Summer’s here and the time is right for drinking-in some hot rectangular audio-visual bonkersness.
16:00 – Mid-life crisis chat
\ What better way to kick off a Summer special than with a lively hour-long chat about mid-life crises? Adam Buxton talks to Miranda Sawyer on what drives your inevitable mid-life crisis and what the hell you can do about it. I found it helpful, entertaining and informative.
16:55 – Bad Influence!
\ Child-friendly digest of a 90s video games industry losing its mind. Andy Crane steps on a RISC chip and Zee Wright gets his bumcheeks Gouraud-shaded.
17:15 – Remote Control
\ Another episode of the colourful teatime pop culture quiz, brought to you via MTV and Manchester. This 1991 episode features contestant Dave Rainford, who went on to be an Egghead on that programme, what’s it called.
17:40 – Chain Reaction (Radio 4)
\ Lively one-on-one comedy interview show – in this marvellously entertaining edition, Rhys Thomas interviews Simon Day.
18:15 – Denis Norden’s World of Television
\ Seemingly forgotten about, this clip show was made in 1980 after the first two It’ll Be Alright On The Night’s had been produced – it appears to be the source of the ‘hilarious telly clips from around the world’ format that was subsequently adopted by Clive James, Chris Tarrant et al. It looks like a good ‘un.
19:10 – Reeves and Mortimer – The Club
\ A compilation of all of the mockumentary “The Club” sketches from 1999’s Bang Bang It’s Reeves and Mortimer, which were the standout sketches from that series. This compilation was seemingly put together for a home release that I’ve never heard of, and it bookends the whole story into one collection, without the audience track (for extra mockumentary Brownie points).
19:50 – Building Sights
\ Series of short, snappy acclamations on modern architecture from 1990s BBC2 – this week, the startling Lloyd’s building in the City of London, designed by Richard Rogers.
20:00 – Viz: The Documentary
\ Newcastle-based adult comic Viz was at the peak of its circulation in the early 90s, and in 1990 this Channel 4 documentary was produced to profile its makers. Ever-unconventional, it’s been produced in a spoof Dispatches-style investigative journalism format.
21:00 – The Thick Of It
\ A general election looms (!), and a freshly-sacked Malcolm Tucker tries to operate in media-land – until a clandestine contact offers him a way back to the frontline. Watch as they almost immediately come to regret this.
21:30 – FILM: Apollo 11 (2019)
\ An absolute masterpiece of a documentary capturing the Apollo 11 moon mission from start to finish. Told in direct cinema (no voiceovers or retrospective commentary) and using previously-unreleased footage shot in a speciality 70mm format – soak-in and marvel at the wondrous audio-visual experience, because every single frame is a work of art. In Full HD.
23:10 – Blindboy Undestroys The World
\ Final episode of the comedy/consumer investigation show, previous episodes of which I’ve shown on the Late Zone. Hosted by Blindboy Boatclub of The Rubberbandits, this concluding episode covers Britain’s fucked housing system.
23:45 – Mix
\ We sail through 45 minutes of rave classics from 1992, accompanied by every PC Engine Hu-Card game in existence. Bosh!
Bonux comedy, music, animations and crisps throughout