Defenders Of The Earth

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is nothing if not a podcast of juxtapositions and contrasts, like mixing vintage TV shows with digital platforms, and necking Malibu and Quatro out of the antique sherry glasses. And it's this grating collision of 1980s futurism and sepia-toned yesteryear to which the hosts turn once again, because everyone knows it's not really a horror-season if you don't put A Dracula™ in it...

Yes, messrs Velvet, Blackout and Bognops break out the garlic and make sure the pooper-scoopers are within arm's reach, as Flash Gordon, The Phantom and a host of King Features chums (as well as a minibus full of their kids) find themselves knee-deep in Transylvanian doings when the Defenders Of The Earth (defenders..) wonder what exactly has gone into Dracula's Potion.

How many biological-photocopying superpowers does Dracula have that that even Bram Stoker didn't know about? How does the Grade-2-listed status of a 900yr old Eastern European castle affect a local authority application for an on-site massage parlour with neon-pink accent lighting? And how do the Defenders Of The Earth (defenders...) think that turning up unannounced in a remote woodland village dressed like the Aerobics-Wing of the Gladiators isn't going to lead to a little bit of adverse comment at the very least?

Nip round to Phaze for a quick change of clothes, press Play and find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Defenders Of The Earth: Dracula's Potion
Broadcast: Tuesday 04 November 1986 (US)
Production/Channel: Marvel Productions, Children's BBC (CBBC)
Writer: Chris Bunch & Allan Cole
Music: Robert J Walsh
Producer/Director: John Ahern, Rick Hoberg, Tony Love / John Gibs, Ray Lee
Starring: Lou Richards, Peter Mark Richman, Diane Pershing, Peter Renaday

You can Subscribe, Like, Follow, Rate and Review on:



The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet, with additional live accompaniments by Ozzy Bognops. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to PeggyMountPod@gmail.com

You're Only Young Twice: The Gipsy's Curse

Fear of the unknown has always been a source of crippling anxiety for puny humans, and it pays to scry the future at any available moment. Whether you've got one eye on the 3:30 at Chepstow, on that recent headline about an escaped leopard, or on that pair of plimsolls in the window of Freeman Hardy & Willis for Saturday afternoon, you simply can't out-run destiny (and those plimsolls look great #BuyTheThings).

Yes, the mists are clearing at The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour as our hosts return once again to their beloved Paradise Lodge and find that You're Only Young Twice. A visiting clairvoyant brings dire forebodings to those who treat her less than reverently, and since that's Flora default-setting it's safe to predict trouble by tea-time...

How culturally insensitive is it to write A Locationally Undisclosed Foreign Character™ into your sitcom if the associated performer doesn't even attempt a remotely recognisable accent? How fast can you make an elderly woman ride a motorcycle down a cobbled street before the insurance overseer has a fit of the vapours? And how is Blackout supposed to plan a road-trip if Geography as we know it is a mere construct of Yorkshire Television?

Press Pause, consult Google Maps, press Play then find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: You're Only Young Twice: The Gipsy's Curse
Broadcast: Tuesday 21 July 1981, 20:30
Production/Channel: Yorkshire Television, ITV Network
Writer: Pam Valentine & Michael Ashton
Music: Dennis Wilson
Producer/Director: Graeme Muir
Starring: Peggy Mount, Pat Coombs, Gretchen Franklin, Lally Bowers, Diana King, Charmian May, Georgina Moon, Johnny Wade

You can Subscribe, Like, Follow, Rate and Review on:



The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet, with additional live accompaniments by Ozzy Bognops. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to PeggyMountPod@gmail.com

Highway To Heaven

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour's concerted foray into televisual horror continues apace, with Doctor Velvet, Blackout and Ozzy Bognops continuing to wade drinks-aloft through the darkness. But into every cobwebbed crypt an ecclesiastical sunbeam must fall, and salvation arrives in the form of The Finest Hair On Television™...

Yes, this week our trio of intrepid explorers brace their souls against all the netherworld has to offer by hitching a ride on the Highway To Heaven, where a Hallowe'en motel stop-over gives rise to interwoven suburban homilies on the spiritual dangers of practical jokes, emotional disengagement and sandwiches.

