Top of the Pops 28th March 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Bruno Brookes: “Hello, good evening, and welcome to the world’s number one music show. This is Top of the Pops. Hope you’re well. Okay it’s a Minogue who’s going to start us off on the show tonight, this record has already been number four in [adopts hilarious Aussie accent] Australia, and Love and Kisses of course is produced by the wonderful Danni Minogue.”

 [31] DANNI MINOGUE: LOVE AND KISSES. Is this a new set, or just a rearranged Triangle Stage? I think it’s the latter. The main omission is the big perspex cross, seen to good effect in Feargal Sharkey’s performance last week. David Lock has also slung three tightly-packed rows of horizontal lights over the top of the stage. This gives it the appearance of having a fixed roof, whereas before the top was open. It’s really surprising how a couple of very minor changes can have a big effect on the look. 

Project Hail Mary review

 

Based on the novel by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary is a tricky film to pin down. Part sci -fi odyssey, part environmental allegory, part charming if unconventional buddy flick, it travels as far as its main character does. Already being talked up as an Oscar prospect I would hesitate to place it quite so high yet it is hugely enjoyable, packed with imaginative vistas and tense scenarios. It is best seen on an IMAX screen where you, too, can travel to infinity and beyond.

Spoilers beyond this break

One Piece Season 2 Eps 5 to 8 reviews

The second half of the second season - time to meet Tony Tony Chopper!! 

Spoilers in the reviews from the start...

Wax On, Wax Off (wr Joe Tracz / dir Christophe Schrew)

By now we know to expect the unexpected when it comes to One Piece and this episode is a particular example of how eccentric a series it can be. Despite the tropical island setting there’s an air of Victorian macabre in the villainy afoot, a contrast to the bold heroics of the previous episode. As the gang each fall victim to sundry powers that exchange their personality or leave them isolated its at the hands of antagonists who can wield wax or paint with strange qualities. The first half of the episode seems to enjoy stretching these ideas as wide as Luffy’s rubbery abilities with a certain repetition creeping in.

Top of the Pops 14th and 21st March 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

14/03/1991

Simon Mayo: “Good evening. Welcome to Top of the Pops. A stonking [points at red nose attached to microphone] good edition we have today. Gonna start at number eighteen with a guy who’s never been on the show before. Back in the sixties his dad was on the whole time, he was Chip Hawkes from the Tremeloes. Here’s his son Chesney, the one and only. This week’s number eighteen. Go for it Ches…”

 [18] CHESNEY HAWKES: THE ONE AND ONLY. It’s Red Nose Day Eve, 1991. The night before the funnest day of the year. I hope you were ready to be pushed down a hill in a bath of trifle for charity. Everyone in the studio, well nearly everyone, is doing their bit wearing the 1991 brand red noses with little hands coming off the side.

I like the way David Lock opts to light Chesney Hawkes and friends with white spotlights that really make them stand out from the purple and blue lighting scheme, and the vast areas of darkness in the studio. Apart from that, I have little to say about the first act of the evening. (John- It is obligatory to mention that this song was written by Nik Kershaw and that this was indeed Ches' one and only hit)

One Piece Season 2 Eps 1 to 4 reviews

 

Sophomore seasons of a successful tv show always face a dilemma. Do they try and simply reproduce the signatures of the first season or do they strike out in new directions? Luckily for One Piece, the map was already drawn. The debut season, two and a half years ago now, established the world, brought together the Straw Hat pirates and only by the last episode did they have the capabilities to try and realise Monkey D Luffy’s ambition of becoming king of the pirates by claiming the One Piece. So the second season was always going to be different. If none of this makes sense, then you probably do need to watch season one before delving into the follow up. In fact the One Piece story, as told in the comics, is so vast and on going perhaps we will never see this quest end.

This first half of the second season delves deeper into the lore of the story, introducing some bizarrely attired and strangely superpowered characters while seemingly playing with a bigger budget. A show not to be taken over seriously but never to be underestimated, One Piece is close to perfect.

