Join me for my usual first-Thursday-of-the-month OTH-Replacement stream.
17:00 – Sheepy’s opening music.
17:03 – TISWAS Volume 2 – More of the Best Bits – Excerpts from the famously anarchic children’s television show that originally aired on Saturday mornings from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982, and was produced for the ITV network by ATV. Originally a sell-through VHS released in 1992, then rereleased on DVD in 2005 …with clearly no further attempt to clean it up for DVD, as even the opening quality disclaimer seems to have been ripped from the original VHS! Carried over from Monday’s show after the latter’s early technical difficulties.
18:00 – The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe S01E03 – the legendary French-German children’s television drama series made by Franco London Films (a.k.a. FLF Television Paris) and based on Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. This episode, Robinson recalls leaving home and travelling to Hull to seek a ship. The remains of the Esmeralda are washed near the shore, and he busies himself salvaging as much as possible before it sinks. First broadcast in the UK on Tue 26th October 1965 at 5pm on BBC1 under the simple title “Robinson Crusoe”.
18:25 – Chemistry – A Volatile History E02/03 – The Order of the Elements – The explosive story of chemistry is the story of the building blocks that make up our entire world – the elements. From fiery phosphorus to the pure untarnished lustre of gold and the dazzle of violent, violet potassium, everything is made of elements – the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, even us. Yet for centuries this world was largely unknown, and completely misunderstood.
In this three-part series, professor of theoretical physics Jim Al-Khalili traces the extraordinary story of how the elements were discovered and mapped. He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.
In part two, Professor Al-Khalili looks at the 19th-century chemists who struggled to impose an order on the apparently random world of the elements. From working out how many there were to discovering their unique relationships with each other, the early scientists’ bid to decode the hidden order of the elements was driven by false starts and bitter disputes. But ultimately the quest would lead to one of chemistry’s most beautiful intellectual creations – the periodic table. First broadcast on Thu 28th Jan 2010 at 9.00pm by BBC4.
19:24 – The Sixties S01E07 – The Space Race – A documentary miniseries, produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s studio Playtone, this 10-part series chronicled events and popular culture of the United States during the 1960s. This month, in the midst of the Cold War, America falls behind in the manned exploration of space with the USSR. Then President Kennedy pledges that America will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, capturing the fascination of the world. First broadcast on Thu 24th July 2014 by CNN.
20:05 – EXTRA: Tom Lehrer – Wernher von Braun – with intro
20:07 – FILM: Secretary (2002) – an American erotic black comedy romantic drama film directed by Steven Shainberg, written by Erin Cressida Wilson (based on the short story Secretary by Mary Gaitskill), and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, gets a job as a secretary to a demanding lawyer, where their employer-employee relationship turns into a sexual, sadomasochistic one. This is probably one of my top five films (the other candidates being Amélie; Paris, Texas; Me Without You; Close Encounters of the Third Kind), not least because it surprised me. When I first watched it, I expected some terribly clichéd “Dommy boss corrupts innocent young subby” type thing, but it’s not that at ALL. Without giving too much away, it’s far more nuanced and far far better than that.
21:54 – Monty Python (Mostly) – One Down Five to Go – Behind the Scenes – a short series of behind the scenes snippets of the final ever Monty Python show, filmed at the O2 Arena in London on 20th July 2014. Carried over from Monday’s show after the latter’s early technical difficulties.
22:16 – The Day The Universe Changed – S01E07 – What the Doctor Ordered – Radio Times listing: “A personal view by James Burke in ten parts. In 1831, in the English port of Sunderland, a man called Bill Sproat collapsed and died. No one knew why. Soon hundreds, then thousands, were dead across the country – and panic spread.
What was the mystery killer? And how could it be stopped? It took a revolution in medicine to provide the answers – and those answers changed us all. But how did Benjamin Franklin get involved? And why did everything depend on Victorian engineering? And what did doctors discover which means that today we should all be entries on a computer?” First broadcast on Tue 30th April 1985 at 8.00pm by BBC1.
23:07 – The Tyrant King E02/06 – Don’t Walk – Run! – A six-part children’s serial drama directed by Mike Hodges, made by ABC Weekend TV and screened by Thames Television in 1968. It was dramatised from the book of the same name by Aylmer Hall, adapted for television by Trevor Preston. It was notable for its use of a progressive music soundtrack, including music from The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, Cream, Pink Floyd, and in particular, The Nice, whose song “The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack”, from the album of the same name was the title track. A strange phone call and a wallet found in an old dark house lead 3 teenagers and their dog to follow a mysterious character across London. With Candace “Nicholas and Alexandra” Glendenning, Murray “Bilis Manger” Melvin, Philip “Your name vill also go down on ze list” Madoc and Eddie McMurray & Kim Fortune. The series was commissioned by London Transport, which may well explain how any semblance of a plot is largely subsumed by the children visiting one London tourist attraction after another – just enjoy the music and shots of vintage London! Although shot in colour (by the same unit that years later became Euston Films), it was only ever transmitted in monochrome – hence the b/w Thames ident – and was unseen in colour until its DVD release. With thanks to Danger Man for the initial recommendation. First broadcast on Thu 10th Oct 1968 by ITV.
23:31 – Closedown music.
23:36 – Closedown.