The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour

Thundercats/Going For Gold

Things are heating up at The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, as vintage televisual entertainment gets Intense™. And that's not to say there's no fun to be had, but brows are certainly furrowed as the temperature rises...

This week it's 1987, and there's utter hell on at the Thundera Feline Depository Centre when Mumm-Ra gets his burglar-on in Thundercats. Keeping things smoothly above board with an iron fist in a velvet glove however is Mr Henry Kelly; the smiling face of quizmastery and firm international diplomacy that the world needs more than ever, as he guides his coterie of contestants in their quest of Going For Gold.

Where does Snarf rank in the all-time leaderboard of patience-sapping animated sidekicks? Is Mumm-Ra the sort of ill-humoured old neighbour that would be better suited to bursting footballs on Ramsey Street? And was Henry 'Hey Hans do you wear clogs?' Kelly really the most socially tactful host the BBC could find to front a pan-European game show?

We're still not sure...

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

 

 

Roland Rat: The Series/Neighbours

Our journey through the shiniest decade continues to thrive, and the custodians of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour find themselves in the mood for laughter, for song, and most pertinently for sunshine...

This week it's 1986, and it's said that you're never more than three channels away from Roland Rat. We test this urban myth, find it to be undoubtedly true, then take the precaution of distancing ourselves on the other side of the planet to tut through the net curtains while the Neighbours enjoy a buck's party that we weren't invited to.

Is the height of Summer really the time for expecting a Christmas Special compilation to be anything other than a mortifyingly lazy schedule filler? What evidence of career-ending impropriety did the BBC booking team have on the wealth of stars who agreed to show their faces next to Roland and shred all dignity in the process? And how many strippers and naked men and Stefan Dennis in a nappy is too many strippers and naked men and Stefan Dennis in a nappy when you're writing a daytime soap opera?

We know, and in three quarters of an hour you will as well...

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

 

No.73 / Cool It

In these sober times one can often get too hung up on heavyweight televisual analysis, and the episode has come for The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour to let its hair down. Right down, in fact. Oh yes, we are talking "shoulder length"...

This week it's 1985 and it's all going on! All the very coolest aspects (and pop music stars) of the decade as you remember it finally kick in right here, as we eschew the slightly cosy Saturday morning offerings of Auntie Beeb and head down Maidstone way to drop into No 73, before hopping quietly back over the fence for some bitingly accessible social satire (do you remember cakes?) from flexuous-physiognomied funnyman Phil in Cool It!

Have TVS finally perfected the 'chaotic' TV format by having an eclectic running schedule combined with not a single person in front of the camera knowing what anyone else is supposed to be doing? Is the prestige of their guest-list really worth the hole in the ozone layer above Maidstone because of all the hairspray which has to be used? And is there a statute of limitations covering the amount of time Blackout is allowed to still be unashamedly snobby about observational standup routines?

The answer to at least one of those is a firm 'yes'...

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 Tripods/Dear Ladies

One of the primary aims of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour is exploring the cultural dichotomy between celebrating the past, and doing so in a way which embraces present and ever-evolving technology. One of the other aims is getting drunk while doing so of course, which makes this the most potentially on-brand episode to date...

This week it's 1984 (although some are calling it 2089), and we drop in on one village in England where benevolent evil has arrived with a stonking great middle-leg in The Tripods, before pootling over to Stackton Tressel where a greater level of quiet chaos reigns under the arch glare of Hinge and Bracket, who are most definitely our Dear Ladies.

What happens in the future that all clothes have to come from a rural jumble sale taking place shortly after the first World War? At what point in the past was the formula cracked with even-more-old-fashioned comedy that would go on to entrance Messrs Velvet and Blackout in the future? And how come these programmes were hugely successful in the mid-1980s when there's not a sniff of neon?

We went digging and this was what we unearthed...

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

Captain Zep - Space Detective/Manimal

Despite their oft-brash demeanour, it's not all about cold, hard analytical facts at The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour, and sometimes it does a brain well to relax with the more outré elements of vintage entertainment...

This week it's 1983, and Doctor Velvet and The Boy Blackout are joined once more by the stabilising (yet unerringly inebriating) presence of Ozzy Bognops, uncovering something rather arresting in the form of Captain Zep: Space Detective, before cycling through as many zoological transmutations as the handlers-budget will allow in the first episode of Manimal.

Have we really travelled to the far side of the galaxy only to find out that The French did it? Should Jonathan Chase be given Space Sentinel Astrea's phone number so he can get a few more actual ideas for animals to turn into? And mind, can these three not just enjoy anything?

Press the Play button and let's 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

Screen Test/Tomorrow's World

If there are two things that The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour strives to champion at every turn, it's a) picking apart needless detail in things we've just watched, and b) The Future™. Their booze-fuelled discourse elevated once again by the magnificent Ozzy Bognops, our plucky protagonists wade bottle-opener-first into both...

