Stuart Millard posts
Posts: 334
Files: 300
The After School Hauntology of Dramarama
Beasts, Hammer House of Horror, Tales of the Unexpected, Supernatural, Dead of Night; at one point, our nation's televisions were so packed with sinister, twist-in-the-tale anthology shows that even children had some of their own. ITV's Dramaramaran for 91 episodes between 1983 and '89, and while these weren't strictly genre pieces, often featuring more regular fare, two of which span off into full series (Children's Wardand Dodger, Bonzo And The Rest), the focus tended to le...
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
I usually save these first of the month pictures for social media, but it seems a shame to waste this one if you're not following me on there. This month's £3 tier is entirely Halloween themed, and I'd rate both the videos (51 mins in total) up there with my very best. The finale to this year's Fright Bag is the most ludicrous thing I've ever dug up. See you soon, boils and ghouls!
Bring Me Sunshine
It's now forty years since we lost Eric Morecambe; a comedian so named after his excitable nature during BBC bukkake parties (don't Google that at work). Seven months after his death, Thames Television aired a star-packed tribute titled Bring Me Sunshine, held – of course – at the Palladium, which for me, having sat through so many Jim Davidson benefit concerts and Royal Varieties there, is like having my ghost dragged back to the scene of my own murder. Stood outside in a bow tie, M...
Shitcoms – Andy Capp
Since the MCU took comics mainstream, in the mad rush to bring every forgotten minor character to screen, one sub-genre got completely ignored; the syndicated newspaper strip. Where Americans were treated to Peanuts, Nancy, and Calvin and Hobbes, readers of British tabloids had stuff like Amanda, Hagar the Horrible, and George and Lynne; a strip with so much needless female nudity, it seemed the artist was drawing it in rushed rehydration breaks during one continuous wank. Generally read by men ...
Race to the Middle: Lenny Henry's True Identity
As there's a million humorous commentators doing the bad movie thing, other than Carry On Emmanuelle, I usually stick to stinky television. But this one is close enough to the wheelhouse to dig into, despite not actually being notably bad, although its premise distinctly falls under the category 'things that would never be allowed today'. You could be forgiven for not knowing 1991's True Identityexists, a rarely-if-ever spoken of oddity so tucked away in its star's CV, if he ...
The Cannon and Ball Gospel Show
My favourite and oft-repeated piece of trivia regards the Born Again status of one Syd Little, which occurred backstage of a Blackpool theatre in 1996, during bible study in Bobby Ball's dressing room. Naturally, Tommy was there, along with Jimmy Cricket, who stood watching in his wellies as Bobby encouraged Syd to pray for forgiveness. “I don’t know what I said,” recalled Syd in a 2009 interview,“but I cried, and that’s when I let the Lord into my heart and he’s been there ever ...
Bring Your Husband To Heel
This is rare for me, a jaunt into television of the 21st century. But it's a pungent era, 2005; a place both three weeks ago andalmost twenty years behind us. The mid-noughties were the bully's era, with every tabloid sidebar, every celebrity gossip magazine cover a collage of paparazzi'd thighs deemed too thunderous, tummies too large and saggy, and red circles gleefully highlighting crow's feet and cellulite dimples. If you had the gall to exist while not being a size zero, or ...
Owt Good On, Mam? – Rolf and Raquel
In trying to theme these Owt Good On, Mams somewhat, we've reached a pair of specials which tie together only by sharing an identical title format – the first name of their star. Though Rolf! appears on none of the involved's IMDB resumes, thanks to the adverts, I managed to figure out a date. Harry Enfield for Worthington's Bitter; Harry Secombe fronting the Pickwick musical at the Oxford Apollo; snowflakes on the continuity announcement; this is December 1996. Merry Christmas, ev...
Euro Disney's Grand Opening
For a certain generation, there was no more exotic promised land than that of the theme park. Alton Towers, The American Adventure, and of course the king, Disneyland/Disney World. The mouse parks were so embedded in popular culture that a series of ads with Super Bowl winners made a meme of celebrating a victory by taking yourself there as a reward, highlighting this as the ultimate goal we should all be reaching for; the greatest treat there is. But us Brits could not go to Disneyland, unless ...
The Mike Reid Show
The Mike Reid Show is basically what Tara Palmer-Tomkinson thought she was walking into on her sadly infamous appearance on The Frank Skinner Show, and not, as she had believed, The Frank Butcher Show. The personas of Reid and Butcher and inseparable, other than the former not having run down Martine McCutcheon on New Year's Eve, so if Mike Reid's hosting a show, then Frank Butcher is too. This is the same variety vehicle they gave everyone for about forty years – The (Host's Name)...
