TV Cream

How We Used To List

How We Used To List: 22nd-28th JUNE 2002


What we were watching this week 20 years ago, as recorded in the back-issues of TV Cream’s weekly ‘e-mag’, Creamguide…

(We still send out Creamguides every week via email. If you’d like to receive it – it’s free, there are no ads, we don’t sell on your address, you can unsubscribe whenever; we’re basically soppy like that – then fill in your details below.)


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TV CREAM TIMES
22nd-28th June 2002
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Back! Back! Back! – Phil Norman
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Saturday 22nd June

BBC1

10.30 Perry Mason
We’ll be sorry to see the World Cup finish, because frankly we’ve enjoyed getting up at 7am every morning, even when Barry Venison’s been on. And we’ve also enjoyed the bizarre scheduling, such as today, when The Saturday Show’s on BBC2 between 9.30am and 12, despite the fact there’s a gap on BBC1 between 9.30am and 12 that’s filled by Diagnosis Murder and this.

17.00 Dad’s Army
Of course today (if you’re reading this on the Thursday) is the second anniversary of The Great BBC Power Cut Of 2000, always a cause for celebration in the Creamguide Office because it was truly brilliant telly. As you’ll remember, Pebble Mill briefly flung on half an episode of Dad’s Army in the panic, and they’ve still not shown the end. Maybe this’ll be the day, eh?

23.05 Heroes Of Pop
A new name, but an old programme – a repeat of last year’s Rod Stewart documentary which we, er, didn’t watch. So we can’t tell you much about it. Presumably it’ll have the Maggie May clip in any case.

BBC2

17.45 The True Story of Jesse James
Now, we’d like to thank Chris ‘An episode without Colonel Hall is only half an episode’ Diamond for ‘keeping this seat warm’ the past couple of weeks, in that chummy but nevertheless vaguely patronising way Barry Norman used to do, and for taking Creamguide (Films) into hitherto unseen realms of informed, literate criticism. No more of that, however, as we half-arsedly reveal that, western though it may be, this biographical second-stringer gets under the wire since it stars Robert Wagner and Jeffrey ‘original Enterprise captain’ Hunter as the legendary brothers, but that’s merely the tip of a sixties camp telly iceberg, featuring Agnes ‘Endora’ Moorehead, Alan ‘Skipper’ Hale Jr. and Frank ‘Riddler’ Gorshin.

ITV

15.00 Carry On Laughing
Still, rather this than the ancient episodes of Family Fortunes they’ve been screening during the day for the past few weeks. We caught one the other day, and you could tell it was from the mid-90s because one of the contestants was wearing a “fun” waistcoat.

CHANNEL 4

05.50 Ivor The Engine
This should have been in last week’s Creamguide.

05.55 The Clangers
Right, here we go. Our spies have been looking through various bits of paper, and we can confirm that two episodes of this programme are marked out as “standbys” only (not as part of any proper run). Episode 12 is marked RISE STANDBY which, presumably, means it goes on if the brekkie show falls off air for whatever reason. Episode 13 (Music Of The Spheres) is reserved as “General Standby” – presumably to be whipped out if there’s rain during the Cricket and the like. Told you that was worth waiting for.

07.05 Ask Any Girl
Actually, Chris ‘Regardless of what the self-important Maurice Gosfield may have thought’ Diamond did catch a bit of flack for continuing the long-standing Creamguide policy of bestowing unwieldy middle names on historically relevant cast members, which seems a tad unfair seeing as we’ve been doing it for years anyway without so much as a polite cough in opposition, and will of course continue to do it, as God knows we’ve got many far more irritating stylistic ticks than that one. So, this slight fifties comedy features David ‘I can’t swim!’ Niven dolling up Shirley ‘Shut up and deal!’ MacLaine for, er, consumption by his brother Gig ‘How long can they last?!’ Young and Rod ‘Let’s foller their tracks!’ Taylor. Jim ‘Come, Lovee!’ Backus and Elisabeth ‘This is the last time I’m covering for you, Ernie!’ Fraser support.

