Replacing OTHII on his monthly Thursday night off, as usual. As ever, schedule subject to change from late evening onwards.
19:25 – Intro Music
19:28 – Secrets of the Sun – a Nova/National Geographic Special about the nearby thermonuclear bomb that keeps us all lit and warm. Hopefully this month we get to see more than the first seven minutes.
20:21 – Magic – S01E04 – Disappearances Magic – part of a 2004 BBC documentary series about magic. First broadcast on Sat 6th Nov 2004, 20:00 on BBC2.
21:20 – James Burke – Connections – S01E05 – “Wheel of Fortune” – Fifth episode of the legendary series exploring the history of technology in a non-conventional way. From the Radio Times listing: “What’s the connection between the Caliph of Baghdad’s stomach ache and medieval Nuremberg, or between steel clocksprings and gingerbread men – and what does that connection do to our working day?” First broadcast Tue 14th November 1978, 7.20pm, BBC1.
22:10 – Puberty Blues (1981) – Wiki: “a 1981 Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Bruce Beresford, based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, which is a protofeminist teen novel about two 13-year-old girls from the middle-class Sutherland Shire in Sydney. The girls attempt to create a popular social status by ingratiating themselves with the ‘Greenhill gang’ of surfers, who like many alpha males of this era have a careless attitude toward casual sex, drugs and alcohol over the course of one Sydney summer. For censorship reasons, in the film their age was increased to 16.” Have vague memories of seeing this on Channel 4 as a youth. Don’t remember much about it. But it was freely available on a streaming site, so here it is in an, er, moderately-poor VHS rip, sorry.
23:33 – Rainbow (Nightmare Fuel Edition) – Trees – a very early edition of the children’s TV show, with a faintly disturbing title sequence, someone called David instead of Geoffrey and, be warned, the nightmare fuel edition of Bungle. I believe, but cannot be sure, that this is S01E19, first aired Fri 10th November 1972.
23:51- Britain – a travelogue of this sceptred isle, brought to you by BOAC (a forerunner of British Airways, for our younger viewers). Shown as a BBC2 Trade Test Transmission between 1969/08/25 and 1973/08/22.
00:16 – How The Motor Car Works – The Engine – a CaB TV repeat of the Trade Test Colour Film Transmission shown on BBC2 in the late-60s to early-70s. Warning: contains naked views of internal combustion engines, with bare cylinders, pistons going up and down and valves going in and out.
00:33 – Diesel Trainride – a Trade Test Colour Film.
00:43 – Oil Underground – a Trade Test Colour Film.
00:59 – Closedown music.
01:04 – Closedown.