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Weird Night - BBC2 18th December 1994

Started by DukeDeMondo, February 12, 2015, 02:47:00 AM

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DukeDeMondo

Given the many varieties of wonderful "Weird Shit," "Mad Balls," "Scary Faces To Look At," "Bad Noises In The Nowhere" type threads that pop up over in General Bullshit every so often, I thought folk might be interested in this.

Back in December 1994, BBC2 devoted the full of a Saturday evening to the bizarre and the maddening and the macabre, screening a bunch of specially commissioned programmes and Incredibly Strange films (and an episode of the X Files deemed A Bit Much, Really) long into the night, peppering proceedings with introductions from the likes of Roger Corman at a piano and the disembodied head of an animated baby.

I dunno if I saw any of it at the time, for I was only a Wee, and even though I was obsessed with ghosts and divils and went through the telly books every week looking for stuff related to them topics, I probably didn't know what words like "Fortean" or "the Year" meant back then and so probably paid this no mind. 

In any case, it turns out that someone by the name of skynet42 was paying it enough mind to record it and then upload the specially commissioned stuff, including the intros and trailers and what have you, to the YouTube fourteen years later.

With the help of the Radio Times archive and some other YouTube folks (and a DailyMotion rascal) I've gone ahead and reconstructed that evening here in this thread, should anyone wish to relive it, or even just live it.

- Actually, upon reflection, I've decided it would be very stupid to link to either the X Files episode or any of the feature length films. The X Files episode is on DailyMotion, the rest are About -

For added Period Authenticity I'll be campaigning against the Criminal Justice Act while I'm at it, and also getting Noelle Christie from primary school to throw a load of Tipp-Ex over Robert Gibson's Monster in my Pocket pencil case. Will you?

The descriptions are all from that week's Radio Times. (Also, whilst looking for some information on this, I found an article on Adam Curtis's blog all about Ghostwatch and various other "Suburban Poltergeist" programmes. It's fantastic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/the_ghosts_in_the_living_room )

Anyway.

>>> Weird Night... BBC2, 17th December 1994 <<<

20:35 - Weird Night

"Cult director Roger Corman introduces the night's forthcoming weird programmes."

20:40 - The Fortean Review of the Year

"A month-by-month tourthrough 1994's most bizarre events from around the world. Including a shoal of fish falling on a pub in Australia and an outbreak of fainting Egyptian schoolgirls."

Part 1 (Includes Roger Corman introduction from up above there): http://youtu.be/mzits-uqM-g
Part 2: http://youtu.be/g6CvsmO4CsM
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wztrTS42bg

21: 05 - Strange Days

"Coincidences. First of three programmes featuring ordinary people with first-hand accounts of extraordinary incidents."

http://youtu.be/Cx56Qs2Q3g8

21:15 - The Last American Freakshow

"Follow the final tour of impressario Ward Hall , the "Ziegfield of the Cornfield", who has been bringing the strange and bizarre to middle America for the last 50 years."

Part 1: http://youtu.be/cNiv0hKf15w
Part 2: http://youtu.be/bhRLT6lKSXk
Part 3: http://youtu.be/RiuZt4reu4s
Part 4: http://youtu.be/xi1jegAYBq8
Part 5: http://youtu.be/6daXu2MsWrg

22:00 - Strange Days

"Visions. Another peculiar incident."

http://youtu.be/wxHyk1EtF8c

22:10 - W S H: The Myth of the Urban Myth

"Documentary-drama. American professor of folklore Charles Paulson Pulling is convinced that all those tales about vanishing hitch-hikers are strange but false. However, as he recalls an increasingly dark series of events during the last 12 months of his life, his reassuring view of the world begins to fall apart. With Ron Rifkin and Robert Vaughn. Written by Steve Burns. Director: Bill Eagles."

