VISION ON SOUND

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...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 12th 2021 I've been a little bit poorly-sick lately, so, in order to cheer myself up in the insomniac wee-small hours, I've been rattling through some of the DVDs I've been accumulating of 1970s television dramas. So this meant watching the jolly japes of a post-apocalyptic Britain in which the people have turned against the machines...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 5th 2021 Andrew-Mark Thompson is a classic television fan who has gained a certain amount of internet fame (or notoriety) producing witty and powerful illustrations and graphic images based around his hilarious takes on certain classic tv series. He joins me in this edition for a bit of a wide-ranging natter about his experiences of...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 29th 2021 There's a little bit of sunshine creeping into the dark corners of VISION ON SOUND HQ this week, as STEVE HATCHER returns to the show to talk about the MICHAEL J BIRD QUARTET. This is the popular collective term for the four series - THE LOTUS EATERS, WHO PAYS THE FERRYMAN, THE APHRODITE INHERITANCE, & THE DARK SIDE OF THE...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 22nd 2021 PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE podcast returns, and we just have a simple chat about what it's like living the life of being a fan of old telly. It may very well be one of the more simply structured hours of VISION ON SOUND that we've done so far, but is one of the most enjoyable, and I do hope you like it as mu...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 15th 2021 LISA and ANDREW from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast both return (this time together on VISION ON SOUND for the first time in conversation!) for an hour-long discussion about one of their favourite series: From THAMES TELEVISION in the early 1970s - "THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES" PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical co...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 8th 2021 As crickety-cricket returns to terrestrial television in yet another exciting new format, episode forty-four of VISION ON SOUND finds SANDY McGREGOR returning for a nostalgic ramble through our memories of watching cricket on television in our youth. Regular listeners will no doubt expect an hour of total silence given my usual...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on August 1st 2021 Episode forty-three of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning for a bit of a natter that is - at least initially - supposed to be all about literary detectives as seen on our television screens. In another of our rambling conversations roaming around the topic in question, we talk about shows th...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 25th 2021 Episode forty-two of VISION ON SOUND finds WARREN CUMMINGS returning to have an extended natter about one of his television favourites, CALLAN. Way back in episode twenty-one of VISION ON SOUND, Warren and I had a long natter about the good, the bad, and the ugly of POLICE SERIES on TV, and it seemed natural to follow that up wi...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 18th 2021 Episode forty-one of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning to talk about his passion for watching all manner of Horror stories on television. In another of our rambling conversations roaming around the topic in question, we tiptoe gingerly around such topics as late night horror films, THE HAMME...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 11th 2021 Our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR returns to have a bit of a natter about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of British Sitcoms, and, whilst he starts off with a long list of around ninety shows cross-indexed across several decades, over the course of our hour-long chat, we don't even manage to escape from the 1970s. If you're...

The original POLITICAL DYSTOPIAS ON TELEVISION episode 39 was first broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 4th 2021. For timing reasons, the original interview with STEVE HATCHER had to be trimmed to fit our weekly VISION ON SOUND hour-long timeslot. The first edit of our original almost two-hour conversation came out at around 1hr 16min, and features a lot more background from Stev...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 4th 2021 In a very early edition of VISION ON SOUND, we discussed DYSTOPIAN TELEVISION and our guest in another episode got in touch to point out that we hadn't addressed the sub-genre of POLITICAL DYSTOPIAS. To rectify this omission, episode thirty nine of VISION ON SOUND finds STEVE HATCHER returning to talk about POLITICAL DYSTOPIAS ON...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 27th 2021 Episode thirty eight of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning to talk about his passion for quiz and game shows on television. Starting, rather naturally, with TELLY ADDICTS, we consider the shows featuring such hosts as Bob Monkhouse and Paul Daniels before moving on to the extraordinary advent...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 20th 2021 Episode thirty seven of VISION ON SOUND finds that "Man Of The Theatre" SANDY McGREGOR returning (Huzzah!!!) to discuss all things about theatre on television. This means that we take a long look at the version of THE BBC TELEVISION SHAKESPEARE which debuted in 1979, as well as taking our seats for THEATRE NIGHT, and a couple of...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 13th 2021 Episode thirty six of VISION ON SOUND finds WARREN CUMMINGS returning to have an extended natter about one of his television favourites, The Sweeney. In preparation I did rewatch the Armchair Cinema sort-off pilot, "REGAN", and the opening episode of the series proper "RINGER", but our off-the-cuff conversation is fairly wide ra...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 6th 2021 Episode thirty five of VISION ON SOUND finds regular guest contributor PAUL CHANDLER returning to talk about his passion for those pop bands who were primarily manufactured for television programmes. So we talk about cartoon bands such as The Archies, and Josie and the Pussycats (In Outer Space!) - as well as briefly considering...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 30th 2021 Episode thirty four of VISION ON SOUND finds the writer PAUL EBBS returning. Since we last spoke, way back in episode fourteen of the programme, PAUL has created the #SLEDGEHAMMER podcast in which he talks to various professional DOCTOR WHO writers about their individual writing processes, as well as deconstructing a favourite st...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 23rd 2021 Episode thirty three of VISION ON SOUND finds regular co-host SANDY McGREGOR returning for possibly the most annoying episode of the programme yet, from a particular eardrum-bashing point of view. After I share my own memories of growing up watching children's TV programmes far longer than might have seemed appropriate for a gent...