Good afternoon and welcome to the first installment of my regular Monday stream. Seeing as it’s a Bank Holiday, I will be starting earlier than usual with some extra Bank Holiday treats. Going forward, my regular stream will be as from Sky onwards, normally starting at 6pm, although sometimes it might be preceded by a musical train journey (I ran out of time today, otherwise there would have been one preceding Tiswas). Hope you enjoy!

TL;DR:

15:30 – Opening Music.
15:33 – Tiswas – The Best of the Best Bits
16:25 – Pixies – On the Road
16:55 – Pixies – Gouge
17:45 – Sky – S01E01 – Burning Bright
18:10 – Star Trek (The Original Series) – S01E00 – The Cage
19:13 – Intermission
19:15 – …And Mother Makes Three – S01E01 – Simon’s Holiday
19:39 – Brass – S01E01
20:05 – Van der Valk – S01E01 – One Herring’s Not Enough
20:57 – FILM: Me Without You (2001)
22:40 – Soundbreaking – S01E01 – The Art of Recording
23:30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Original Radio Series) – Fit the First
23:58 – Closedown music.
00:03 – Closedown.

Detailed version (which will be a lot shorter in future due to no overall descriptions of the regular shows):

15:30 – Opening music.

15:33 – Tiswas – The Best of the Best Bits – Pretty self-explanatory. 🙂 Originally a sell-through VHS released in 1992, then rereleased on DVD in 2005.

16:25 – Pixies – On the Road – Myles Mangino [who appears to be a lighting designer from the look of the internet] toured with the Pixies for three years, and this film contains some of the footage he shot on their 1989 European and US tour.

16:55 – Pixies – Gouge – A 2001 documentary about the Pixies, featuring interviews with David Bowie, P. J. Harvey, Kristin Hersh, Steve Albini, Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood, Fran Healy, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Badly Drawn Boy, and, erm, Bono, sorry. Others, too. I believe, but am not certain, that it got shown on Channel 4 at some point.

17:45 – Sky – S01E01 – Burning Bright – A mystically oriented children’s science fantasy television serial made for ITV by HTV, written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin (Doctor Who, Into the Labyrinth), and broadcast in seven parts from 7th April to 14th May 1975.

A mysterious alien boy with strange solid blue eyes, the eponymous Sky (Marc Harrison), finds himself on Earth in the wrong period of time. He uses his psychic powers to achieve his goal of finding a way to his correct temporal destination, which is after “The Chaos”. Sky is confronted by the world soul of Earth in the form of Nature, which tries to reject him much as an immune system might an infection. In his quest to reach the time he was intended for, Sky is assisted by three human children. This episode was first broadcast on Mon 7th April 1975.

I enjoyed this on first broadcast, although found it a little freaky. Remember very little about it and am looking forward to seeing it again.

18:10 – Star Trek (The Original Series) – S01E00 – The Cage – Commencing a full run of the classic SF series, we start with the original pilot, completed on January 22, 1965 (with a copyright date of 1964). The episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Robert Butler, and was unaired for over 20 years.

“The Cage” has many of the features of the eventual series, but there are numerous differences. The captain of the starship USS Enterprise is not James T. Kirk, but Christopher Pike. Spock is present, but not as first officer. That role is taken by a character known only as Number One, played by Majel Barrett. Spock’s character differs somewhat from that seen in the rest of Star Trek; he displays a youthful eagerness that contrasts with the later more reserved and logical Spock. The weaponry used in the pilot also differs from that seen in the series proper, identified as lasers rather than phasers, and different props are used for the communicator and handheld weapon. Some of the sound effects also differ.

Much of the footage was later reused as flashback sequences within the later two-part episode “The Menagerie”.

19:13 – Intermission (1m42.234s) – just to make the subsequent times all line up fairly neatly. 🙂

19:15 – …And Mother Makes Three – S01E01 – Simon’s Holiday – This gentle little sitcom, made by Thames, was shown on ITV from 27 April 1971 to 27 June 1973. Starring Wendy Craig, it was written by Peter Buchanan, Peter Robinson, Richard Waring and Carla Lane.

Wendy Craig plays the newly-widowed Sally Harrison, a “harassed, well-meaning but scatterbrained” young woman doing her best to bring up her two boisterous sons, Simon and Peter, while holding down a job as an assistant to Mr Campbell, a veterinarian. Her aunt Flo lives with them and tries to help.

In this episode, Sally packs Simon’s bag for a camping trip to stop him making more lists, a test run in the garden leads to a sleepless night filled with fussing, and the children from next door pop round when he ends up catching a chill. First broadcast Tue 27 Apr 1971, at 7.00pm or 7.30pm, as I recall.

This may seem a curious choice for me to stream, but I was very fond of it as a small child. Out of curiosity I bought the DVD in a recent sale, and last week watched the first couple of episodes to see how it holds up. I rather enjoyed it, found it quite charming, and was pleasantly surprised at what a good physical comedian Craig is. I hope you enjoy it too. If not then I will swap it out at the end of the first series.

19:39 – Brass – S01E01 – a satirical comedy drama, made by Granada Television and shown on ITV in 1983 & 1984 and Channel 4 in 1990. The series was set primarily in Utterley, a fictional Lancashire mining town in the 1930s. Brass satirised working-class period dramas of the 1970s, most significantly When the Boat Comes In. Unusually for ITV comedies of the time, Brass eschewed a laugh track and used a dry sense of humour based in part on convoluted wordplay and subtle commentary on popular culture. The series also parodied the 1977 Granada TV dramatisation of Dickens’ Hard Times, which also starred Timothy West.

