VISION ON SOUND

ADAM HENLEY returns to talk about watching the BLAKE'S 7 Series Two Blu-rayFirst broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 22nd 2026.This week we welcome back ADAM HENLEY, who last year guided us through year one of BLAKE'S SEVEN after its Blu-ray release, and he's back again now to do the same for the recent release of year two, a season of tragic endings, new beginnings, lucky escapes, some non-escapes, professional disappointments, drama, excitement, high camp, new writers, and Michelin men.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, wishes you were here to hear him discuss humour in THE AVENGERS.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 15th 2026.This week PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, is back, although this week we're going to try and get away from the Antipodean content that his recent appearances on VISION ON SOUND have tended to concentrate on, and instead focus on a subject that is almost certainly more familiar to connoisseurs of British archive television: THE AVENGERS, that latterly most quirky of 1960s television drama series.Our idea was to talk about (and hopefully appreciate) the more humorous aspects of this particular show, showing its development and evolution away from its more urban thriller and kitchen sink dramatic roots in the early 1960s, to the urbane, witty, and charming version as seen during its final season in which PATRICK MACNEE's John Steed was paired with LINDA THORSON as Tara King, and PAUL picked out a particular episode that he considered to be one of the more broadly humorous ones for us both to watch.This was WISH YOU WERE HERE, episode twenty of series six, written by TONY WILLIAMSON, and directed by DON CHAFFEY, and, whilst what follows isn't exactly an episode guide-style examination of that show, it did provide us with an excellent prompt for a conversation about humour in TV drama series that includes references to other episodes of THE AVENGERS, THE NEW AVENGERS, DOCTOR WHO, and even CORONATION STREET, and I hope that you find the next hour as entertaining as it was for us to record it, even though PAUL wasn't in the most conducive of places (technically) on the day of recording.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS gets random again, mostly about Black & White TV.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 8th 2026.This week, WARREN CUMMINGS returns to the show for another of our random meanders in and around the crazy world of archive TV, and this week our focus is mostly in black and white, as we were prompted by the kind of nonsense I've been picking up second-hand on DVD, which led us via the fascinating series that was THE STRANGE WORLD OF GURNEY SLADE starring ANTHONY NEWLEY, to a chat about the careers of actors such as JOHN LE MESURIER, BRIAN WILDE, and NORMAN WISDOM before we focussed on the 1960s for a while with Z-CARS and THE PROTECTORS, and then went on to address why television audiences always seem drawn towards the characters who are clearly the “right bastards” that in real life we might go out of our way to avoid.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, on some archive Australian Cop Shows.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 1st 2026.This week PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, is back on his quest to discover and share as many obscure Australian television shows with you as possible, such are the fascinating compulsions of the archive TV fan. PAUL's motivation is often down to wanting to see other work by some of his favourite actors, and he selects his box sets because of what appeals to him personally, and not through any requirement to experience them in broadcast order.This week, his exploration of the Australian Drama series takes a look at three more shows that he's been acquiring and investigating, all of which are hour long – or more accurately fifty minute - police dramas dating from the late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies; HOMICIDE (not to be confused with the later American series, a show which ran for thirteen years from 1964 and racked up over 500 episodes; DIVISION 4, which began in 1969 and ran for seven years and over 300 episodes; and MATLOCK POLICE which started in 1971, ran for five years, and offered nearly 230 editions.PAUL admits that all of these shows are fairly new to him and, at the time of recording, he had only watched a handful of each, but I'm very grateful to him for taking the time to watch these shows to get a taste of them and share his experiences with the rest of us.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER on the best of 2025's TV Blu-Ray releases.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 25th 2026.This week, STEVE HATCHER suggested that we chat a little about the best archive TV Blu-Rays that came out last year, and, as it was a bumper year for quality releases, we found that we had rather a lot to talk about. So, as well as inevitably discussing the most recent releases of BLAKE'S SEVEN and DOCTOR WHO, we consider the new CHRONICLES OF NARNIA set, and also sink our teeth into some of the new range from HAMMER FILMS (which have at least two television related titles in their collection so far), and the brand new set of THE NEW AVENGERS, as well as a very welcome release for the obscure children's serial OBJECT Z, and, as they say, much, much more, including some observations on the nature of collecting archive material generally.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS joins me to discuss how TV affects our moods.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 18th 2026.This week, I invited WARREN CUMMINGS back again because I wanted to talk about television and how it can affect our moods. Whilst I was expecting to end up discussing whether or not watching the news channels is a good thing or a bad thing, and whether it's best avoided, WARREN, as expected, took the topic in a whole other direction, and I think that led to a far more interesting hour, as I hope you'll agree if you stick around to listen.So, the following hour will take us on a journey from the final QUATERMASS series, via some peculiar observations about THE GOOD LIFE and the heavily armed businesspeople of the 1960s and 70s, THE NEW AVENGERS, the animated version of STAR TREK, MORTIMER & WHITEHOUSE GONE FISHING, SLOW HORSES, EDGE OF DARKNESS, TW3 and Z CARS, and a whole lot of other distractions as we discuss the kind of television that causes our spirits to either wilt, or soar to the heights of, well, not exactly ecstasy, but certainly somewhere at least vaguely enjoyable.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

