The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour

Murder, She Wrote

Ah, the haunting season seems to arrive earlier every year, and what better way to avoid the hustle and bustle of shoppers laden with absinthe, last minute pumpkins and Tripe Trifle™ than to join the hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour as they lean into the dark nights with some terrifying television?

This year's Hallowe’en special is a callback to the podcast's formative roots, as Murder She Wrote's Night Of The Tarantula comes under supernatural scrutiny. Leaving the good folk of Cabot Cove to manage without her for a few days, Jessica Fletcher takes a jaunt down to Jamaica to visit an old friend. But while she's packed the sort of wardrobe that could be used as an Ishihara test, it soon becomes apparent that Jess has forgotten to bring the spider-repellent. And the snake-repellent. Oh, and zombie-repellent…

How many glasses of wine can you get out of a bottle from the duty free at Sangster International airport? How many different accents can you crowbar into a single mansion lived in by one family? And how many lines in the sand has Danny La Rue crossed for Angela Lansbury to dish out this sort of theatrical vitriol?

Press Play before Arnold races out of the door, and find out…


The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo

Not quite ready to surface from hibernation, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour ekes out the last of the dark nights by curling up at the fireside with a good book. Well, the hosts welcome a new guest, crack open a bottle or two and watch a version of that book on the telly. Obviously...

Coming under subaquatic scrutiny this week is 1975's Canadian animated odyssey, The Undersea Adventures Of Captain Nemo, in which everyone's favourite Victorian squid-puncher gets a nuclear-powered, modern - if educational - twist.

What are the temporal implications of casually inventing Zoom-meetings and Wikipedia decades before the technology required to run them? What are the legal consequences of failing to control an accent in a built-up screenplay? And what are the ethical considerations around having two unpaid child dogsbodies in an enclosed space where someone's smoking 80 Capstan Full-Strength a day?

Get someone to push Play for you and find out...

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

Live Into ’85 (the New Year show)

JINGS! They said it couldn't be done! Well, they said it *shouldn't* be done, and they turned out to be right. Yes, it's another edition of The Peggy Mount Hogmanay Hour, and drunken sassenachs Velvet, Blackout and Bognops have stormed the passport control booth at Hadrian's Wall on a haphazard hunt north of the border for some Caledonian culture...

Unfortunately that all sold out a week before Christmas, and all that's left in the gift shop is BBC One's near legendary end-of year-debacle: Live Into '85. Laird Tom O'Connor joins with Marquess Maggie Moone and Marquee Moira Anderson to host a rousing night of comedy, dancing, music and fun! Or again, that's what Tom had signed off for until discovering it had sold out etc. More guests appear entirely at their own risk. As at least one of them found out.

Were the BBC cutting broadcast costs by pulling the plug on this while Big Ben was still chiming? Were Big Tom's Pipe Band cutting parking costs by keeping the minibus engine running outside? And what were the management of the Gleneagles Hotel hoping to achieve by combining their all-you-can-drink bar with the crèche?

Push Play to have the answers revealed and branded into your eardrums forever...

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

 

 

Chas & Dave’s Christmas Knees-Up

Christmas comes but once a year, yet thrice it 'casts into your ear(s)! Yes, with the dinner eaten and the games over, the party is in full swing as The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour's festive delving culminates its way to the yuletide jamboree! Approaching an advanced state of refreshment, Doctor Velvet, Blackout and Ozzy Bognops are in the mood for some salt-of-the-earth tinkling of The Old Joann-oh™, and so it's naturally to The Light Channel they turn.

And boogey-woogeying its way down to a studio-approximation of the East End is 1982's incomparable Chas & Dave's Christmas Knees-Up, where the cockney duo rattle out a handful of their own hits while playing host to Jimmy Cricket, Lennie Peters, Cosmotheka, Albert Lee and Eric Clapton. Variety shows are bread and butter pudding to this podcast of course, and live musical acts come under particular scrutiny - so it's anyone's guess as to how far the goodwill of this particular season will stretch...

Are Chas and Dave starting to regret phoning up their most famous mates for a jam? Has Lennie Peters come down to sort out some right muppet who's bin bad-maafing his mannah? And is Alyn Ainsworth hiding in the Rancor pit?

Put your beer in the sideboard here, let mother press Play and find out...

(Bonus points and/or an extra jellied eel will be awarded to listeners who can sing along AND do the harmonies)

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Give Us A Clue at Christmas

No, you're not seeing double - this is the second of the Peggy Mount Calamity Hour Christmas Specials! Although given that trouble co-ordinating and an inability to communicate clearly are the order of the day with this festive viewing, blurred vision just feels par for the course frankly.

