1 9 7 9 (UK) 8 x 50 minute episodes For the first five minutes, the BBC miniseries The Aphrodite Inheritance looked as though it might please someone else besides the Cyprus Tourist Board. The faintly recognisable theme music by George…
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 beefcake who is more cake than beef. Also known as…
1 9 8 7 (UK) 3 x 60 minute episodes This Thames Television miniseries presented a star-studded cast in a tongue-in-cheek satirical drama based on a best-selling novel by Alison Lurie. Bullying sociologist and charismatic TV guru Professor Tom McMann (John…
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…
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 (Jocelyn Rosen) who suddenly find themselves homeless and decide the…
1 9 9 6 (UK) 40 x 25 minute episodes JoJo Smith hosted this look at the world of British comedy – from stand-up and sitcoms to videos and feature films – which aired on ITV late at night, often…
1 9 9 6 (UK) 26 x 90 minute episodes American journalist Katie Puckrik invited a bunch of like-minded ladies to slip into their nighties or jim-jams for a slumber party with a difference in this late Saturday night ITV talk…
1 9 9 0 (UK) 6 x 60 minute episodes This six-part series from Thames Television was set in the newsroom of satellite channel TNC. In the debut episode, reporter Sam Courtney (Bill Nighy) and his crew were taken hostage by…
1 9 7 5 – 1 9 7 6 (UK) 12 x 30 minute episodes The bustle and banter of London’s iconic Billingsgate fish market provided the backdrop for Reg Varney’s first sitcom following his phenomenal success in On the Buses.…
1 9 7 4 – 1 9 8 1 (UK) 56 x 30 minute episodes Following his success with Dad’s Army, co-creator Jimmy Perry drew on his experiences as a member of a Royal Artillery Concert Party in Deolali, India, to create…
1 9 8 5 – 1 9 9 0 (UK) 29 x 50 minute episodes Divorced office worker Henry Willows (ex-Sweeney hard man, John Thaw) is content in his uneventful life, one of his few domestic contacts being Enid (Mrs Thompson), who…
1 9 8 9 (UK) 4 x 50 minute episodes Dennis Potter is arguably the most important creative figure in the history of British television. From 1965 until his death in 1994, he constructed a personal work of such depth and…
1 9 5 5 – 1 9 6 4 (UK) 1 9 6 9 – 2 0 0 3 (UK) 2 0 0 7 (UK) This Is Your Life first screened in Britain in 1955 – the same year that George Dixon began pounding…
1 9 8 1 (UK) 6 x 55 minute episodes This BBC2 series cast Michael Elphick as small-time German crook and wheeler-dealer Gerhard Schulz, who had spent two spells in Spandau prison for fraud, before being sent to work in an…
1 9 9 8 (UK) 3 x 60 minute episodes During World War I, a group of wounded soldiers returned from France to recuperate in England. Among them was a mute amnesiac (Peak Practice star Gary Mavers) who had been found wandering…
1 9 7 8 – 1 9 8 0 (UK) 14 x 30 minute episodes Derek Nimmo and Rosemary Leach starred as Chris and Katy Bunting – a couple expecting their first offspring after 17 years of marriage – in this…
Playing electronic instruments and singing openly gay lyrics in a shrill falsetto, this London trio burst onto a complacent music scene in 1984. Scottish-born Jimmy Somerville had a memorably piercing voice and the duo of Larry Steinbachek and Steve Bronski…
Formed in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1980s before a musical movement even existed there, Screaming Trees embodied the post-punk and psychedelic elements that later bands would commercialise. Screaming Trees’ 1985 debut EP, Other Worlds, was released on Velvetone and…
Small-time talent agent Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) tries to hit the big time with a bongo player called Bert Rudge (Cliff Richard) who he spots in a Soho skiffle and coffee bar, backed by The Shadows. Johnny gives Bert the…
Marty Wilde (real name Reg Smith) was the first of the Larry Parnes stable to make it as Britain searched for its own mini-Presley. After compering the music TV show Oh Boy! he hit big in 1958 with Endless Sleep, following it in 1959 with…
Socialite Ann Bryant (Anna Palk) goes on a whirlwind tour of London’s nightclubs with Billy Universe (bequiffed British rock & roller Billy Fury) and his rock & roll band The Satellites, who attempt to reunite her with Larry Granger (Maurice Kaufmann),…