Part 1: http://youtu.be/iDrCyf_XI-8
Part 2: http://youtu.be/49o7Wn-kEwM
Part 3: http://youtu.be/8EPxICmvfJU
Part 4: http://youtu.be/V90Wb1sMf3w
Part 5: http://youtu.be/zp13DgaoipY

23:00 - The X Files

"Fire. Mulder and Scully are pursuing a pyromaniac, when Mulder's ex-girlfriend arrives and ignites a burning jealousy in Scully."

23:45 - Strange Days

"Beasts. Last of three programmes featuring tales of odd occurrences." 

http://youtu.be/HjzykFqnuYE

23:50 - Weird Thoughts


"A discussion that explores the nature of superstition and exposes our fascination with the unexplainable."

Part 1: http://youtu.be/7o0taXV-d3c
Part 2: http://youtu.be/uz_axbNlc5k
Part 3: http://youtu.be/6cX3XeEKOBU
Part 4: http://youtu.be/S4eDCx7Ic4w

>>> CONTINUITY BREAK: http://youtu.be/yl1FY2vfq0k  <<<


00:30 - Martin


"Horror starring John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel. Is 17-year-old Martin the supernatural, blood-sucking fiend he believes himself to be, or is there another equally terrifying explanation? With Christine Forrest, Elayne Nadeau. Director: George A Romero (1978)"

02:00 - The Grandmother


"An early work by acclaimed director David Lynch. An abused and neglected boy plants some mysterious seeds and they grow into a loving grandmother. With Richard White and Dorothy McGinnis. (1970)"

http://youtu.be/1p5qEt766ZQ

02:35 - The Man With The X-Ray Eyes

"Starring Ray Milland. Dr Xavier is conducting a series of experiments in his search to give x-ray vision to the human eye, but things begin to go terribly wrong. With Diana Van DerVlis, Harold Stone, John Hoyt and Don Rickles. Director Roger Corman (1963)"

03:50 - Strange Holiday

"Drama starring Claude Rains. A businessman returns from a trip to find the government has been taken over by fascists. With Bobbie Stebbins and Barbara Bates. Director Arch Oboler (1942)"

04:50 - Attack of the 50ft Woman

"Starring Allison Hayes. A wealthy woman runs into aliens in the desert and grows to giant size. Enraged by her husband's philandering she goes on the rampage. With William Hudson, Roy Gordon, Yvette Vickers, Ken Terrell and George Douglas. Director Nathan Hertz (Juran) (1958) B/W."

>>> That's it, away to bed you weirdos, unless you want to watch Pee Wee's Big Adventure. That was on at 06:00 <<<<

biggytitbo


BlodwynPig

1994 - a burgeoning weirdness awakes in a late-teen Blodwyn - at the border of childhood and adult. Nevermore a stranger year than 1994.

This looks fantastic and I guess I missed it due to being at University and having no TV (although if I'd known about it I would have trundled down the road to the parents house).

Strange Days.

BlodwynPig

in the very same year I saw a strange purple orb rise up out of the east at night and glide silently into nothingness.

Egyptian Feast

I remember watching this, probably have it still on an old tape back home. I'm going to enjoy seeing this again.

BBC 2 and Channel 4 used to do good themed nights in the early 90s - I recall a great Halloween night where they showed a bunch of horror movies interspersed with mini-documentaries about various things (I remember there being one about Fangoria and one on Tom Savini). Channel 4 did a Velvet Underground night around the same time - probably the only time Andy Warhol's (or more accurately, Paul Morrissey's) Chelsea Girls has been shown on telly. All four hours of it. I miss that sort of thing.

Puce Moment

I was living in a house of students whom I made sit down to watch The Grandmother, a film I had loved for many years.

It's didn't go well, they started talking amongst themselves about 5mins into it.

purlieu

Ah, I love WSH. Soundtrack is by The Future Sound of London, which is how I ended up watching it before now. Definitely going to give this lot a run through though, cheers!

