The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Tim takes the reins to enthuse about a shockingly creepy British TV series for kids (?!), Children of the Stones.
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Watch the entirety of Children of the Stones on YouTube!
Hear the Reese Shearsmith-led podcast adaptation of Children of the Stones over at the Beeb.
Want more folk horror? Sample our collection of same!
Tim and Jen enlist Gaius of the wonderful Tribunate channel on YouTube to help unearth a Romans-vs.-Picts historical epic that vanished like the Ninth Legion, Centurion.
Jen’s personal favorite video from Tribunate is this savage takedown of Cato, but this examination of Roman concepts of race and how radically they differ from ours is another great example of the high caliber of material from Gaius’s channel. Also the triggered reactionary crybabies in the comments are extremely funny. Finally, don’t miss this compilation of filthy Roman words!
If you perked up your ears when Jen mentioned Carry On Cleo, go check out our survey of the Carry On franchise, featuring the inimitable Bitter Karella!
Tim and Jen spice up their lives with a fluffy little movie about five assertive young women, Spice World!
Read a contemporaneous account from Rolling Stone of the Spice Girls at the height of their global fame, in which they pick their noses, pee on things, and generally lark about.
The VH1 commercial slamming ELO that Jen mentioned is the first one in this compilation.
Yeah, what was the real Fox Force Five? Since there’s a wiki for everything, check the one for Pulp Fiction:
‘This premise inspired the theme for the Spice Girls’ 1996 music video for their song “Say You’ll Be There” in which the girls adopt similar fictional identities.’
🤯
In true user-edited wiki fashion, this one is incorrect about the Code Name: Foxfire series mentioned. There were actually eight episodes that aired from January to April 1985, not just a pilot.
Jen and Tim suffer through the half-baked hippie whimsy of the Beatles’ first major creative cock-up, Magical Mystery Tour.
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If you’re curious, you can watch the Pet Shop Boys’ head-scratcher of a longform music video, It Couldn’t Happen Here, at the Internet Archive. It looks like it was ripped from someone’s VCD copy of a Hong Kong laserdisc, but it still has plenty of bops!
The Anton Corbijn-directed Strange (A Black and White Mode) incorporates all those songs that Tim says you know from Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses. You can watch it right now on YouTube, but a restored DVD and Blu-ray release will arrive in December.
Still mad at Paul McCartney? Listen to our Give My Regards to Broad Street episode with special guest Jane Altoids.
Tim and Jen seek aid from wacky funster Bitter Karella to explain a film series as British as lousy weather and inedible food: the Carry On series! Also, Tim positively bursts with Carry On-related research.
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The Carry On series is so popular that you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to documentaries about them. A Perfect Carry On Documentary is relatively lighthearted, but for more dirt, start with What’s a Carry On? – The Story of the Carry On Films and 40th Anniversary Reunion and finish (ooh-err!) with the incredibly bleak Carry On Darkly. The latter two delve into the financial straits and personal problems of many of the most beloved cast members from the series.
The fittingly-titled Cor, Blimey! telefilm dramatizes the affair between Sid James and Barbara Windsor, set against notable Carry On moments of the ’60s and ’70s.
If you’re not familiar with the canon and want to sample the world of Carry On for yourself, stop by the Internet Archive. Be warned, though: if you’re as susceptible to broad comedy as Tim seems to be, you might end up Carry On-pilled too! Cor blimey!
Jen is pleasantly surprised when Tim suggests a horror movie that’s actually pretty good: the eerie anthology with a twist, Ghost Stories (2017). Also, Tim gives an impromptu lecture on the deeper meaning of American zombie movies. (He also seizes an opportunity to wedge in his love for League of Gentlemen. C’mon, that was 20 years ago!)
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Read an interview with Ghost Stories co-writer Derren Brown about his new stage show. He also confesses that he used to be a cape guy (“a bit intense, and a bit socially maladroit,” according to the article). No surprise there! He also has a YouTube channel if you would like to see him hypnotize people into giving him their wallets.
Need another spooky fix? Try our free episode on another slept-on horror anthology 50 States of Fright!
Tim is too cool to talk about a nerdy British kid’s coming of age story, so Jen and special guest @bitterkarella step in to talk about cult BBC teleplay Penda’s Fen.
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BFI did indeed release Penda’s Fen on blu-ray in 2016, but it’s also available on YouTube!
The 2010 post that originally turned Jen on to the film may be found at John Coulthart’s excellent art blog, Feuilleton. At the time of writing, Penda’s Fen was almost impossible to see, as a home video release was far in the future.
As for Penda’s Fen, whenever a TV executive tries to argue that television hasn’t dumbed down I’d offer this work as Exhibit A for the prosecution. Rudkin and Clarke’s film was screened at 9.35 in the evening on the nation’s main TV channel, BBC 1, at a time when there were only three channels to choose from. A primetime audience of many millions watched this visceral and unapologetically intelligent drama; show me where this happens today. – John Coulthart
Jen mangled the words to the Bonzo Dog Band’s “Sport” a little bit (“Sport, sport, masculine sport / equips a young man for society”), but you get the idea.
Also, be sure to listen to our discussion of the Alan Clarke-directed The Firm, along with its inferior remake.
Tim and Jen welcome a special guest to discuss a fan edit of a beloved horror classic, The Wicker Man: The Summerisle Cut! Listen for yourself and decide if you want to leave angry comments on archive.org!
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
View the Summerisle Cut at the Internet Archive.
Visit the Wicker Man site mentioned by our guest, which describes all of the different cuts of the film in detail.
For more great British horror, try our episode on the BBC’s controversial Ghostwatch!
Jen and Tim look at two takes on football hooliganism called The Firm. The 1989 version is a masterpiece, the other, not so much! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
The 20-minute documentary Alan Clarke: His Own Man is a nice intro to the director. Also, many of his works can be found on YouTube, so happy hunting!
Jen referred to a film called “WarGames” when she actually meant The War Game, a 1965 dramatization of nuclear warfare against England that the BBC withdrew from broadcast until 1985. It did not star Matthew Broderick or Ally Sheedy.
She also sorta muffed the description of Ken Loach’s teleplay Cathy Come Home, which horrified the British public with its account of a homeless couple (to little material effect, according to Loach). This short article describes the production and draws from some of the news coverage of the time.
Also, “If you know what’s good for you…Weetabix!”
For more of bleak Britain, try our episode on nuclear horror film Threads!
Jen and Tim note the peculiar similarities between an episode of an obscure British horror anthology and Darren Aronofsky’s debut (NOT Life of Pi!!!!!). Also, Jen seizes an opportunity to talk about Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
Hammer House of Horror is free to watch with ads over on Tubi!
If you’re looking for more British horror, why not try our episode on the controversial one-off TV special Ghostwatch?