"I might get that on cassette!"

"I might get that on cassette!"

If we could ever afford proper audience research, it would be fascinating to find out how many people have bought or watched a show after we've covered it.

Without the full data at our disposal we can only speculate for the most part, but we're pleased to report that Paul's piece on 'Dark Shadows' has at least encouraged Andy Priestner to dip his toe into the Collinsport water, thanks to the episodes being available on Amazon Prime.

Even I've watched the first two episodes this morning before writing this very blog entry, which will make Paul do a little happy Yeti Dance, I suspect.

Astonishingly, we've even had the odd appreciative word about our rendition of the end theme to 'Star Trek', which perhaps begs some questions about the sanity of our listeners, but that's neither here nor there.

For the record (don't worry, it won't be released on a single!), our lyrics to 'Star Trek' go something like this.

"Star Trek is on the TV!
Starring Kirk, Spock and Scotty!
The starship is driven by Sulu
When Chekov has gone to the space loo!
The Doctor is sometimes called Bones
Uhura, she answers the phones,
The show run to Season Three
Created by Gene Roddenberry!"

That's quite enough of that, though.

I've noticed that I warbled "Written by Gene Roddenberry!" on the actual take, which I can only attribue to over-excitement on the day, but I'm in no hurry to do a second version. Which will, at least, be appreciated by Rose Cat, who thought we were in pain when we were hitting the high notes.

Meanwhile, Martin has been hard at work producing a number of covers for potential 'Round The Archives' books and magazines, all of which are completely fictional.

Anyway, work begins in earnest this weekend on the inevitable Christmas Special...

We have already started trawling through some Christmas continuity for '3-2-1' and 'Terry & June', though thankfully they've not turned up in our dreams.

Yet...

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

(Digital art jiggery-pokery by Martin Holmes)

Forward Mr Grainger

Forward Mr Grainger

I'm always a sucker for a Mr Grainger episode of 'Are You Being Served?', but 'Forward Mr Grainger' shows him in a rather less than sympathetic light when he ascends to a position of power.

Mr Rumbold heads off for a month-long sales conference in Swansea, which does beg the question as to why they couldn't have found a nearer hotel. Whilst he's whooping it up in Wales, Mr Grainger is called upon to fill his seat and guzzle the contents of his executive drinks trolley.

There's a new (and apparently nameless) secretary, played by Isabella ('Jokers Wild') Rye, who seems to take a fancy to Captain Peacock and she is enough to give Young Mr Grace a turn when just talking to her on the phone.

Power certainly corrupts Mr Grainger who, armed with a huge cigar, seems to take on a Churchillian persona that endears him to nobody in the department.

Captain Peacock proves what a poor actor he is when called upon to act surprised at the news. When it all comes crashing down again for Mr Grainger, Peacock isn't going to let him forget how he's treated his temporary underlings.

Mr Humphries admits that he keeps his pyjamas in his teddy bear, but even Mr Lucas employs his Basil Brush for a similar function.

When everyone is mean to Mr Grainger, it's quite uncomfortable viewing, but it's smiles and drinks all round by the time the end credits are running, and I like to think that everyone got along quite happily before everything got back to normal again.

Our video about 'Forward Mr Grainger' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

Approaching the Big 30

Approaching the Big 30

Well, much to our surprise, we've met our self-imposed schedule for Episodes 28 and 29, meaning that our attention now turns to the Christmas Special, which just happens to be Episode 30. Unless, of course, we suddenly change our numbering system to hexadecimal, which would make it Episode 2A.

This time last year, we were in the middle of our set of 'Doctor Who'-themed editions, wjich meant that any Christmassy atmosphere rather fell by the wayside, but we'll get the BBC jingle out this year and maybe even stick in the odd advert or two.

Some recording is planned in for this weekend with a number of possible subjects to pick from, but I hope we'll be able to look at one of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures from the 1970s.

A quick look at our numbers shows that November 2018 has seen our biggest audience yet, with over 300 listens to our name. That's across our whole range of episodes, though - we're still some way off from a single edition racking up such figures!

Admittedly, this is slightly skewed by doing two episodes very close together, but we'll take good news where we can find it.

Martin has been doing his usual design miracles and has come up with a lovely new logo (see above) that displays our three main listening platforms (Soundcloud, PlayerFM and iTunes) in a colourfully attractive way.