 Spoilers in the following reviews...

Top of the Pops 7th March 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Nicky Campbell: “Oh, tonight’s Top of the Pops, let me tell you, is one of dazzling lustre and it’s a rare privilege to introduce to you to rock and roll megaliths, two living legends, two demi-gods, two super heroes, two big hairy bottomed, stonkermongers, Hale and Pace.”

 [10] HALE & PACE & THE STONKERS: THE STONK. Nicky Campbell is once again picked to be the host of the Comic Relief edition. Last time, 09/03/1989, he was joined by Lenny Henry and Hale & Pace, as The Management. This time The Management are onstage but Campbell’s overcooked introduction kills any opportunity for humour well in advance.

Science Fiction Monthly (1974-76)

 The Seventies was the golden age of monthly and weekly magazines which crowded the shelves of WH Smiths and John Menzies as well as local newsagents. One of the most visually memorable was Science Fiction Monthly. Due to being tabloid size (sixteen inches by eleven inches), like the weekly music magazines, rather than the conventional magazine size it stood out already. Yet what really made it dazzle were the covers. Gloriously colourful and evocative works depicting strange aliens, unusual planets, asymmetrical spaceships and much more were ideal images to stick on your bedroom wall! Which actually was the point!

Harold and Maude (1971)

 When Harold and Maude was first released in 1971 it bombed at the box office yet ever since it’s grown in reptation through repeat screenings in smaller cinemas and eventually physical media. Nowadays many film aficionados rate it as an all-time classic and I tend to agree with them while acknowledging its not a film for everyone. It’s eccentric narrative heralds individuality over conformity via two individuals whom you would think have nothing in common and showing what they do have.

Top of the Pops 28th February 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Jakki Brambles: “Hello, good evening, and welcome along to Top of the Pops. This is the nation’s top TV music show and we’re linking up live with Radio 1FM to broadcast across the nation some audio bliss into your living room. It’s a bit of a groover tonight groovers and we’re starting off at thirty two. This is N-Joi and Adrenalin.”

 [32] N-JOI: ADRENALIN. [Deleted loads of stuff about the 2000AD series Zenith, and Phase III in particular. The series transformed stuffy old sixties comic character Robot Archie into an acid-house aficionado called Acid Archie who would do things like riding around on a T-Rex decorated with flower power symbols while shouting “MAD MENTAL CRAZY!” It’s not remotely relevant to Top of the Pops but the moment this performance started I thought it would be the kind of thing Acid Archie would love. Buy all four Zenith books if you’ve never read them*].

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms review

 It’s been a while since I’ve engaged with Westeros. Maybe it was the disappointing ending to Game of Thrones but I’ve skipped the spin off.  This series, set a hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, however is a lot of fun and when the inevitable action happens it is filmed very inventively so it seems different. More than anything it is more relatable than the lives of Kings and Princes and fronted by two likeable characters.

Top of the Pops 14th & 21st February 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 14/02/1991

 Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope you got loads of Valentine’s Cards. Welcome to Top of the Pops. We’re in Stereo on Radio 1FM and we have five acts in the studio tonight. Now with it being the most romantic night of the year it’s only right that we start off with a little bit of devotion, here’s Nomad. MC Mikee Freedom.”

 [3] NOMAD: (I WANNA GIVE YOU) DEVOTION. Gary Davies is on a stage festooned with heart balloons. Just for a moment it appears that Top of the Pops has gone all out on Valentine’s Day decorations. Right up to the point the camera pans away and it’s clear all they’ve done is put £20 (1991 value) worth of balloons around the Neon Tube stage and stood Gary Davies in the middle of them. Cheapskates.

