chocky and remember most things about the specific episode, regardless of the fact that you only saw it once in 1985!

biggytitbo

Quote from: The Masked Unit on February 10, 2008, 02:25:31 PM
There was a kids TV series in the mid-to-late Eighties, adapted from a book, about a boy who could perform superhuman tasks (strength, speed etc) when he wore a certain t-shirt, which I'm pretty sure had a tiger's face on it. Any clues as to what that was?


That was called something like Tommy's Tiger T shirt and was an episode of the Childrens Film Foundation. It was great, and there are so many other brilliant little films they made in the 70s. I particularly remember the one where some kids go exploring in a cave, and when they come out the whole city is deserted.

The Masked Unit

Quote from: biggytitbo on February 10, 2008, 02:30:10 PM

That was called something like Tommy's Tiger T shirt and was an episode of the Childrens Film Foundation. It was great, and there are so many other brilliant little films they made in the 70s. I particularly remember the one where some kids go exploring in a cave, and when they come out the whole city is deserted.


Thank you! It was actually called Sammy's super T-Shirt and it looked like this

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3kXPCGC4pI[/youtube]
There's nothing about this clip I don't like, especially the bit where they get off the boat and there's a sign on the riverbank pointing to the sportsground , as if it could possibly be of any use to anybody!

LeboviciAB84

Back when Channel 4 would plug gaps in its late-night schedules with short films (2002! I knooow), they showed a wonderful film about a man in New York, worrying that a woman on the subway is beginning to suspect him of stalking her. Anyway, he gets increasingly fraught in his attempts to convince her otherwise, until . . .

Oh.

It's here.

Sorry, carry on.

samadriel


Jackson K Pollock

Oooh, I'm so glad this thread's come back, I've had loads of these floating about in my head recently!

Some kid's show with DCI Burnside from the Bill in it as a bit of a wrong'un. Mid-late 80's. Don't remember too much about this except that it was pretty scary, had Burnside from the Bill in as a baddie, or possibly a misguided good-guy on the run, and it was ridiculously complicated. In fact, it was so complicated that I remember Andy Crane, or possibly Andi Peters, having to explain a bit of it after the end credits of the final episode.

Rural drama set on a farm, possibly called Butterfly Farm? Mid-late 80s. Desperately sad CBBC drama about a kid who lives with his dad on a farm and really wants to go to art school, but his backwards thinking father doesn't want him to. I can only remember the first episode where the kid has done this fantastic painting in preparation for art school. It ends with the dad smashing it, screaming "You'll go to art school when I ruddy say so!" or something like that. Not sure how long it lasted, but I remember being pretty upset about the whole affair.

Australian-y children's drama, set on an island, possibly called Butterfly Island? Mid-late 80s Obviously only one of these things was called "Butterfly {x}" so I might be a bit off. All I remember is the cliffhanger ending of one episode where some kids are trapped on a small desert island and the sea level starts rising. They are all set to drown unless someone can rescue them. Very dramatic theme music which I swear I still hear in my dreams sometimes. Again, not sure if I ever saw more than this one episode, but I'm pretty sure it was repeated as I remember seeing it both at my own house and at my gran's some time later. No idea how or even if they ever escaped from the inevitable death, but I do remember finding the experience quite traumatic.

Aliens In The Family. Late 80s Another CBBC show that seemed to effect me quite deeply as a kid. I remember the lead kid - actually an alien in human form - always seemed to be on the run from something, and in an effort to elude his captor's he died his hair a different colour at the end of the first episode. This was a huge deal to me, as I'd never heard of the concept of colouring your hair before, and for some reason it really freaked me out. Yes, I was a highly sensitive little blighter. I also remember being devastated when he returns to his alien ship in the last episode, and you see him as an alien - a bland, Kryton-esque being with an completely blank face. Seemed very sad after all the adventures he had been through on earth.

Mr Parrott from Grange Hill being the victim on NTV and telling Noel Edmonds to get lost. Early 90s This is the kind of TV moment that clip shows and Youtube were made for yet I've never seen this anywhere, and I'm the only person I know who remembers it. Noel's House Party was essential viewing for my family as a kid, but although I absolutely loved it, I naively got incredibly stressed until after the NTV segment where he would go live into an unsuspecting viewer's home, because I was mortified that it might be my house.

