The Box Of Delights / The Christmas Jottings of Hinge and Bracket

Ho-ho-holy snowballs, is it that time already? Yes, with the cheese and scotch advent calendars already suspiciously demolished, it's open house and time for the Peggy Mount Calamity Hour Christmas Special! Crackers will be pulled, bottles will be emptied, and two entertainment gems from the past will be lovingly dissected...

Professor Lionel Ziggy Zucho pops round for the first grinding of the festive conveyor belt with 1984's The Box Of Delights, which evoked days long gone even upon its first broadcast. Then that sepia glow is retained for a visit from Ozzy Bognops and a huddle round the radiogram for The Christmas Jottings Of Hinge and Bracket, bringing with them as they do a very special guest star.

Will young Kay Harker ever be magicked to a land where working-class people exist? Will footage ever be recovered of Patrick Moore and Deryck Guyler percussioning in the middle of an ice rink in a provincial leisure centre? And will Turkish Delight Vodka curdle the buttered-eggs?

Sift through that discarded wrapping paper for the hastily-ignored instruction leaflet on how to press the Play button, and find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Box Of Delights
Broadcast: Wednesday 21 November 1984, 17:00
Production/Channel: BBC One, Children's BBC
Writer: John Masefield, Alan Seymour
Music: Roger Limb
Producer/Director: Paul Stone / Renny Rye
Starring: Devin Stanfield, Patrick Troughton, Robert Stephens, John Horsley, Carol Frazer, Geoffrey Larder, Jonathan Stephens, Bill Wallis, Crispin Mair, Joanna Dukes, Heidi Burton, Flora Page, Len Edwards, Glyn Baker, Anne Dyson

Programme: The Christmas Jottings of Hinge and Bracket
Broadcast: Wednesday 24 December 1986, 22:00
Production/Channel: BBC, BBC Radio 2
Writer: Gerald Frow
Music: Gordon Langford
Producer: John Fawcett Wilson
Starring: Patrick Fyffe, George Logan, Peggy Mount, Deryck Guyler, Chris Emmet, Frances Jeater, Jean Hayward, John Carlin

Of note this week:






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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

Doctor Who: Dimensions In Time

Is it that time already? Who knows? Who knows what time even is? Certainly not the editing team of the Doctor Who 1993 Children In Need EastEnders crossover special, that's for sure. Not time, not flow and definitely not narrative coherence. But let's not jump ahead of ourselves...

Yes, to celebrate/commiserate/eviscerate the anniversary of Dimensions In Time and the November heralding of everyone's favourite cyclopic yellow bear, the hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour call round at the best possible place to hold such a symposium: Podcasting House, the hallowed halls of The ExtonMoss Experiment. Because the longest 17 minutes of your life calls for only the finest gin and only the harshest commentary.

What would a positive appraisal of this programme sound like? What would a decent realisation of this concept look like? And what does Squatter's Cocktail™ actually taste like..?

Get cuddly Tel to helicopter-in on honorarium and push Play, to find out...

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 163: Doctor Who - Dimensions in Time

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Doctor Who: Dimensions In Time
Broadcast: Friday 26 November 1993, 19:00+
Production/Channel: BBC One
Writer: John Nathan-Turner
Music: Ron Grainer, Keff McCulloch, Cybertech Inc.
Producer/Director: John Nathan-Turner / Stuart McDonald
Starring: Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Kate O'Mara, Sophie Aldred, Nicola Bryant, Carole Ann Ford, Louise Jameson, Bonnie Langford, Elisabeth Sladen, Lalla Ward, Caroline John, John Leeson, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin, Samuel West, Pam St. Clement, Gillian Taylforth, Wendy Richard, Mike Reid, Steve McFadden, Ross Kemp, Letitia Dean

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

Voice From The Gallows / The Ice House

Ah, the sound of hooves clopping across the rooftops and a smell of pumpkins and absinthe left out for Father Samhain can mean only one thing: it is truly the most woe-nderful time of the year! The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour’s Halloween Special reaches once more into the casket for only the finest knitwear, slacks and bejewelled shawls, because here we dress for dinner...

Our hosts begin by venturing - as is so oft the case – off down the old pub, where a Voice From The Gallows ensures the spirits they find aren’t just restricted to Harry Hewart’s decanter collection. Following these rather alarming events, a check-in at a luxury country spa retreat is called for, with the charming if rather eccentric regulars keeping the gin cooled down at The Ice House.

How many eggs does someone have to smash before you realise that the RightMove summary may not have been entirely transparent about the history of this house? How many phallic symbols have to be smeared on your bedroom window before you realise that the TripAdvisor review may not have been entirely representative of this hotel? And how many times to we have to petition LWT for a Diamond Lady spin-off sitcom?

Gently press the Play button with a croquet mallet and/or mell hammer, and find out…

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Worlds Beyond: Voice From The Gallows
Broadcast: Friday 10 October 1986
Production/Channel: George Walker Television Prod, Thames Television, ITV
Writer: Brian Clemens
Music: Ian Stanley, Darryl Way
Producer/Director: Alan Radnor, Bob McIntosh / Sue Butterworth
Starring: Darren McGavin, Connie Booth, Dannelle Saunders, James Aubrey, James Hazeldine

Programme: A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Ice House
Broadcast: Monday 25 December 1978, 23:35
Production/Channel: BBC Television, BBC One
Writer: John Bowen
Producer/Director: Rosemary Hill / Derek Lister
Starring: John Stride, Elizabeth Romilly, Geoffrey Burridge, David Beames, Gladys Spencer (DIAMOND LADY)

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

Murder On The Moon (aka Murder By Moonlight)

Demonstrating how polite and sociable podcasters ought to behave, the fine gentlemen of The ExtonMoss Experiment have kindly invited The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour over for drinks, nibbles and deconstruction, and so it comes to pass that Doctor Velvet and Blackout are - once again - bribed into leaving the house.

