Catch me

You might have seen the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, and, if you have, you probably know it is based on the true story of teen conman Frank Abagnale. Well, here is the real Frank being interviewed by US chat show royalty Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, all the way back in 1978. This is classic time-capsule TV gold. And yes, I am clearing out my YouTube Watch Later list.

Eeek!

Noodle Doodle mouses! Happy birthday TMOC!

Good man yourself

The news yesterday that Henry Kelly has died made me sad, as much for that long-lost time in my late teens as for anything else. For me, Henry was Going For Gold, simple as that - the show aimed to identify the quiz champion of Europe, and had contestants from 15 countries ... though all the questions were in English, so the home nations always did well.

Beyond the excellent theme music, Henry's quirky and idiomatic phrasing was another feature of the show, and led to a number of new terms entering my teenage lexicon, notably: "Good man yourself", "You're playing catch-up" and adding "proper" onto the end of everything (as in "You're through to the first round proper" after getting through the actual first round). Different times.

Here's the grand final of the first series, from all the way back in Spring 1988. Beyond the theme tune, the cake (!) ten minutes in, and Henry being Henry, note the winner, Daphne. If she looks familiar, well, she went on to be a member of the in-house pro team on another quiz, Eggheads.

I love everything about this video - it's time-capsule TV and perfectly encapsulates a simpler time, when people clapped each other rather than themselves. How we used to live, eh?

Rest in peace, Henry - you were a good man yourself.

Like water off an Argentinian racing pigeon's back

I love this sketch. You could argue that it brings the influence of more alternative comedy from the early and mid 70s into the primetime mainstream (it certainly owes a debt to Monty Python's dead parrot, and Fawlty Towers' pedigree Siberian hamster) ... or you could call it derivative. You might say it's a classic example of popular humour of the time ... or you might say that the popular humour of the time was only so popular because of the limited televisual choice. You might say that not one line of this script is wasted ... or you might say it's all predictable nonsense.

Me? I say it features two performers at the top of their game, with an enviable, easy, balanced rapport. I say that it bears repeated viewing, not least because there are so many good lines crammed into five and a half minutes. And most of all, I say it's funny. It just is. It might be a soft humour, by today's standards, because it's not trying to make a point, or criticise anybody or anything; it's not trying to shock, or subvert. It probably wouldn't even get made today, except possibly for children's television. But it's still funny, nonetheless.

And sometimes, some days, I just need a smile. You might too.

Heatwave

I was going to dip into sitcom catchphrase territory and open this post about the weather with "Don't panic!" But I can't, because panic we must. I might borrow from another Dad's Army character and go with, "We're doomed. Doomed!" instead. If wildfires raging across Europe aren't close enough to home for you, and thousands of deaths being attributed to heat in Spain and Portugal, we're about to see domestic temperature records not just broken but obliterated. It isn't enough to just call it a heatwave and blither on about how hot 1976 was. Everything has to change. Everything. Or we are all doomed.

Sorry. I don't mean to bring you down. It's just how I see it, but I don't want to preach, not now. So ... whenever I see "heatwave" in a headline, this is the song I hear. Not the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas original, not The Who's cover, but this, by The Jam. A bit of YouTubing dug up this curio from the band's tour of the US, promoting Setting Sons: an appearance on American Bandstand, miming first to Heatwave and then Strange Town, either side of a fairly uncomfortable interview with host Dick Clark in which Paul seems disinterested, bordering on contemptuous of the questions, and introduces Rick as Jim. And since American Bandstand was something of an institution in the US, running for 37 years, I suppose you could say this is great time-capsule TV... albeit an American time-capsule.

Until next time, let's all be like little Fonzies. "And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda, what's Fonzie like?"

Twenty four hours of rubbish

I'm not the first to post this song, this weekend, nor will I be the last. Hopefully I can provide some variety by picking an excellent live TV performance.

Slightly sobering to think that a lot more years have passed since this performance than the seventeen that elapsed between 1977 and this.

Time-Capsule TV V - 1970s Christmas adverts

The past is a different country, isn't it? Still, top breeders recommend it.