How many appearance, repeat and residual fees does Michael Landon^® bank by penning in archive-footage of his own cinematic back catalogue? How many times do the hosts say the words Michael Landon^® in this episode, and is that even close to the number of times the words Michael Landon^® appear in the programme's credits? And how many Michael Landons Michael Landon^® Landon's Michael Michael's Michael Landon^® Michael Landon^® Michael Landon^® Landon Landon?

Press Michael Landon^® and find out...

#MichaelLandon

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Highway To Heaven: I Was A Middle Aged Werewolf
Broadcast: Wednesday 28 October 1987 (US)
Production/Channel: NBC (US), ITV Network (UK)
Writer: Michael Landon
Music: David Rose
Producer/Director: Kent McCray / Michael Landon
Starring: Michael Landon, Victor French, Michael Landon, Nancy Frangione, Devon Odessa, Elden Henson, Michael Landon, Granville Van Dusen, Marianne Muellereile, Michael Landon, Michael Berryman, Michael Landon, Michael Landon

Of note, this week...

You can Subscribe, Like, Follow, Rate and Review on:



The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet, with additional live accompaniments by Ozzy Bognops. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to PeggyMountPod@gmail.com

Children Of The Stones

With the first stirrings of spring on the breeze, an archive-television reviewer's thoughts naturally turn to fresh air, greenery and neolithic menhirs. A quest for savage nature leads to this episode of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour being 33% outside broadcast, as well as seeing the return of a beloved special guest back in the studio!

Yes, ancient rituals, cutting-edge science and new age ephemera collide, as that rusty old chopper has been broken out of the shed and ridden into the depths of rural Wiltshire for sardonic scrutiny of the first episode of HTV's iconic Children Of The Stones! For once, our hosts aren't the weirdest people in the vicinity. Although that doesn't stop them trying...

When is it permissible to run over an old lady standing in the middle of the road? When is it okay to knock off your academic research for the day and knock back whisky in the pub instead? And when is someone - anyone - going to send a Going Metric: Tins Of Paint leaflet to Blackout?

The sooner you press Play, the sooner you'll find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Children Of The Stones
Broadcast: Monday 10 January 1977, 16:45
Production/Channel: HTV, ITV Network
Writer: Jeremy Burham, Trevor Ray
Music: Sidney Sager
Producer/Director: Peter Graham Scott
Starring: Gareth Thomas, Peter Demin, Iain Cuthbertson, Veronica Strong, Katharine Levy, Ian Donnelly, Freddie Jones, Ruth Dunning

Blackout went to Avebury for this episode.
For real:

You can Subscribe, Like, Follow, Rate and Review on:



The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet, with additional live accompaniments by Ozzy Bognops. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to PeggyMountPod@gmail.com

Dead Of Night: The Exorcism

Ever keen to multi-task, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour's After Dark season is at this point so blasé with unseasonally ticking off items from the Hallowe'en schedule that they've started on the Christmas telly as well. Naturally, ghosts have no real concept of earthly time and so tend to turn up impromptu and behave appallingly. Much like dinner guests...

Yes, this week the hoover gets pushed round and the best cutlery comes out for 1972's Dead Of Night: The Exorcism. And this cautionary tale of social entertaining is a nailed-on lesson as to a) why dinner parties are (and always have been) a thing to be avoided, and more notably b) why no one should invite Blackout and Doctor Velvet to them anyway.

How long can a guest be expected to tolerate a power cut before just retiring to the airing-cupboard with a bottle of wine? How long can a ghost be expected to play the clavichord in the next room before you take a mell hammer to the windows? And how long can a fresh crime-scene be left before Kenneth Kendall starts talking about it on national television?

Light a trail of candles to the Play button, and find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Dead Of Night: The Exorcism
Broadcast: Sunday 05 November 1972, 21:35
Production/Channel: A BBC production for BBC 2
Writer: Don Taylor
Music: Herbert Chappell
Producer/Director: Innes Lloyd, Don Taylor
Starring: Anna Cropper, Sylvia Kay, Edward Petherbridge, 36yr old Clive Swift, Kenneth Kendall

Of note, this week...

You can Subscribe, Like, Follow, Rate and Review on:



The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet, with additional live accompaniments by Ozzy Bognops. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to PeggyMountPod@gmail.com