First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 28th 2023

Despite the slick operation we try to give you the impression that we are running here as we take our weekly deep dives into the world of archive television here on VISION ON SOUND, sometimes my regular co-host, WARREN CUMMINGS, and I agree to meet up and record our latest show with not much actually planned for what we’re going to talk about.

I nearly said “with little in mind” there, but regular listeners might have quite reasonably felt able to suggest that we rarely have much in mind on the shows we do, but, knowing that might be just too much of a temptation for all of you, I decided to think again.

TWO thoughts already this week? My! I must be spoiling you!

Anyway, this week I did actually have something of a plan in mind, but WARREN had other ideas, and our conversation set off down quite a different path from the one I expected, and, perhaps rather surprisingly, I think it makes for a strangely fascinating show despite ourselves.

Because, by simply prompting us with the name one of those fine character actors from back in the day that we often enjoy the work of here on VISION ON SOUND, we went on something of a journey which involved FOGGY, BLAMIRE and ENTWISTLE, a LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE trio that never happened, as well as touching upon the world of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS?, CORONATION STREET, and DALLAS in a whistle-stop tour of popular television that made for a rather disparate set of travelling companions for us this week.

And whilst we don’t often get too philosophical or thoughtful when we get together to do these shows – WARREN and I both being people who have not very well hidden shallows where other people’s depths might be – we do have a rather interesting conversation about regional television, the use of regional accents, whether genuine or otherwise, and that tricky little matter of the portrayal of ethnic minorities in some of the old telly we watch, some of which you might perhaps find massively inappropriate for a couple of blokes like us to be chatting about, but which I hope you’ll at least find interesting if nothing else.

Incidentally, it sometimes happens that, because these chats catch us unawares (as it were), one or two of the facts and figures don’t quite spring as easily to mind as they might do if we were more professionally prepared.

“Professionally…!”

Anyway, this meant that I completely forgot the name of SAM in GETTING SAM HOME, as well as struggling with names such as DINO SHAFEEK and CARMEN MONROE which, whilst we usually get there in the end, sometimes fall out of mind in the cut and thrust of these recording sessions.

And, whilst we did finally get around to talking about what I had been originally going to suggest, that all featured in a separate and quite throat gravelling second recording that I’m now saving for another time.

So, with that blatant attempt to add a certain amount of intrigue and anticipation into our keen and eager audience, I’ll simply hop over to the controls and kick up those FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL time engines, click on the randomiser, and wonder where the hell we are going to end up. Hopefully it’s not SKARO, and, with my luck, it’s probably not going to be during a Parisian springtime, but we are likely to hop over those Pennines and find ourselves, at least obliquely, in and around Holmfirth with one or two of its better known inhabitants.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.