In fact, we like this so much that it might be appearing on a future video, in some form or another...

Also, the list of contributors has been livened up (note the special font for Terry Molloy), which might look good on a bookmark or something. We can never have enough bookmarks...

And our house does increasingly resemble 'The Book Tower' these days...

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

The Witchfinders

The Witchfinders

I think it was Christmas 1984 that I received my copy of Arthur C Clarke's collection of essays going by the slightly unwieldy title of 'Report On Planet Planet Three And Other Speculations'. Having only really heard of him through his 'Mysterious World' TV series, I lapped up these thoughtful articles and soon followed them up with the similar 'Profiles Of The Future'.

It was through these works that I became familair with his so-called Three Laws:

(1): When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

(2): The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

(3): Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The Third Law is touched upon in Ben Aaronovitch's script for 'Doctor Who : Battlefield' and when I came to write my own 'Toby & Lucie : Moon Of Death' in 2010, I could hardly fail to give it a nod also.

So I did grin when it pops up again in 'The Witchfinders', especially as Alan Cumming had ended up sitting next both 'Round The Archives' stalwart Warren and his copy of my book whilst on a plane to Scotland.

Alan did borrow the book for a while, which led to some confusion as to what had happened to it when Warren got off the plane, although it turned out it had simply been left behind, rather than half-inched by anyone.

I do think it amusing that there is a very small possibility that Mr Cumming might have glanced upon the following section, set on a magical moonbase in June of the year 1178...

LUCIE: What was it Arthur C Clarke used to say? "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"?

TOBY: Clarke's Third Law. Of course, it works the other way around, too... Mind you, I'd like to see what old Arthur C would have made of all this...

LUCIE: He'd probably do a half-hour documentary on it and say at the end that personally he didn't believe a word of it...

(Keen watchers of 'The Goodies : Bigfoot' might spot another allusion there)

But Alan's performance in Joy Wilkinson's 'The Witchfinders' made us laugh too, and Warren's close encounter with him surely makes him a honourary member of the 'Round The Archives' team, if only in passing.

Magic, our Alan!

'Toby & Lucie' is available from Lulu here.

Our video about 'The Witchfinders' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

Episode 29 now available

Episode 29 now available

Episode 29 sees us in a bit of an American Gothic mood as we continue our journey through some classic shows from the United States.

First, we pay a call on Gomez and Morticia as we meet 'The Addams Family' in its 1964-66 incarnation.

Next , Paul takes us to Collinsport to investigate the Leviathans of  'Dark Shadows'.

Finally, 'The Munsters' welcome us to 1313 Mockingbird Lane, where Herman insists the scariest thing is a mean mouse that made a face at him!

Episode 29 of 'Round The Archives' can be heard here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

The Day Of The Doctor

The Day Of The Doctor

To finish off our celebration of Doctor Who's 55th Anniversary we decided to watch and then do a video on 'The Day of The Doctor'; a story I really love and have done so since seeing it the first time.
It really feels like a modern update of 'The Three Doctors' which I'm not sure it would have done had Christopher Eccleston decided to take part.  Which of course I would have loved.

You wouldn't have had the difference in performance and age that you get between John Hurt's War Doctor and the more boyish Tenth and Eleventh Doctors.

The War Doctor really is a more traditional version of The Doctor, even though he doesn't label himself as such. He really could have stepped out of any era of the 1963 to 1989 run of 'Doctor Who'.
And I love his posh graveliness.

David Tennant steps back into the role of The Tenth Doctor as though he had not been away and he and The Eleventh Doctor have an amusing relationship, bickering like the Second and Third Doctors in 'The Three Doctors' and 'The Five Doctors'.

It's good to see Billie Piper again, though obviously not in the role of Rose Tyler but as the conscience of The Moment. Something that I didn't immediately pick up on until the line about the Moment being hot.

The opening scene is tremendous fun and the mention of getting Malcolm to change the ravens' batteries is a nice moment.

Interestingly there is no mention of England falling if the ravens leave the Tower until Victorian times, the earliest mention of ravens at the Tower being in 1883.

And I love how the story manages to include all of the previous Doctors (and one yet to come!) in the attempt to save Gallifrey. I cannot say how exciting it was to see Peter Capaldi's eyes at that point.
Then just as you think that the story cannot surprise you any more. we get Tom Baker as The Curator. Just to hear his voice made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

And all of the bits with Matt Smith are charmingly done and they make a great pair.