12.30 Little House On The Prairie
So Creamguide now has two excellent film reviewers on it’s staff. All we need now is one decent TV reviewer, and we’ll be flying.

18.50 The Curious Case Of Inspector Clouseau
C4 are starting a season of Pink Panther films, which we hope will be more successful than ITV’s attempt at the same thing two years ago. They started off by showing the original film at six o’clock on a Saturday night (some twelve years or so after BBC1 had shown it at 10am on a dead Saturday morning) and then, er, that was it because it did so badly in the ratings. Anyway, this is a new documentary on the life of Peter Sellers and how the films were made, followed, of course, by…

19.55 The Pink Panther
After the potted history of the hapless Captain Webb lookalike, and, doubtless, tales of the many rits of fealous jage Sellers threw in Blake Edwards’ direction, here’s the first of the films, with David Niven as Sir Charles Phantom (the notorious Litton), Robert Wagner and John Le Mesurier. It’s always good to see, as it’s really quite different to all the other PP films, but ominously this is the first of a ‘season’, which could at worst mean C4 lazily rerunning all the overexibited Panthers just as we thought ITV had finally given up on continuously shoving them out on empty weekend afternoons, but could result in a rare showing of Inspector Clouseau, the unofficial, Sellers-less third in the series, which might be worth a look. Or the dreadful, Roberto Benigni-starring Son of…, which wouldn’t.

01.10 The Natural
Robert Redford is, erm, good at baseball in this popular-over-there feelgood effort with Wilford ‘Postmaster General’ Brimley. Only worth watching if you’re desperate to be let in on all those references to it in The Simpsons, Garry Shandling, and recent US sitcoms passim.

CHANNEL 5

17.30 Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog
Treacly nineteenth century over-loyal Scottish dog weepie with Donald ‘Hills of Home’ Crisp, with only a few magnificently indoor-y Highland scenes and Gordon ‘What are you two, some kind of music hall act?’ Jackson to offset the Disney drear.

00.40 Imagine: John Lennon
It’s the, er, 21st anniversary of Mark Chapman’s guilty plea, so Channel Five see fit to call a granny-specced eyes-down for this two-hour hagiography of the artist formerly known as the ‘real talent’ in the Beatles before everybody calmed down a bit and checked the credits on Revolver properly. Fascinating archive footage is here in abundance, of course, but so is plenty of emoting from the likes of Julian ‘Saltwater wells in my eye’ Lennon against a grey background. And it has always bugged us that this story of such a great and varied talent had to be named after one of the weakest songs he, or indeed anyone else, ever wrote. I think it proves you’re all daft. I suppose I’ll get into trouble for saying that, now.

02.35 One-Trick Pony
Picking up the theme, Paul Simon uneasily sort of plays himself as a struggling muso married to Blair ‘Molly Dodd’ Brown. Rip Torn, Mare ‘Turner and Hooch’ Winningham, Harry ‘Lukewarm water’ Shearer, Merv ‘set’ Griffin, Lou ‘Thank you, *thirrr*’ Reed, Sam and Dave, the B52s, the Lovin’ Spoonful and, er, Tiny Tim show their faces. Soundtrack’s a good-‘un, unsurprisingly.

05.10 Sons and Daughters
Soundtrack’s a bad-‘un, unsurprisingly.

Sunday 23rd June

BBC1

19.35 Only Fools and Horses
We were surprised Del Boy Falling Through The Bar managed to get about five million viewers this week, and nobody in the papers slagged them off for dragging it out again or anything. Not long til we get Miami Twice again, no doubt, but in the meantime, this undistinguished effort from 1993.

23.30 Assault on Precinct 13
Grrr! Someone’s just pointed out to us that this gloriously budget-free LA police station seige was actually John Carpenter’s idea of a re-tooled western, which is very annoying, as it’s great stuff, Rock School soundtrack and all, despite paving the way for two decades’ worth of ludicrously unrealistic ‘urban thrillers’ with fifty times the budget but scarcely a thimblefull of the craft on show here.

