Hello again

Did you miss me, yeah, while I was away? as Gary Glitter once famously said, though we mustn’t mention his name these days, must we.

When did you last hear a GG record on the radio? A long time. He’s been pretty well airbrushed out of history, whilst some people get away with it. Funny old world. All I can say is that I really liked his first album and played it constantly, alternated with Astral Weeks. But I was pretty well zonked out most of the time back in those days. Read More

Catching up on old TV

A bit on the quiet side last week, with not much happening to write home about, so I didn’t. Too busy working on the 101 Best Crime Series book which meant I’ve been too involved in watching TV to do anything else. Especially as my dear friend Nick (The Web Wizard) David has dug me up some box sets of old TV series. And I mean dug up, as in some cases they look like something from the graveyard. Check out these B&W babes. No Hiding Place, Z-Cars and 156 (Count ‘em) half hour episodes of Highway Patrol. Yeah, I know, my mum told me about them. But one classic series turned up as well. Prospects, starring Gary Olsen (sadly deceased, too young) and Brian Bovell, set on the Isle Of Dogs when it was still an Enterprise Zone. Bloody marvellous. I loved it when it was on Channel 4 in the eighties, and I think I love it even more now. All these came from a company called (I think) tv- memories, although all that’s on the covers is Memories & Nostalgia, nothing more. No info, just photos of everyone from Dixon Of Dock Green to Jimmy Nail in Spender. Anonymous. I hope they’re street legal. Read More