South Londoner Terry Dene (born Terence Williams) was one of many early UK rockers to benefit from the opportunity to sing at London’s 2i’s Coffee Bar – The same venue that helped the early musical careers of Tommy Steele, Cliff…
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,…
NRBQ (originally short for “New Rhythm and Blues Quintet”) were formed in 1967 by pianist and guitarist Steve Ferguson and bassist Joey Spampinato (then using the stage name Jody St. Nicholas). NRBQ left Florida and made their way to New…
What was intended to be a gritty insight into the brutality of the underworld, ends up being a tatty melodrama in this mid-budget misfire from director John Guillermin. Peter Sellers is cast against type as the leader of a stolen…
This musical fantasy update on the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet is set on Earth at some point in the future. The globe is divided into two rival factions: Beatland, which is populated by teenage beat musicians and singers,…
Young pop composer Harry Blair (Canadian Lee Patterson) and singer Joan Farmer (Mary Steele, who was married to director Don Sharp) open a coffee bar, bankrolled by their trendy Aunt Sarah (Linda Gray). They are joined by budding singer Terry…
Post Office messenger boy Dave Martin makes a bid for pop stardom despite the disapproval of his old-fashioned father. You’d hardly know that The Beatles were in the process of transforming the British pop scene from some of the sounds…
Another lightweight vehicle for British cabaret/beat group Freddie and The Dreamers who were topping the charts in the US when production began in 1965 – although by the time the film was finally released in 1967, the band’s main chart…
An English rock band called Billy Beethoven – featuring Kook (Graham Bonnet) on vocals and lead guitar; Gary (Paul Nicholas); Ricky (Christopher Neil) and Tom (Robert Lindsay) – embark on a tour of Spain. Three members of the band have…
This made-for-television movie from NBC was based on the true story of timid housewife Francine Hughes of Danville, Michigan, who was accused of murdering her ex-husband on 9 March 1977. She was ultimately found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity,…
Straight Talk is an amiable vehicle for singer-actress Dolly Parton, who plays Shirlee Kenyon, a former Podunk dance-hall instructor who leaves her dead-end job and a failed romance to find a new life in the big city. Arriving in Chicago,…
1 9 1 7 – 1 9 6 3 Born in 1917, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the second son of a millionaire Democrat power-broker, Joseph P Kennedy. Jack graduated from Harvard in 1940 and saw service with the Marines during…
Cynthia Plaster Caster was born Cynthia Albritton in Chicago in May 1947. The only child of Lithuanian-Americans from Chicago’s Southside, she was shy and unpopular at school and developed a thing for English men and for rock musicians. In college…
Designer Barbara Hulanicki began running a mail-order fashion operation in 1964 with her husband Stephen Fitzsimon. They felt that the price of fashion was too high for many so they promoted a “throw away and buy another” philosophy, and the…
Sabrina (her real name was Norma Sykes – the name Sabrina was invented by the BBC) drove British men to distraction in the 1950s with her version of the fuller figure. With vital statistics of 42-19-36 she was an enormous…
John Peel (born John Ravenscroft in 1939) cut his teeth as a DJ in the USA, working on stations in Dallas, Oklahoma and San Bernadino, California. He covered the assassination of President John F Kennedy before the advent of Beatlemania…
Once upon a time, there were girls (and occasionally guys) who took pride in the mere act of bedding rock stars. Some of them even became celebrities in their own right and honed this ability to a fine art. There…
The GTOs were a “group of groupies” in the late 1960s, comprising Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres), Miss Sparky (Linda Sue Parker), Miss Lucy (Lucy McLaren), Miss Christine (Christine Frka), Miss Sandra (Sandra Leano), Miss Mercy (Mercy Fontentot) and Miss Cynderella…
The LG Hawkins company introduced its “heated sideboard” in 1931, but it was 22 years before one of its designers, Eddy Maciejewski, thought of making it mobile. The Hostess – a plug-in heated metal sideboard on wheels that resembled a…