"Wuthering Heights" review

 Those quotation marks, deliberately placed around the title on posters, tell you a lot about the latest big screen version of Emily Bronte’s classic. Their presence is both somewhat pretentious and also a suggestion that aficionados of the story may find this film not quite what they expected.  Not so much the Wuthering Heights as a Wuthering Heights. Even those of us who’ve never read the book are familiar with it’s beats and its mix of bleak landscape and unbridled passion that has inspired a number of versions, shameless copycats and even the famous pop song.

Small Prophets review

 

In his more recent work as both a writer and director Mackenzie Crook has drawn vivid portraits set within rural surroundings. His latest project relocates to the more urban locales of Manchester with equal success. The story may be surrounded by semi detached houses, alleyways and large shops but the focus of Crook’s lens and scripts remains intricate and hopeful. He combines the rich character work and easy conversation of Detectorists with the whimsical fantasy of Worzel Gummidge to create something both unique yet strangely familiar.

Top of the Pops 7 February 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Bruno Brookes: “Good evening. Welcome to another fabbo Top of the Pops. The music brilliant as ever. We’ve got New Kids On The Block a little later, Gloria Estefan, The Simpsons, just to name a few. First of all we’re gonna start with a new entry at number twenty one, the song G.L.A.D. and the singer Kim Appleby. Yo!”

 [21] KIM APPLEBY: G.L.A.D. The BBC1 schedules have returned to normal and Top of the Pops is back to a running time of 30 minutes. However, this week there’s a greater reliance on music videos so it looks like this edition was planned with one eye on the assumption that it might need to be cut down to 25 minutes. The increased use of videos might reflect viewer demand but I suspect its because it’s simpler to snip out The Night Fever Megamix if the BBC goes War News Crazy again and tells the programme to lose five minutes.

Wonder Man review

 

The thing you can nearly always guarantee about Marvel tv shows is that each will have its own distinct flavour and style. In many ways these have been better than some of the films which haven’t always managed to match the individuality of the small screen series. Based on a comic character who first appeared in an Avengers story in 1964, Wonder Man is not, despite the name, simply a copy of Wonder Woman nor does it seem to have much in common with its protagonist’s print life at least not yet. Its almost a pre origin story.  While in the comics, he had the superhero costume for this series Simon Wiliams has been reinvented in a more down to earth scenario. The results though are considerably more interesting than if he simply was another bright costumed aeronaut.

Top of the Pops 24th and 31st January 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

24/01/1991

Simon Mayo: “Hello. Good evening. Here we go again. Another Top of the Pops. We’ve got a slightly shorter than normal programme tonight so we’ve got some... slightly shorter than normal pop stars. We’ve got Rick Astley, we’ve got The Simpsons on, Queen at the end of the programme, and Robert Palmer as well. We start at number twenty six with Tongue ‘N’ Cheek and Forget Me Nots.”

 [26] TONGUE ‘N’ CHEEK: FORGET ME NOTS. The BBC has gone all-in on coverage of the Gulf War. I’ve taken a quick look at the 24/01/1991 schedule printed in the Evening Standard and once Going for Gold finished at 2.25pm you could watch live coverage of the war all the way through to 5.05pm. The kids programmes were all booted on to BBC2, so two and a half hours of conflict were followed by the Thursday repeat of Film 91, which normally ran on BBC2. Film 91 neatly filled the gap until Neighbours. Then an extended Six O’Clock News ran until 6.45pm and was followed by a shortened local news programme. This had an awkward 20 minute running time that required Top of the Pops to begin at 7.05pm and end at 7.30pm for Eastenders.

Amadeus (1984)

 I’d never seen Amadeus despite its Oscar heavy reputation and wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s definitely not an accurate historical drama as a lot of the story is either heightened, changed or invented yet it is still an intriguing film. Director Milos Forman and scriptwriter Peter Shaffer, adapting his own acclaimed play present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart not as some stuffy relic but as a pop star of his day complete with bad behaviour, bold dress sense and a refusal to conform. Yet he’s also brilliant, rustling up an opera in a few days and delivering a prodigious amount of music in a short time. 

