Retro-futrurist anarchic crusader for a stable society Nikolai Dante enjoyed a fifteen year run in 2000AD, yet you'll scarcely ever hear him mentioned alongside Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd. It's always suprising what does and doesn't become iconic... timworthington.org/2021/12/13/l...

There aren't *many* songs about films or television shows that really capture the spirit of what they are referencing - or even have halfway accurate lyrics - but The Times' early eighties indie hit I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape is a notable exception. timworthington.org/2021/12/13/l...

Clarissa Explains It All - early nineties fourth wall-breaking teen sitcom before Fleabag had even so much as shoplifted some lipstick, featuring Melissa Joan Hart as snarky adolescent with a pet alligator who was as alt-rock as 'the networks' allowed. timworthington.org/2021/12/13/l...

OTT - the short-run late-night 'Adult Tiswas' from 1982. Where Tiswas was mucky in the literal phlan-phlinging Wunda Gloo-abundant sense of the word, OTT was simply grubby and - Lenny/Alexei aside - you do have to wonder who was staying up for it and why. timworthington.org/2022/01/23/t...

They're small. They're pathetic. They're disorganised. They'd mostly be in prison three seconds into a hard drive check. They don't outnumber us. What they might outnumber, however, is people who can be bothered to vote. The risk isn't worth it.

Barcode Battler - early attempt at interactive online-ish gaming where running riot around a supermarket scanning - but crucially not buying - barcodes from random retail items could clock you up an unspecified amount of 'points'. Not exactly Pokemon Go. timworthington.org/2022/01/23/t...

Matchbox Fighting Furies - spar-tastic kicking and thumping score system-abiding battling action figures based on historical marauders, horror archetypes and so forth. Including several 'representations' that you just wouldn't get away with now... timworthington.org/2022/01/23/t...

Five To Eleven. Panpipe-heralded mid-morning BBC1 'contemplative' filler slot with sombre thespians reading out quasi-spiritual prose and poetry designed to make viewers reflect on the beauty of flowers and the ugliness of industrial waste. Not relaxing. timworthington.org/2022/01/23/t...

Ten Million Points if you know where this terrifying contextless seventies television clown - because there weren't enough of THOSE around, obviously - is from... timworthington.org/2022/01/23/t...

Highlights with @redskyatnight.bsky.social on Matchbox Fighting Furies, @mitchbenn.bsky.social on O.T.T., @deborahtracey.bsky.social on Five To Eleven and @gracedent.bsky.social on a mysterious terrifying clown who appeared on television from nowhere... timworthington.org/2022/01/23/t...

What if in Never Never by The Assembly, the 'it' that Feargal Sharkey laments 'never happens to me' was getting a Kit Kat where there was no biscuit in it and it was all chocolate?

It's doubtful that there was a more 'nineties' cosmetic than sweet-themed hazardously edibility-evoking vogueish must-have Hard Candy Nail Polish, sadly not pictued here in its uber-virulent green variant. timworthington.org/2022/03/09/l...

@benbaker.bsky.social 100 Years Of Television! I hope you're watching The Boot Street Band to celebrate.

It's fair to say BBC Three's animated sketch show Monkey Dust divided people at the time - but was it just unfairly caught up in a backlash against mostly not very good 'dark' comedy? Find out here! timworthington.org/2022/03/09/l...

So, about that unmade final episode of the Dungeons And Dragons cartoon... timworthington.org/2022/03/09/l...

Topical references may date, but what really strikes me about Victoria Wood As Seen On TV now is how much she very clearly HATED Norman Fowler.

Short thread- Not far from Crowborough is a place called Maresfield. An old army base there was used to house Vietnamese refugees (Boat People) in the late 70s/early 80s. Nobody was bothered about them being there at the time. No protest against them. Nothing.- www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Mr. Men Songs - collection of soft rock odes to assorted Mr. Men sung by session singers and occasional disinterested Arthur Lowe that unlike most records based on popular children's characters mostly adheres to the original stories. Mostly. timworthington.org/2022/03/09/l...

Mr. Men Songs, Monkey Dust, Hard Candy Nail Polish and the unmade final episode of Dungeons And Dragons with @scriblit.bsky.social. timworthington.org/2022/03/09/l...

New!!! We read-along with the ALF Story And Cassette 'ALF Goes Wild'. It's on patreon.com/ALFsplainingExtra but the first half is FREE FOR ALL on YouTube. Enjoy the tale of the Hooved Hoofer. youtu.be/2EIOlcg6R-k?...

Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. It's got its problems to say the least, and it's a *massive* comedown after the first two Ant-Man movies, but did it really deserve the kicking it got? Here's some thoughts on just that... timworthington.org/2023/03/01/i...

@outonbluesix.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/mark...

I adore this book. This and the Ultimate Alphabet kept me busy for hours as a kid.

I tried to get in, but it's sealed.

Higher Than The Sun. A book all about four brilliant albums released by one brilliant label late in 1991. Paperback or Kindle from here. timworthington.org/books/higher...

Was Blade: Trinity a lazy directionless Buffy-plagiarising BBC Three adaptation of Dracula only less interesting than that sounds, or... well, there's only really one answer to that. But here's a chat with @redskyatnight.bsky.social about it... timworthington.org/2022/04/16/i...

