Misty Holiday Special (1979)

Because is it even the holidays if you don't get a comic whose cover confirms that it is indeed The Holidays? The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour continues down its path of discordant nostalgia all the way to the paper-shop, and has convinced its mam to buy a cultural antidote to the relaxing positivity of the Summer months...

Yes, demonstrating that Goth Never Sleeps, our hosts are greeted by the magical Misty as she plays host to a literary coven of supernatural scripture in her 1979 Holiday Special. Not quite as garish as 1984's Scream, Misty proves that less can be more and that not every tale of terror needs to be a coded warning to curtail the moral compass of its readership.

What level of witchery should you employ if a supermarket threatens to move into your village? What happens if you live near an aviary and you're deaf in one ear? And what does it say about the era when the thematic inspirations for your children's comic are the benefits of a comprehensive insurance policy and moors murders?

Drink three bottles of green fjzz, press Play and find out...

WE HAVE BEEN READING:

Title: The Misty 1979 Holiday Special
Cover Date: July 1979
Publisher: IPC Fleetway
Contributors: Pat Mills, Barry Clements, Malcolm Shaw

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 and The Dogs Of Doom (1980)

Basking in the heat of the long-awaited Summer Holidays is one thing, but boredom and agitation are always round the corner for The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour. Luckily, this can be easily (if temporarily) averted with a visit to the newsagent for a ten pence mix-up and a crisp new comic...

And so an unprecedented horror-turn from a childhood favourite serves to provide the perfect chills for the hot weather, and prompts the need for a restorative tipple! Yes, our hosts have whiled away the hours reading 1980's Doctor Who opus The Dogs Of Doom, and now manage to invest a little more time dissecting it, as well.

Who decided that virus-warfare as an aid to pan-galactic expansionist colonialism would make a fitting subject for a childrens' comic? Who knew the CB-radio boom of the late 1970s would have cultural ripples for the next five centuries? And who's picking up the tab for the dry-cleaning of Sharon's A-line frock?

Materialise a Play button about two feet lower down than it should be, and find out...

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour · Doctor Who and the Dogs Of Doom (1980)

WE HAVE BEEN READING:

Title: Doctor Who And The Dogs Of Doom
Cover Date: April 1980
Publisher: Marvel UK
Contributors: Pat Mills, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Whitaker, Charlie Kirchoff

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

I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle

As noted several moons ago, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour knows that the language of cinema is a little different to that of the small screen, but it’s a lesson they love to revisit nonetheless. This week’s study is of personal pronouns; as in ‘She'll probably regret wearing that’, ‘He made an egg sandwich that should be on trial’, and ‘I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle’…

Yes, Doctor Velvet and Blackout round out the podcast's After Dark series by shining a flickering torch into the dimmest days of the British Film Industry, to find the Boon reunion-party in full swing and drenched in red-dyed corn syrup. Still, there’s a vicar on-hand so it’s all good* clean** fun***.

Why did Anthony Daniels agree to a part in this? Why did Burt Kwouk agree to a part as long as he didn't have to speak? And why did Pod Producer Ken leave the room mid-way through and lock himself in the toilet, crying?

Put 20p in the pub jukebox, press Play, swing off a cast iron chandelier and find out…

* delete
** as
*** appropriate

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle
Released: Friday 06 July 1990 (UK cinemas)
Broadcast: Tuesday 15 February 1994, 00:10 (Sky Movies)
Production/Channel: Dirk Productions Ltd.
Writer: Mycal Miller & John Wolskel
Music: Dean Friedman
Producer/Director: Mycal Miller & John Wolskel / Dirk Campbell
Starring: Neil Morrissey, Amanda Noar, Michael Elphick, Anthony Daniels, Andrew Powell, Daniel Peacock, David Daker, Burt Kwouk, Paula Ann Bland

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

Knight Rider

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour continues to explore the weekly cultural abyss of what really goes on After Dark. But as so often with the analysis of horror, the story of what scares us isn't quite as intriguing as what in turn reassures. And for a formative mind in the harsh striplights of the 1980s, there are few things so reassuring as the jet slacks, tousled demi-wave and leatherette blouson of the world's most mysterious techno-vigilante...

Yes, Doctor Velvet and Blackout are joined once again by the loveably irascible Ozzy Bognops, as their attention turns to that doyenne of Saturday teatime adventure, the Knight Rider. Because when things take a theatrically sinister turn on a Hollywood backlot and Michael Knight is sent to investigate, absolutely no nit will be left unpicked back at Mountpeg Towers...

How much money can you save by writing a screenplay set literally in the studio where it's going to be made, so that you don't have to do any set-dressing? How convenient is it to get your star's stuntman to play the star in a thing where your star plays his stuntman? And how many hints does a man have to drop that he just wants a job where he can go to the beach?

Tell your car to press Play, and find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Knight Rider: Fright Knight
Broadcast: Friday 07 March 1986 (U.S.)
Production/Channel: Glen A. Larson Productions, NBC Television / ITV Network
Writer: Glen A. Larson, James Byrnes, Samm Smith, Leonard Kaufman
Music: Glen A. Larson, Stu Phillips, Don Peake
Producer/Director: Gino Grimaldi, Gilbert Shilton
Starring: David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, Patricia McPherson, Peter Parros, Robert Englund, Michael Callan, Antony Ponzini

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

Leap In The Dark

It's the question asked by anybody of an inquiring mind (and the hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour are no exception) when faced with baffling circumstance and an unexplained outcome: Did that actually just happen? In fact, so determined are they to get to the bottom of it all that they've asked The ExtonMoss Experiment to come round and help solve the mysteries of the universe. Or of Bristol, at the very least.

Yes, passing under the rickety analytical equipment knocked together in a remote barn is BBC2's landmark cultural exploration of the outré from 1973, Leap In The Dark. Covering an array of psychic phenomena such as astrology, clairvoyance, divining and walking around a field for hours on end with sticks, this thoughtful yet playfully sceptical magazine-show is sure to raise more questions than it answers...

Is Gordon Snell sponsored by Lee Bender? Is Linda Blandford sponsored by BUPA? And has Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water still not sponsored that cottage yet?

Wave your dowsing rod over the Play button and you might just find out...

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: Leap In The Dark
Broadcast: Tuesday 09 January 1973, 22:20
Production/Channel: BBC Two
Producer/Director: Anne Owen / Colin Goodman
Starring: Linda Blandford, Gordon Snell, Lee Bender, John Williamson

Of reverent 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

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