VISION ON SOUND

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 27th 2022 In last week’s VISION ON SOUND, WARREN CUMMINGS joined me to talk about NIGEL KNEALE’S classic 1950s creation QUATERMASS II starring JOHN ROBINSON in a beautifully crafted and ambitiously epic tale of paranoia, conspiracy, human self-deception, and an alien invasion by stealth and guile played out in front of the backdrop of...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 20th 2022 Regular listeners to the programme will already be aware of how big a fan of QUATERMASS I am. Honestly, just give me the slightest opportunity and I’ll find a way to steer the conversation back to NIGEL KNEALE’S classic 1950s creation at the drop of a guided meteorite, but, whilst I’ve talked quite a lot about the brilliant...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 13th 2022 The BBC has been coming in for quite a lot criticism lately, and seems to have been targeted by the forces of darkness currently inhabiting the corridors of power so, as we Archive TV fans generally tend to be quite big fans of a lot of what the BBC do, I thought I might grab one or two of the regulars to ask them about what...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 6th 2022 Regular listeners will be more than happy to discover that my old pal SANDY McGREGOR is back this week to talk about how we watch telly these days, and we thought the best way to do that was to take a look at our personal choices of viewing during the most recent Festive Season. I have to be honest with you and say that these...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 30th 2022 This week I had about thirty seconds to tell you all about the minty fresh goodness that’s in tonight’s episode before the time engines launched us on our way.  Featuring the lovely fresh combination of a sprinkle of LISA, and a soupcon of ANDREW, that pair of the very best ingredients that make up the cool, fizzing choc...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 23rd 2022 Today we welcome back the ever popular WARREN CUMMINGS to present another in our recurring occasional series looking at SPY DRAMAS on TV, and this time we’re looking at one of his favourites, THE SANDBAGGERS, a series made by YORKSHIRE TELEVISION during the turbulent political power-shifting period of the late 1970s and early...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 16th 2022 This week, SANDY McGREGOR returns to VISION ON SOUND and introduces his very good friend TIM BOURNE who is a huge fan of the 1967 ITC classic adventure series THE PRISONER starring PATRICK McGOOHAN in perhaps his most iconic role as Number ("I am NOT a number") Six in this complex tale of espionage, imprisonment, multiple esc...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 9th 2022 This week, VISION ON SOUND is drawn towards 1980s regional dramas the titles of which start with the letter B, as our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR returns to talk about a British show that he's currently enjoying rewatching, BOON. BOON was a highly successful CENTRAL TELEVISION adventure series made for the ITV Network w...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 2nd 2022. A Happy New Year to you all as we plummet headlong into the space year 2022 with another action-packed year of our show. Well, perhaps not exactly action-packed, but I think we’ve certainly got a few exciting tasty morsels to tempt you with over the coming weeks, and they’re not all of them simply the stale leftovers from our...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 26th 2021 Once again I find myself on Boxing Day sorting through the mountains of boxes that are gathering dust here at VISION ON SOUND HQ, and amongst all of the tat and debris, I found a filth-covered old bottle and, because it is panto season, I gave it a rub with the sleeve of my jumper. That was disappointing, but this did set me...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 19th 2021 Today’s guest is, as previewed briefly on last week’s show, the one and only BEN BAKER who, as he may have mentioned, is the author of several books about Christmas television, and is someone who is fast becoming the go-to person if you want to find out all sorts of trivial and detailed information about just the sort of tel...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 12th 2021 This week I’ve got SANDY McGREGOR with me for our now traditional pre-Christmas mildly festive natter (Well, we did one of these last year so it counts, and that’s how traditions start), even though we’re a bit earlier with this year because I’ll be doing another Christmas show next week as well, you lucky people. So, as we...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 5th 2021 This week’s show is, I suppose, a bit of an experiment in which we take the starting point of COMFORT TV and see just where that conversation may take us. My first guest for this new (and perhaps recurring) strand is PAUL CHANDLER, a SHY YETI rather than a guinea pig or white mouse, and I hope that you enjoy the next hour as...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 28th 2021 We welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS who has moved from his usual VISION ON SOUND comfort zone to move across into the realms of science-fiction, and has joined me to discuss Gerry Anderson’s popular live-action series called UFO which was, and is, a television favourite we both share, and which graced our screens with a vision o...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 21st 2021 In a change to another earlier planned episode, in this week's VISION ON SOUND I welcome back STEVE HATCHER, who got in touch because he wanted to contribute his own tribute to the television writer BOB BAKER with whom he was acquainted, and who recently passed away. As you know, I'm always happy to embrace an idea for a pro...

The original version of this episode was first broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 14th 2021 In this week's VISION ON SOUND I am very pleased to welcome back an old friend of the show, who’s taken some time out of his extraordinarily busy schedule to talk to me, the actor, comedian, prolific podcaster and all-round good egg, TOBY HADOKE. It’s been around a year since we last...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 14th 2021 In this week's VISION ON SOUND I am very pleased to welcome back an old friend of the show, who’s taken some time out of his extraordinarily busy schedule to talk to me, the actor, comedian, prolific podcaster and all-round good egg, TOBY HADOKE. It’s been around a year since we last spoke to TOBY on VISION ON SOUND and for...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 7th 2021 Internet artist and archive television fan ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON returns to guide us through the paper archives of the late actor IAN FAIRBAIRN (1931 - 2014) which he was given by the actor himself after they met when Andrew was working on the TIMESLIP website back in the day. IAN's surviving scripts and other documents give a...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 31st 2021 Be it ABRACADABRA or HOCUS POCUS, the preposterous worlds of prestidigitation or magic and magicians used to have a big part to play in the television schedules, and despite the objections from certain quarters about these dark arts being used for entertainment purposes, our evenings would once feature such household names as...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 24th 2021 Inspired by their purchase of the recent blu-ray release of the entire 1960s BBC series, LISA PARKER and ANDREW TROWBRIDGE from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST return to talk about MAIGRET in his various television incarnations, but mostly the RUPERT DAVIES version. That said, sometimes the conversation train from VISION ON SO...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 17th 2021 Returning guest expert STEVE HATCHER returns to the show to talk all about the life and career of the late FRANCIS ALICK HOWARD, who was far better known as the actor and comedian FRANKIE HOWERD, who is probably best known on television for UP POMPEII! which returned to television in several versions, alongside a feature film...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 10th 2021 Our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR returns to continue with our bit of a natter about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of British Sitcoms, which started three months ago in VISION ON SOUND NUMBER 40, and, carrying on with his long list of around ninety shows cross-indexed across several decades, over the course of our hour...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 3rd 2021 As VISION ON SOUND rather astonishingly arrives at the point where we've done a full year of weekly shows, SANDY McGREGOR joins me (well, via a Wi-Fi link anyway), and we finally get a chance to discuss one of his favourite shows from a list we talked about way back in the early days of the show. So we spend a happy hour chatt...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 26th 2021 WARREN CUMMINGS returns to have a jolly hour-long natter about another of his favourite police-themed television shows, THE BILL - or, more specifically, the first ten years of this THAMES TELEVISION classic. An, of course, the conversation meanders into whether or not the series accurately reflects the life of an "ordinary...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 19th 2021 As I wallowed in my continuing recent poorly-sickedness, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself returned to the show to bring along a little chicken soup for the soul (naturally with a file concealed inside it), to join me for an episode-length chat about one of the TV genres that he has watched an awful lot of, the Women's Pr...