The Wild Robot (2024)

 

Some films are so full of joy and whimsy that you can’t resist them, however much you realise you’re being led carefully through a story that touches on belonging, motherhood, friendship and standing together. Delightfully animated with just the right balance between digital sheen and more realistic tones delivered in kaleidoscopic colour at the speed of sound, The Wild Robot is such heartfelt fun.

 

Top of the Pops 19th January 1991

 

Words: Chris Arnsby

 Nicky Campbell: “Welcome to Top of the Pops” [pauses, does an exaggerated forward lean and looks over shoulder]. “You're in for a thirty minutes of untold aural and visual delights. And what a start. They come from Hackney in the east end, they've just taken America by storm with a top twenty hit, first appearance on Top of the Pops. Soho.”

 [26] SOHO: HIPPYCHICK. The VT countdown clock at the start of the master tape says this programme was scheduled for transmission on 17/01/1991 but the file supplied to me by Billy Smart is called 19 January 1991. Surely some mistake?

02/08/1990. Thursday. Iraq invades Kuwait.
20/11/1990. Tuesday. The United Nations Security Council sets 15/01/1991 as a deadline for Iraq to withdraw their forces.
15/01/1991. Tuesday. The deadline passes.
16/01/1991. Wednesday. Top of the Pops is recorded. Later, the multinational military coalition begin bombing Iraq.
17/01/1991. Thursday. The television schedules are ripped up to accommodate round the clock coverage of the war. The Six O'Clock News runs for an hour with the regional news bumped back to 7pm displacing Top of the Pops, which is moved to Saturday at 6.25pm. 

Z Nation Season Four (2017)

 Warren’s Dream

A two-year time jump and an apocalyptic vision open the fourth season in unexpected surroundings. Instead of the usual scrub and semi desert or empty warehouses and factories we’re in a sterilised, shiny environment amidst well-manicured lawns and impressive houses. This is ZONA and it seems that since the dramatic season three finale in which most of the cast appeared to have been killed Warren has been here in a coma. Director Abram Cox layers on the atmosphere as Roberta’s awakening from her slumber comes with strange visions of flesh melting rain, a black rainbow and long, long road. These keep flashing at us during crucial moments during this and most other episodes this season. Its definitely a change of tone for the series.

Top of the Pops 10 January 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Jakki Brambles: “Hello. Good evening. And welcome along to Top of the Pops. Allow me, first of all, to wish one and all a happy and healthy 1991. Got a good old show lined up for you tonight. We're starting off with a band celebrating a decade in the business of popular music. Please will you welcome, at twenty nine, Bananarama.”

[29] BANANARAMA: PREACHER MAN. The Main Stage is looking very purple tonight. Rod Litherland is on Lighting and he's seemingly hired every lilac light in London and set them off with a few blue highlights.

Top of the Pops 3 January 1991

 Words: Chris Arnsby

 Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. Happy New Year from everybody here at Top of the Pops. We're coming to you live from Television Centre, we're also in stereo on Radio 1FM. Something for everybody on the show tonight. A lot of variety. We start off at twenty nine in the charts with Twenty Four Hours. Over there! Betty Boo!”

[29] BETTY BOO: 24 HOURS. Welcome to 1991. It's just like the end of 1990. Remember how I spent 600 words complaining the 20/12/1990 edition only had one studio performance? Well, that again but with the production team working twice as hard. Hope you like, Betty Boo and Seal. (Fortunately I do).

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

 

While this 1951 classic has a melodramatic title, poster and indeed opens in similar fashion it’s actually a thoughtful movie which, after the initial sequence of an alien spaceship landing in Washington, takes on more of the feel of a smaller film despite its large subject. Its biggest asset is in making the events however unusual almost documentary like at times as if this is something that could easily happen. For much of the time the film never steps over the top into melodrama, helped by a perfectly pitched performance by Michael Rennie and an aesthetic that still seems extremely cool seventy five years later.