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America had not seen such a star-spangled day in years. Washington DC was particularly festive and exuberant, with flags and banners fluttering gaily above the major boulevards, with parade stands filled to the brim along Pennsylvania Avenue all the way…
Nary a dull frame in this colourful knees-up from 20th Century-Fox about the hardy Dutch settlers in South Africa who founded the Boer-free state and put down those pesky Zulus. It might be unpalatable had not Tyrone Power met flaming…
This 1955 film from Paramount Pictures is an example of a near-defunct genre once called, disparagingly, “a woman’s picture,” though in retrospect that means nothing more than refreshingly angled from a woman’s viewpoint. As the career-obsessed Miss Gallant, Jane Wyman…
10-year-old Smiley Greevins (now played by Keith Calvert instead of Colin Petersen) gets into more strife in this sequel to the 1956 movie Smiley as he attempts to prove himself a responsible citizen by helping others, so that he can…
1 9 6 8 – 1 9 6 9 (UK) 4 x 50 minute episodes This BBC production dramatised the novel by Anne Brontë (the least known of the three Brontë sisters) over four consecutive Saturdays over the Christmas/New Year period,…
Betty Grable’s virtual adieu to the movies after a 25-year career, and while the Rock milieu might not be her precise cup of tea, to ‘Shake, rattle and roll’ at the age of 40 and still emerge with everything in…
1 9 6 1 – 1 9 6 6 (USA) 132 x 60 minute episodes 58 x 30 minute episodes This popular 1960s medical drama gave us a look at life at the (fictional) Blair General Hospital and the story of…
1 9 6 1 – 1 9 6 6 (USA) 144 x 25 minute episodes Mister Ed (a horse) belonged to Wilbur Post, a young architect who had decided to move out of the city to get a little closer to nature.…
1 9 7 0 – 1 9 7 1 (USA) 15 x 60 minute episodes This short-lived adventure series tried to apply the ideals of the 60s youth culture to the American Revolution. Jeremy Larkin (Rick Ely), Isak Poole (Louis Gossett…
1 9 7 1 – 1 9 7 2 (USA) 15 x 30 minute episodes “In the beginning, God created the Earth. Then, God created man and woman. So far, so good. Then, man got into the act, and he created…
1 9 7 2 (USA) 13 x 30 minute episodes Yul Brynner and Samantha Eggar briefly starred in the CBS series Anna and the King, which ran from September to December 1972. Reprising his Academy Award-winning role of stubborn King Mongkut of Siam…
1 9 7 3 (USA) 12 x 30 minute episodes Based on the hit film about wife swapping (1969), this ABC sitcom continued the story of the domestic problems of two Los Angeles couples, though, as television, the plots were much tamer.…
This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas formed in 1969 in and around Houston, from rival bands The Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and The American Blues (Hill and Beard). Their first two albums reflected the band’s strong blues roots and Texas…
1 9 6 8 (UK) 13 x 30 minute episodes Conceived as “Radio 1 in vision” and replacing Juke Box Jury on Friday nights, All Systems Freeman found DJ Alan “Fluff” Freeman playing new releases on a set of turntables while interviewing…
Formed when all three members were 12-year-old students at Newcastle High School in New South Wales, Australia, Silverchair released their first single, Tomorrow in 1994. It hit #1 locally in their native Oz. Their debut album, Frogstomp (1995), gave them a…
This influential New Zealand pub rock and blues band was formed in Auckland in July 1974 by English-born singer and guitarist Hammond Gamble. Starting out as a three-piece blues band at the Windsor, they became a cult act within weeks among…
Johnny Devlin was born John Lockett Devlin on 11 May 1938 in New Zealand. In 1956, Devlin heard Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel, and overnight became obsessed with rock & roll, snatching up Presley singles and performing Elvis songs on the…
A little over a year after The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney and his wife Linda formed Wings, a group created very much to be a touring as well as recording unit. Paul had missed the touring element most when The Beatles locked themselves…
Australian film Stir does not make for a nice Saturday night movie. It is full of terrible physical violence and repetitive dirty words. Nothing about a prison gives viewers a vicarious thrill. There are no women to take attention away…
Smiley William Thomas Greevins (Colin Petersen) is a cheeky, mischievous, imaginative little boy who lives in the small town of Murrumbilla in the Australian outback. His father, Bill (Reg Lye), is a poor drover who is often away from home.…
Set in Australia in the 1960s, Summer City follows four Sydney youths who go on a stag weekend to commemorate the coming marriage of one of the group with drinking, dancing, surfing and “one last fling”. Sandy (John Jarratt) is the…
This epic biographical drama is based on author Romain Gary’s memoir Promise at Dawn and Samuel Taylor’s play First Love. It is Gary’s third novel to be filmed, after The Roots of Heaven and Lady L. As we see in the film, his (unmarried) mother…
Vicki Robbins (Suzanna Leigh) is a pop singer suffering from exhaustion after collapsing while performing a song on television. She is packed off to a cottage on remote Seagull Island in Scotland for rest and recuperation. At the cottage, she…
Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is an Australian policeman of the not-too-distant future who drives the last of the MFP (Main Force Patrol) V8 Interceptors, wears a leather jacket, totes a sawn-off shotgun and is a very hard bastard. He needs…
In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the USA and the Soviet Union raced each other to be first into space. The Soviet Union won. On 4 October 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik 1, the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth. America was…
