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1980s,Featured

The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Fit the First

By H E Cooper
1980s,Featured

The Nightmare Man – RetroTube podcast

By H E Cooper
1980s,Featured

Starburst magazine – Issue 39 (November 1981)

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1980s,Doctor Who,Featured

Doctor Who Monthly magazine – Issue 57 (October 1981)

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1980s,Blake's 7,Featured

Blake’s 7 Monthly magazine – Issue 1 (October 1981)

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Moloch by Ben Steed
1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Moloch

By H E Cooper on Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Ben Steed? That name is familiar. Have we had one of his stories before? Oh, we have. Oh no. I was frustrated by how Ben Steed wrote Servalan in The Harvest of Kairos and after viewing Moloch it’s abundantly clear that the word ‘feminism’ has never registered. I did not find Moloch as bad an …

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Ultraworld by Trevor Hoyle
1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Ultraworld

By H E Cooper on Wednesday, June 24, 2020

I’m unsure why Dayna says she doesn’t like the look of Ultraworld as I don’t think there is anything inherently nasty about a spiky silver disco ball. It matches several of the crew’s outfits. I do feel the crew should be less trusting of the universe by now. As Cally’s voice came over to them, …

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The Sandbaggers series 1 titles
1970s

The Sandbaggers – Series 2 – Spybrary podcast

By H E Cooper on Sunday, June 14, 2020

After meeting Burnside and the rest of SIS in Series 1 of The Sandbaggers, we had just about got to grips with the many acronyms of Whitehall and were soon ready to delve into Series 2. I rejoined Spybrary host Shane Whaley and fellow fans Jeffrey Westhoff and Peter Newman to discuss more on The Sandbaggers. …

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1970s The Goodies

The Goodies – Radio Goodies

By H E Cooper on Friday, June 12, 2020

First broadcast: 20th December 1970 on BBC-1 This was my favourite episode I’ve seen so far. The Goodies decide to take advantage of the recent introduction of commercial radio licences – at least that’s how it appeared to me. My knowledge of the history of commercial radio is slim but nonetheless, 1970 seemed a tad …

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Sarcophagus by Tanith Lee titles
1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Sarcophagus

By H E Cooper on Saturday, June 6, 2020

There have been some strange episodes of Blake’s 7 up to this point but Sarcophagus takes the trophy. It’s not unusual for there to be some mystery about where an episode is going but I spent almost the entire of Sarcophagus absolutely baffled. I struggled, got bored and walked away slightly disappointed with the story. …

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1970s The Goodies

The Goodies – Cecily

By H E Cooper on Saturday, May 30, 2020

Cecily First broadcast: 13th December 1970 on BBC-1 The Goodies are struggling to find work and one does wonder whether ‘anything any time’ is just too vague for the general public. McCall’s newspaper advert in The Equalizer is similarly brief but at least he narrowed it down to helping people that had a problem with …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Rumours of Death

By H E Cooper on Sunday, May 17, 2020

Rumours of Death feels like a rare privilege to learn more about Avon’s emotional past, and I daren’t look away in case we never get such access again. It’s another strong character piece from Chris Boucher, whose scripts have been my favourites in Series C so far. The opening scene had me gripped from the …

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1970s Featured The Goodies

The Goodies – Gender Education

By H E Cooper on Friday, May 15, 2020

Gender Education My next episode of The Goodies moves us swiftly further along to series 2, episode 11. At the Goodies’ headquarters, a well-turned-out, mature woman with glasses sneaks up on Tim and Graeme. She’s instantly recognisable as a faux-Mary Whitehouse and I must admit I was surprised that I saw this so quickly, yet …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Children of Auron

By H E Cooper on Friday, May 8, 2020

I find it fascinating when programmes reflect contemporary events or appear prescient of future ones, either by intent or sheer coincidence, but I haven’t had that with Blake’s 7 – at least I haven’t noticed it. One attractive element of the series is that its setting makes it somewhat timeless. 40 years on, film-making techniques …

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1970s The Goodies

The Goodies – Tower of London

By H E Cooper on Thursday, April 30, 2020

I first watched The Goodies without realising. In my early forays to YouTube, I was searching for Doctor Who content when I came across something featuring Patrick Troughton up against three other blokes. Split into two videos, there were no titles and when it finished I still I had no idea what it was but …

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The Sandbaggers series 1 titles
1970s

The Sandbaggers – Series 1 – Spybrary podcast

By H E Cooper on Thursday, April 30, 2020

Spybrary‘s focus has always first and foremost been spy books, but the podcast has also explored the exploits of real-life spies, as well as espionage in film and television. Having collaborated on undercover operations with Shane Whaley in the spy hot-spots of London and Berlin, I knew he could be trusted and I had no …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – City at the Edge of the World

By H E Cooper on Saturday, April 25, 2020

After being disappointed by Harvest of Kairos, I was just hoping to find City at the Edge of the World less dull. The title got me thinking about the other cities we have encountered with Blake’s 7 – Space City and Freedom City, but this one turned out quite different. I deployed some expletives exceptionally …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – The Harvest of Kairos

By H E Cooper on Saturday, April 11, 2020

The Harvest of Kairos has ideas with good potential, but it doesn’t work well for me overall. Despite some high stakes, I found the episode dull in parts. Intersecting the space pursuit with the introduction to Jarvik slowed the pace and it did seem to go on for a long time, but without the usual …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Dawn of the Gods

By H E Cooper on Monday, March 30, 2020

It’s so fantastic to watch Blake’s 7 with no preconceptions about fan consensus on episodes. Dawn of the Gods seems like a potentially divisive one because it is vastly different from the usual action adventures. While there is plenty early on, it’s much slower and stranger once they enter the other universe. In some ways, …