Anyway, although the 'victim' was normally a good sport and surrounded by their family, one weekend they cut to the house of the actor who played Mr. Parrott in Grange Hill. Now Parrott was an uptight, smarmy and generally unpleasant piece of work, but even as a kid I knew he was just an actor playing a part.

So Noel clicks his fingers and we see the actor who played Mr Parrott lounging on a sofa, on his own, eating a microwave meal on his own. He looked incredibly depressed, and just said something like "Not tonight Noel, I'm not in the mood." then got up and walked out!

Noel was momentarily stunned, then I think just got on with the rest of the show!

It was a very weird moment and quite uncomfortable viewing. Unsurprisingly, I found it quite upsetting.

Talking of Noel's House Party, I remember being desperate to be interviewed for the "Wait 'Til I Get You Home" segment of the show. The concept was that Noel would pre-record an interview a kid, and the parents would win prizes based on their ability to predict their offspring's answers. At the end of the interview, the kid could choose 'a toy' as a prize for him/herself. However, I'm sure there was more than an element of parental interference here, as I'm sure I remember at least one kid choosing Sky TV as his toy.

I'm pretty sure I would stress myself out quite unduly each week worrying about what I would pick if I could choose just one thing.

10 minute episode of Doctor Who for Children in Need. Mid 90s Supposedly filmed in '3D'. Remember it being absolutely terrible, and a blatant attempt by the BBC to once and for all bury the Doctor Who format under the supposed guise of 'a treat'. Whoever the Doc was at the time (maybe Sylvester McCoy?) dies, and in rapid succession they kill off the remaining Who regenerations with the likes of Richard E Grant, Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson and even Joanna Lumley playing the doctor for about 30 seconds each before meeting a ridiculously quick demise, and once and for all killing off the franchise.

I was never a massive fan of the Who, but I remember being absolutely appalled by the skit, as it just seemed like such a ridiculous way of killing off a popular franchise in such a gimmicky way, showing no respect to the series while at the same time saying "Aren't you Who fans lucky? You've got Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson etc. No expense spared! (or spent, presumably, if it was for charity)"

Can I assume it's not considered cannon by true Who-ites?

PRE-SUBMIT EDIT: Just Googled it, apparently it was for Comic Relief, not Children in Need. Oooh, it appears to be on Youtube as well actually, I'll have to check that out in a minute.

Very uncomfortable moment on an Ant & Dec Saturday night show where one of the Bee Gees makes a total tit of himself, as usual. Mid 2000s

Never actually watch these shows, but I think I'd gone back to the parents for the weekend, so we were watching it over dinner.

Anyway, it was around the time of Charles and Camilla's wedding, which as you may remember was also the same time as Ken and Deidre's 3rd or 4th wedding on Coronation Street. There was some friendly banter in the press at the time about which would receive the most coverage/viewers/attention, and I should imagine it was probably the Corrie one in the end.

So A&D have been set their weekly challenge – this week to write and record their own song for the royal wedding, before performing it live on the show in front of a panel of judges.

So they start the song in earnest with couplets about how long the couple had known each other, how the whole nation would be watching with a tear in their eye, how it was a national event to treasure, etc etc followed by the predictable, but still amusing

"...but enough about Deidre  and Ken!"

before going into the song proper.

Anyway, it was cheeky, funny, very good-natured, and quite a catchy ditty, and everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy it and the celebrity panel of judges all gave it high marks and said how adorable PJ and Duncan were.

Until they reached Maurice (I think) Gibb. Gibb who had clearly had a sense of humour bypass some decades earlier, said it was a total disgrace, and that he was a committed royalist and didn't see how people could laugh at this kind of thing.

Everyone seemed a bit shocked, and I don't really know what happened next, but I'd love to see it again. Can't find it on Youtube though, and again, noone else seems to remember it.

