PAUL CHANDLER presents THE SHY YETI's Top Ten USTV Sitcoms.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 20th 2025.

This week our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, returns to present another of his Top Ten choices, which this time is a follow up to him recently presenting his choice of his all time favourite British Sitcoms, as this week he crosses the Atlantic to give us his personal selection of his favourite American sitcoms.

As with his other choices, I think that you might be a little bit surprised by several of PAUL’s selections, and, of course, the vast archive of quality options that have to be left out when you’re making a list like this. I’m sure that, if I’d spoken to him on another day, perhaps they might have been completely different. Two of them, after all, even change their places during the course of this conversation.

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.

WARREN CUMMINGS talks TV fashions.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 13th 2025.

This week WARREN CUMMINGS is back again, and this time we decided to take a slightly irreverent look at the notion that our enjoyment of archive television might be reduced simply because of the fashions being worn or the appearance of the people that turn up in it. Does a great contemporary drama, or a classic comedy series now look just a little bit silly because the characters are wearing terrible fashions, have ridiculous haircuts, or sport quite ludicrous facial hair? And will the cutting edge series currently being made and shown look just as ridiculous in a few years time.

All of this was prompted by a mention of some terrible underpants in an episode of a classic TV drama series that we mentioned in passing a few episodes ago, so we really do have to be very careful of what we are talking about and where it might take our explorations of the archives next time…

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.

WARREN CUMMINGS talks about those 1960s puppet series.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 6th 2025.

This week I welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS once again, and this week he wanted to talk all about the Gerry Anderson puppet series of the 1960s, and, although his take on them might be somewhat different to the version you might normally expect when we talk about archive television, I do think we had an entertaining, if highly animated discussion, all about FOUR FEATHER FALLS, FIREBALL XL5, STINGRAY, THUNDERBIRDS and CAPTAIN SCARLET.

And whilst we did also manage to take in THE ADVENTURES OF TWIZZLE and TORCHY THE BATTERY BOY in passing, we somehow managed to almost completely forget about SUPERCAR, which is the kind of thing that happens when you get carried away with the things that you are actually talking about.

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.

LISA PARKER on CROWN COURT

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 29th 2025.

Recently, LISA PARKER, one of the regular contributors to the radio programme known as VISION ON SOUND found herself in court. This was not, however, because she had done anything wrong, but because she had been called up for jury service, and she felt compelled to do her civic duty.

After this experience was over, because it had inspired her to start re-watching CROWN COURT, Granada Television’s iconic afternoon drama series from the 1970s and 1980s, she contacted the show and suggested that we might want to talk about that series for a programme, and today’s offering is the result of that conversation.

Today, on VISION ON SOUND, she presents her evidence of the enduring greatness of those many serialised dramatisations of events in Fulchester CROWN COURT…

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.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI's Top Ten British Sitcoms.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 22nd 2025.

This week our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, returns to present another of his Top Ten choices, although this time we go into perhaps more familiar territory for Top Ten discussions with him presenting his choice of his all time favourite British Sitcoms.

And whilst you might think that we’re covering some entirely predictable ground with this choice of topic, I think that you might be a little bit surprised by several of PAUL’s choices, and, if nothing else, they might set you thinking about what your own choices might be, and whether you want to share them with the wider VISION ON SOUND community.

If you would like to appear on the show and share your own TOP TEN choices about anything Archive TV related, of course, feel free to let me know via the usual Social Media outlets, and I’ll see what I can do.

Meanwhile, this particular episode of the show was beset by some terrible technical problems, and I’m very grateful to PAUL that we were able to salvage as much as we could to present this show to you at all, so I can only apologise for any sound issues that there may be. I will try harder in future.

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.

WARREN CUMMINGS on television characters and likeability.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 15th 2025.

Likeability is an elusive thing. I certainly have spent a lot of my life not feeling that I have any of it, but on television, the likeability, or otherwise, of the characters, the situation, or even the programme itself can have a lot of bearing upon whether a show is ultimately successful, or memorable, and the likability of the stars, or the characters they are playing, can shape or break careers in the area of comedy, drama, and light entertainment alike.

Many TV personalities have benefitted from the perception of likeability that the general public has about them, and many have risen to great heights in the public consciousness, and some have fallen just as quickly if that likeability gets scratched away or is revealed to be nothing more than a light veneer.

Similarly, some great and popular TV shows have become forgotten once their likeability has faded and the whims of a fickle public have moved onto other things.

But what exactly is “likeability” anyway. Some dreadful people have become the Nation’s Favourites, and some truly depressing television programmes have somehow seized the public’s affections and become runaway hits despite looking appallingly unlikeable when they first appear.

I’ve recently been watching a couple of seventies sitcoms that still bear the distinction of being “much loved” featuring performances by “much loved” actors playing “much loved” characters, despite those characters, with the benefit of hindsight, being some of television’s most selfish and monstrous creations.