Very early on, EastEnders did a storyline about the teenage residents of Albert Square forming a band which led to two real-life hit singles. It was aimless and daft and I *loved* it, and I explain exactly why to @benbaker.bsky.social here... timworthington.org/2022/05/01/l...

Traumatized me for life, back in the day, whenever I used a phone box, I always kept my foot in the door...True!

Gary Bainbridge (@garybainbridge.bsky.social) joins me for a chat about the 1978 Doctor Strange television pilot - Macho seventies mystical mumbo jumbo, mirrorball disco visuals and some spectacular overacting from Jessica Walter. Basically it's, well, strange. timworthington.org/2022/05/05/i...

Venom is, of course, a movie where the primary threat to decent and polite society is the prospective sale of a social media platform to some malevolent amorphous alien gunge masquerading as a genius tech entrepreneur. Here's @invaderace2000.bsky.social on it... timworthington.org/2022/05/16/i...

Kit Williams' Masquerade - high concept puzzle book with post-concept album artwork which saw an obsessed nation literally haring around with compasses and shovels on the hunt for an actual literal golden hare. Suitably bizarre backstory too... timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

Cabana - elaborate 'sophisticated' cocktail-esque coconut and cherry-based not for the likes of you exotic and aspirational chocolate bar with correspondingly prohibitive price tag. timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

La Cabina - simple low-key but bloody terrifying short film about a man trapped in a telephone box, and... well it would be a crime to give away the ending, much beloved of BBC2 and Channel 4 and not quite so beloved of viewers who saw it by chance... timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

Oh my god I can TASTE the blue cocktails and Sobranies

Timeslip - one-off Channel 4 pilot starring Duran Duran's John Taylor as 'The Hacker', a clandestine tech whiz who spies on cautionary tales involving the residents of a near-future hi-tech apartment block. Is it possible for anything to *be* more 1985? timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

Channel 4's complaint-baiting edgy late-night comedy sketch show Who Dares Wins. Genuinely rock star massive at the time but barely ever even mentioned now. Even by pandas. timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

Hey Matthew by Karel Fialka - art-pop synth-panpipe-driven socially aware genius with an ahead of its time message about media saturation or preachy pleased-with-itself spoilsporty earworm... or both? timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

Toby Hadoke (@tobyhadoke.bsky.social) recounts the terrible tale of his stolen Cabana Bar, along with Hey Matthew by Karel Fialka, Kit Williams' Masquerade, La Cabina, Who Dares Wins, P.S. It's Paul Squire and a sci-fi pilot starring Duran Duran's John Taylor.. timworthington.org/2022/05/23/l...

David Smith (@davidstrathdee.bsky.social) joins me for a chat about Moon Knight, a series that deals extremely sensitively with mental illness and cultural appropriation in between a *lot* of punching and explosions. Kill The Hippo, Steal The Boat! timworthington.org/2022/05/31/i...

@herring1967.bsky.social Is this like the Bootleg Beatles??

Duck Tales The Movie :Treasure Of The Lost Lamp - Indiana Jones-riffing feature-length swashbuckling outing for Scrooge McDuck and company, representing a rare flash of genius just before Disney found its way again. "Somebody - stop those pants!". timworthington.org/2022/06/03/l...

Bart Simpson's Guide To Life. It was everywhere at the time, but like a lot of early merchandise - including The Simpsons Sing The Blues - it felt like it had been put together by someone who had seen a couple of episodes from Series One and nothing else. timworthington.org/2022/06/03/l...

Very odd to think now that when The Naked Gun first came out, Police Squad was its forgotten precursor and almost viewed as an 'extra'. Now it's essentially the other way round - which is fair enough as Police Squad hits a high the movies never quite did. timworthington.org/2022/06/03/l...

*Athena

Everyone remembers Blaze Of Glory by Jon Bon Jovi but nobody really mentions Richie Sambora's concurrent solo effort Stranger In This Town. Well, apart from in this... timworthington.org/2022/06/03/l...

I am probably late to the party but aren't these the balls Anthena was thinking of? I can remember the hollow plastic sound they make when they hit concrete: shop.childrensscrapstore.co.uk/products/air...

I sometimes think about people pearl-clutching about BBC shows being shot in ITV facilities and vice versa now, and always remember the gag which opens this video: “On behalf of the BBC, I’d like to welcome you to London Weekend Television…” This is not a new phenomenon any more!

Have I Got Unbroadcastable News For You - Richard Wilson and Eddie Izzard-guesting VHS-only 'Too Hot For TV' edition with all the swearing and retakes left in. Default stocking filler for an entire generation of students. timworthington.org/2022/06/03/l...

David Smith (@davidstrathdee.bsky.social) joins me for a chat about Duck Tales The Movie, Have I Got Unbroadcastable News For You, Sega Game Gear, Bart Simpson's Guide To Life, Police Squad!, 28 Acts In 28 Minutes and more... timworthington.org/2022/06/03/l...

Genevieve Jenner (@gfrancie.bsky.social) joins me for a chat about Boomerang, Over The Top, Bossa Nova, Thorazine Shuffle by Bongos Bass And Bob, Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen, OK Soda and more... timworthington.org/2023/03/02/l...