DukeDeMondo

#7
Quote from: Egyptian Feast on February 12, 2015, 03:32:26 PM
BBC 2 and Channel 4 used to do good themed nights in the early 90s - I recall a great Halloween night where they showed a bunch of horror movies interspersed with mini-documentaries about various things (I remember there being one about Fangoria and one on Tom Savini).

That was BBC2's Vault of Horror from Halloween 1992, starting shortly after Ghostwatch finished on BBC1. That I'm sure I didn't see, for I had to go to bed halfway through Ghostwatch over the head of the screaming and the shouting that was coming out of me. Another brilliant line up - The Art of Illusion (the Tom Savini profile you mentioned), The Unholy Trinity (on Clive Barker, Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven), The Horror of Sex (women in horror) and God knows what not else, alongside screenings of Curse of the Werewolf, Death Line, Creepshow...

It really is very, very sad that none of the main channels bother with that sort of thing anymore. I know we've got the Horror channel showing bloody Naked Exorcism at 9:00pm on a weeknight, and a YouTube stuffed to the Nth of its pubes with all of the Weird that anyone could ever want, but still. Something very special lost, there. 

Bingo Fury

Now that's what I call a theme night. None of this "one documentary followed by a film" malarkey.

JesusAndYourBush

I remember watching it at the time.  By the end of the night I was sick to death of that Portishead song as they played it so many times that night.

Hypodeemic Nerdle

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on February 13, 2015, 02:54:27 AM
By the end of the night I was sick to death of that Portishead song as they played it so many times that night.
Ah! I did watch it after all. Must definitely have seen Martin.

Beagle 2

Remember it like it was yesterday, and still have it recorded on VHS somewhere. And I've loved the Portishead song ever since.

studpuppet

I stayed up for The Grandmother, and then ended up watching The Man With X-Ray Eyes as well. A few weeks after, I went to the Ministry Of Sound and they were projecting on a loop the bit where he's at a party and the dancers are all naked and jiggling away sixties-style.

You'd make a Vine nowadays... *looks wistfully into the middle distance*

dr beat

I too remember this very fondly, particularly the Fortean review of the year.  That period in the early 90s was a great time for theme nights - around the same time there was TV Hell (one of the best IMO) and a World Cup night as well.  I'm sure there were plenty others if memory serves.

Surprised this was overlooked for Weird Night though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7XfsT0bxw ;)

Natnar

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on February 13, 2015, 12:13:33 AM
That was BBC2's Vault of Horror from Halloween 1992, starting shortly after Ghostwatch finished on BBC1. That I'm sure I didn't see, for I had to go to bed halfway through Ghostwatch over the head of the screaming and the shouting that was coming out of me. Another brilliant line up - The Art of Illusion (the Tom Savini profile you mentioned), The Unholy Trinity (on Clive Barker, Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven), The Horror of Sex (women in horror) and God knows what not else, alongside screenings of Curse of the Werewolf, Death Line, Creepshow...


Wasn't that Vault Of Horror presented by Dr Terror? He'd pop up mostly on BBC2 in the 90's to introduce horror films on a Friday night.

Ah here he is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yivmeaZvuIA

Also it looks like someone has done a TV Hell playlist on Youtube, don't know if it covers all of it though https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQIk8RsfwkGHnMtDfsM4JNvrL9qs_ROAa

chocolate teapot

Did Channel 4 do something similar? I remember a weird sinister animated baby but it looked more like the Toy Story one and it seemed different to the BBC2 version.


DukeDeMondo

Quote from: Natnar on February 13, 2015, 01:15:34 PM
Wasn't that Vault Of Horror presented by Dr Terror? He'd pop up mostly on BBC2 in the 90's to introduce horror films on a Friday night.

Ah here he is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yivmeaZvuIA


Yeah, Kim Newman wrote a lot of the Dr Terror spiel if I remember right. I used to love those double bills on a Friday night.