TYLER ADAMS joins me to discuss THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE MASTER BLACKMAILER.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 11th 2026.This week we welcome back - after far too long an absence - our friend TYLER ADAMS whose popular GOON POD podcast has become the very benchmark for everything that you should ever need to know about that peculiarly British radio comedy phenomenon, THE GOON SHOW, the Goons themselves, just about everything relating to them, and British comedy in general, and is well worth tracking down.For a bit of a change, however, TYLER suggested that we talk about a subject that is not Goon related, nor is it even a comedy topic, which is THE MASTER BLACKMAILER a feature-length offering from GRANADA TELEVISION's now legendary SHERLOCK HOLMES series featuring JEREMY BRETT as HOLMES and, in this instance EDWARD HARDWICKE as DOCTOR WATSON.This episode, featuring an astonishing guest appearance by ROBERT HARDY, was part of THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES selection which followed on from their very popular ADVENTURES OF and RETURN OF series, and comes from 1992, eight years after the series first began, and during a period when the series was experimenting with a longer format for the short stories after previously only extending the episodes for adaptations of the CONAN-DOYLE NOVEL-LENGTH stories, THE SIGN OF FOUR and, inevitably, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI tells me all about some archive Australian dramas - but possibly not the ones you were expecting.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 4th 2026.This week we welcome back our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, and this week he's going to venture into perhaps territory rather familiar to regular listeners to VISION ON SOUND.Because I expect it will come as absolutely no surprise to any of you that we will be discussing that favourite topic of PAUL's, the Australian Drama series.But, thanks a particular DVD outlet called Eaton Films making a lot more archive material available – at least as far as Crawford Television productions are concerned - PAUL has been expanding his personal experience of the Antipodean televisual universe, and over the course of the next hour we will be discussing (amongst other shows) two series, one of which is called THE BOX and the other is COP SHOP.Following a 90minute Pilot THE BOX ran from February 1974 through to October 1977 and across those slightly under four years managed to clock up an astonishing 603 episodes, 474 of which were half an hour, and the remaining 128 running to 60 minutes.As with a lot of the shows PAUL likes to encourage us to see, it's described as a Soap Opera, but it's unusual in being a drama set in a fictional television station in Melbourne, and, like several shows in which television chooses to turn the dramatic spotlight upon itself, it can occasionally prove to be ground-breaking and perhaps slightly controversial, at least with its forward-looking attitude to the sexuality of its characters, and in featuring occasional glimpses of on-screen nudity when such things were far less likely on television.COP SHOP was – perhaps unsurprisingly - a long running police drama series, and across its seven years of production from 1977 to 1984 produced an incredible 582 fifty-five-minute episodes. In comparison, the seven seasons of HILL STREET BLUES produced 146. They are, of course, very different in style, with COP SHOP perhaps more resembling THE BILL in terms of what it looks like, but it's still an astonishing rate of production for a police series.And whilst PAUL'S heart will probably always belong to shows like NEIGHBOURS and SONS AND DAUGHTERS, I think you'll find his enthusiasm for these other shows infectious, and may find your credit cards screaming from whichever purse or wallet you keep yours in.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

LISA PARKER on some of her recent TV viewing.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 28th 2025.This week, our friend LISA PARKER returns to share some of her recent viewing experiences with us, which, perhaps unusually, is mostly outside what we generally get to talk about whenever LISA shows up.This triggers some rather interesting conversation prompted by programmes as diverse as MISS MARPLE, SERGEANT CORK, DOCTOR WHO, Z CARS, HORRIBLE HISTORIES, and even STAR MAIDENS in another of those sometimes rather more investigative explorations of a viewer's experiences of viewing archive television that I like to think that VISION ON SOUND sometimes does so well.