Terrifying Children's Film Foundation film about some kids who get caught up with a burglar with real anger management issues. Mid-late 80s
Very vivid memories of a scene where the kids and the burglar's unpleasant assistant are burying the massive burglar under a huge mound of earth after accidentally killing him. Unfortunately for them, he hadn't actually died, he was just knocked out cold. As they shovel earth over his face, he comes too and starts chasing them around screaming at them for trying to bury him alive.

I'm sure I checked the CFF episode guide a few years ago and couldn't work out what this one was, so I rather hope I've imagined the whole thing, as it does seem unbelievably scary for a kid's show. That said, I found the pigeons in the ident quite unsettling...

A video review on Wacaday for the film Arachnophobia, but featuring Bill Cosby and the woman who played his wife on the Cosby Show. Mid-to-late 80s Did this exist? Have I gone mad? I just have a vivid recollection of Tommy Body doing a video review, and showing a clip from this film with Cosby and his wife tied to a table whilst giant poisonous spiders crawl over their bodies. This can't have been shown on Saturday morning kid's TV – can it? But I remember it so clearly.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: Jackson K Pollock on February 12, 2008, 12:38:59 AM10 minute episode of Doctor Who for Children in Need. Mid 90s Supposedly filmed in '3D'. Remember it being absolutely terrible, and a blatant attempt by the BBC to once and for all bury the Doctor Who format under the supposed guise of 'a treat'. Whoever the Doc was at the time (maybe Sylvester McCoy?) dies, and in rapid succession they kill off the remaining Who regenerations with the likes of Richard E Grant, Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson and even Joanna Lumley playing the doctor for about 30 seconds each before meeting a ridiculously quick demise, and once and for all killing off the franchise.

I was never a massive fan of the Who, but I remember being absolutely appalled by the skit, as it just seemed like such a ridiculous way of killing off a popular franchise in such a gimmicky way, showing no respect to the series while at the same time saying "Aren't you Who fans lucky? You've got Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson etc. No expense spared! (or spent, presumably, if it was for charity)"

Can I assume it's not considered cannon by true Who-ites?

PRE-SUBMIT EDIT: Just Googled it, apparently it was for Comic Relief, not Children in Need. Oooh, it appears to be on Youtube as well actually, I'll have to check that out in a minute.

I'm afraid that I can't help with most of your enquiries - fascinating as some of them sound - but I can help with this.

You've actually conflated two different Dr Who charity specials into one.

The first one was done for Children in Need in 1993, was called "Dimensions In Time", was indeed made in 3D (using a different process to the usual red-green business), and involved a very silly crossover with Eastenders.  It is indeed reviled by Dr Who fans the world over, to the extent that the Dr Who Restoration Team have publicly gone on the record as saying that it will never appear on any Dr Who DVD - although to be fair that's mainly to do with all the actors and crew agreeing to work unpaid on condition that that was the case.

The second one was done for Comic Relief in 1999, was called "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death", was NOT made in 3D, and although it's the one you describe with multiple regenerations, is generally felt by fans (including me), to be a jolly good romp.  It didn't start off with the current Doctor (which would have been Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy having regenerated into McGann at the start of the 1996 TV Movie), but with Rowan Atkinson for most of it, certainly wasn't an attempt to kill off the franchise, just to have fun with it for charity, and in fact the sheer popularity of it on the night probably helped pave the way for the series' proper return.

As for canon, well until just now I would have confidently said that neither skit was canon.  However, much to my surprise, I've just read in the above Wikipedia article that John Nathan-Turner (Dr Who producer throughout the 80s) "argued for [Dimension In Time's] canonicity and unsuccessfully lobbied for the serial to be assigned an official production code".  What a twat - but then we knew that anyway.  Nobody I know considers it canon.

Gulftastic

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on February 12, 2008, 04:39:50 AM



The first one was done for Children in Need in 1993, was called "Dimensions In Time", was indeed made in 3D (using a different process to the usual red-green business), and involved a very silly crossover with Eastenders.  It is indeed reviled by Dr Who fans the world over, to the extent that the Dr Who Restoration Team have publicly gone on the record as saying that it will never appear on any Dr Who DVD - although to be fair that's mainly to do with all the actors and crew agreeing to work unpaid on condition that that was the case.