The Automobile Association (The AA) was founded in London on 19 June 1905 by a small group of motoring enthusiasts under the temporary name “Motorists’ Mutual Association”. It was renamed The Automobile Association just one week later. The AA was…
Leonard James Callaghan entered the civil service at the age of 17 as a tax officer. By 1936 he had become a full-time trade-union official. After serving as a lieutenant in naval intelligence during World War II, he entered Parliament…
Radio Luxembourg (“Your Station of the Stars”) began broadcasting in 1933 and was the earliest commercial radio station that could be heard in the UK, thanks to its transmission on the European long-wave band alongside the BBC Light Programme and…
Russ Knight (born Russell Lee Moore in 1932) – nicknamed “Weird Beard” – was an American radio DJ who first joined KLIF in Dallas in the early 60’s, pulling one of the highest market shares ever recorded (62%) for a…
When the transistor replaced the bulky and unreliable vacuum tube in amplification units, transistors did the job better and were much smaller, making it possible to drastically reduce the size of radios and record players. Transistors also had significantly lower…
January 01 – In Britain, the Farthing (¼ of a penny) is withdrawn from circulation and ceases to be legal tender. 02 – Oral contraceptives for women go on sale in Australia. 03 – US severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.…
January 13 – Harold Shipman, the former British doctor who is believed to have killed more than 200 people, is found dead in his prison cell one day prior to his 58th birthday. He is found hanging by a bed sheet…
January 01 – The Euro enters circulation as the currency of the European Union, replacing historical currencies such as the franc, mark, drachma, and lira. Participating countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal,…
January 05 – Metropolitan Police launch a major anti-terror raid on a flat in Wood Green, London, discovering traces of the deadly poison ricin. 12 – Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees dies from complications following a stomach operation to correct…
January 01 – Greece officially adopts the Euro currency, becoming the 12th member of the Eurozone economic framework. 08 – The British High Court awards anonymity for life for the two boys who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993. Their identities…
January 01 – Millennium celebrations are held around the world to celebrate the beginning of the 3rd millennium. The fears about the anticipated Y2K bug problems turn out to be largely unfounded, and very few major failures occur. 01 – The Millennium…
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Enjoy your trip in the time machine!
The term “Ozploitation” refers to low-budget Australian-produced exploitation genre filmmaking of the 1970s and 80s. From bawdy sex comedies like Alvin Purple (1973) to horror films like Patrick (1978) and…
To outsiders, it seemed that Pete Duel had everything to live for – a loving girlfriend, a nice home, money and a hit TV series. Yet shortly after 1:25 am…
The first time I appeared on Juke Box Jury, I wasn’t on the panel. I was in the “Hot Seat” – that famous chair hidden from the panel behind the…
The Silver Beetles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe) failed an audition as Billy Fury’s backing group but drew a consolation prize in playing behind Johnny Gentle…
1 9 6 8 The original Sherbet lineup emerged from the ashes of two Sydney bands, The Downtown Roll Band and Clapham Junction. Englishman Clive Shakespeare formed the Downtown Roll…
13 September 2012 Film-maker Stanley Long – dubbed the “King of Sexploitation” following his string of X-rated films in the 1960s and 1970s – has died from natural causes, aged…
1 9 6 6 – 1 9 6 9 (Australia) 91 x 25 minute episodes Making very good use of the Australian bush landscape, Skippy the bush kangaroo used to bound…
Anthropologist Jill Cowper (Judy Morris) is writing her thesis for her Master’s at home in a University campus apartment complex in Adelaide. One day – while her husband, Dr Brian…
“He’s In A Coma . . . Yet He Can Kill” promised the tagline for the 1978 Australian film Patrick, helpfully establishing both the film’s irresistible hook and its inherent…
This disturbing Ozploitation gothic horror-thriller centres on a young woman named Linda Stevens (Jacki Kerin), who inherits her mother’s sprawling country mansion, Montclare – the house where she grew up,…
A heroine called “Hitch” for most of the film is just one of the jokes in a film full of them. Director Richard Franklin’s obvious (and stated) veneration for Alfred…
1 9 5 2 – 1 9 6 1 (Canada) 303 x 60 minute episodes Produced in Toronto for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), this weekly anthology presented standalone one-hour dramas…
1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 9 (Canada) 33 x 60 minute episodes This television anthology series from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) ran from 1964 to 1969, offering…
1 9 5 8 – 1 9 8 5 (Canada) 3,000+ x 15 minute episodes “Look up! Waaaaay up!” The character of the Friendly Giant debuted on radio in Madison, Wisconsin,…
1 9 7 6 (Canada) 1 x 60 minute special 1 9 7 8 – 1 9 7 9 (Canada) 21 x 60 minute episodes The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC)…
1 9 5 7 (Canada) 39 x 30 minute episodes The first major dramatic series produced on film in Canada, Radisson revolved around French explorer and fur trader Pierre Radisson (Jacques Godin)…
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Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 2009 and is presented as a historical artefact. Some words and references which reflect the prevailing attitudes of those times may be considered culturally insensitive, discriminatory, offensive or inappropriate today..