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For a full ten minutes every member of the Taggart family talks about Mother – how formidable she is, how eccentric, how diabolic. On this, her 40th wedding anniversary (which she still celebrates although her husband has been dead for…
In a bid to stop the power-hungry Duke Simon Des Roches (David Farrar) seizing the English throne from the rightful heir (a boy prince), Robin Hood’s loyal men decide to reform ten years after his death and seek out his…
1 9 7 0 – 1 9 7 1 (UK) 6 x 45 minute episodes Premiering at 9.15 pm on 14 November 1970, and recorded at a specially built ice rink at the Pontin’s Holiday Village at Camber Sands, East…
1 9 7 6 (UK) 13 x 30 minute episodes This Bristol-produced television series from HTV West was created to showcase the folk music, humour, and unique rural culture of the English West Country. It blended traditional acoustic folk music with…
With an imagination fuelled by countless science-fiction films and magazines, young Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke) dreams of adventure, excitement and discovery beyond the stars. Sharing his dreams with his enterprising junior high school pals, Wolfgang Muller (River Phoenix) and Darren…
Gino Condello (newcomer Vince Colosimo) is a 15-year-old Italian-Australian boy living with his migrant family in the gritty inner-city Melbourne suburb of North Fitzroy. He is caught between differing lifestyles – between the Aussie way at school (where he wants…
1 9 6 7 – 1 9 7 0 (UK) 37 x episodes 2 x Christmas specials Beginning as a 1967 Comedy Playhouse presentation, the BBC comedy series Not in Front of the Children was the first of the sitcoms in which Wendy…
1 9 7 0 (UK) 9 x 30 minute episodes After Simon Dee’s defection to London Weekend Television, it was a couple of years before the BBC established another hit chat show. In the interim, various experiments were tried, including one…
1 9 8 5 – 1 9 8 7 (USA) 52 x 11 minute episodes “This way to Bear Country, you’ll know when you’re there, as soon as you enter, you’ll feel like a bear.” Thus began each episode of…
1 9 7 0 – 1 9 7 7 (UK) ITV arts programme, Aquarius, was originally edited and presented by Humphrey Burton, a former editor of Monitor, though Russell Harty and Peter Hall (Director of the National Theatre) took over in later years.…
1 9 7 4 – 1 9 7 5 (UK) 25 x 30 minute episodes Adge Cutler and his band of zider-zuppin’ Zummerset zealots, The Wurzels, hosted this half-hour early-afternoon show from HTV, providing earthy entertainment in true West Country style.…
2 0 0 2 – 2 0 0 8 (USA) 160 x 60 minute episodes This CBS police procedural drama series followed the activities of the FBI’s Missing Persons Unit (MPU) based in New York City. Each episode tracked the…
Little River Band was an Australian ‘supergroup’ of savvy and well-experienced musicians. Three members came from an acoustic band called Mississippi, while Dutch-born Beeb Birtles had been a member of Zoot, one of Australia’s most popular bands between 1969 and…
Formed by Green Gartside and Tom Morley in the artsy, politicised milieu of Leeds University (Yorkshire) in 1977, with a name that combined Marxist namedrop (an Antonio Gramsci title roughly meaning “political writings”) with Tutti-Frutti onomatopoeia, the band took the…
The Beatles first feature film was a surprisingly sensational comedy, which revolved around a fictional 36 hours in their hectic schedule during a trip to London. The mop tops demonstrated that they could excel at clowning (like reincarnated Marx Brothers) as…
Born plain Alan Caldwell and growing up with a speech impediment, ‘Rory Storm’ was an accomplished swimmer – once covering the length of Lake Windermere – and he was skilled at golf, bowling, skating, ice hockey, and was a speedy…
Teenagers Peter Leay (guitar/vocals), Kevin Roberts (bass) and Les Brians (drums) met at comprehensive school in Wallasey, Liverpool, and formed a band called The New Attraction with Rob Fennah (vocals/guitar) from nearby Greasby. They auditioned for both Opportunity Knocks and New Faces…
Love them or loathe them, The Bay City Rollers were the teenage phenomenon of the 1970s. Five young lads from Edinburgh – Alan Longmuir, Eric Faulkner, Stuart “Woody” Wood, Derek Longmuir and Leslie McKeown – took their name by sticking…
Billy Butlin spotted two things in the 1930s: First, holidaymakers were routinely turfed out of their boarding houses and not allowed back in until teatime. So whatever the weather, they had to entertain themselves all day – and pay for it.…
Malcolm Frederick Evans was born in Liverpool on 27 May 1935 to Frederick and Joan Evans and grew up in Waldgrave Road, Wavertree, Liverpool, along with his three sisters, Pam, June and Barbara. He married a Liverpool girl, Lily, in…
First published in August 1963, The Beatles Book was the official magazine devoted to the Fab Four, with a remit to keep their fans informed about the activities of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Published by music writer Sean O’Mahony (who…
This comic for girls was published by DC Thomson from 1963 to 1976 when it merged with Jackie. Later issues included a pull-out magazine section in the centre called “Diana Pop Club”, with photographs and articles featuring pop stars and…
Fleetway published this weekly comic for younger children between 16 October 1954 and 15 August 1987. Over the course of 1700 issues, it absorbed the comics Harold Hare’s Own Paper (1954), Tiny Tots (1959), TV Toyland (1967), Robin (1969) Hey Diddle Diddle (1973), Fun to Do (1982), and Chips Comic (1983). It was originally…
Born on Christmas Eve 1932, Cynthia Diana Paine (known professionally as Cynthia Payne and ‘Madam Cyn’) – the elder child of Nelson and Elizabeth Paine – first discovered the importance of a woman in a man’s life when she was…
