1 9 8 3 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes This BBC 1 series followed the exploits of Harry Lumsdon (Robin Nedwell) who worked at a bakery with workmates Reg (David Williams) and Ted (David Battley) but wanted to rise above…
1 9 8 2 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes Lester Small (Brian Murphy, best known as George from George and Mildred) makes his living as a driving instructor in a small West Country town. Most of his lessons end in…
1 9 8 8 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes Writer David Nobbs – who was also responsible for The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin – first introduced the world to Dogfood Dan and the Carmarthen Cowboy in 1982 when…
The 25th Hour relates the misadventures of Johann Moritz (Anthony Quinn), a simple and innocent Romanian peasant, who is literally dragged out of his house during WWII and taken away from his gorgeous wife Suzanna (Virna Lisi) and two sons…
1 9 8 8 – 1 9 9 3 (UK) 46 x 20 minute episodes This early Saturday morning BBC kids’ TV show was hosted by Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz. Bubbly and energetic Cheryl showed the studio audience and the…
1 9 6 8 – 1 9 7 0 (USA) 1 9 8 3 – 1 9 8 4 (USA) 30 minute episodes Canadian-born Mike Darrow hosted this ABC game show where two young married couples competed to win a brand new…
1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 5 (USA) 13 x 60 minute episodes This Friday night CBS series revolved around Danny Taylor (Harry Guardino), an aggressive newspaper reporter-columnist for the New York Globe. Many things made Danny mad and…
1 9 5 9 – 1 9 6 1 (USA) 76 x 30 minute episodes This ABC series recounted the exploits of Johnny Yuma (Nick Adams), an embittered, leather-tough young Confederate army private who journeys West after the Civil War to…
1 9 8 7 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes This Channel 4 comedy series was set in the old-fashioned Corner House Cafe, run by a mincing gay chap called Gilbert Hutchins (Christopher Eymard) – “I came out in 1956 during…
1 9 8 4 – 1 9 8 5 (UK) 13 x 30 minute episodes This LWT sitcom followed life on the Dawson Dairy milk round. The team included a drunken Scot (Phil McCall), a randy West Indian (Oscar James), an…
1 9 8 9 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes A short-lived Granada sitcom for EastEnders star Anita Dobson, which cast her as Cath Gordon, the owner of a London hairdressing salon (Teasers) who was dithering between two romances – one with work-obsessed…
1 9 5 4 (UK) 1 x 107 minute episode Aired as part of the BBC’s Sunday-Night Theatre on 12 December 1954, Nigel Kneale’s adaptation of George Orwell’s most celebrated novel was one of the most controversial television programmes of its…
1 9 8 4 (UK) 8 x 30 minute episodes This Granada comedy series starred Maria Aitken as twice-divorced Kate Codd and Jill Bennett as recently-widowed Daisy Troop, two worldly-wise and much-married cousins who have enjoyed a string of well-heeled husbands…
1 9 8 5 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes Hamish James Ordway (Fulton Mackay) of the Water Board – retired, nosey parker and fusspot extraordinaire, seeking accommodation – has the misfortune to fall into the chaotic clutches of the household…
1 9 8 4 – 1 9 8 5 (UK) 12 x 30 minute episodes Brian Drake (John Duttine) is hit by a lorry full of turnips and while convalescing in hospital is told by his wife (Primi Townsend) that she…
1 9 6 7 – 1 9 8 3 (UK) 254 x 90 minute/60 minute episodes ITV Playhouse debuted on Monday 25 September 1967 with a production of ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’ by Oscar Wilde. This anthology series featured rotating contributions…
Thin Lizzy were, without doubt, one of the greatest live bands ever. They pioneered the use of twin melodic lead guitars and vocalist and bassist Phil Lynott brought a new meaning to the term “effortless”. But despite a strong following…
The Scorpions formed in Hanover, Germany, in 1971, and recorded their first album, Lonesome Crow, in Hamburg a little later. The band embarked on a gruelling touring schedule, playing 130 concerts with very few breaks. In Germany, they quickly established themselves as…
The first British pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, was founded by Ronan O’Rahilly in 1964 – he chose the name of the station in honour of the daughter of the first Roman Catholic President of the United States of America, John…
1 9 5 6 – Current (Europe) It has been called “a monument to drivel” but the annual show has topped television ratings since the first contest was held in Switzerland in 1956. The Eurovision Song Contest is a live, televised music…
1 9 6 3 – 1 9 6 6 (UK) For teenagers all over Britain, early Friday evenings were dominated by one 30-minute programme – Ready, Steady, Go! – which promised, “the weekend starts here”. The first show aired at 7 pm on…
Compilation LPs of the hits of the day had been released in the UK since the late 1960s. Such collections were primarily released by K-Tel and similar marketing companies, who sold not only records but anything else which might sell in…
