17:56 – Sheepy’s opening music.
18:00 – Thames TV morning start-up music.
18:05 – The Tomorrow People S01E13 – The Vanishing Earth (Part 4/4) – The classic 1970s ITV children’s series about a group of teens with paranormal abilities, who use their special gifts to battle evil. This week, the Tomorrow People and Steen must find a way to save the workers trapped in Spidron’s collapsing mine workings. Then they must track down Spidron and Sandor and stop them escaping or the entire Earth will be destroyed. First broadcast on Mon 30th July 1973 by ITV.
18:30 – Shadows S01E05 – Optical Illusion – a British supernatural television anthology series produced by Thames Television for ITV between 1975 and 1978. This week, three teenagers tour a spooky old Tudor mansion just before it’s about to close for the night. They hide in a secret passageway and get locked in. First broadcast on Wed 1st Oct 1975 by ITV. Starring a young Pauline Quirke, with James Cossins.
18:55 – Star Trek (The Original Series) – S01E14 – Balance of Terror – This week, the Enterprise must decide on its response when a Romulan ship makes a destructively hostile armed probe of Federation territory. First broadcast in the USA on Thu 15th Dec 1966 by NBC. The episode is frequently praised by critics and regularly appears on lists of the best episodes of Star Trek. In 2016, The Washington Post ranked it the third-best episode of the entire Star Trek franchise. “Balance of Terror” introduces the cloaking device and the Romulans. Mark Lenard plays the Romulan commander; he later portrayed Spock’s father Sarek in the majority of his later Star Trek appearances, as well as a Klingon captain in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The episode also features the final appearance of yeoman Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), who would not appear again until Star Trek: The Motion Picture. All core Star Trek regular background players appear in this episode: Eddie Paskey (Lt. Lesley and William Shatner stand-in), Frank da Vinci (Lt. Brent and Leonard Nimoy stand-in), William Blackburn (Lt. Hadley and De Forest Kelley stand-in), Ron Veto (Harrison), John Arndt (Fields), and Jeanne Malone (Enterprise yeoman and stand-in for Grace Lee Whitney.)
19:46 – …And Mother Makes Three – S03E02 – Father Figure – More gentle middle-class Thames sitcom, starring Wendy Craig as the newly-widowed Sally Harrison, doing her best to bring up her two boisterous sons, Simon and Peter. This week, Sally denies that her great mood is because of her handsome new boss, a dinner invitation reveals the truth about a shapely female friend, and Simon and Peter decide to show him that their mum’s a bit of a swinger. First broadcast on Thu 21st Sep 1972 by ITV.
20:10 – Brass – S01E12 – More Granada-made northern-drama-satirising comedy, starring Timothy West. This week, Bradley reluctantly agrees to using Jack’s truss ranges to hold up the chimney, Big Tom. Guy arrives to help Morris who is upset because Matt doesn’t fancy him. They discuss plans to blow up the Prince with SBD. MacDuff tells Lady P that hypnotism will help her to regain the use of her legs, but it backfires on him. She walks away and kicks Bradley to prove it. First broadcast on Mon 16th May 1983 by ITV.
20:35 – Special Branch – S01E02 – Smokescreen – Groundbreaking British police drama series following the exploits of the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police: an elite group of officers tasked with protecting London from spies, terrorists, and subversives. This week, [major IMDb plot spoiler removed], which leads to an embarrassing public coroner’s inquest. Jordan investigates a scientist being vetted for a sensitive position, and all agree he is politically too far left for further consideration… [another spoiler removed]. First broadcast on Wed 24th Sept 1969 by ITV.
21:26 – The Beiderbecke Affair E01/06 – What I Don’t Understand Is This… – A six-part drama by Alan Plater. Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne (Barbara Flynn) teaches English and wants to help save the planet. Trevor tries to buy some jazz records but this leads to meeting a “dazzlingly beautiful platinum blond”, a suspicious detective sergeant and a strange pair of men running a junior football team. Big Al and Little Norm agree to help Trevor and Jill with their school supplies problems and Jill decides to stand as a local councillor. A tale of “Black Economies”, council corruption and many strange characters all set to a background of Bix Beiderbecke. This week, Trevor meets a dazzlingly beautiful blonde and buys the wrong records. First broadcast on Sun 6th Jan 1985 by ITV. The Beiderbecke Affair was intended as a sequel to Plater’s earlier Get Lost! (1981), but Alun Armstrong proved to be unavailable and thus the premise was reworked. I note that this runs four minutes shorter than Get Lost! used to – seems ITV were expanding their advert breaks even back then!