Time-Capsule TV IV - Film 98

I was looking for something else, of course, but YouTube algorithms seemingly know me better than I know myself, and threw this up instead. And it's terrific, so I had to share it here.

I really miss an intelligent, discussion-led film review programme like this. The programme carried on, successfully, after Barry Norman, with Jonathan Ross in the chair. When he moved on, the format was tinkered with, Claudia Winkleman hosted and, through no fault of hers, the whole thing went south. But there could still be a place for a show like this, I think, perhaps on BBC4. I think Andrew Collins would be the perfect host.

Time-Capsule TV III - Terry Wogan interviews Rik Mayall

I won't take you through the YouTube dot-to-dot that led me serendipitously to this clip, I'll just leave it here for your viewing pleasure. Recorded in 1984 for a spot on Tel's thrice-weekly chat show, the clip begins with five minutes of not so much stand-up but performance from Rik as Rick from The Young Ones, and then a ten minute interview. And it's the latter that's especially interesting: Terry, then 45 or 46, becomes, to my mind, slightly fixated on whether 26yr-old Rik's humour is aimed at the young and designed to appal the older generation. Rik answers politely and intelligently, and tries to move the conversation on, to talk about his comedic influences, but it sort of looks like that was the line of questioning Tel has prepared, and that was what he was going to follow, regardless. Rik seems to get a bit bored at one point, and looks almost relieved when the interview is over. Mind you, when Terry asks Rik if, when he matures, he would mind going into a situation comedy, I couldn't help but think of Man Down.

After watching this I wondered if I, as a middle-aged man now, would be appalled by today's youth comedy. I pretty sure I wouldn't, I just might not think it was very funny. Mind you, this week I've been mostly laughing at the utter genius of Rod controlling Emu throwing Rod into a freezer, so...

Anyway, here's the cracking wee clip of when Terry met Rick, now both much missed.

Time-Capsule TV II - John Noakes interviews Ronnie Barker

Ask anyone about John Noakes and they'll talk about elephants relieving themselves in the Blue Peter studio, climbing Nelson's Column on a rickety wooden ladder and Shep. But there was a lot more to him, Blue Peter and children's television in general, back in the 70s, as this clip illustrates. There's so much to love here, from John rocking up at Elstree in a grubby white Marcos Mantula, having a chat with the uniformed security guard on the barrier, having a tour of the Porridge set and finally sitting down to interview the comedy genius that was Ronnie Barker. I think what's most noticeable, for me, is that John didn't talk down to the Blue Peter audience - this could just as easily be a piece for an adult magazine show (and is certainly more watchable than the dross that gets served up on The One Show and similar). Also, note how there was no need to drown the piece in intrusive backing music, as is usually the case on kids' TV these days.

What else? Aside from John and Ronnie, there's Richard Beckinsale, Fulton Mackay, Ronald Lacey and, behind the camera, Sydney Lotterby. All gone now, of course, but then this was 1977.

Forget kid's TV, I'd watch this now. And keep watching, and listening carefully, around 7m15 - John asks Fulton if he gets any reaction from prison warders, not anything else, however it might sound...

Time-Capsule TV I - The Style Council review the morning's papers

This might be the start of a new blog theme, even if only sporadically. YouTube throws up all kinds of weird and wonderful blasts from the past, things that I forgot even happened. I might embed a few, not least because it's a quick and easy way of keeping the blog ticking over without too much effort on my part (which sits perfectly with my current mood and interest levels).

To kick off, here are Paul Weller and Mick Talbot from The Style Council appearing with Partridge-favourite Sue Cook on BBC Breakfast Time (not TV-am, as the video's title suggests), reviewing the day's newspapers. Yes, really. Paul doesn't seem too pleased to be there and looks, the way he's sitting, to be in physical discomfort. Mick, on the other hand, is a bit more engaged, although seems mindful of the need to maintain a healthy cynicism. And poor Sue seems to be struggling with Paul's antipathy. I'm not sure who thought this was a good idea, but it's real time-capsule television, not least because I'd forgotten about the fuss that Come To Milton Keynes generated. Anyway, here it all is, from 1985 - how we used to live, eh?