In this episode, Bradley Hardacre has risen from poverty to become the wealthy owner of mine, mill and munitions works in Utterley. The Fairchild family live in a poor home, so what is their connection to Bradley and why does he wants to destroy the Cottage Hospital? First shown on Mon 21st February 1983.

Watched the first couple of series of this as a late-teen, and I remember enjoying it. We’ll see how it goes. At the time this was seen as a very daring and unusual role for Timothy West, who’d only ever done serious drama before.

20:05 – Van der Valk – S01E01 – One Herring’s Not Enough – A crime drama series about a detective in Amsterdam, based on the novels of Nicolas Freeling. The main character, Simon “Piet” van der Valk, was played by Barry Foster from 1972 to 1992, and by Marc Warren since 2020, which we don’t talk about. The first three series were produced for the ITV network between 1972 and 1977, with two more series of feature-length Morse-style episodes being commissioned in 1991 and 1992.

The series was based on the characters and atmosphere, but not the plots, of the original novels. The stories mostly take place in and around Amsterdam, where Commissaris van der Valk is a cynical yet intuitive detective. Drugs, sex and murder are among the gritty themes of the casework, presented in contrast to the picturesque locations and the upbeat theme music.

In this episode, when a man confesses to the double murder of his wife and her lover it seems an open and shut case; but as one part after another of the man’s story doesn’t check out, Van der Valk realises he is dealing with something far more complicated… First shown on Wed 13th Sept 1972.

I saw a few of these (probably the 1977 third series) on original broadcast and liked them, even if some of it went above my head at the time. A couple of years ago I watched the lot on Talking Pictures, and liked it a lot, so much so that I want to share them all with you. This first episode or three are a bit uneven in tone, with the lead characters seemingly so desperate for a drink that they nip to the pub next door at every opportunity or, failing that, raid their secret filing cabinet where they keep more booze, but after that it settles down and becomes a quality slice of 70s TV, especially in S2 & S3. S1 still good though.

20:57 – FILM: Me Without You (2001) – A British film starring Anna Friel, Michelle Williams, and Oliver Milburn, and written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher. Also featuring Kyle MacLachlan in a little-known role.

The film charts the development of the friendship between two different girls living in the UK, Holly (Michelle Williams) and Marina (Anna Friel), from being children in 1973 through to the (2001) present day. Although they are next-door neighbours, they come from different backgrounds. Holly is Jewish and has an overprotective mother, while Marina has a mother who is much more laid back and a father who is almost never around. Sooner or later, Holly develops a crush on Marina’s older brother, Nat…

This, along with Amélie, Paris, Texas, and Close Encounters, is one of my top five films (I’d have to think about the fifth). I’d be the first to admit that it’s partly massive nostalgia: both the main characters and the writer/director (who, IIRC, admits on the DVD commentary that it was based on her own past) are just four years older than me, and so the timeline of their childhood and adolescence is very similar to mine. The production designer, set dressers, art department, costume etc. etc. should have won awards: I have NEVER seen a film so successfully evoke the 70s and 80s as this one: every little detail is perfect, I almost wept with nostalgia when I first saw it. My own personal feelings aside, I still think it’s a good movie that most people will enjoy, even if not as much as I do. Oh, and trotsky assortment was a massive fan too.

22:40 – Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music – S01E01 – The Art of Recording – An eight-part documentary series from 2016, exploring the art of sound recording and music production, charting a century’s worth of innovation and experimentation in the creation of recorded music. The final project of Sir George Martin, legendary producer of the Beatles, the series chronicles the influence and evolution of recorded music on the 20th century, and its lasting impact on how we create and relate to music. The series combines rare archival footage from celebrated recording studios (often used as an instrument) and features an extensive, wide-ranging soundtrack illuminating the stories of many artists, producers, and audio engineering innovators. It includes more than 150 original interviews with artists: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Joni Mitchell, Roger Waters, Jeff Beck, Roger Daltrey, Linda Perry, Barry Gibb, Elton John, Debbie Harry, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, Mark Knopfler, Tom Petty, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Lindsey Buckingham, Rosanne Cash, Don Was, Steven Van Zandt, Sheila E, Questlove, Ben Harper, Billy Idol, Beck, Imogen Heap, Darryl McDaniels, RZA, Bon Iver, Nile Rodgers, Nigel Godrich, Q-Tip, Brian Eno, St. Vincent, Mark Ronson, Rick Rubin, Tony Visconti, and others.

Saw one of these on Sky Arts a few years ago and was enthralled. Kept trying to catch the repeats but always seemed to manage to miss one, TiVo too full, etc… so I gave up and bought the DVD, and here we are.

23:30 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Original Radio Series) – Fit the First – The legendary science fiction comedy radio series written by Douglas Adams (with some material in the first series provided by John Lloyd). It was originally broadcast in the UK by BBC Radio 4 in 1978, and afterwards the BBC World Service, National Public Radio in the US and CBC Radio in Canada. The series was the first radio comedy programme to be produced in stereo, and was innovative in its use of music and sound effects, winning a number of awards. The series follows the adventures of hapless Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a pan-galactic encyclopaedia and travel guide. But you know all that.

23:58 – Closedown music.

00:03 – Closedown.