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI, discusses A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 21st 2025.It's Christmas time and (as any fule no), that's a time when ghosts and ghoulies tend to crawl out of the wainscoting, and trouble the very worst of us into at least thinking about changing our ways, and perhaps trying to become better people, whatever that may mean.Often, such transformations have already fizzled out before the doors open for the Boxing Day Sales, but at least once a year there's that one small hope that some of us have at least tried to embrace our fellow inhabitants of planet earth for a few hours of the year as it, too, changes its own directions and heads back towards the sun, or away from it, depending upon where you happen to be loitering upon its surface.This Christmas week we welcome back our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, and he wanted to talk about a peculiar phenomenon known as A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS which ran on the BBC throughout most of the 1970s, and has since been sporadically revived in this century.Over the next hour, as it's VISION ON SOUND and we tend to have our little archive TV ways, we mostly concentrate on the original 1970s run, but we have already seriously given some thought returning to cover the later films on another occasion, perhaps when the sun is beaming down and those dark and scary corners can't conceal any horrors that might wish to lurk there.So, amongst other creepy tales, we will be talking in a fairly non-spoilery way about THE STALLS OF BARCHESTER, A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS, LOST HEARTS, THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS, THE ASH TREE, THE SIGNALMAN, STIGMA, and THE --- ICE --- HOUSE…PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS explores TV in real time.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 14th 2025.This week, WARREN CUMMINGS is back again for another of our more random telly-related chats, which ultimately leads to us having a lengthy discussion about the structure of how we watch modern television, and involves things like comparing the different storytelling styles of TV mini-series and feature films, via the early 21st century high-concept thriller series “24” and “Big Brother”.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

NICK GOODMAN discusses three JACK GERSON thrillers.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on December 7th 2025.This week, NICK GOODMAN was very eager to press his personal Fast Return Switch because he wanted to share his particular enthusiasm for three of the BBC thriller series written by JACK GERSON which were all produced by ROBERT McINTOSH across three consecutive years around the turn of the 1980s.These were RUNNING BLIND in 1979, based on the novel by DESMOND BAGLEY, and starring STUART WILSON, which was followed over the course of the next two years by a pair of not entirely thematically dissimilar three-part thriller serials THE ASSASSINATION RUN and THE TREACHERY GAME which featured MALCOLM STODDARD and MARY TAMM in the lead roles.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS continues his analysis of UKTV comedy by talking about THE GOODIES.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 30th 2025.This week, following on from his recent insights into TV comedy, WARREN CUMMINGS is back, this time to dedicate our entire hour to talking about one of his favourites, THE GOODIES which featured BILL ODDIE, GRAEME GARDEN, and the late and much-missed TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR as that wacky trio who somehow managed to reflect and represent between them the Britain of the 1970s in classic comedy form, as we move on into a world of puppet governments, giant kittens, trouser-squeezing disco, sausage-related martial arts, and all manner of other satire disguised as nonsense.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, on some of his favourite female comedy performers.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 23rd 2025.This week our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, returns in response to our recent edition in which we did our best to try and analyse some television comedy.PAUL noticed that much of the comedy we were talking about was focussed on the work of the male comedy performers and writers, and he, quite rightly, thought that he ought to redress the balance and talk about some of the many female comedians who he has enjoyed the work of, and who have inspired him over the years.So, whilst we start off perhaps inevitably discussing the state of TV comedy in general, once we get that out of the way we spend the bulk of the next hour talking about PAUL's favorites from, amongst others, the likes of LUCILLE BALL, ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY, BEA ARTHUR, BETTY WHITE, RUE McCLANAHAN, VICTORIA WOOD, DAWN FRENCH, JENNIFER SAUNDERS, TINA FEY, and, whilst we did at least mention her in our previous conversation, DIANE MORGAN.I think it makes for a fun, thoughtful, and inciteful hour, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS and I, perhaps unwisely, try to analyse some TV comedy.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 16th 2025.This week, in a show we recorded earlier in the autumn just as VISION ON SOUND returned from its summer hiatus, I welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS once again, and we took the opportunity to delve deep into an area that is always a little bit outside my personal comfort zone, as we tackle the tricky little matter of television comedy in as analytical a way as we are capable of, as we consider whether or not some of the recognised classics from the archives are as enjoyable as we like to believe they are.This was prompted by me picking up a bit of MONTY PYTHON on DVD and finding some of it to be “difficult” to watch, and WARREN throws the somewhat problematical nature of some of SPIKE MILLIGAN's television work into the mix, before we move into a broader consideration of the comedy of a different time.Over the course of this hour we'll also touch upon some radio comedy, some TV sitcoms, and the work of metaphorical comedy giants such as PETER COOK and DUDLEY MOORE, as well as talking rather fondly about shows like ALEXEI SAYLE's STUFF, VIC REEVES' BIG NIGHT OUT, THE YOUNG ONES and the more recent work of DIANE MORGAN whose PHILOMENA CUNK is one of the more successful recent comedy creations.