Tomorrow's World Audit Time

Send us Fan Mail According to the sorts of people on the internet who make up quotes and then attribute them to famous people in order to sell posters and T-shirts, Gandhi once said "If you don't ask, you don't get". And what a wise man he was (if he said that, which he almost certainly didn't). You see, one of our esteemed subscribers had the revolutionary idea of asking...

Send us Fan Mail In the wake of an extremely indulgent Christmas and birthday double-whammy, Russ turns to Tomorrow's World for inspiration in an episode from January 1998 that features Peter Snow examining diets and calorie counting. What a fat load of good that turns out to be. Meanwhile, Mark explains why he thinks four eyes are better than two as we watch Anya Sitaram looking at developme...

Send us Fan Mail To paraphrase the legendary 1985 pub car park musician rumble champion Boy George: "And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy. Throw your arms around Tomorrow's World at Christmas time." So that's what we're doing. And it will be extra comfy as everyone is wearing extremely cosy-looking knitwear. This is a real Christmas treat with everythin...

Send us Fan Mail Evenin' all! It's time once again for Russ & Mark to take down the particulars of a Tomorrow's World special episode and, because they are celebrating the 40th birthday of The Bill, they're going to watch one focusing on 'The Forces of Law and Order'.  William Woollard is loitering with intent outside the headquarters of Interpol, reporting on her...

Send us Fan Mail It's been a long time coming, but finally Russ and Mark get round to auditing an episode from the short-lived Vorderman era of Tomorrow's World. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely not, but they still somehow find plenty to chat about.  A very hoarse Carol Vorderman hosts on her own from the studio, before heading up to Nottingham to meet a young lad with a cochlear implan...

Send us Fan Mail This time Russ & Mark pay tribute to the second-best film ever made and take a look at the episode of Tomorrow's World broadcast the week that Predator stormed into UK cinemas. For some reason almost everything they look at involves water and/or magnets, so if that floats your boat please stick around to enjoy: Maggie Philbin testing batteries and purifying oil rig water,...

Send us Fan Mail With everyone banging on about A.I. these days, Russ and Mark thought they'd better jump aboard the bandwagon before it leaves town and take a look at an episode of Tomorrow's World that features a virtual personality called Maddie, who demonstrates plenty of the A but not a lot of the I when she answers calls from the public. Also in the programme, which let's not...

Send us Fan Mail After a month off to recuperate, Russ and Mark ease themselves back into the world of tomorrow with an extremely run-of-the-mill episode from 1973. It's just a week after the end of the Vietnam War and it doesn't seem like there's much going on at the moment (except the Cod War). Still, at least this makes for one of the shortest episodes of the podcast ever, so you...

Send us Fan Mail Russ and Mark are in a celebratory mood - not only have they made it to 30 episodes, but it is also by pure coincidence the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Luckily for those of you confused by this new fangled internet thing, Tomorrow's World have put together a "Webwise Special" explaining everything you need to know about the information superhighway. So s...

Send us Fan Mail Heartfelt apologies. Our Easter special is a week late. That's the last time we rely on Michael Rodd's maths to work out what date it's supposed to be...  But just like that Creme Egg you find down the back of the sofa, there's so much good stuff inside this episode that you can tuck in any time of the year and still enjoy yourself. Listen on as Kieran Prendivi...

Send us Fan Mail As a lovely St. Patrick's Day treat, we cross the Irish Sea to join Raymond Baxter for a very special episode "down on the farm" in County Meath, Ireland. It's what you've all been crying out for - a European agricultural extravaganza!  Listen on as Russ & Mark spend far longer than they thought they would finding out about truffle cultivation, cow bre...

Send us Fan Mail MWAH!  MWAH! That's a couple of big sloppy kisses from your favourite auditors as thank you for listening to us on this very special day of the year.   Snuggle up as we gawp at Philippa Forrester being very tidy in every sense of the word. Then Jez Nelson gets some vampire bats drooling, Howard Stableford watches a spot of hardcore pucking, Vivienne Parry has a whale of a tim...