The way it worked was that the 3D glasses had one lens shaded, the theory being that the brain took slightly longer to process images through the darkness. This made things look 3D if something moved from the side of the glasses with the dark side to the light side (or the other way round), hence there were lots of panning shots. The video for 'Go West' by The Pet Shop Boys used the same technique, next time you watch it, look out for how many rotating things there are in it. This was purley for the 3D.

Robot DeNiro

Quote from: The Masked Unit on February 10, 2008, 02:25:31 PM
Also, a kids book about a family that make their money from inventing a bizzarre flavour of ice-cream. Also, it possibly had something to do with football.

I certainly read that when I was a child, but can't help you with the title.  I've just spent ages googling anything I can remember from the book (I think the ice cream flavour they invented may have been gooseberry, perhaps the family was Italian?) but have found nothing.

Kazuo Kiriyama

Quote from: Jackson K Pollock on February 12, 2008, 12:38:59 AM
Mr Parrott from Grange Hill being the victim on NTV and telling Noel Edmonds to get lost. Early 90s This is the kind of TV moment that clip shows and Youtube were made for yet I've never seen this anywhere, and I'm the only person I know who remembers it. Noel's House Party was essential viewing for my family as a kid, but although I absolutely loved it, I naively got incredibly stressed until after the NTV segment where he would go live into an unsuspecting viewer's home, because I was mortified that it might be my house.

Anyway, although the 'victim' was normally a good sport and surrounded by their family, one weekend they cut to the house of the actor who played Mr. Parrott in Grange Hill. Now Parrott was an uptight, smarmy and generally unpleasant piece of work, but even as a kid I knew he was just an actor playing a part.

So Noel clicks his fingers and we see the actor who played Mr Parrott lounging on a sofa, on his own, eating a microwave meal on his own. He looked incredibly depressed, and just said something like "Not tonight Noel, I'm not in the mood." then got up and walked out!

Noel was momentarily stunned, then I think just got on with the rest of the show!

It was a very weird moment and quite uncomfortable viewing. Unsurprisingly, I found it quite upsetting.

I always assumed this wasn't genuine. Either they had some sort of technical fuck-up that week, and couldn't go to the real victim, so they quickly got a BBC guy to do mock outrage and storm off, or it was some sort of weird joke. I've never seen it referred to in any "When TV Fucks Up" type clip show or Noel retrospective, and seeing as I don't ever remember any other NTV going really badly - rumours about people wanking over Baywatch aside - it would have really stood out as one of the memorable moments of the show. Noel is the king of overreacting, wheezing with laughter at everything, and even though it was a really long time ago, I remember his reaction as being somewhat muted. If that was real, the doodling cunt never would have shut up about it.

Out of fear it would be me, I'd write rude words on a piece of paper and hold it up to the screen just before he clicked his fingers.

edit: thanks google, mystery solved. Mr Parrot played sax in a band of all things, and there's a bit about it on that band's page.

From - http://www.detour-records.co.uk/pathitix.htm

QuoteBut not quite. Nicholson: "In 1998 I was working as a director at the BBC. Noel's House Party needed a last-minute replacement for the NTV section of the show [in which viewers are unknowingly filmed in their own living room]. By this time, Peter Leeper was an actor and was pretty well known as Malcolm Parrot, a teacher on Grange Hill, so it was arranged for Peter to be the 'guest' on NTV that week. Noel clicked his fingers to reveal Peter apparently sitting at home utterly shocked. But once Noel mentioned the Pathetix, Peter dismantled the hidden camera by his TV set, and with the words 'I'm not up for this, Noel', put it in a cup of tea he was drinking."

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: Jackson K Pollock on February 12, 2008, 12:38:59 AM
Some kid's show with DCI Burnside from the Bill in it as a bit of a wrong'un. Mid-late 80's.

'Running Scared', 1986, sported Kate Bush theme yes? http://imdb.com/title/tt0374448/

PaulTMA

Did anyone see a 999 Lifesavers-styled re-enactment of a young, agressive alcoholic's downward spiral circa 1995?  It began with his story about he was encouraged to go the pub from about the age of 12, and featured cut-ins of the supposedly now-reformed young man talking about where he went wrong.

