The Peggy Mount Calamity Hour

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

Christmas with Val Doonican

They said it couldn’t be done, but here we are at last - the twelfth day of Pegmas and the final seasonal serving of treasured, televisual treats.  As was staunch tradition once upon a telly time, Christmas Eve bestowed upon us a lavish light-entertainment repast in the form of BBC’s Christmas with Val Doonican from 1986. Messrs Velvet, Blackout and Bognops pull on festive knitwear, a well-pressed slack and get seated ‘pon rocking chairs ready for the musical festivities.

Does every rented luxury property in Maidenhead come with a horse-drawn carriage as the de rigour form of commute? Where can I buy reproduction garments so that I may cos-play Val Doonican? Do we wish you, our devoted listener, the very merriest Christmas?

Yes, we most certainly do.

Enjoy this final episode of the series and in particular have a chuckle at the end; it’s crackers.

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

 

You're Only Young Twice: Twas The Night Before Christmas

A home is where the Christmas heart is and that’s certainly the case in this penultimate seasonal episode (yes, you’re nearly there). Velvet, Blackout and Bognops sit athwart the glitterati syndicate known as ‘The Window Gang’ and view the yuletide hustle and bustle at Paradise Lodge in Yorkshire Television’s festive edition of  You’re Only Young Twice from 1980.  Although the episode is entitled ’Twas The Night Before Christmas’, this was the top of the list for viewing ‘pon the 23rd for a very specific reason…

 

Just how much sherry has Dolly consumed? What must one endure as part of initiation into the esteemed and revered Window Gang? How much dust can accumulate in a sideboard? Important questions with much needed answers to be found this way…

 

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

Bullseye Christmas Celebrity Special

Our trenchant trinity of Velvet, Blackout and Bognops lend themselves to something traditionally competitive as they approach the oche and ‘take it steady’ before scoring Central Television’s Bullseye Christmas Celebrity Special from 1988.  Accompanying James Bowen Esq. is of course  Anthony Green, and in a manner uncannily similar to a Dickensian apologue, they’re visited by visions from sport and show business past and present to aim some arrows for charity. Can the viewing of this schedule stalwart prove once and for all that one is inefficacious in the amelioration of a smidgen of the bovidae dos taurus?

 

Just what is distracting the studio audience? Where can one purchase garments of a confectionary-inspired shade? Why is that lady repeating EVERY WORD? Stay out of the black and in the red, and take your time…

 

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 Mike Yarwood Christmas Show

In a return to the traditional enactment of yesteryear-viewing endemic to pre-1990, Velvet and Blackout play host to a Christmas guest who accompanies their scrutiny of an abundance of archetypes courtesy of Michael Yarwood and his Christmas Show of 1978. Not a politician nay a celebrity of the day is safe from the posturing, posing and parodying of the mimicking Mike and his arguably fundamental partnership with Janet Brown. Did said entertainment make an impression, or did it hang limply from a top lip like a Basil Fawlty prop that’s well passed its prime?

Just how much residual static lurks in that dinner suit? When and where did Anni-Frid Lyngstad meet Mark (Bez) Berry, and is their encounter documented in Tatler? Can we buy a jumper from Tom O’Connor? ‘Haway the lads’ and listen in…

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

M.R. James' A Warning To The Curious

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a ghost story, some say, and oft finding an appetite for the seasonally supernatural our heroes Velvet and Blackout set off to Norfolk to excavate the crowning glory of Christmas Eve, 1972 on the BBC. Yes, the televised adaptation of M.R. James’ A Warning To The Curious lures us into a malevolent and malignant mood, courtesy of an avaricious ex-convict and the whipping-boy of an over-zealous social-climber.

Is there an unequivocal connection between the beaches of the United Kingdom, waterproof outer-garments and demoniacal sociopaths? Does the clock shop also sell boxes of fudge with Grouty’s face on the lid? Does anyone still own a pair of plus-fours? The answers to these and less, are inside…

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

Kenny Everett's Christmas Carol

It is said that Christmas is a time for tradition, and there’s no better setting for Velvet and Blackout, than Dickensian London, as they visit  Auntie Beeb’s seasonal offering from 1985 in the form of Kenny Everett’s Christmas Carol. With such a fine supporting cast (God bless them, every one), and two highly-revered script writers behind him, Cuddly Ken can’t possibly fail to guarantee giggles aplenty in this Yuletide televisual feast right? Right?!?

Have you ever seen B.A. Robertson and Rob Brydon in the same room? Was Cleo Rocos in that very room? Does that same room contain cassettes with pre-recorded sessions of convincing audience laughter? Listen on…

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 Max Headroom Christmas Special

Substituting the traditional motifs of moss green and Santa-red for garish neon and pastels, Velvet And Blackout alight from a horse and carriage ride with a ‘ho ho ho’ as they experience the ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come-To-Our-Screens in the form of 1980s avant-garde and adroit avatar, Max Headroom in his Christmas Special from 1986.  Are the limiting physical parameters of a television screen a metaphor for actual events that present themselves to the audience, or can the eclecticism of the guest-list save the day?

Just how prophetic can forty minutes of rushed-television really be? If this was a peep into a video conference-led future, are the script writers due some renumeration? Just how much of a good time is T Turner actually having? None of these answers and more, are here…

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

Russ Abbott's Christmas Madhouse

It’s Day Five of the constant Christmas content from Velvet and Blackout and the atmosphere is that of an all-night holiday once they step inside Russ Abbott’s Christmas Madhouse courtesy of London Weekend Television in 1984. The titular star is joined by an Avengers assemblage of contemporary vaudevillians to assist in the delivery of quick-fire, slapstick hilarity but is this enough to keep you ‘living it up’, or will it have you reaching for the Basildon Bond to complain?

Can the pre-Mavis Riley, comedy impersonation days be looked-upon as golden and precious yet long since forgotten? Does neon and pastel really pass as period set-dressing? Should we forgive all of the above on account of the wearing of silver slacks? Listen on, and decide for yourself…

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