BBC2

11.15 Asterix and the Big Fight
Left out of Two’s mini-Gaul season a few weeks back, it’s another limp late ’80s bodge job of a great book – the menhir-concussed Getafix and additional druid (“How are you, my dear sir!”) concocting polka-dot potions are present and correct, but the rest is hopelessly screwed around, and, as we always say, the Bell-Hockridge gags are sorely lacking – whither little Prawnsinaspix? And not on up north, for Harry Gration.

18.15 Steptoe and Son
Actually seeing as Pops 2 isn’t on this week we’ve got nowhere to mention Chalkdust by The Brat, which was on this week and was great because we love Pops performances when they have to visualise stuff that wasn’t ever intended for visuals.

18.45 Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em
Also, you never get those sort of take-offs anymore, do you? Or, indeed, do you actually get anyone saying the word ‘take-off’ anymore.

CHANNEL 4

06.05 The Clangers
So you never know, you could have Colin Murray replaced by some creatures that actually make some sort of sense.

23.05 Banzai
Last week’s was billed as a new episode, but there was nothing in the Radio Times about what might have been in it, and in the end it wasn’t on anyway. Presumably it’ll be replacing the scheduled repeat here.

CHANNEL 5

14.30 The River
Calm down, it’s not a David Essex rerun, but a dull tale of Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek’s hard times on a Tennessee homestead.

Monday 24th June

BBC1

12.00 Have I Got The Nineties For You
Now this is just plain weird. Every day this week (apart from Tuesday and/or Wednesday), there are unspecified ‘selected’ repeats of HIGNFY, but at lunchtime! How much editing are they going to have to do here? Anyway, as they’re emphasisng the fact they come from ‘the past ten years’, we could go further back then most of the normal BBC2 repeat runs, and actually include some episodes from before 1995 when it was still funny instead of the lazy, complacent bore it is today. But they’ll probably replace it with Garden Invaders instead.

00.40 The Mephisto Waltz
Odd horror with mild-mannered concert pianist Alan Alda posessed by spirit of dead mentor, with wife Jacqueline Bisset selling her own soul in retaliation. Ever-popular Cormanesque dream sequences and William ‘Thank you for watching our show tonight’ Windom jazz up an interestingly muted but none-too-coherent film.

BBC2

17.00 Blue Peter
A Wmbldn-enforced decamp to BBC2 for the next fortnight. Around this time they normally unveil where they’re going on the expedition, which they still do, and slap a few shows on tape while they film it. But we’d happily do without it if we could get it three times a week, every week, as it should be.

ITV

13.40 Painting The Stars
More top-quality daytime programming from the light channel, with this former Yorkshire regional programme being screened each day and, curiously, different episodes billed for Tuesday and Wednesday despite the fact at least one of those is guaranteed not to go out. Anyway, each day a man called Alan Hydes interviews a guest while painting their portrait, and the other day it was Richard Whiteley so they dug out Calender Countdown again. And today it’s Thora Hird.

17.05 Catchphrase
We caught the end of this the other week and were staggered to see that they were showing yet again episodes from when Nick Weir had a broken leg, which surely you can’t keep on screening, people would surely notice. Some viewers must think he was permanently crippled or something. We won’t have that problem anymore, though, because here’s a new series with Mark Curry in charge! And if he can’t replicate Walker’s wit and charm, then nobody can.

REGIONALIA!
23.30 The Joe Longthorne Story
We think this is only on in some Granada regions, but can’t confirm that, alas. In any case, for those who reckon that all new telly is rotten and it was all better in the old days may like to remember that this man still had his own show on peak-time ITV as recently as 1991. We last saw him on Brucie’s Palladium show a few years back, and he was as old-school as ever, singing a song and explaining who he was impersonating before he did it, to wit, ‘Start spreading the news… Sammy! I’m leaving today… Cleo! I wanna be a part of it…” Well, it amused us. Here’s his stor-ay!