All in all 'The Day of the Doctor' is a great anniversary special and is one of the those stories that can be rewatched without it losing the power to entertain and move you.

Our video about 'The Day Of The Doctor' can be seen here.

(Written by Lisa Parker)

Is it Episode 29 or Episode 28A?

Is it Episode 29 or Episode 28A?

Despite a flurry of 'Doctor Who' videos in the last few days, we've not forgotten about our Masterplan to release the second of our two podcasts themed around American shows, so we've made some decent inroads on Episode 29 this afternoon.

Even if a delivery man did interrupt us a few minutes into the first take of our article on 'The Addams Family', bearing gifts in the form of 'The Glums'. But as this is an early Christmas present from Paul, we promise not to watch any yet, even if we did have to check the disc that was all rattly, having fallen off the spindle of the DVD case whilst in transit.

With Paul having delivered a fully edited look at one of his favourites eras of 'Dark Shadows', that only leaves our piece on 'The Munsters' to record and we'll have another mostly-completed episode on our hands.

The question has been asked as to whether this should be considered Episode 29 or Episode 28A, but it's definitely the former, as 28A would only make our production code numbering system even more confusing.

29 will run slightly longer than 28, with three articles of roughly 20 minutes plus all the links and stuff, and it allows us to end the year on Episode 30, which is a pleasantly round number.
But we should still be able to squeeze a couple more  videos in before the end of the month, if that floats your boat.

Anyway, tis time for tea, so we'll see you all again, same time, same channel!

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

('RTA' cartoons by Martin Holmes)

Happy 55th Birthday To Doctor Who

Happy 55th Birthday To Doctor Who

A very brief post today, but some sizeable videos to watch as as compensation.

In this anniversary week for 'Doctor Who' we've tried doing something a little different to our usual approach of doing one TV story per Doctor, as it gets a bit predictable once you get to Paul McGann.

Instead we've taken at look at three documentaries in the form of 'Whose Doctor Who' (1977), 'The Making Of Doctor Who' (1988) and the extended release of 'Thirty Years In The TARDIS' (1993).
These all take very different approaches to their subject matter, with arguably the best result being the one made when the show had been off the air for nearly four years.

But we applaud the honesty of the 1988 one, which gives a hint of the pressue the production team were under just to complete 'Silver Nemesis' and maybe these days there would be a few cuts requested from the people responsible for publicity.

And it's odd to see how in 1977, we're in a period where the phrase "fans of 'Doctor Who'" doesn't necessarily mean people who have heard of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.

Taken on their own terms they are all interesting historical documents, of course, but doing them in order illustrates how attitudes to the show ebbed and flowed over the intervening years.

But the colour for monsters is, and always will be, definitely green!

Our video about 'Whose Doctor Who ' can be seen here.

Warren joins us to talk about 'The Making Of Doctor Who' here.

And you can see us tackling 'More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS' here.

Happy Anniversary 'Doctor Who' - you're looking good on it!

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

Remembering my Dad

Remembering my Dad

Today marks the 4th anniversary of my Dad's death and I still miss him so much.

He died unexpectedly in hospital and I was unable to be with him, but I am forever comforted to know that he was surrounded by both my brother and sister and their families.

To remember him on this date and other significant ones I always make a donation to charity in his memory. I started off donating to charities relating to the illnesses he suffered during the last years of his life and death, but try to donate to a different charity each tine.

So today have I made a donation to a local animal charity. Although he would have been loathe to admit it, he was a big softie when it came to animals and we had many dogs and cats over the years.

When we were coming up to the first Christmas after he died, we decided very late on to put a tree and decorations up. And Andrew and I purchased a small pink tree from our local Tesco and set about decorating as best as we could. Including our 11th Doctor and TARDIS ornaments which take pride of place each year.

Anyone that ever met my Dad would say that in his younger years he loved to turn our huge living/dining room in a Christmas Grotto, covering every inch of the celling with those foil decorations and years before that paper chains and balloons. My friend Jane always asked if the Christmas Grotto was up, but as it took several hours to do as he got older the decorations became simpler and consisted of just a few decorations, lights and the odd nativity scene.

My Dad would always fool around when I had a school friend around, making one friend choke once as he chased his peas around his plate, much to my embarassment.  I wouldn't mind that now.