The reason I ask is because it contained the most jaw-droppingly ridiculous scene of unintentional hilarity in any such BBC re-enactment, wherein the lad smashes up his house and proceeds to march to the bathroom mirror, chanting "I AM GOD!  I AM GODDDD!" at his own reflection.  We were all shouting it at school the next day, and I've come across a couple of people who remembered it many years later.  I would kill to see this again.

The final kiss-off was provided by the closing scene with the real bloke explaining that he would never drink again and was a reformed character, only for the end credits to feature a voice declaring that since the programme was made, he was since gone on a huge bender and beaten up his grandparents, or something.


Delightful, eh?

Furthermore, what was the BBC programme circa 1999 that featuring a particularly shrill Scouse man getting arrested for "MUH-DEHR?!" in the trailer?  That also made the school playground a moderately fun place.


samadriel

Quote from: PaulTMA on February 13, 2008, 02:20:56 AM
The final kiss-off was provided by the closing scene with the real bloke explaining that he would never drink again and was a reformed character, only for the end credits to feature a voice declaring that since the programme was made, he was since gone on a huge bender and beaten up his grandparents, or something.

Delightful, eh?
I can just picture that being relayed by a 'Paedophile Island'-style chucking back-announcer; brilliant!  We don't get enough crap reenactments in Australia.  We just get original material of exactly the same quality.

untitled_london

There was a TVM/drama two-parter on Ch.4 round about 2003/4 I think.

I pretty sure it won an orange award for a new director, or a perrier or something.

Anyways, it was a bout a fairly well to do kid who got sent to Feltham having mixed with the worng crowd on his estate.
The crime was not much more than a mis-demeanor, but the justice system wasn't having any of it.
Basically, he gets bullied quite intensively in Feltham up to the point where he commits suicide, by some kid who is
obviously insecure and trying to make a name for himself.

Some of the scene were quite memorable, such as the "bad kid" repeatedly shouting at the "new boy" to kill himself,
after lights out.

What struck me most was the achingly accurate portrayal of contemprary London slang.
I have no idea what it was called, and I can't very well download it without that information.
The googles have failed me, as have awards searching, imdb and many many other methods of trying to find out the name.

Thanks in advance.
It wasn't "Scum".

Kazuo Kiriyama

Quote from: untitled_london on February 13, 2008, 05:31:08 PM
There was a TVM/drama two-parter on Ch.4 round about 2003/4 I think.

I pretty sure it won an orange award for a new director, or a perrier or something.

Anyways, it was a bout a fairly well to do kid who got sent to Feltham having mixed with the worng crowd on his estate.
The crime was not much more than a mis-demeanor, but the justice system wasn't having any of it.
Basically, he gets bullied quite intensively in Feltham up to the point where he commits suicide, by some kid who is
obviously insecure and trying to make a name for himself.

Some of the scene were quite memorable, such as the "bad kid" repeatedly shouting at the "new boy" to kill himself,
after lights out.

What struck me most was the achingly accurate portrayal of contemprary London slang.
I have no idea what it was called, and I can't very well download it without that information.
The googles have failed me, as have awards searching, imdb and many many other methods of trying to find out the name.

Thanks in advance.
It wasn't "Scum".

This - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332300/ - ?

untitled_london

Quote from: Kazuo Kiriyama on February 13, 2008, 05:54:05 PM
This - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332300/ - ?

Fucking Outstanding!

Thank you so very much.
I've been looking for about 18 months with no joy.

You are now my hero.

I'd completely forgotten Outhwaite was in it.

Jackson K Pollock

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on February 12, 2008, 04:39:50 AM
I'm afraid that I can't help with most of your enquiries - fascinating as some of them sound - but I can help with this.

You've actually conflated two different Dr Who charity specials into one.

The first one was done for Children in Need in 1993, was called "Dimensions In Time", was indeed made in 3D (using a different process to the usual red-green business), and involved a very silly crossover with Eastenders.  It is indeed reviled by Dr Who fans the world over, to the extent that the Dr Who Restoration Team have publicly gone on the record as saying that it will never appear on any Dr Who DVD - although to be fair that's mainly to do with all the actors and crew agreeing to work unpaid on condition that that was the case.

