The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour

Darkness falls across the land, the drinking hour is close at hand; to tear apart your very soul, and delve into The Glory Hole! Yes as dusk strikes on the year, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour turns its attention to a truly seminal piece of vintage television that's sure to put the willies up anybody... Under the spooktroscope this Samhain is BBC1's legendary Ghostwatch, the 1992 pseudo-documentary...

Well, the weather may be warming up but there's a chill in the air at MountPeg Towers. Producer Ken's back from the paper shop and he's brought something to put the willies right up Doctor Velvet and Blackout. Naturally, their combination of morbid curiosity, short memory span and chronic boredom means they're only too willing to oblige...   Setting up stall for dark things to come once the TV sch...

The boys of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour continue their turbulent odyssey of past periodicals as voices begin to break, clothes start to matter more, and you can be entirely judged on liking an incorrect song from the hit parade. Yes, it's a return to the awkward years of enforced superficiality as 1980s teen culture comes under the beeroscope. And it rarely gets more awkward than this issue of l...

It's Saturday morning once again, and what would the weekend even be without a trip to the paper shop, a plain paper bag full of unbranded sweets that have all been individually handled by the friendly newsagent, and a comic - nay magazine, surely? - to get stuck into before World Of Sport comes on?   This week, beguiled by colourful illustrations of fearsome aliens and a cover-mounted Free Gift,...

Yes, there's still nothing on the telly so the boys from The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour turn to the wise counsel of their local newsagent for solace, distraction and entertainment. Well, they sent Producer Ken down there. That Front Street's seen better days, mind... His successful journey apparently via the Galaxy Far, Far Away, coming under the macrobinoculars this week is May 1983's Star Wars Su...

It's almost time for a new series of the Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, but Doctor Velvet and Blackout are very aware that if they keep sitting in front of that box they'll go square-eyed. With that in mind, our heroes take a break from watching the telly, and begin a handful of vintage periodical retrospectives by reading about it instead... First to plop onto the doormat is a September 1981 issue of...

Finally the weather starts to warm up, and as we all know in the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. The hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour are not young men, of course. They are resolutely (and perennially) middle-aged, and so their jaded thoughts are of mowing the lawn, if they must. Which, naturally, means going In The Shed.   That's right dear listener, this outin...

As the evenings get lighter and that man in the park with the tracksuit bottoms becomes more animated in his dealings with passers-by, all signs point to Winter finally beginning to end. And emerging from their hidey-hole in Mountpeg Towers like the Blue Peter tortoise with a hangover, the hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour uncork bottles once again to let their profane rambling drift across t...

As another year draws to an appropriately ignominious end, the three brave souls of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour weather the cold to trek north of The Border and warm their weary cockles by the fireside of Caledonian hospitality, and perhaps enjoy a dram or two into the bargain... Yes, it's time for The New Year Party, BBC Scotland's televised Hogmanay bash from the arse-end of 1983, where the tw...

'Twas the night before Christmas and through MountPeg Towers, bottles of port, red wine and brown ale had been strategically placed into a series of time-lock-release safes to ensure an even spread of gradual inebriation throughout the twenty-fifth thereby ensuring it's not all gone after two hours. Yes, the day is almost upon us and The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour's festive celebrations peak once m...

Few things yell CHRISTMAS like that feeling of being locked in a room with a braying mob of party-game-obsessed family members who all seem to be merrily intoxicated past the point of caring, whilst you yourself are wondering how long you can politely leave it before REALLY getting stuck into the booze like a seasoned professional. And so for the second instalment of this year's Peggy Mount Calami...

It's the most wonderful time of the year! By which we mean that time when normal, fusty TV scheduling goes out the window and all theme tunes are legally obliged to have a layer of sleigh-bells over the top. Yes, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour gears up once again for another round of Christmas Specials, circling things in the Radio Times and going round all the supermarkets to look for the best off...

