The Pogles (but NOT Pogles' Wood)

As the weather begins to warm up, Doctor Velvet and Blackout of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour decide to take a leaf out of Mad Lizzie's book of exercise. Off they go for a bracing stroll to call on Simon and Ken at The ExtonMoss Experiment. Naturally this walk takes them via the off-licence, but that's only to be expected and since when has supporting a local business been a thing to be frowned upon?

Ever the hospitable gentlemen, ExtonMoss invite PeggyMountPod in for a tipple and a chinwag. Before you know it, all four are glued to the box as pre-school witchcraft illuminates the room with The Pogles arguably casting more magic than their woodland-sorcerous nemesis...

Which member of the gang would like to see all episodes of The Pogles fully restored? Which member of the gang would like to see all episodes of The Pogles fully restored and colourised? And which member of the gang would like to see all episodes of The Pogles fully restored, colourised and with the effects-work overseen by John Carpenter, Tom Savini and Eli Roth?

Fight your way out of that twig-cage, punch Play and find out...

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 176: The Pogles

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Pogles: A Flower For Wishes
Broadcast: Thursday 19 August 1965, 10:45
Production/Channel: Smallfilms, BBC1
Writer: Oliver Postgate
Music: Vernon Elliott
Producer/Director: Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate
Starring: Oliver Postgate, Steve Woodman, Owlen Griffiths

Items of note...



Yes! Blackout went to the Postgate/Firmin SmallFilms exhibition in Canterbury and saw the actual Pogles and that actual witch from off of the episode! Unfortunately, he did this mere days after recording this episode, and so doesn't mention it once. Not even the fact that it's on. Typical. No culture.


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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

The Stone Tape

It's always nice to get out of the house of course, but the number of venues willing to welcome The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour grows vanishingly small (imagine being barred from a bottle-bank). Luckily, Simon and Ken of The ExtonMoss Experiment are always ready to share their convivial hospitality, on the condition that the gin is mixed only with some archive television that'll make your teeth curl.

On offer tonight is a thorough cultural appraisal of Nigel Kneale's 1972 exploration of memorical masonry, The Stone Tape . Although naturally, a piece of seminal televisual eeriness whose cultural footprint is still felt to this day doesn't mean that Doctor Velvet and Blackout are going to take it that seriously...

When will The Science™ progress beyond middle-aged men yelling at each other and drinking in a room full of wires? When can our brave televisual analysers stop trying to tie in macabre literary references and get back to discussing The Slacks? When does the screaming stop?

Get somebody to use four rolls of paper printing out the hand-typed program used to press Play, and find out...

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 166: The Stone Tape

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Stone Tape
Broadcast: Tue 02 October 1973, 21:00
Production/Channel: BBC Two
Writer: Nigel Kneale
Music: Desmond Briscoe
Producer/Director: Innes Lloyd, Peter Sasdy
Starring: Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Iain Cuthbertson, Michael Bates, Reginald Marsh, James Cosmo, Christopher Banks

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

The Incredible Robert Baldick: Never Come Night

Ah, Summer bares its all once again; that golden orb at its zenith heralding the start of Sunburnt Party Season™ where conversation flows like wine and wine flows like a regulation-breaching sewage outlet. Although at The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, so does the conversation. And so it falls, the propitious gentlemen of The ExtonMoss Experiment podcast have once again thrown open their doors for a visit by Doctor Velvet and Blackout. Naturally once arriving, this latest meeting of minds involves pulling the curtains, uncorking the gin and watching television that's half a century old...

Coming under the new-fangled antique microscope this solsticetide is BBC Two's 1972 one-off Victorian supernatural / inventor / detective drama The Incredible Robert Baldick: Never Come Night, a seminal piece of sci-fi TV from Dalek-scribe Terence Nation and starring the redoubtable Robert Hardy, the jocund John Rhys Davies and the inscrutable James Cossins.

When is the United Kingdom's fledgling rail network going to connect with the isolated 400m stretch of privately-owned track to which Baldick so proudly lays claim? When will our hero's servant-folk get tired of blindly doing a billionaire's bidding and tell him to go dig the hole himself? And when will the wine react with the cork and go bad?

Find out by pressing the PLAY button on this mysterious, unearthed device that's up to the eyes in clarts...

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 112: The Incredible Robert Baldick

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Incredible Robert Baldick: Never Come Night
Broadcast: Mon 02 October 1972, 21:25
Production/Channel: BBC Two
Writer: Terry Nation
Music: Anthony Isaac
Producer/Director: Anthony Coburn, Cyril Coke
Starring: Robert Hardy, John Rhys Davies, Julian Holloway, Reginald Marsh, James Cossins, Barry Andrews, Ron Welling, Dave Mobley, Paul Humpoletz

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 Tomorrow People: The Monsoon Man

And as sure as night follows day, any exploratory jaunt into the televisual recesses of the 1970s in a bid to disprove proponents of misty-eyed nostalgia for 'telly the way it used to be' should be swiftly complemented by a trip to the mid-90s and the realisation that maybe it's just been slightly crap all along...