This week it's 1982, where powers of observation, recall and generally giving a single cinematic fig are stretched to their very limits under the auspices of Brian Trueman in Screen Test. Then, after tea, it's time to sit back down and be left utterly agog at the miraculous inventions and advancements which await our society in Tomorrow's World.

Is Trueman's fragile mortal shell about to be torn asunder by the God-like power he wields over his contestants? Are radio-telephones really going to become all of the rage outside of That London? And is there any greater tonic in these troubled times for the middle-aged man than Maggie Philbin in a pink jumpsuit?

These secrets lie herein...

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 Adventure Game/Ask The Family

As Sir Oliver Newton-John once crooned, "let's get cerebral, cerebral, I should like to get cerebral, oh let's get into cerebral". Yes, The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour continues to roll through what is generally agreed to be The Best Decade by donning its game-face...

This week it's 1981, and our heroes test what few grey cells they have left by crossing the galaxy to Arg to stare blankly at instruction-free puzzles in The Adventure Game, before returning to the utter comfort of Robert Robinson's ferociously amiable quizmastery in Ask The Family.

Did Adventure Game creator Patrick Dowling basically watch Sapphire And Steel then exclaim "this, but with stickers on the floor" to his production team? Will we ever return to the glory days when quiz contestants were chosen to appear on television based on their knowledge and skill, rather than any aesthetic considerations of them actually appearing on actual television? And are Messrs Velvet and Blackout really going to wait until recording the episode to workshop the Robinson impression?

Click-on dear listener, answers await...

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 Red Hand Gang/The Cannon And Ball Show

Back once again for the retro disaster; P. Mount ranter, with the ill behaviour! Yes, the new series of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour starts right NOW with a year-by-year rummage into the decade which truly formed us...

This week It's 1980, and what better way to begin our nostalgic odyssey than hanging around with the cool kids in The Red Hand Gang as they risk tetanus infection in the name of mystery-solving? Then we switch channels for half an hour of prime comedy beef in the company of The Cannon And The Ball, as the cut-price duo are joined, bolstered and ultimately enhanced by our one and only guiding light: Dame Peggy Mount.

Have NBC really commissioned an entire crime series with the sole intention of showcasing the most badass library-music to ever exist? Was Peggs given the chance to read the script for her Cannon & Ball guest appearance before the cameras started rolling? Would anyone like an apple?

There's only one way 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

New series trailer: Nobody's House/The Kit Curran Radio Show/Bob's Full House

Greetings traveller, and welcome back! You catch us in a state of some flux as the decorators are almost finished, just in time for the NEW series of The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour! Taking a slightly more focused approach to profane nostalgia, it's time to slough off the aviators and reach for the wayfarers and speciality spin-off merchandise...

In this special sneak-peek, we wave goodbye to the cavernous beige sound-stages of the 1970s with a quick stop at Nobody's House, before ushering in a dynamic new decade by cranking up The Kit Curran Radio Show, then wearing out the edges of our seats with the absolute unadulterated TENSION of Bob's Full House.

Whose mind imagined the bleakest of callbacks when watching a comedy melodrama about a ghost-child? Whose usual and well-documented aversion to farce was put to one side when that somehow proved to be the most enjoyable aspect of an entire sitcom episode? And how is Tim planning to get all them prizes back home from BBC Television Centre in one go?

Well, twiddle the knob 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 70s Stop Here/The New Year Show

HOOTS! Grab the hand-sanitiser, whatever's left of the scotch and remember to stick a lump of coal in your pocket for The Peggy Mount Hogmanay Hour! Messrs Velvet, Blackout and Bognops rouse from their festive sloth to see in the new year, or perhaps more pertinently see out the old. We drop in with Dame Penelope Keith assuring that us The 70s Stop Here!, an unequaled archival treat which values schedule-filling over entertainment value. But the razzamatazz is cranked back up as we jump forward six years, down two channels and up across the border for STV's The New Year Show, where a clinically-lit studio in Glasgow plays host to Dame Russ Abbot (yes, again), Dame Lena Zavaroni (yes, again) and a swathe of 'well-worn' light entertainment stereotypes under the auspices of Dame Jack McLaughlin. It is indeed a time for looking forward, not back. 

 

Which of our heroes was dragged out and around the houses at midnight at the end of December as a six year old? Which of them finds himself trapped in a time-vortex as New Year's Eve replays its televisual self verbatim and the new year becomes the old year again? And who suffers an on-mic flashback to day zero of a pathological trifle aversion? Forget your old acquaintances, and find out...

(NOTE: If you want to count down to midnight with us in the show, start the podcast at 23:12:10. That's twelve minutes and ten seconds past eleven o'clock at night. Lovely stuff.)

 

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