Ever keen to provide wholesome cultural repasts for the dark winter nights, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour reaches into its televisual trove of years past and pulls out a couple of absolute bangers to fill that entertainment hinterland betwixt Hallow'een and Christmas... First up is is warmest, sweetest hug one can get from a programme as Doctor Velvet and Blackout venture oop-North with some magne...

They say bad things come in threes, and that's certainly true as Doctor Velvet and Blackout chalk the final circle to complete this year's trilogy of terror on the eve of Samhain. Because it's not really Hallowe'en without some Draculas, and it's not really The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour without Peggy Mount, dark gods conspired (in 1992) to combine the two in Virtual Murder: A Dream of Dracula, and...

Unearthing horrors from the past is of course the default setting at The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, so Hallowe'en makes that especially enjoyable. And what could be nicer on a wet, grey autumnal evening than a dram of something potent and a book by the fireside? The second of this year's supernatural specials is but a turn of the page away, as Doctor Velvet and Blackout creak open the eldritch tom...

Why, it seems to come around earlier each year! Yes, as the decorations go up once again and the dark nights seep firmly in to our homes and our very souls, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour returns for another unholy trinity of Hallowe'en themed podcast episodes to keep a chill in your spine as you shiver 'til dawn. It's back to the video shop first of all, with Rankin/Bass's 1967 animated cabal Mad...

A podcast with more confidence in sporting metaphors might use some reference to 'extra time' while talking about their bonus episode, so naturally The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour sees this series-extender as more of an improvised, last minute lock-in. Because there's nothing like having a great night, drinks flowing behind closed doors, after dark and in raucous company with plenty of laughter.   A...

It's the end of term! Yes, as The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour parks up on the driveway to deliver the series' tenth episode, spirits are high as firmly-held convictions are batted around the studio like a game of opinionated tennis... The show opens with our heroes lifting The Trapdoor and finding something delightful they can all agree upon, before a challenge to Name That Tune becomes rather more...

It's early mornings and late nights this week on The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, as our hosts test the theory that the greatest things arrive at either end of a day's scheduling. The first stop on today's televisual trek comes hiding in plain sight, as TVAM's premiere episode of The Transformers comes in for some arch reminiscence and critical scrutiny. And later, what better way to round off a lon...

The heat is on as the weekend arrives for The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour at long last, and what better way to burst into the best two days than with some high-sugar cereal, high-profile casting and high-energy televisual nonsense?   Our hosts find themselves huddling around the gogglebox for the grand finalé of BBC's Swap Shop, following which there's just enough time to strap on eight wheels and f...

As regular listeners will surely attest, the presenters of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour are not renowned for idling, time wasting or messing about, and it's this sleeves-up / down-to-business approach which has made them a leading light in the Vintage Television Podcasting Community. Those are the words Producer Ken wrote for this introduction after he went on that seminar last week, anyway. So t...

Ever keen to show willing and set a tentative foot outside of what their therapist tag-team refers to as a 'comfort zone', the hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour bite the bullet and wade into the unmitigated squalor of vintage televisual entertainment, pegs on noses and smelling salts at hand. The first stop on this week's voyage of absolute judgement is Grange Hill comprehensive, where the cu...

It may be warm outside, but the ever-present, preternatural chill in the heart of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour means that even the sunniest months are spent in gleeful contemplation of spooky televisual scheduling. And while Doctor Velvet and Blackout don't engage Full Pumpkin Mode™ just yet, they're still on the blower to a pair of organisations that can help potential patrons deftly dispose of...

Ever keen to test the contemporary legitimacy of old idioms, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour has noted that while good things may come in small packages, it does not stand to reason that all small packages are good. And there are few things smaller and with more questionable good-ness than the subject of this week's podcast... In a Daniels-centric outing, Doctor Velvet and Blackout are joined by Ozz...

In the hallowed halls of MountPeg Towers, young Doctor Velvet and Blackout like nothing more than taxing their brains to a good quiz and/or mystery. And having gained a reputation for all the nothing, Pod Producer Ken has finally sat them down in front of some fast-paced 1980s excitement... It's off to the BBC first, as The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour takes a predictably arch look at Debbie Greenwoo...