1 9 6 8 – 1 9 6 9 (UK) 26 x 25 minute episodes When Rediffusion’s Five O’Clock Club ended in 1966, producer Muriel Young moved to Granada and created Discotheque – or The Discotheque, as it was sometimes billed. This showcase for chart hits…
September 1964 saw the launch of the short-lived Ready Steady – Win!, a sister show to Ready Steady Go! aimed at finding the next Beatles in what was basically the first X Factor. Raw R&B outfit The Bo Street Runners sufficiently impressed a…
With this epic, Martin Scorsese returned to the world of tough-talking Italian-American hoods featured in Mean Streets (1973), following 30 years in the lives of a group of neighbourhood crooks. From hanging around the taxi rank, punk kid Henry Hill (Ray Liotta)…
Major Keller (Laurence Payne) is a highly decorated and respected British army officer, who is now facing a court-martial for willfully bringing about the death of his commanding officer Colonel Winch (Ralph Michael) on a WWII battlefield. The prosecution has…
This sequel to Dirty Harry (1971) found San Francisco cop Inspector Harry Callahan – there is no explanation for why he’s got his job back after disobeying orders and resigning at the end of the last film – pitted against a cell…
This sequel to Every Which Way But Loose (1979) typifies the kind of lightweight, disposable comic vehicles that paid Clint Eastwood’s rent in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Short on plot but tall on slapstick humour – and once…
Clint Eastwood was warned by his associates not to make this picture, but he made it anyway, and his share of the profits was reputedly in excess of $15,000,000. So much for associates . . . Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe -…
For a whole generation of adolescents, Kelly’s Heroes was the perfect movie: a heist comedy set during World War II with lots of action, jokes and very loud explosions. It’s nominally a vehicle for Clint Eastwood, intended to repeat the…
It’s swinging 1967. The vicious though childish Dr Evil (Myers) – who has failed to kill his arch-enemy, British secret agent Austin Powers (also Myers) – resolves to escape by means of his cryogenic freezing capsule and come back later.…
Part bawdy peek-a-boo romp, part kitchen-sink drama, this box-office hit features then-rising star Victor Henry as Ginger, a twenty-year-old self-employed window cleaner whose womanising is curtailed when he finds himself falling in love for the first time. Ginger shares most…
Until the 70s, interior design was simply a DIY pursuit. Once the seventies hit, it was a lifestyle statement. The dominant colours were Puce, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green (sorry, Avocado), Purple, Gold and Brown. If it moved, it had to…
In 1888, Sir Frank Bowden’s doctor told him that cycling could improve his health. He bought an interest in a small bicycle company in Raleigh Street, Nottingham, where 12 men were making three bicycles a week. By 1896 Raleigh owned a…
The Black Panthers wanted to be the vanguard of a revolution that would create economic, social and political equality across gender and colour lines. Since the nonviolent campaign of Martin Luther King had ended in that brave man’s death and little improvement…
Fashion in the early 1970s seemed to have little rhyme or reason; while both sexes were wearing tie-dyed shirts, ‘unisex’ bell-bottoms and second-hand military attire (for an ironic-yet-stylish comment on the Vietnam War), women were also wearing mid-calf hemlines and granny dresses.…
Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow) One of the kings of the East Coast, Brooklyn-born Brucie held down the primetime slot at WABC in NYC. He was adept at blending a variety of genres – including Motown, pop, hard rock, surf music, and…
In Britain, Radio 1 and Top of the Pops began in the Sixties, but by 1970 the Disc Jockeys (or DJ’s) had been elevated to stardom, and many were household names; Tony Blackburn, David ‘Diddy’ Hamilton, Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman, Dave Lee Travis,…
“New Coke” almost spelt the end for the Coca-Cola empire in 1985. They changed the flavour of Coke and the American public were not having it! In probably the worst marketing decision of the 20th century, Coca-Cola tinkered with the…
In 1993, Grunge was incredibly popular, Smells Like Teen Spirit was topping the charts. and Seinfeld – the “show about nothing – was the ratings-winner on TV. Coca-Cola decided to create a product they could market to cynical hipsters by being…
The Greek cruise ship TSMS Lakonia left Southampton on 19 December 1963 for an 11-day Christmas cruise of the Canary Islands. She carried 646 passengers and 376 crew: a total of 1,022 people. The ship’s first scheduled stop was to…
During the summer of 1967, The Beatles’ Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club album had shot straight to the top of the UK and US album charts. A few weeks later, All You Need Is Love topped the singles charts around the world. Still…