One of my favourite photos of my Dad is of him in my nan's backgarden and he is typically messing around. He would always send both his grandchildren and great grandchildren home very overexcited as he had worked them into a frenzy.

Something he was doing right up to just before he died.

I miss the fact that when I phoned him which I did everyday, he'd spend the first couple of minutes moaning about what had or hadn't happend that day.

But he'll always live there in the back of my mind, ready to be called upon for a fond memory.

I just wish I could give him one more hug.

(Written by Lisa Parker)

"A strip cartoon of the year 2000!"

"A strip cartoon of the year 2000!"

It's never quite clear how often the adventures of the Karkus appear in 'The Hourly Telepress', but if there is a new strip required every hour of the day, the poor old artist must be well and truly knackered by now...

But our lovely Art Department, also known as Martin, recently came up with the terribly flattering idea of rendering the 'RTA' team in the form of a strip cartoon. We've released the first few on a daily basis and there are several more waiting in the wings.

But if you'd told my earlier incarnation (circa 1980) that I'd feature in such a venture then you'd have seen a very boggled young mind.

I was a regular reader of book versions of collected strips of 'Fred Basset' and 'The Perishers', the latter of which would venture into very strange territory with diversions into such characters as the group of crabs who lived in a rock pool, visited by the mysterious Eyeballs In The Sky.

But my staple diet in this area was, of course, the 'Peanuts' strip from Charles Schultz, even if some of the more obscure references to American culture were lost on an innocent lad from Dorset.

We'd visit the (fairly) local branch of Woolco most Friday evenings, and if there was no new 'Doctor Who' Target release to be found in their book section, there would probably be some adventures with Charlie Brown that could be added to my collection.

So the sly zig-zag detail that Martin has put on Lisa's top is not lost on me. Ironically, I probably identified more with Linus, though these days I think that Woodstock is the one with the best attitude to life.

Though I must not be envious of that evidence that he can type slightly better than me...

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)
('Round The Archives' comic strip by Martin Holmes)

Kerblam!

Kerblam!

Going into 'Kerblam!' on Sunday night. I didn't really know what to expect.

From the trailer at the end of last week's episode it looked it as if certain online retailers might be in the line of fire.

And at one point, seeing the shot of Graham being scanned, I did wonder if Kerblam! were selling human beings and that the story would involve the Doctor trying to rescue her companions from this fate.

Instead what we got was a more nuanced look at both the ethics of big companies who are just sticking to the rules and regulations and the perils of activism.

I would just like to clarify my comment about the perceived connection between Charlie's hatred of automation and people coming from other countries to fill jobs. For many centuries past a section of English society have always feared the outsider and blamed them when things go wrong.

Which seems ridiculous. as we are all descended from the many invaders and immigrants that have come to this country. My family mix being mostly from Great Britain, but 8% Ireland/Scotland/Wales and 7% from Norway. So I'm part Viking and part Celt, at least according to my DNA analysis results.

Anyway back to 'Kerblam!'; it only occurred to me on my second viewing yesterday that the title as well as being the name of the retailer also references what will happen when the bubble wrap is popped.  Even Rose Cat likes to roll around on bubble wrap, though with less explosive results, thankfully...

The robots were suitably sinister and raised memories of both 'The Robots of Death' and 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy', plus Twirly was rather sweet.

The main guest cast were excellent. Julie Hesmondhalgh as Head of People Judy Maddox is brilliant, she gives a wonderfully sympathetic performance. She truly cares for those that work in the warehouse and perhaps could do with some help keeping up with the 10,000 people working there.

Lee Mack brings lots of character and fun to the ill-fated Dan Cooper and it makes your heart sink when you realise that he is doomed, especially after the mention of his daughter.

Lee Flanagan is fabulous as the misguided Charlie Duffy and Claudia Jessie is very sweet as Kira Arlo. Callum Dixon brings a coldness to Jarva Slade, but he ultimately turns out to be on the side of the angels.

And as the Voice Of Kerblam!, 'Broadchurch' Series One killer Matthew Gravelle brings a charm and sympathetic air to both the System and Twirly, while being suitably sinster as the teammate robots.

All in all I really liked 'Kerblam!' and hope that Pete McTighe will write another 'Doctor Who' in the very near future.