Trying to change his life by joining the navy, well-meaning but clumsy grocer’s assistant Norman Puckle (Wisdom) is posted to the destroyer HMS Dorchester where he soon creates pandemonium but is chosen to be the first test subject for a…
In the South Pacific in 1944, US Marine Corporal Allison (Robert Mitchum) and his recon party are disembarking from a submarine when they are spotted and fired upon by the Japanese. The submarine goes into a dive, abandoning the scouts.…
The little man who scored such a success in his first film, Trouble In Store (1953), was back again to cheer us all up. This time, Norman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children’s Home and now acts as their caretaker and…
Despising the Disney take, Jonathan Miller set out to de-anthropomorphise the story of Alice In Wonderland by returning to Dodgson’s mathematical logic and Victorian values for this BBC drama. Stripping away the masks and costumes, he allowed the audience to see…
Through the merciless imagination of an old lady, where terror and fascination lure some of the most beloved characters of contemporary literature into reality and cast them as foreboding judges on her childhood years, comes the realisation of a very…
Sydneysider Harry Joy (Barry Otto) is a successful advertising man, with a nice house, a wife he loves (Lynette Curran) and two children, David (Miles Buchanan) and Lucy (Gia Carides). After a long birthday lunch, Harry has a heart attack…
January 01 – Two women are trampled to death and 140 severely injured as crowds dispersing after the traditional New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square, London. stampede. 02 – British television comedy star Dick Emery dies, aged 63. 06 – Unemployment in…
January 01 – West Indies cricketer and politician Sir Learie Constantine becomes Britain’s first black life peer. 01 – Ohio State beats Southern California, 27 – 16, in the Rose Bowl to become US national collegiate football champions. 02 – Australian…
January 01 – In Britain, the first edition of Top of the Pops screens on the BBC. Host Jimmy Savile introduces The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, The Hollies, The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Dave Clark Five. 03 – Barry…
January 02 – Ideological purity reaches the superficially cosy world of the nursery. In an attempt to excise any taint of racism, all new editions of Enid Blyton’s Noddy books will be shorn of the traditional black golliwogs, who will…
January 01 – Brunei becomes independent of Britain. The Sultan of Brunei appoints himself Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Home Affairs Minister. 01 – After a bloodless coup, Major General Buhari becomes ruler of Nigeria. 01 – Alexis Korner, godfather…
January 01 – The Watergate criminal trial ends. Aides of former President Nixon (Attorney General John N. Mitchell, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, Robert Mardian and John D. Ehrlichman) are found guilty of trying to cover up and convicted…
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Enjoy your trip in the time machine!
The Silver Beetles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe) failed an audition as Billy Fury’s backing group but drew a consolation prize in playing behind Johnny Gentle…
1 9 6 8 The original Sherbet lineup emerged from the ashes of two Sydney bands, The Downtown Roll Band and Clapham Junction. Englishman Clive Shakespeare formed the Downtown Roll…
13 September 2012 Film-maker Stanley Long – dubbed the “King of Sexploitation” following his string of X-rated films in the 1960s and 1970s – has died from natural causes, aged…
Why, when the rest of Britain in the late ’50s and early “60s was back-pedalling away from solid rock & roll into a goo of Bobby Vee and Shadows imitators,…
On 27 December 1960, The Beatles appeared at the Litherland Town Hall Ballroom in Liverpool in a performance widely regarded as being a turning point in their career. The band, in…
The first time I appeared on Juke Box Jury, I wasn’t on the panel. I was in the “Hot Seat” – that famous chair hidden from the panel behind the…
Cody Walpole (Henry Thomas, who had starred as Elliott in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), an orphaned 14-year-old American boy, has been living in Australia with his eccentric but well-meaning guardian, Gaza…
Among the many bands who performed at the 1974 Sunbury Festival was an unknown group called Skyhooks. In the mid-afternoon heat on that Australia Day weekend, with their makeup running…
1 9 8 8 (Australia) 30 x 50 minute episodes This Australian drama from the ABC revolved around three estranged sisters who came together to run the Hotel Isis – a…
Formed in 1974, Geeza were a powerful four-piece rock group from the western suburbs of Sydney (Australia). The group originally performed as The Geeza Rock ‘n’ Roll Show, presenting a…
1 9 7 7 – 1 9 7 8 (Australia) 13 x 30/40 minute episodes The Real Thing, produced by Australia’s Channel 2 (ABC), was a welcome escape from the…
The huge success of Canadian comedy Porky’s (1981) – it grossed over $110 million – convinced the main creative talents that a sequel would be a good idea, so a…
The Pointed Sticks formed in Vancouver, Canada, in 1977 when singer Nick Jones returned from England where he had witnessed the excitement of the British punk rock scene. Taking the…
Martha and The Muffins were a playful Canadian new wave band who had their roots in a mid-70s outfit called Oh Those Pants – a 10-piece group who performed Sixties…
1 9 5 7 – 1 9 9 5 (Canada) 30 minute episodes This long-running Canadian game show started on 24 June 1957 as an inexpensive summer replacement for The…
1 9 5 4 – 1 9 5 7 (Canada) 80 x 30 minute episodes This popular early music variety television series from CBC was hosted by Toronto-born pianist, singer, and…
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