To discuss this quandary, I’ve invited back the always likeable WARREN CUMMINGS, for what I hope is an entertaining conversation which takes this notion as our starting point, and which takes us on a journey which considers the pros and cons of such likeable characters as TOM & BARBARA GOOD, TERRY MEDFORD, DEN & ANGIE WATTS, BERT LYNCH, THE MASTER, BLAKE’S SEVEN, ALF GARNETT, and even ANGELA RIPPON.

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.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI's Top Ten TV Sidekicks!

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 8th 2025.

This week’s show sees another swift return for the perennial friend of VISION ON SOUND, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, and this week we decided, in the fine tradition of archive TV retrospectives throughout the decades, to have a go at letting PAUL do a TELEVISION TOP TEN.

Naturally, he didn’t want to do ANY OLD Top Ten. Oh no! PAUL wanted to try something a little more avant garde, a little more off the wall, and away from the mainstream, and so the Top Ten that we discuss during the next hour is all about his favourite TV sidekicks, or at least his favourites for the morning we recorded the show. And, being PAUL, whilst his list might include some very familiar and not unexpected TV pairings, and one or two might seem entirely predictable if you’ve been following our conversations over the years, I still hope that a few of them might surprise you – especially with regard to the dynamics of just which of them he considers the sidekick to be – and some of them might even shock you, although probably not enough to make any of you require counselling.

As ever, our conversation based upon those choices goes off in some wildly unexpected directions, but I hope they give you an entertaining and perhaps even thought-provoking hour, which, if they do inspire you to think of a few of your own Top Tens, do please get in touch, especially if you feel like you might want to share them with us in a future edition of VISION ON SOUND.

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.

WARREN CUMMINGS has been watching THE VIEW FROM DANIEL PIKE..

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 1st 2025.

This week, WARREN CUMMINGS is back again and, when I finally allowed him to, he really wanted to talk about a Scottish drama from the early 1970s that he’s discovered called THE VIEW FROM DANIEL PIKE and which starred RODDY McMILLAN.

Naturally, that’s not all we talk about, and this hour encompasses a lengthy discussion about the joys of regional drama in general, 1970s drama in particular, and, perhaps most importantly, kipper ties, drop leaf tables, and terrible underpants.

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.

WARREN CUMMINGS has been rewatching THE X FILES.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 25th 2025.

This week, my regular co-host on the show, WARREN CUMMINGS has started on his re-watch of the 1990s sci-fi drama phenomenon from the mind of CHRIS CARTER which was, of course, THE X FILES, a ridiculously successful show that ran for nine seasons, spawned two feature films, and has since been resurrected for mini-series several times.

The show featured the weekly adventures of two FBI agents as they investigated the kinds of strange and unusual phenomena that had been deemed worthy of inclusion in the infamously secret “X” files of the FBI, and involved investigations into such fascinating areas as the paranormal, the supernatural, the unexplained (including the possibilities of visits by aliens in unidentified flying objects), and attempting to untangle – or further entangle – all manner of the conspiracy theories that persisted towards the end of the increasingly paranoid 20th century.

The series made stars of its two lead actors GILLIAN ANDERSON, who played the ever-sceptical DANA SCULLY, and DAVID DUCHOVNY, who played investigator and want-to-believer-in-chief FOX MULDER.

Very much in the television tradition of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER and the recent hit at that time TWIN PEAKS, and borrowing much of its imagery from popular films of the time like THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE X FILES also spawned a spin-off in the form of THE LONE GUNMEN, and in no small way led to the creation of the remarkable series MILLENNIUM, which is in itself a significant stepping stone in the history of the police procedural, and the coming of shows like CSI in the following decade.

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.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI considers some TV remakes.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 18th 2025.

This week, we’re returning to a topic that we cover from time-to-time here on VISION ON SOUND, that of the television shows that were so popular, or made such an impact, that, in the absence of any better ideas, the television production companies decide to remake them in a new era, often (although not always) with a new cast, and sometimes with an almost completely different set up which means that the new version barely resembles the original other than by sharing its name.

You can see why it seems like a good idea. Often the original is so fondly remembered that you’ve almost certainly got a built in audience before you even start, and even if a large proportion of that audience is unimpressed by your efforts, there might still be enough interest to keep you on air long enough to build your own audience who are just as loyal to your show as the old audience was to theirs.

A popular recognised brand does seem to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting a show off the ground and whilst some may think that the new version might taint the original in some way, the classics still remain, and the new version can become just as fondly remembered by an entirely different section of the viewing audience.

The eighties classic crime caper BERGERAC has recently made a comeback, so it only seemed right to invite one of that show’s biggest fans, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself along to share his opinion on that, as well as discussing a few of his own favourite television remakes in a far reaching conversation that brings in such delights as THE NEW AVENGERS, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and MISS MARPLE.

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.