Our video about 'Kerblam!' can be seen here.

(Written by Lisa Parker)

Doctor Who Series 11 so far

Doctor Who Series 11 so far

As we are more than half way through Series 11 I thought I'd take a look at the stories so far.

There have been some complaints about the fact that none of the villains/monsters have got their comeuppance, as they have all got away at the end of the story. But perhaps that reflects real life as sometimes justice fails to be served.

Although this has been disproved in this week's episode 'Kerblam!' as the villain is killed by his own plan.

I also like the idea that all of the villains/monsters are either human or humanoid. The creatures (apart from the Remnants who were genetically engineered) have generally been hungry or confused.

In last week's episode 'Demons of the Punjab', the demons of the title were not the aliens who simply came to remember the dead but the humans who because of their beliefs came to cause Prem's death and to make Umbreen a widow on the day she was married.

It was a beautiful episode and for me joint favourite of the series along with 'Rosa'.

And little did I realise that I would be talking to its writer Vinay Patel about his gorgeous cats (who go by the unusual names of Chill Cat and Pretty Cat) just a few days later.

He recommended some books to read on Partition, one or two of which I will be getting at some point soon as I am interested in the stories of the people who were there and the stories of those that made the decision on it.

The preceeding story 'The Tsuranga Condrum' was not liked by all, but I rather enjoyed it. The characters were interesting and I really loved the Pting. The expression on its little face at the end when it has absorbed all of the energy from the bomb and goes floating off into space is wonderful. I really hope that a  plush version of the Pting is released with glowing tummy of course.

'Arachnids In The UK' is a story that many people did not like simply because they do not like spiders or didn't like the feel of the story.

Again I rather liked it; the spiders were quite cute and I like to think that before the Doctor picks up 'Team Tardis' that she not only rescues the spiders from Robertson's panic room but takes the one trapped in the flat and drops them of somewhere safe. Metebelis Three perhaps?

As I mentioned above 'Rosa' was until last week's episode my favourite of the series, featuring the inspiring story of Rosa Parks, who to my shame I knew very little about before this story and the little bit of research I did prior to it. I now have her autobiography and look forward to reading her story.

'The Ghost Monument' felt very like 'The Keys of Marinus' as it has aspects of that story and even an Arbitan-like figure in Art Malik's Ilin, though he is a less likeable character.

And Shaun Dooley's Epzo and Susan Lynch's Angstrom are certainly wearing more clothes than Altos and Sabetha and possibly have more in the way of character too.

Jodie's debut episode 'The Woman Who Fell To Earth' has many moments that I love, with one of my favourite moments being the snatch of the new theme tune under her first scene.

I also love the scene in the charity shop when the Doctor is choosing her new outfit, though I hope she helped tidy up all of the clothes she rejected.

And the TARDIS must provide her other similar t-shirts to match the one she starts with, or else she has been round a lot of charity shops offscreen.

All in all I'm really loving the feel of this series so far; it's fresh and each story is very different to the one before. I like the fact that we've had no returning monsters and that we are getting lots of different threats.

We've just watched 'Kerblam!' and I must say that I really enjoyed it. I think I need another viewing of it to get some of the finer details as I got a little bit distracted trying to work out the name of the actress playing Kira, but on the whole I really enjoyed it.

Next week 'The Witchfinders', a story I'm very much looking forward to for lots of reasons. The period is one I'm very interested  in and of course the wonderful Alan Cumming, who is King James, is a great actor and once sat next to Warren on a plane to Scotland.

So he's almost part of the 'Round The Archives' family.

(Written by Lisa Parker)

Episode 28 now available

Episode 28 now available

Episode 28 of 'Round The Archives' sees us broadcasting in 525-lines instead of the usual 625 as we present the first of two editions devoted to American television.

Martin Holmes investigates 'The Murder Of Sherlock Holmes', the very first episode of 'Murder, She Wrote'.

And Mr Scott finds himself under suspicion when the original crew of 'Star Trek' encounter a 'Wolf In The Fold'...

The plan is that Episode 29 will follow as soon as possible, but in the meantime we'd be very pleased if we can pick up a few new listeners in America. So, if you know anyone who might enjoy what we've done so far, please give it a plug.

So come back soon for more of the same!

Episode 28 of 'Round The Archives' can be heard here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)
('RTA' comic strip by Martin Holmes)