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trial of a time lord podcast
1980s Doctor Who

Resurrection of the Daleks – Trial of a Time Lord podcast

By H E Cooper on Wednesday, March 25, 2020

The Trial of a Time Lord podcast puts Doctor Who on trial, with a different story and a different guest every episode. I had been a fan of this smut-filled den of iniquity for a while so was delighted to be able to join the show and take part in a trial. I had chosen …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Volcano

By H E Cooper on Tuesday, March 17, 2020

We return to a regular type of Blake’s 7 adventure with a planet of the week that even Cally gets to visit now. The opening act of Volcano had me solely by the intrigue of having no idea what was going on plot-wise, which I thought was better than the crew finding a planet and …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Powerplay

By H E Cooper on Monday, March 9, 2020

For those viewers new to Blake’s 7, Series C continues as a lovely introduction. There are similarities to the first series as we essentially spend two episodes getting the crew together, ready to head off for adventures. Though I missed seeing Vila and Cally in Aftermath, introducing everyone across two episodes enables those two to …

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1980s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Aftermath

By H E Cooper on Monday, March 2, 2020

Star One is still vying in my affections for Best Episode So Far and I am fairly sure Aftermath didn’t answer a single question I had at the end of it. Once again though, I didn’t care because Aftermath has instead given us an interesting setup for a series that looks vastly different from the …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Star One

By H E Cooper on Thursday, February 20, 2020

“You can lead the rabble to victory… whatever that might mean.” I’ve been sceptical about Blake’s 7 having a series-long arc because I have grown impatient with it at times. Towards the end of the series, there have been misfires with Voice From the Past and The Keeper, so I was trying not to raise …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – The Keeper

By H E Cooper on Tuesday, February 11, 2020

“A fool knows everything and nothing.” I was not keen on The Keeper, though it starts well with setting up the story and some initial action. I am glad that the purpose of Control/Star One is reiterated in the opening scenes as it’s been a while and I feel it’s important that the stakes are emphasised again. …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Gambit

By H E Cooper on Monday, January 27, 2020

“I can provide some very original forms of diversion.” By a significant stretch, Gambit is the craziest episode of Blake’s 7 I’ve watched so far. Even once I thought I had a handle on it, it just kept giving and it has been my favourite episode of Series B so far. Robert Holmes had impressed …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Voice from the Past

By H E Cooper on Friday, January 17, 2020

“So much for Blake’s new epoch of peace.” Voice from the Past was an interesting episode as I was intrigued by the plot immediately. The idea of Blake reverting to his pre-The Way Back brainwashed state was fear-inducing as the consequences I imagined were disastrous. I saw him covertly redirecting the Liberator and turning the …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Countdown

By H E Cooper on Friday, January 10, 2020

“You wouldn’t understand.” I spent the first scenes of Countdown wondering if any of these masked fighters were our heroes – we’ve had this sort of opening before. There was one fellow with a similar build to Gareth Thomas that had me almost convinced. Federation guards dress more or less the same all over the …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Hostage

By H E Cooper on Thursday, December 19, 2019

“There’s no need for violence, is there?” Hostage’s title had me imagining one of the Liberator crew kidnapped, or even the ship itself, so the actual victim didn’t interest me very much. Yet Hostage is one of my favourite episodes so far this series as it took me through a variety of emotions and my mind …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Killer

By H E Cooper on Tuesday, December 10, 2019

“That is self-interest – we need that crystal. Blake takes risks to help other people – sometimes people he doesn’t even know.” After the events of Pressure Point and Trial especially I was excited to continue Series B, although Killer ended up a more isolated episode compared to the last few. Knowing Robert Holmes as …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Trial

By H E Cooper on Monday, December 2, 2019

“You’re not going to use me anymore.” Trial was an odd experience in that I had never felt so indifferent about what the Liberator crew were up to. You could have chopped the regulars out, stuck all the Space Command scenes together, and I would probably have been happy with a half-hour episode that didn’t …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Pressure Point

By H E Cooper on Sunday, November 24, 2019

“It is a challenge!” After a few episodes from other writers, I felt bad that the appearance of Terry Nation’s name in Pressure Point’s titles sent a pang of disappointment through me. I had been enjoying different types of episodes and didn’t want that unknown variety to end. Weapon and Horizon had both impressed me, …

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1960s The Saint

The Saint – The Latin Touch

By H E Cooper on Wednesday, November 20, 2019

First broadcast 11th October 1962 Plot On holiday in Rome, Simon is witness to the kidnap of a US diplomat’s daughter. A mafia man, Tony Unciello, is responsible. His brother is about the be executed in the US and Governor Inverest has the power to stop it. Guest stars Alexander Knox plays the governor and …

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1960s The Saint

The Saint – The Talented Husband

By H E Cooper on Wednesday, November 6, 2019

The prospect of watching all of The Saint is daunting – there are 118 episodes. In recent years I have discovered more ITC shows, but I have always had a fondness for The Saint and am looking forward to spending more time with him again. Simon Templar travels the world, either being called upon or simply stumbling into trouble as …

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1970s Blake's 7

Blake’s 7 – Horizon

By H E Cooper on Sunday, November 3, 2019

“I am not expendable, I am not stupid and I’m not going.” Horizon had piqued my interest the moment I saw it on the DVD title menu as I knew it was the name of the Blake’s 7 fan club. Following the episode, I thought that was a neat idea. The episode’s titles themselves also …

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