Yes, Doctor Velvet and Blackout have left the confines of MountPeg Towers once again and are being very kindly catered to by Simon and Ken at The ExtonMoss Experiment. In their collective quest to put away the gin as if a CSI team were about to come round looking for it, the fearsome foursome have returned to carry on demolishing The Tomorrow People, this time in its five-part story arc The Monsoon Man (I - II - III - IV - V).

How has throwing money at a TV programme somehow resulted in it becoming more bland? Which member of the cast once eyed up Doctor Velvet's hot dog at a Michael Jackson concert? And can Dame Peggy Mount's array of voluminous hat and cape combination-sets be any consolation for a distinct lack of blue leotards this time around?

The best way to find out is by pressing that button with the triangle on it...

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 92: The Tomorrow People - The Monsoon Man

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Tomorrow People: The Monsoon Man (Parts 1-5)
Broadcast: Tuesdays, 08 February - 15 March 1994, 16:40
Production/Channel: Thames, ITV
Writer: Lee Pressman, Grant Cathro, Roger Price (created by)
Music: Andrew Phillips
Producer/Director: Alan Horrox, Niall Leonard
Starring: Peggy Mount, Naomie Harris, Kristian Schmid, Christian Tessier, Laurence Bouvard, Christopher Benjamin, William Hootkins, Kerry Shale

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 Tomorrow People: The Living Skins

In the first of a two-part reciprocation under the UK Podcast Exchange Visit Programme®, Messrs Velvet and Blackout of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour arrive on the doorstep of The ExtonMoss Experiment bearing travel sickness, clanking bottles, and vociferous opinions...

Under the shared microscope of retrospective televisual appreciation, this critical quartet dissect The Tomorrow People's 1978 duology The Living Skins, where cutting-edge Fashion™, extra-terrestrial terror and unexamined pages from the RADA coursework syllabus collide.

What are the odds of gathering four sci-fi geeks in a room and learning two of them haven't seen one of the most iconic genre-series of all time? What are the chances of a low-budget 1970s television production accurately predicting the late-80s horror of shell suits? What's the betting there won't be any gin left?

Unleash the Play-button to find out...

The ExtonMoss Experiment · Episode 88: The Tomorrow People - Living Skins

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING:

Programme: The Tomorrow People: A Harmless Fashion
Broadcast: Mon 06 November 1978, 16:45
Channel/Production: Thames Television, ITV
Writer: Roger Price
Music: Dudley Simpson
Director/Producer: Stan Woodward, Vic Hughes
Starring: Nicholas Young, Elizabeth Adare, Miki Holoway, Misako Koba, Nigel Rhodes, Philip Gilbert, Ralph Lawson

Programme: The Tomorrow People: Cold War
Broadcast: Mon 13 November 1978, 16:45
Channel/Production: Thames Television, ITV
Writer: Roger Price
Music: Dudley Simpson
Director/Producer: Stan Woodward, Vic Hughes
Starring: Nicholas Young, Elizabeth Adare, Miki Holoway, Misako Koba, Nigel Rhodes, Philip Gilbert, Ralph Lawson, Dave Carter

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

Buck Rogers / Duty Free

It's all go round at MountPeg Towers as Doctor Velvet and Blackout limber up to slip in a quick one before Christmas (quiet at the back), and end up rolling out the welcome mat for Simon and Ken from The ExtonMoss Experiment podcast! Because what could be more self-indulgent than two middle-aged men mulling over the slightly bitter taste of eighties reminiscence, than doubling that up for a foursome? (really, keep it down)

First up, the boys are out of this world in excitement over Buck Rogers' 25th Century romp on the Planet Of The Amazon Women, before coming right back down to earth (and hard) with some Duty Free, as the San Remo Hotel gets a bit of extra oomph when a famous - and flirty - guest arrives. All of this might sound sexy, but unfortunately the only sauce on offer here is the hard liquor (some of it positively medicinal) required to sit through it all.

Is there a German word for that feeling when the future looks way cheaper than the present when it's filmed in the past? Is there a Spanish word for the year-on-year diminishing returns of a massively successful but oddly era-specific sitcom? And is there any word at all for the incandescent umbrage one feels at being the only person in the room to have actively enjoyed what everyone's just sat through?

The play-button will reveal all...

Visual things that are mentioned in this episode:


Seriously, don't bother...





Subscribe/Like/Follow 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. 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