VISION ON SOUND

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...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 16th 2021 Episode thirty two of VISION ON SOUND finds LISA PARKER from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES podcast returning to share her insight into three early 1970s BBC HISTORICAL DRAMAS set in the Tudor era. The three series we concentrate on are THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII, ELIZABETH R, and THE SHADOW OF THE TOWER, although we touch upon AN AGE O...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 9th 2021 Episode thirty one of VISION ON SOUND finds PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI from THE SHY LIFE PODCAST returning to share his knowledge and wisdom of all manner of REALITY TELEVISION SHOWS, an area about which, I freely admit to knowing very little. So, to make things easy for me, we discuss both BIG BROTHER and its CELEBRITY stablemat...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 2nd 2021 Episode thirty of VISION ON SOUND is a little bit of a mish-mash of an episode as, amongst my own nonsense, I introduce TOBY THE DALEK in a new strand THINGS TOBY GUARDS in which I'll be looking at some of the archive TV memorabilia that I've accumulated over the years, which this week is a commentary on me flicking through the pa...

THE ESSAY is an occasional new strand that I've introduced alongside VISION ON SOUND (at least for now), in which I take a particular loosely television-related topic or issue, and attempt to approach it with a slightly more intense eye which I'm hoping still manages to be entertaining and not too dry. Obviously, it may eventually become at least a semi-regular feature of the show, but, as I get a...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 25th 2021 Regular contributor WARREN CUMMINGS returns to VISION ON SOUND to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of SPY DRAMAS on television, in a wide-ranging discussion that takes us from ESPIONAGE and RATCATCHERS, via Gerald Flood's chin and Glyn Owen's gravel, through the movie HELL DRIVERS, to shows like DANGER MAN, THE PRISONER,...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 18th 2021 SANDY'S BACK! Regular listeners will no doubt have been missing my regular co-host SANDY McGREGOR who recently found he had far less free time for telly viewing, but promised to return. This week we have a long conversation about one of our mutual favourites, the 1990's American cop show HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, in our usu...

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 11th 2021 In this episode, I talk to my pal RICK LAWLOR who migrated with his family to Canada around six years ago, and who is now a full citizen. It's a long conversation in which we talk about the many differences between experiencing television in the UK and those of Canada, including the vast number of channels, the strange bombardm...