CHANNEL 4

09.00 Little House On The Prairie
For the sake of sanity, on every day at this time.

09.55 All at Sea
Various old Ealing themes (Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts) are tied up in this late-period offering, with an unseaworthy Alec Guinness turning a decrepit pier into a cruise ship. Richard ‘Sykes’ Wattis, Lionel ‘Wombling Free’ Jeffries, William ‘Kindly old gentleman’ Mervyn, Donald ‘Perfectly’ Pleasence, Warren ‘Bloody poorer, that’s a fact!’ Mitchell, Joan ‘Marple’ Hickson, the inevitable Sam ‘Mike Baldwin’s dad’ Kydd, and a debuing Jackie ‘Lady Boss’ Collins make up your bingo card this morning. By no means classic Ealing, but far better than the one-star rating the RT gives it might suggest.

CHANNEL 5

11.00 Magnum PI
Gasp! We’ve finally seen the last of TJ Hooker, but C5 have bunged on an equivalently shite piece of Glen A Larson hokum to fill the schedules. And this too was last on peak-time ITV as recently as 1991, fact fans. On every day at this time.

15.40 Hec Ramsey
Pilot for the Mystery Movie strand everyone forgets. Richard Boone plays a western detective – not as in McCloud, but actually in the Old West – with support from Harry ‘Sherman Potter’ Morgan. Hardly up to Columbo, or even Banacek levels of success – only The Snoop Sisters was less popular. Exactly.

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=WALL of FACT=
…er, cannot be with us this week. However, you may be interested to know that a new series begins in this slot next week, if we can actually think of one. Moving on…
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Tuesday 25th June

BBC1

22.35 Blackadder The Third
Shunted from Fridays to make way for The Worst Television Programme Ever Made.

CHANNEL 4

10.00 The Overlanders
Channel Four seem to be back on the ‘ragbag of old cinematic curios for summer weekdays’ tip, so enjoy it while you can, as they usually end up packing it in at the first sign of cricket. This Australian Ealing drama is a nifty regular in these waters, detailing the mammoth movement of half a million cows out of the Japanese firing line during WWII. Aussie hero Chips ‘Moscow, here I come!’ Rafferty is the head of the ‘hard yakker and hard tucker’ drovers, shooing cattle in all conditions over to Queensland, with help from wandering Aboriginal pals. “Fancy coming with us to Queensland, Jackie?” “How long yer gonna be?” “About three years.” “Right, I’ll tell the wife. Be with ya in ten minutes!” Be nice to see the revived Ealing Studios making films of this pace and tone again, though they’d probably last about ten minutes doing so.

01.45 Young Frankenstein
Let’s get this over with – a) it’s better than Blazing Saddles, b) Marty Feldman is fantastic in it, and doesn’t ruin it at all, c) Gene Wilder’s never been better, either, d) singing “Roll, roll, roll in ze hay!” has got to be the highpoint of Teri Garr’s career, and e) it’s *Frahnkensteen*.

05.45 Ivor The Engine
You don’t realise how much Creamy stuff is on BBC2 until it’s taken away, do you?

05.55 The Clangers
And no, we’re not highlighting the thrice-weekly Absolutely Fabulous rerun, although we will point out that the three episodes this week are the only half-decent ones they ever made, because they’re not insultingly full of in-jokes. Rich coming from us, we know.

Wednesday 26th June

SCHEDULE A
22.45 Who Dares Wins
‘All because the hostages love…’ This old SAS chestnut would be far better, we feel, if reimagined by Tony ‘Who Dares Wins’ Robinson, in Fat Tulip storytelling mode, leaping around an Iranian Embassy as he relates the intrepid adventures of a tortoise called Lewis Collins. As it is, we can only hope for Richard ‘Madigan’ Widmark, Edward Woodward, John ‘Triffids’ Duttine, Kenneth Griffith, Ingrid Pitt, Patrick Allen, Tony ‘MacLaren’ Osoba, and a newsdesk cameo from Anna Ford to keep us sane.