1 9 5 3 (UK) The British nation came to a standstill on 2 June 1953. Thousands lined the streets of London, while in homes and offices the length and breadth of Britain, colleagues, neighbours and relatives huddled in corners, all…
The most memorable musical event of 1967 was the Monterey International Pop Festival, held in the Californian sunshine over three days between June 16th – 18th. If the “Summer of Love” was largely a media construct, the good vibes at…
The United States Government sent 6,000 troops to invade Grenada in October 1983 after leaders of a local ”Revolutionary Military Council” (RMC) ousted and killed Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and his cabinet ministers from the moderate New Jewel Movement. The…
Tuesday 18 January 1977 started as an ordinary working day in Sydney, Australia. Then at 8:12 am, the 6:09 city-bound express commuter train from Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains to Sydney – running three minutes late and with at…
January 01 – In Australia, Bob Hawke becomes ACTU president. 01 – The age of majority in Britain is reduced from 21 to 18. 01 – Jimi Hendrix debuts the Band of Gypsys at Fillmore East. The show is recorded…
30 January 1969 The Beatles made their last ever live appearance together on 30 January 1969, putting on a free lunchtime concert on a hastily constructed wooden stage on the (very windy) roof of their Apple Corps HQ at 30…
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Featured Blog Posts
Coined by British filmmaker Gerry Anderson and his wife, Sylvia, while making the series Supercar in 1960, “Supermarionation” was the name given to a technique through which marionettes (string puppets)…
The Ramones & Toto This is just one of those lineups that makes less and less sense the more you think about it, but The Ramones supported Toto, who were…
In 2020, with COVID-19 raging and much of the world locked down, working from home and communicating via Zoom and other online video conferencing platforms, the BBC released over 100…
The problem with hippies was that they were all a bit soft. All of that putting flowers in rifle barrels wasn’t going to stop people from getting hurt, was it? Glam…
The intermission lights were dimming and scattered chatter was turning into a cacophony of high-pitched squeals and titters. OL’55 and TMG had carried off the first half admirably, fuelling the…
Melody Maker, 17 February 1979 We are dancing, Chrissie Hynde and I, to a Sex Pistols single, the exact title of which has been blurred by time and a good deal of…
In late 1973, mum and dad asked my sister and me a rather unusual question: “Would you like to go to Australia?” I mean, it’s not really in the same…
31 December 2020 In a year of such jarring change, it is perhaps no surprise that many of us have longed to turn the clocks back – but is there…
Featured Aussie Posts
1 9 9 6 (Australia) 7 x 30 minute episodes Josephine Donnelly (Genevieve Lemon) is a 30-something single white female who shares her home with flatmate Colin (Giordano Gangl), an aspiring…
1 9 9 6 – 1 9 9 8 (Australia) 12 x 25 minute episodes This SBS (Australia) comedy featured bankrupt landlord Mike (Chris Haywood) and his pampered 15-year-old daughter Chloe…
A chap called Yahoo Serious wrote, produced, directed and starred in this Australian spoof biography of Albert Einstein – a naive wild-haired Tasmanian scientist who invents rock ‘n’ roll (to…
In 19th-century Australia (which looks not unlike the Wild West), one-eyed peeping tom Deadeye Dick (Max Gillies) and cowboy stud Mexico Pete (Serge Lazareff) travel from town to town, from…
1 9 8 4 – 1 9 9 4 (Australia) 42 x 30 minute episodes An Australian sitcom in which the elderly Maggie Beare (Ruth Cracknell) may be showing signs of…
The “little Aussie bleeder” Norman Gunston (played by actor Garry McDonald) was one of the most famous Australian media personalities of the 1970s. The original Norman Gunston Show remains a genuinely funny…
Featured Canadian Posts
1 9 6 8 – 1 9 6 9 (Canada) 30/60 minute episodes This Canadian music series was broadcast on CBC from 30 September 1968 to 23 June 1969. Episodes featured…
1 9 9 8 – 2 0 0 5 (Canada) 98 x 60 minute episodes The Canadian drama series Cold Squad – a conventional police drama about unconventional police detectives…
1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 9 (Canada) 42 x 30 minute episodes The trials and triumphs of students at an urban junior high school were explored in this…
1 9 9 7 – 1 9 9 8 (Canada) 23 x 60 minute episodes Movie director John Woo brought his trademark martial-arts violence, explosions and tongue-in-cheek humour to TV in…
1 9 7 0 (Canada) 130 x 30 minute episodes This infamously awful low-budget sitcom was shot in Toronto (but set in New York) and loosely based on a 1940s radio…
1 9 5 6 (Canada/USA) 39 x 30 minute episodes Salt spray, insults and action marked this expensively-produced comedy about rival tugboat captains in the Pacific Northwest of America. Foghorn-voiced widow…
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Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
