The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour

Fresh Fields: A Dickens Of A Christmas

Few things yell CHRISTMAS like that feeling of being locked in a room with a braying mob of party-game-obsessed family members who all seem to be merrily intoxicated past the point of caring, whilst you yourself are wondering how long you can politely leave it before REALLY getting stuck into the booze like a seasoned professional.

And so for the second instalment of this year's Peggy Mount Calamity Hour Christmas Specials, Thames Television have kindly brought that enforced bonhomie for us all to enjoy wherever, as the podcast hosts peruse the Fresh Fields Festive Effulgence from 1985. There's tidings, there's tinsel, and there are other words beginning with T which won't go into the show description because of adverse SEO reasons...

How many mince pies is too many for Christmas day, and does the joke become funny at that point? How long should a straight, domestic-sitcom be left doing its thing before safely devolving into chaotic, drunken ad-libbing for optimum, refreshing effect? And how long can Blackout keep up this Scrooge-like, grumpy demeanour when faced with some of the cosiest Christmas television ever created?

Drag everyone into a circle in the living room, press 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

Christmas Record Breakers 1972

It's the most wonderful time of the year! By which we mean that time when normal, fusty TV scheduling goes out the window and all theme tunes are legally obliged to have a layer of sleigh-bells over the top. Yes, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour gears up once again for another round of Christmas Specials, circling things in the Radio Times and going round all the supermarkets to look for the best offers on port.

And so, breaking the seal on the selection box in a traditionally early manner, our hosts peruse a particularly festive episode of BBC One's Record Breakers from the heady days of 1972, with Messrs Castle, McWhirter and McWhirter poised and ready to note down any and all achievements worthy of acclaim. And also act like they haven't just been wasting your time if and when there are none.

What grade of hallucinogen was Kubrick on when he came up with the idea for the McWhirter twins? What level of liability insurance is required for this intensity of hairstyling product under those studio lights? And what is the maximum sentence handed down for inadvertently killing a studio audience?

Get the tree out of the garage, pour yourself a small sherry, press 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

The Flumps/Girls On Top

Ever keen to provide wholesome cultural repasts for the dark winter nights, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour reaches into its televisual trove of years past and pulls out a couple of absolute bangers to fill that entertainment hinterland betwixt Hallow'een and Christmas...

First up is is warmest, sweetest hug one can get from a programme as Doctor Velvet and Blackout venture oop-North with some magnets to hang out with The Flumps. And to offset this excursion into unparalleled goodness, they jaunt back dah'n Sah'hf to mid 1980s London, as brash cynicism and sitcom-subversion are the order of the day with the Girls On Top.

What, exactly, is causing the laws of physics to routinely misbehave around the metal objects of Flump Towers? What, precisely, is causing the four headline stars of a prime-time sitcom to routinely speak over each others' lines in Oak Park Gardens? And what, for the love of all that is holy, has Alan Rickman's hairdresser been inhaling?

The answers are but one exquisitely animated - if thoroughly un-rehearsed - click away...

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

Virtual Murder: A Dream of Dracula

They say bad things come in threes, and that's certainly true as Doctor Velvet and Blackout chalk the final circle to complete this year's trilogy of terror on the eve of Samhain.

Because it's not really Hallowe'en without some Draculas, and it's not really The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour without Peggy Mount, dark gods conspired (in 1992) to combine the two in Virtual Murder: A Dream of Dracula, and it certainly takes potions of hitherto unparalleled strength to sit through this hour of supernatural mayhem...

How do a pair of (admittedly amateur) horror-obsessed cultural historians manage to completely miss a televisual translation of one of cinematic and literary-culture's most enduring villainous touchstones? How does Mount always manage to get hallucinogenic head-decoration into her contract? And how does something this colon-clenchingly cheap get on the actual BBC telly when people will be watching, though?

Load up on the garlic, candlesticks and holy water bottles filled with port, then press Play 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

The Hamlyn Book of Horror

Unearthing horrors from the past is of course the default setting at The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, so Hallowe'en makes that especially enjoyable. And what could be nicer on a wet, grey autumnal evening than a dram of something potent and a book by the fireside?

The second of this year's supernatural specials is but a turn of the page away, as Doctor Velvet and Blackout creak open the eldritch tome of 1979's Hamlyn Book Of Horror, suppressing the hard-wired fear of more than four decades to give it another pass...