And tonight's deconstruction is every bit as psychological as it is televisual, as 1989's nano-budgeted, space-faring whodunnit Murder By Moonlight (aka Murder On The Moon) comes under the telescope, eliciting far more whys than hows in the ensuing conversation...

What's happened that glass whiskey bottles are no longer allowed on the moonbase? What's happened that convincing accents of any description are no longer allowed on the moonbase? And what on (or off-) earth has happened that four grown men are watching what's happening on this moonbase??

Open the airlock, punch Play and find out....

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 159: Murder By Moonlight

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Murder On The Moon (aka Murder By Moonlight)
Broadcast: Saturday 26 August 1989, 20:15
Production/Channel: Tamara Asseyev Productions, ITV
Writer: Carla Jean Wagner
Music: Trevor Jones
Producer/Director: Ron Carr, Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Starring: Brigitte Nielsen, Julian Sands, Jane Lapotaire, Celia Imrie, Georgina Hale, Rico Ross, Brian Cox, David Yip, Stuart Milligan

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

Dungeons & Dragons / Mr & Mrs

There was much excitement earlier this week as the Antiques Roadshow film crew pulled into the grounds of Birtley Priory to be met by Pod Producer Ken eagerly clutching a battered C90 cassette, complete with an illegibly scrawled label and browned sellotape over the record-tab. The raw enthusiasm of Fiona Bruce, hoping this could be a secretly recorded rehearsal session of The Beatles, quickly turned to despondent anger when the assembled crowd was treated to a priceless raw cut of one of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour’s Lost Episodes™…

Yes, unearthed from the archives (Pod Producer Ken found it wedged down the back of the toilet), and meticulously digitally restored (he’s edited out the clunks of him hitting the Record and Stop buttons), this hitherto-unheard recording charts the time some years back that the boys from The ExtonMoss Experiment dropped round for a gin, a chinwag and a deep-dive into the Dungeons and Dragons and Mr and Mrs.

What are the odds of six separate roleplaying characters all rolling a Ø for personality? What are the chances of Derek Batey shelling that prize money out of what is clearly going to be his own bank account? And how likely is the podcast to get sued if the un-bleeped version of this is ever aired?

Clamber into the clapped-out rollercoaster, pull the Play lever and find out…

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Dungeons & Dragons: The Night Of No Tomorrow
Broadcast: Monday 10 September 1984, 16:30
Production/Channel: Marvel Productions, Toei Animation / BBC One
Writer: Mark Evanier, Kevin Paul Coates, Dennis Marks
Music: Johnny Douglas
Producer/Director: Karl Geurs, Gary Gygax / John Gibbs, Bob Richardson
Starring: Willie Aames, Don Most, Adam Rich, Peter Cullen, Teddy Field III, Katie Leigh, Sidney Miller, Tonia Gayle Smith, Frank Welker

Programme: Mr & Mrs
Broadcast: [unconfirmed Tx date] 1979, 17:15
Production/Channel: Border Television, ITV Network
Devised by: Roy Ward Dickson
Music: Jackie Trent, Tony Hatch
Producer/Director: Derek Batey / William Cartner
Starring: Derek Batey, Susan Cuff

Of note, this week:

The competition mentioned in this episode is NO LONGER RUNNING because it was recorded three years ago and someone WON. Yeah that's right, you had your chance then.


Also...











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

The Paradise Club

Horror and hard rock have long gone hand in grimy hand, and this outing of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour's After Dark strand harkens back to an historical moment where three chords and hairspray attempted to go mainstream. Because when the lead singer of the world's largest metal band stars in a Tuesday night BBC One drama, you know it's not long before he'll be recognised in Waitrose.

Yes, the volume is turned up to eleven as the doors of 1990's The Paradise Club are booted well and truly booted open, as the world's unlikeliest brothers play host to London's least stage-ready band, who perform to unfeasibly small audiences that have never before heard any music. As connoisseurs of loud tunes and questionable television, this is of course PeggyMountPod's perfect cultural fodder...

Has the BBC drama department only got one casting director for everything they make? Has the money that would normally spent on extras for the club scenes gone to PRS royalties for a soundtrack that the show's Sanatogen-necking audience might actually recognise? And how much does this podcast owe Bruce Dickinson for repeatedly howling ♫ 'TATTOO-OO-OOED MILLIONA-A-A-A-AIRE' throughout*?

Press Play on a shoddily-recorded bootleg that you bought for £2 off the market, and find out...

* Absolutely nothing. Blackout's already bought Tattooed Millionaire on at least five different releases, it's more than paid for**.

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Paradise Club
Broadcast: Tuesday 06 November 1990, 21:30
Production/Channel: Zenith, BBC One
Writer: Murray Smith, Russell Murray
Music: Dave Lawson
Producer/Director: Selwyn Roberts / Renny Rye
Starring: Leslie Grantham, Don Henderson, John Altman, Bruce Dickinson, Janick Gers, Andy Carr, Dickie Fliszar

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