The second one was done for Comic Relief in 1999, was called "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death", was NOT made in 3D, and although it's the one you describe with multiple regenerations, is generally felt by fans (including me), to be a jolly good romp.  It didn't start off with the current Doctor (which would have been Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy having regenerated into McGann at the start of the 1996 TV Movie), but with Rowan Atkinson for most of it, certainly wasn't an attempt to kill off the franchise, just to have fun with it for charity, and in fact the sheer popularity of it on the night probably helped pave the way for the series' proper return.

As for canon, well until just now I would have confidently said that neither skit was canon.  However, much to my surprise, I've just read in the above Wikipedia article that John Nathan-Turner (Dr Who producer throughout the 80s) "argued for [Dimension In Time's] canonicity and unsuccessfully lobbied for the serial to be assigned an official production code".  What a twat - but then we knew that anyway.  Nobody I know considers it canon.


Very interesting, thanks for clearing that up. As someone who had never been that passionate about the show before, I remember getting on quite the hobby horse about the Curse of the Fatal Death, so it's good to know that on the whole it was well received.

O/T - thanks also for subtly correcting my spelling of "canon" - I've actually always thought (or known, as it turns out) that in this context it was with one 'n' only, until a friend of mine 'corrected' me about a month ago. Wish I'd never listened to the cretin now...

Jackson K Pollock

Quote from: Kazuo Kiriyama on February 12, 2008, 11:44:04 AM
I always assumed this wasn't genuine. Either they had some sort of technical fuck-up that week, and couldn't go to the real victim, so they quickly got a BBC guy to do mock outrage and storm off, or it was some sort of weird joke. I've never seen it referred to in any "When TV Fucks Up" type clip show or Noel retrospective, and seeing as I don't ever remember any other NTV going really badly - rumours about people wanking over Baywatch aside - it would have really stood out as one of the memorable moments of the show. Noel is the king of overreacting, wheezing with laughter at everything, and even though it was a really long time ago, I remember his reaction as being somewhat muted. If that was real, the doodling cunt never would have shut up about it.

Out of fear it would be me, I'd write rude words on a piece of paper and hold it up to the screen just before he clicked his fingers.

edit: thanks google, mystery solved. Mr Parrot played sax in a band of all things, and there's a bit about it on that band's page.

From - http://www.detour-records.co.uk/pathitix.htm


Brilliant stuff! I remember just feeling hugely sorry for that actor for ages after that show. I think he'd stopped playing Mr Parrott a little while before that, and I hadn't seen anything of him since, so I felt sad that he had finally gotten back on TV, but it was as the victim of NTV.

Sadly, my sympathy wasn't totally misplaced. According to one of the GH websites I was browsing yesterday afternoon, he apparently now works as a middle manager at an IT company, but still insists he is just 'resting' from acting...

Quote from: Kazuo Kiriyama on February 12, 2008, 11:44:04 AM

Out of fear it would be me, I'd write rude words on a piece of paper and hold it up to the screen just before he clicked his fingers.


Wish I'd thought of that, though I don't think my parents would have been too happy about it... That said, my Mum would have been more mortified than me if we actually had been on NTV, and our house was so small and messy that there was no way on earth they'd have got cameras etc. in without us knowing about it.

Didn't stop me spending most of the 90s worrying about it though...

Hank_Kingsley

Really vague one here, I think it was a film or a television series but it could have been a comic book.

Anyway, it's a thriller or crime drama of some sort and features a young chap who lives with his gran. The gran is doing elderly porn movies as a way of paying for either his drug habit or just general upbringing.

Maybe some old people are getting murdered? Could be an episode of CSI.


dr beat

QuoteFurthermore, what was the BBC programme circa 1999 that featuring a particularly shrill Scouse man getting arrested for "MUH-DEHR?!" in the trailer?  That also made the school playground a moderately fun place.

Am glad someone else remembers that! Wasn't it a BBC2 docu-soap called something like 'Mersey Blue'? Although I remember it from slightly earlier, perhaps around 1995 as I remember it was on just as I'd started uni.