SCHEDULE B
23.45 The Ex
Some crummy ’90s soft porn with the singer out of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s daughter.

BBC2

06.50 What Have The Nineties Ever Done For Us?
As there’s virtually nothing but Wmbldn on BBC2 this week, this gets a proper billing in the Radio Times, to tell us that viagra is covered. Only without, we presume, Mark Steel doing his shit old material about it.

17.00 Blue Peter
We’ve just been looking at the press release for the BBC’s (ludicrously overdone) coverage of the Commonwealth Games (ten-hour Grandstand on the Saturday! Almost all night on BBC2! An extra five minutes on the regional news to show us how the region’s competitors are getting on!) and we were pleased to note that Simon will be presenting the gold medal in the long jump, presumably to much bewilderment if anyone outside the UK wins it. Plus we liked the interview with Barry Davies, which starts “Competitors will have to bend over backwards to impress Barry Davies, so it’s a good job he’s commentating on the gymnastics!” Why can’t we write stuff like that?

ITV

20.00/21.00 Live and Let Die (depending on the progress of Our Boys(TM))
Good points – *that* semi-literate multi-part theme, the funeral procession at the start, Gloria ‘Black Belt Jones’ Hendry, the bit with the boats, lucky old Moore in bedroom farce with Madeleine ‘Eureka’ Smith. Bad points – that bloody comedy sheriff, the silly compressed air bullet payoff, the ‘Felix lighter’ gag, and no Q, for goodness’ sake!

03.45 ITV Sport Classics
What chance them turning one around quickly if Our Boys(TM) have made it to today’s semi-final?

CHANNEL 4

10.00 My Friend Flicka
Not the black and white series recalled from ITV strikes of yore, but the even earlier technicolour film version of Mary O’Hara’s boy and horse weepie, with a young Roddy McDowell as the kid in question.

05.55 The Clangers
If we’d known this was going to be on so often this week, we’d have serialised that fascinating fact we revealed earlier.

Thursday 27th June

BBC2

23.20 The Dave Gorman Collection
Last time this was on we got involved in a rather pathetic argument with A N Other Forum about it, because they were all there moaning about how you could just find other people called Dave Gorman on 192.com and so this programme was a waste of time, which is a ludicrous thing to say, because in that case why make bloody any television programme at all? Grr. And Danny Wallace sent Creamguide a nice letter a few years ago too, and that’s good enough for us to fall over ourselves to recommend it. And it is funny too, though given we’re heading into the summer, God only knows how long they’ll take to finish this rerun off.

ITV

03.15 Night of the Prowler
Another returning tradition, it seems, are these late night Butchers knockoffs, as seen in this slot last summer. This is the motor-racing espionage one, with Patrick ‘Poldark’ Holt and, also making a welcome return, Marianne Stone. Expect to see No Secrets! appear soon.

CHANNEL 4

10.00 The Guinea Pig
Salt-of-Earth youngster Dickie Attenborough is packed off to a posh school with class conflict ensuing, as well as the first ever on-screen ‘arse!’, apparently. Anthony Newley, Joan ‘Marple’ Hickson, Timothy ‘Thomas “Tom Tom” Thompson, you know, the bluff pre-Griffiths caretaker off of Grange Hill’ Bateson and Professor Digby Wolfe of the University of New Mexico all look very young indeed.