To get them in the mood for games, our hosts revisit ITV's 1979 Christmas-edition of Give Us A Clue, a show whose very title suggests that things are supposed to get clearer as they progress. In actuality the exact reverse seems to have been true that day in Thames Television, but with an assemblage of light entertainment royalty such as this, who's keeping score? Certainly not Michael Aspel, that's for sure...

Who proposed stripping the catering budget down to Netto egg sandwiches for the preceding eleven months to allow the off-licence run for this show to take place? Who was responsible for retooling the on-screen countdown clock, but then decided to blow that money on another bottle of port instead? And who's going to break it to the orphans that Dickie Davies has opened all their presents?

Rely on a production-runner to press Play thirty seconds sooner than they usually would, and find out...

(Bonus points and/or an extra Cadbury's Rose (just the one) will be awarded to listeners who know what a Spelk™ is)

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

 

 

The Larkins At Christmas

"And hark", proclaimed Producer Ken, "before the clock strikes Christmas Day, you will be visited by THREE podcasts!". 'Oh here we go' thought Scrooge, just wanting to get on. "You must learn from the pod of telly past, the pod of telly past and then the pod of telly past." Well, he'd expected repeats at this time of year, but Scrooge didn't argue because he'd looked through the Radio Times and hadn't even taken the top off his red marker...

Yes it's the first of the festive specials from The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, and to set the scene the boys need to go RIGHT back to ITV's Christmas With The Larkins. Blazing a trail through the fledgling sitcom-market, Dame Peggy herself berates and bellows her way to a yuletide family gathering with all the farcical trimmings and mishaps we've come to expect over the intervening decades. What can go wrong? Oh, everything.

How many trombone wah-s are acceptable as the comedown to a punchline? How many household appliances can be used to defrost a turkey? And how many instances of imminent or actual violence need to be in a script before Peggs will greenlight it?

Look, you're not pressing Play right - let Peggy take over and find out...

 

(Bonus points and/or an extra Quality Street will be awarded to listeners who pick up on the Stewart Lee reference secreted in this episode)

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

 

 

Ghostwatch

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 fronted by Sir Michael Parkinson which exceeded its remit in terms of terrifying viewers and ultimately bequeathed a televisual legacy far greater than anyone had really intended. But cynicism is the enemy of awe as aeons pass, and there's no greater battle for emotional sincerity than the one playing in the viewing suite of MountPeg Towers this stormy evening.

How big is the cupboard under the stairs in a two-bedroom semi in suburban west-London? How come that person looks like them out of that thing that you can't quite place? And how come the Beeb got around Equity stipulations by employing people who clearly weren't actors?

Move the glass over PLAY and find out...


The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet, with additional live accompaniments by Ozzy Bognops. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to PeggyMountPod@gmail.com

 

Scream! Comic (1984)

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 schedules re-ignite, the first issue of 1984 horror comic Scream comes in for a playfully gruesome dissection. All manner of horrors await our heroes as reality melts, death is only a heartbeat away, and dreams and nightmares collide in 32 pages of panic that'll have everyone cowering under the continental quilt...

 

Is a shovel the best implement for fighting off a horde of rabid cats? Is the front garden the best place for burying an unembalmed body?And is neat vodka suitable for sterilising plastic fangs?

 

If you think you're brave enough, click Play and find out...

 

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

Smash Hits (1987)

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 legendary music mag, Smash Hits. Seemingly penned by a range of journalists who despise music, the Autumn 1987 advertisement-directory also features content-free articles, fictionalised interviews and lyrics for songs which never existed. For a relic of the pre-internet era, it's all remarkably meta...

How many pints is Rick Astley going to neck as he tries to shake his interviewer? How many write-ups is Doctor Velvet going to take extreme exception to? And how many pounds is Blackout likely to spend on a Personal Cassette Player™?

You can press Play here, or dial 0898 [REDACTED] to find out...

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com

Eagle Comic (1982)

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, the hosts of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour have been have parted with twenty pence to partake in the first issue of the relaunched Eagle comic from 1982. Aimed at boisterously opinionated boys who love sci-fi, horror and crime-fighting intrigue (and who have a penchant for collecting tat), this feels like it was created in a secret government lab to appeal to Doctor Velvet and Blackout...

 

Will the mysterious man who embodied Sgt Streetwise ever be found? Will the post-apocalyptic survivors of London Town ever find a leader who actually understands the tube network? And will somebody please help Mike Read?

 

Launch your free Space Spinner™ at the Play button, and find out...

 

The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is a free podcast from iPorle Media, which holds production copyright. Opinions and recollections expressed are not to be taken as fact. The title and credit music is by Doctor Velvet. Audio segments from television programmes are presented for review and informational purposes only under fair use, and no ownership of these is claimed or implied by this show. Email enquiries to peggymountpod@gmail.com