How does a book which is already largely a historical study age over the decades, when compared with an evolving cultural appreciation of its original source material? Is the the compulsion to scare oneself with un-nerving media as universal and timeless as the horror-genre would suggest, or does it only feel that way to people already predisposed toward it? And can a book really give you the diarrhoea?

Light the thirteenth candle, press Play and see what answers float through the aether...

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

Mad Monster Party

Why, it seems to come around earlier each year! Yes, as the decorations go up once again and the dark nights seep firmly in to our homes and our very souls, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour returns for another unholy trinity of Hallowe'en themed podcast episodes to keep a chill in your spine as you shiver 'til dawn.

It's back to the video shop first of all, with Rankin/Bass's 1967 animated cabal Mad Monster Party coming under the critical eye of Doctor Velvet and Blackout, casting new judgement on classic creatures...

Is it really that important to spend time working on the music and the comedy when you're putting together a musical comedy? Is the climactic euthanasia of a range of x-rated villains really a fitting subject for animated entertainment which will be a draw to a young audience? And is Phyllis Diller the ultimate, unabashed, unsanitisable horror?

The answers - like the drinks - are but a tap away and not for the faint of heart...

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

Liz Dawn’s House Party

A podcast with more confidence in sporting metaphors might use some reference to 'extra time' while talking about their bonus episode, so naturally The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour sees this series-extender as more of an improvised, last minute lock-in. Because there's nothing like having a great night, drinks flowing behind closed doors, after dark and in raucous company with plenty of laughter.

 

And speaking of nothing like a great night, our heroic triumvirate have drawn the curtains and uncorked the port to gatecrash Liz Dawn's House Party, the 1996 straight-to-VHS version of The Stanford Prison Experiment where you can play along at home if you enjoy feeling trapped, belittled and punished.

 

For maximum effect, is it best to insert a laugh-track to complement jokes or as a substitute for them? For a great duet, should you really book two club singers with the same range? For the love of god, when does it end?

 

We found out, and now so can you...

 

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 Trap Door/Name That Tune

It's the end of term! Yes, as The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour parks up on the driveway to deliver the series' tenth episode, spirits are high as firmly-held convictions are batted around the studio like a game of opinionated tennis...

The show opens with our heroes lifting The Trapdoor and finding something delightful they can all agree upon, before a challenge to Name That Tune becomes rather more animated as *someone* asserts that half a dozen Rights can be enough to somehow make half an hour of Wrong™.

How many times can Trap Door be adapted to an 8-bit gaming format before it's any good? How many members do cruiseship-crooners Kaluki have to add to their roster before the law of averages says they'll land on a harmony? And how many times does Blackout get it Wrong™ in this?

Click on, listen in and find out...

[Incidentally, NOW is the time to get your answers in for our competition! You can download the official answer-sheet at PeggyMountPod dot com, and check our feeds on Twitter, Facebook and PeggyMountPod.com for details of HOW to enter and what you could WIN!]

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

Transformers/The Larkins

It's early mornings and late nights this week on The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, as our hosts test the theory that the greatest things arrive at either end of a day's scheduling.

The first stop on today's televisual trek comes hiding in plain sight, as TVAM's premiere episode of The Transformers comes in for some arch reminiscence and critical scrutiny. And later, what better way to round off a long week than with Peggy Mount boldly waving the flag for sitcoms still to come, as we meet The Larkins?

Have we voyaged far enough across the galaxy for a being shaped remarkably like a re-arranged Freightliner FL86 to finally fit in? Have we travelled far enough back in time to find A Farce™ that Doctor Velvet can stomach? And how far do we have to go before the most literal lavatorial humour ceases to be the easiest way to derail a pair of childish podcast hosts?

If you're absolutely sure your electronic device is really what it purports to be, then go ahead and press Play 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

 

 

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop/CHiPs

The heat is on as the weekend arrives for The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour at long last, and what better way to burst into the best two days than with some high-sugar cereal, high-profile casting and high-energy televisual nonsense?

 

Our hosts find themselves huddling around the gogglebox for the grand finalé of BBC's Swap Shop, following which there's just enough time to strap on eight wheels and fire up the funk to become an absolute health-and-safety liability for the grand finalé of the CHiPs's Roller Disco evening...

 

What does it say about children's British live TV programming that there's not a single guest in Television Centre under the age of 40, apart from the one boy that usually hangs around outside? What does it say about American policing that two people on high-powered motorcycles can't catch three people on roller skates but one person in a car can, and she wasn't even trying? And what does it say about impressionability that Doctor Velvet and Blackout are now actively considering buying Heelys?

 

Join the party, press 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