Friday 28th June

BBC1

21.30 I*’s O**y T* B*t I L**ke *t
This is included here purely so we can slag it off again, because it’s comfortably the worst programme ever made and all those involved in it should never be allowed to work in television again. This is a show that’s so uninterested in television that last series they showed the Countdown ‘wankers’ clip and the audience howled despressingly, seemingly never having seen it several hundered times. The guests are all rubbish D-list celebs who have absolutely no comedic talent between them, the questions are all piss-easy and the three regulars, whose names we can’t even bring ourselves to mention, are going through the motions so much it makes Angus Deayton look like Phil Kay. We particularly dislike the fact it’s actually about television, because it means a genuinely entertaining TV quiz, one that actually gives a toss about the medium, won’t be made. And the fact that this is the fourth series when the previous three have done bugger all just shows you the standard of comedy on BBC1 at the moment. We’d happily have the host’s shit chat show on every week of the year if it means we don’t get this ever again. It has absolutely no redeeming features and is the worst thing the BBC have ever done, and that is true. Whatever you do, we beg you not to watch this.

00.15 Asylum
‘Come to the Asylum… to get killed!’ Patrick Magee ignores this wise tagline as a trainee doctor at the titular establishment, asked by Robert Powell to interview four patients in order to determine which is in fact the now-doolally former head doctor. And to conveniently provide the four mini-plots in this Amicus portmanteau horror along the way, natch, and so – Richard ‘Robin Hood’ Todd and Barbara ‘Mephisto Waltz’ Parkins are terrorised by frozen chunks of Sylvia Syms, Barry ‘Profesor Bergman’ Morse runs up a suspicious suit for Peter Cushing, and Charlotte Rampling and Britt Ekland go head to head in yet another take on the old ‘evil double – or is it?’ chestnut, and finally Herbert Lom terrorises Frank Forsyth with little toy robots with miniature human heads on the top. And, er, Geoffrey Bayldon’s – cough – there, too. Possibly the best, and certainly the most consistent, of these happily frequently screened horror anthologies.

BBC2

21.00 The Joy Of Gardening
Second part of this romp through the archives, which we didn’t see first time and don’t expect to this time either. Still, Dean Holdsworth, eh?

23.35 Glastonbury 2002
Since Chris Cowey seemingly doesn’t want him, this is John Peel’s only TV presentational gig these days, and he does it as well as he can bearing in mind he has to sit next to Jo Whiley.

01.30 Glastonbury Fayre
I suppose they think if they spell it with a ‘Y’ more people will come. The second ever concert, this, from 1971, but the first with a pyramid stage, and Bowie, Hawkwind, Joan Baez, Melanie, Fairport Convention and good old Gong on the bill. David Puttnam and Nicholas Roeg are among the fledgling film crew in this Woodstock-style document.

ITV

02.00 Groundhog Day
Now this is most odd, because even the Radio Times has noticed this was last shown on May 18th, and that was on ITV as well. So why have we got it again? Was there a transmitter problem and half the country didn’t get to see it? Or just some sort of in-joke by the schedulers? We just don’t know. Er, obviously.

CHANNEL 4

10.00 Hills of Home
More Scottish dog-based whimsy, this time concerning a border collie that can’t swim. With Janet Leigh, Donald ‘Greyfriars Bobby’ Crisp, Alan ‘Alfred off of Batman’ Napier and Hughie Green.

02.35 The Mummy’s Shroud
‘Beware the beat of the cloth-wrapped feet!’ These taglines are fantastic. This Hammer mummy-by-numbers potboiler is less so, sadly, despite a prologue narrated by Peter Cushing, and the presence of Andre ‘Quatermass’ Morell, Elizabeth ‘R3’ Sellars, Michael ‘Drive on, Thomas’ Ripper and Roger ‘Master’ Delgado.

CHANNEL 5

00.45 My Blood Runs Cold
It’s horror film night round here, it seems. This supernatural stalker chiller is the least essential one showing, though, unless you’re a fan of Simpsons-inspiring actor for hire Troy Donahue, who you may remember from such films as Assault of the Party Nerds and Nudity Required.

02.35 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Channel Five are running this under the alternate title The Hideaways, alas, as the original name’s about as much fun as this emetic tale of two runaway kids being taken under the wing of Ingrid Bergman gets. Last shown just six months ago, to add insult to injury. Come on, etc!