Cold War America was a hotbed of fear and suspicion of possible Communist infiltrators and spies – known as ‘the enemy within’ – and the resulting atmosphere of hysteria enabled the unscrupulous activities of one rogue Senator to blight the lives of…
A fifth Australian television channel began broadcasting on Channel 0 in Sydney and Melbourne on Friday 24 October 1980 – United Nations Day. Bruce Gyngell, whose face was the first to appear on television in Australia when it debuted on…
1966 was, in all respects, a crucial turning point for the black movement in America. In that year the Black Panther party was founded in Oakland, California, and Stokely Carmichael coined the slogan of ‘Black Power’. The failure of the US anti-poverty programme…
The war in Vietnam ended abruptly on 30 April 1975. Saigon surrendered almost without a struggle as North Vietnamese tanks rolled into the city and knocked down the gates of the Presidential palace. Convoys of lorries carrying thousands of jubilant…
In his sporting prime, Orenthal James Simpson – a.k.a. The Juice – was an American institution. Born in San Francisco in 1947, he played American Football for the University of Southern California, winning the 1968 Heisman Trophy for the most…
In 1945, at the end of WWII, Germany was divided into a Soviet Zone in the East, and British, French and American Zone in the West. The border between East and West Germany was closed on 26 May 1953. Control…
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 01 – The Watergate criminal trial ends. Aides of former President Nixon (John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, Robert Mardian and John D. Ehrlichman) are found guilty of trying to cover up. 01 – The University of Wollongong (in…
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Featured Blog Posts
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…
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…
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 8 3 (Australia) 1 x 120 minute episode 1 x 180 minute episode Based on a novel by Osmar White, this two-part five-hour miniseries from the Nine Network in Australia…
1 9 7 5 (Australia) 6 x 30 minute episodes This brave six-part comedy series from Australia’s ABC starred Max Cullen as the titular character. Claud Scattergood floated through the series…
The Dugites formed in Perth (Western Australia) in 1978 with Lynda Nutter on vocals, Gunther Berghofer on guitar, Phillip Bailey on bass, Peter Crosbie on keyboards, and Clarence Bailey on…
Led by provocative singer Christina Amphlett, whose songwriting with guitarist Mark McEntee was the basis of the band, the Australian band Divinyls recorded a wealth of excellent material, from commercial hard…
Joe Camilleri formed The Black Sorrows in 1983 after dissolving Aussie New Wave/R&B band, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons. Taking a year off to clear his head, Camilleri formed the new…
Formed in Sydney (Australia) in 1983, Died Pretty consisted of musicians Brett Myers, Ronald S Peno and Frank Brunetti – all longstanding veterans of the alternative music scene in Brisbane. Probably…
Featured Canadian Posts
1 9 7 5 – 1 9 8 0 (Canada) 111 x 30 minute episodes Larry King (Al Waxman) was the plump and balding owner of King’s Variety Store and champion…
Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) is a pretty thirteen-year-old girl who lives in a secluded house that she and her poet father have rented in a quiet Quebec seaside community. But…
1 9 8 3 – 1 9 9 1 (Canada) 85 x 30 minute episodes Deadly Nightmares – originally titled The Hitchhiker – was an adult anthology series of cautionary…
1 9 8 8 (Canada) 13 x 30 minute episodes Robert Randall is a single father (separated from his never-seen wife, Anne) who cares for his two teenage children, Ellen and Mark. Robert…
1 9 5 7 (Canada) 26 x 30 minute episodes French explorer and fur trader Pierre Radisson (Jacques Godin) and his partner, Medard (René Caron), are adventurers who roam the American Northwest…
Investigative television journalist Deborah Balin (Lee Grant) falls foul of a mentally deranged viewer and is brutally attacked in her home. She is taken into hospital by her friendly news…
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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.
