"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)

U-Friend Or UFO

U-Friend Or UFO

It's a very strange part of Cricklewood that 'The Goodies' seem to live in, and in 'U-Friend Or UFO' (4th February 1980), you might be forgiven for thinking that it has more in common with Portland in Dorset, especially given the name of the company that the crane comes from when Tim is impersonating Superman...

We're still working our way through Series Two in our Watching-It-All-In-Order journey, but we were home earlier than usual on Friday and I just felt like jumping ahead to a later one, as I felt there was more potential to talk about stuff.

And you can barely move for the copyright infringements here, with Graeme's EB-GB robot sure to ring a few bells with George Lucas. Even when it dons a slight disguise, it only trundles into Terry Nation territory, which is equally dangerous ground.

The influence of 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind' and 'Superman' are blatant, but it took Andrew Pixley to tell us that there really was a show about a flying nun. Logically enough, it was called 'The Flying Nun', which at least meant you got what it said on the tin.

But one suspects that Graeme's UFO-spotter persona was on the minds of Steve Parkhouse and Dave Gibbons when they created the character of Maxwell Edison in the 'Doctor Who Monthly' comic strip 'Stars Fell On Stockbridge'.

We liked the way the activities in the park were strictly regulated with each interest group having their allotted time period. All 'Dirty Persons' should arrive between the hours of 11pm and midnight, though you can hang around longer if you're also a Tramp. The cross-over between these two tribes is not made clear.

There is no specific hour for Copyright Infringers, however, as the events of this episode seem to indicate that you can do this 24 hours a day, so long as nobody notices...

Our video about 'U-Friend Or UFO' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

Jiggling Yer Schedules

Jiggling Yer Schedules

Sometimes it's hard to remember what we've announced where and who we've told our secrets to, but even more so when you've got rough outlines for the next four podcasts in your head at once.

We've said that just because Martin might have rendered the three magic words 'Round The Archives' in a certain font should not be taken as absolute proof that we're covering a series any time soon. It's always handy to have some spare designs knocking around, of course, but if we're going to do a couple of episodes themed around American series, then the above might be a bit of a clue. Although I've just clocked that technically, it should be yellow not blue, given that we'll actually be doing 'Wolf In The Fold' from Season Two...

The plan is that we record with Warren tomorrow, thus completing all the main material we need for Episode 28, with the option to do something for Episode 30 if we feel like it.

Pairing a Jack The Ripper episode of 'Star Trek' with Martin's look at 'Murder, She Wrote' works quite well, we reckon, and it also means that the subjects for Episode 29 fit together better, as should become obvious.

I've had a quick trawl through BBC continuity on YouTube for 'Star Trek', but sadly I've not tracked down an announcer calling it 'Star Track', which I'm sure happened on more than one occasion, unless my aged memory is cheating.

But there is some stuff surviving from the days when the adventures of Kirk & company (no relation to 'K9 & Company', but you can imagine the title sequence, if you like) were a core part of the schedule on BBC 1, before being bumped over to the 6pm slot on BBC 2.

The above line up is from 10th November 1978 and is for the episode 'Shore Leave'. That schedule is well worth a look as Derek Jacobi crops up on 'Jackanory' and PJ Hammond is writing 'Target' shortly before 'Sapphire & Steel' are assigned.

Not in 'Target'.

That WOULD be weird...


(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)

Top Hat And Tails

Top Hat And Tails

Funny, isn't it? When literary critics talk about robots, which is rare enough, they are more likely to discuss the work of Karel Capek or Isaac Asimov, than they are such names as Bob Block or Jeremy Lloyd & David Croft.

But we are 'Round The Archives' are not afraid to grasp the nettle and, after turning our attention to 'Roberts Robots' in Episode 23 of 'RTA', it's time to talk about The Robots Of Dance in 'Are You Being Served? : Top Hat And Tails'.

Despite the usual parlous state of the sales graphs, Young Mister Grace has splashed out a couple of robots with capabilities that are way beyond the technology of 1976, implying that the combined team of Mister Harman and his chum Mister Ludlowe (spelling taken from IMDb, so there is some room for error, especially as the DVD subtitles render it as simply Ludlow) are two of the most gifted engineers in the world even by today's standards.

Until recently, we weren't familiar with the 1995 'Dad's Army' radio production 'The Boy Who Saved England' which presents us with a storyline involving Winston Churchill robots, an idea which also crops up in 'The Goodies : War Babies'.

But this straying into the realms of fantasy begs some questions about the whole fictional universe of 'AYBS?' as surely a little more development work could see poor Mister Lucas threatened with replacement by an android if he annoys Mrs Slocombe much more in the future.

The strange 1976 US comedy / detective show 'Holmes & Yoyo' sees John Shuck with a cheap-looking control panel in his stomach, and 'Come Back Mrs Noah' is looming on the horizon, so The Robots Of Grace Brothers isn't such a way-out idea, given the general writing climate.

However, this is just a subplot for this week's episode and, perhaps wisely, no-one wastes time following through with the implications.

Though a bionic Young Mr Grace ('The Six Million Y-Fronts Man'?) might have been worth considering. They clearly have the technology...

Our video about 'Top Hat And Tails' can be seen here.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)