05.10 Sons and Daughters
That address again – http://tv.cream.org/images/alfcamp.png

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DIGI-CREAMGUIDE
Come on, C5, or we’ll arrange a Who-style mass phone-in or something.

BBC4
Tuesday, 22.00, 01.35
Haunted House: The Curse Of Marco Polo – We sincerely hope this gets an anologue outing soon because it sounds brilliant. The premise is that every tenant of London office block Marcopolo House suffers huge financial problems, as ITV Digital have proven, so this documentary examines the stories of each of them, including BSB! So what are we going to get in the way of clips? La Triviata with Nick Hancock? Cool Cube with Violet Berlin? The Mike Smith Show with, er, Mike Smith?

Wednesday, 22.30
Abigail’s Party – BBC4 shows entertaining programme shock! Maybe this channel is actually going places, after all.

Thursday, 22.00
The Mark Steel Lecture – Oh, bloody hell.

E4
Friday, 22,00
Takeover TV – No, we haven’t seen it. However did you guess? Got to be more fun than The Divine David Presents, in any case.

GRANADA PLUS
Monday-Friday, 20.30, 23.30
In Sickness And In Health – G+ can be terribly patchy, can’t it? We’ve now lost Kenny Everett, it seems, to make way for Dick Emery, and Sunday night is devoted to two hours of Canned Carrott. At least we’ve still got this.

PARAMOUNT
Sunday, 00.35, Friday, 23.40
A Bit Of Fry and Laurie – “It’s ever so thin. Much thinner than conventional towels. That’s an advantage. The disadvantage is you need about twelve just to dry your hair. Convential towels have the edge there, I feel.”

Monday-Thursday, 23.30
The Kenny Everett Television Show
Monday-Thursday, 00.05
Monty’s Python’s Flying Circus – For the love of God, Paramount, will you put on some different bloody programmes!

SKY ONE
Saturday, 00.00, Sunday, 20.00
Pop Years – So all facets of this series were present and correct for 1985, repeated on Saturday – the pop misanthropist (Paul Heaton, reviving the old and even then unfunny line about Live Aid being more bad than good because it helped U2’s career), the useless young pop star (Lee Brennan out of 911, who called for a second Live Aid on its 20th anniversary), the ex-Radio 1 DJ well behind the fashions of the day (Peter Powell : “Bruce Springsteen was America… in 50 years time we’ll still remember those records”), the now mad star of the time (of course, Pete Burns, who had to be woken up from anaesthetic while having his nose fixed to go on TOTP), the ridiculous comment (Money For Nothing “the death of music”, was it, Pete Waterman?), clips of videos you’ll never see again (Colonel Abrams, Harold Faltemeyer and Ashford & Simpson) and a quote to ponder (“Grace Jones is my hero” – Limahl). 1994 this week including the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage, in this country the B-side to a single that reached number 19. There’s a whole thesis about the role of the video right there.

Friday, 01.50
Not ‘Arf! – A small hours rerun for the hostory of the DJ. On your bingo cards you’re loking out for Mallory Park, Bay City Rollers, BBC Sub-Aqua Club, speedboat and Womble.

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Listings refer to England except stated, and depend on what Our Boys have done by the time you read this, no doubt, you skivers
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FCUK THE ADDRESS, LET’S GET THE NUMBERS UP
Ask The Family, the TV Cream message board, is awaiting your comments at http://tv.cream.org (click on Long Shots), but if they’re about Jamie Oliver, we’ve got enough of them. Meanwhile the TV Cream Update demands to be subscribed to, especially as the next edition will feature the result of TV Cream’s Real Top 100 Singles Of All Time. It’ll be hitting your inboxes early next week.
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Keep Felling Fascination – Steve Berry, Chris Diamond, Chris Hughes, Ian Jones, Graham Kibble-White, Simon Tyers

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