Send us Fan Mail Batten down the hatches, take shelter and ignore Michael Fish, because there's a hurricane brewing! Coming live from BBC TV Centre on the very night of the Great Storm of 1987, Maggie Philbin and Howard Stableford brave the rotten weather outside, while sensible Judith Hann and Peter Macann stay dry in the studio. There's a whole load of nonsense segments this episode, w...

Send us Fan Mail Holograms are coming, holograms are coming, holograms are coming!  Yes folks, it's time once again for the now traditional annual Tomorrow's World Audit Time Christmas Special. This one looks at an episode of TW from December 1981, in the midst of a particularly cold and snowy winter (we're sure you can empathise).  Listen on as Michael Rodd mucks about with lasers...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered what this podcast would be like if Russ didn't edit out all the times Mark talked about football? Well you're about to find out, as for one episode only we change into our referee kits and take a look at a Tomorrow's World from the week before the 1998 World Cup. And if you want to know what we thought of it, look away now.... [it's an ab...

Send us Fan Mail Warning: This episode is not for the faint-hearted, as we travel back 30 years to the week following BBC1's broadcast of the SCARIEST TV PROGRAMME EVER MADE - Ghostwatch.  However, on Tomorrow's World Halloween is a distant memory as they turn their attention to the imminent Bonfire Night, with promises of an absolutely spectacular firework display at the end of the show...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered what would happen if the people who make Tomorrow's World went on strike? Well, wonder no more. Turns out that all they do is cobble together a Frankenstein's monster of a programme from old segments of previous episodes. The interesting thing, as your esteemed auditors quickly discover, is that whoever is normally in charge of quality control is very much...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we find ourselves slap-bang in the middle of the 1980s, where one of the more unexpected outcomes of widespread famine in Ethiopia is not one, but two chart-busting charity singles featuring a veritable who's who of top pop stars.  But while Band Aid and USA For Africa are slugging it out in the charts (and possibly a pub car park), the gang at Tomorrow's...

Send us Fan Mail Goedenavond! It's time to slip on a pair of clogs, crack open a Heineken and get the edam out of the fridge as Tomorrow's World heads to Holland for a very special episode from 1973. As if that wasn't enough, the only person the BBC have bothered to send over there is Michael Rodd, so we've got him for the entire episode. What a treat! Listen on as we see land...

Send us Fan Mail Back from a month-long hiatus, and still recovering from the avalanche of boot-licking, brown-nosing and forelock-tugging that was the Platinum Jubilee, Russ and Mark decide now is the perfect time to cash in on Royal Family fever. Luckily for us, Tomorrow's World has a long and distinguished relationship with our blue-blooded overlords by way of The Prince of Wales Award for...

Send us Fan Mail It's 30th April 1997, just one week before the election where Tony Blair is promising that "Things Can Only Get Better". Well, as far as Tomorrow's World is concerned, they really can't. This is an absolute doozy of an episode, stuffed even fuller than New Labour's ballot box with weird and wonderful characters. Come join the party as Shahnaz Pakravan...

Send us Fan Mail It's time for Russ and Mark to crack open their special black & white ledger as they travel back more than half a century to December 1970, a couple of days before the legendary meeting between Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon at the White House. Listen on as the King of Tomorrow's World Raymond Baxter tests out a new voice-activated booze dispenser in front of some S...

Send us Fan Mail As the war continues to rage in present-day Ukraine, Russ and Mark hark back to simpler times when the only thing the locals had to worry about was playing host to the worst nuclear accident in human history.  It's May 1st 1986 and Judith Hann is here to reassure us that the Chernobyl power plant, which has been blazing away for almost a week now, should turn out absolutely f...

Send us Fan Mail After a run of decent Tomorrow's World episodes, Russ and Mark decide that they have been enjoying themselves too much and the only way to atone for this is with a fresh bout of self-flagellation. And what better way than to watch the very last episode of TW ever broadcast? It is of course completely terrible, although please don't blame hosts Katie Knapman and Gaz Top a...

Send us Fan Mail What's that? It's 2022 already? Good grief. Happy New Year! And what better way to start this year than almost exactly how we started last year? That's right, this episode comes from the very day that our esteemed auditor Mark was born. And despite this, it is surprisingly good. Join Su Ingle, Judith Hann, Kieran Prendiville and an infinite number of Michael Rodds a...