22:17 – Snub TV S02E09* – This week featuring:
• A Certain Ratio: “Tribeca” (SnubTV video)
• Edsel Auctioneer: “Stickleback” (live)
• Cabaret Voltaire: interview, “Nag Nag Nag” (video extract), “Yashar” (video extract), “Sensoria” (video extract), “Don’t Argue” (video extract), “Hypnotised” (video), “Keep On” (studio playback extract)
• Ted Chippington: “Bad news, Ted” (SnubTV video)
• Inspiral Carpets: interview, “Commercial Rain” (live), “This is How it Feels” (live)
Or as the Radio Times puts it: “Manchester’s rising stars Inspiral Carpets filmed live plus an interview; and a look at the work of Cabaret Voltaire – who, back in the punk days, pioneered electro rhythms and sampled before samplers – on the eve of the release of a new LP. Plus Soupdragons and Edsel Auctioneers.”
From 1st generation off-air VHS > Panasonic HD recorder > DVD-R > MPEG Streamclip > MPEG4
Video compression: H.264, 352 x 288, deinterlaced
Audio compression: AAC, Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz, 192 kbps
First broadcast, I believe, on Mon 12th March 1990 at 6.30pm by BBC2.
* – Although this is labelled as episode 7 in the pack I kindly received, it actually appears to be episode 9, if the Radio Times is to be believed (which admittedly the Snub people have said in interviews may not be reliable). Episode 8 in the pack appears to actually be episode 8… but sadly it seems episodes 7 (Lush, Vaughan Oliver of V23, Tackhead) and 10 (Cramps, James, A Tribe Called Quest) are missing entirely. Regardless of the accuracy of the Radio Times Genome listings, there do seem to be two episodes missing.
22:44 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Original Radio Series) – The Tertiary Phase, Fit the Fifthteenth – Original Radio Times listing: “In which Slartibartfast provides an Informational Illusion. By Douglas Adams. Music by Paul “Wix” Wickens. Producers Bruce Hyman and Helen Chattwell. Adapted and directed by Dirk Maggs. Repeated on Thursday at 11pm.
BBC RADIO COLLECTION: The original full-cast BBC Radio 4 productions of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Primary Phase and Secondary Phase, are available on audio cassette and CD, along with a Collector’s Edition and Douglas Adams at the BBC on CD only. The long awaited, brand-new third series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Tertiary Phase, will be released on CD and audio cassette on 25 October. Available from good retail outlets or from www.bbcshop.com Call [number removed].”
First broadcast on Tue 5th Oct 2004 at 6.30pm by BBC Radio 4.
23:12 – COMMENTARY TRACK VERSION of The Tomorrow People S01E09 – The Medusa Strain (Part 4/4) – More interesting, amusing and sometimes scandalous DVD commentary featuring Nicholas Young (John), Peter Vaughan-Clarke (Stephen) and Philip Gilbert (TIM), moderated by Nicholas Briggs. To recap: this is the classic 1970s ITV children’s series about a group of teens with paranormal abilities, who use their special gifts to battle evil. This week, TIM jaunts John and Stephen back to the lab where Kenny attempts to revive them. Meanwhile, Jedikiah forces Peter to take them back to the 20th century one last time. First broadcast on Mon 2nd July 1973 by ITV. DVD Commentary recorded c. 2002.
23:36 – Secret Diary of a Call Girl S01E03 – a British drama television series based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous Belle de Jour. It stars Billie Piper as Belle, a high-end London call girl. This week, Belle goes to a hotel room to have sex with Ash, who was her first ever client and for whom she has a soft spot. However Ash falls asleep, which allows Belle time to go downstairs and pick up another punter for a session in his room before returning in the early hours to Ash, who is blissfully unaware of what has happened. First broadcast on Thu 11th Oct 2007 by ITV2.
23:58 – Closedown music.
00:02 – Closedown.