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER presents some more of his recent TV viewing.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 9th 2025.This week we welcome back STEVE HATCHER once again to continue our series of conversations about some of his eclectic television viewing choices.Steve has a life long love of television and – like many archive TV fans - is always adding to the mix that makes up his own personal TV schedule based around some of the archive TV channels, things he finds on online channels, and his own extensive DVD and Blu-Ray collection which means that he is constantly exploring the fascinating and more obscure corners of the television archives and finding new and often forgotten series to talk to us about.Not that he confines himself to the dusty old corners of television that some of us have been known to loiter in. STEVE is also interested in television that is bang up to date and only available to subscribers to some of the streaming channels, and likes to add some of those shows to the mix when they appeal to him.So during this week's show we will discuss the vampiric horrors of WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS a series which has recently drifted off to what we (perhaps inappropriately in this case) called TV HEAVEN, and is now very much in the archives. Keeping with the horror theme, we also discuss the small miracle of the surviving fragments of the late 1960s BBC Horror Anthology LATE NIGHT HORROR which have been saved for posterity thanks to KALEIDOSCOPE.Different kinds of horrors are explored in the historical dramas SHADOW OF THE TOWER, FALL OF EAGLES, and THE STRAUSS FAMILY which we also touch upon in what I think is an entertaining hour spent trawling the more obscure corners of the worlds of Archive television.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI's TOP TEN BRITISH CHILDREN'S TV SHOWS.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on November 2nd 2025.This week our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, returns to present yet another of his Top Ten choices, which this time is his choice of his all time favourite British Children's Television shows.As with his other Top Ten selections, I think that you might be a little bit surprised by several of PAUL's choices, and, of course, there is a vast archive of quality options that have to be left out when you're making a list like this, and several forgotten classics often pop into the mind almost as soon as you've finished speaking.As ever, PAUL's Top Ten choices, might set you thinking about what your own favourites might be, and whether you might want to share them with the wider VISION ON SOUND community. As always, if you would like to appear on the show and share your own Top Ten choices about anything Archive TV related, feel free to let me know via the usual Social Media outlets, and we might be able make it happen some day.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS takes us on a journey into some Action TV.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 26th 2025.This week we welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS who initially joined me for a bit of a random TV viewing catch up. We start out talking briefly about our recent viewing choices of shows like THE SECRET AGENT, TAKING OVER THE ASYLUM, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and M*A*S*H, but our conversation then takes a sudden sharp handbrake turn as we find ourselves talking at some length about the more action-orientated TV shows, prompted by mentions of THE EQUALIZER, THE PROFESSIONALS and CALLAN: THE MOVIE, amongst others, and we end up giving some serious consideration to the wisdom or otherwise of portraying vigilantism as entertainment.I sometimes think that VISION ON SOUND works extremely well when we take a random route to a totally unexpected subject after being prompted by this simple idea we once had of talking about archive TV, and I hope you will enjoy the next hour as much as we did.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER reveals more of his eclectic television playlist.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 19th 2025.This week we welcome back STEVE HATCHER once again to continue our series of conversations about some of his eclectic television viewing choices.Steve has a life long love of television and – like many archive TV fans - is always adding to the mix that makes up his own personal TV schedule based around some of the archive channels, things he finds on the Tube that is You, and his own extensive DVD and Blu-Ray collection which means that he is constantly exploring the fascinating and more obscure corners of the television archives and finding new and often forgotten series to talk to us about.This week he will mostly be introducing us to several sitcoms, some of which you will have heard of, a couple of which you may actually remember watching, but nevertheless all of them are largely forgotten by the viewing public at large.So over the course of this week's show we have a natter that includes the GEOFFREY PALMER-led Channel Four series FAIRLY SECRET ARMY, a kind of not really spinoff from THE FALL AND RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN written by David Nobbs; we'll blow the dust of the once hugely popular ITV hit that was THE ARTHUR HAYNES SHOW, and we'll also take a peek at the BBC 2 delight that was HOW DO YOU WANT ME? which featured DYLAN MORAN alongside FRANK FINLAY and two actors who left us far too soon, CHARLOTTE COLEMAN and EMMA CHAMBERS.And just to keep things balanced towards the broader and perhaps more dramatic regions of the television spectrum, we will also touch upon the 1960s BBC drama anthology series DETECTIVE which ran for three series across five years in the latter part of the 1960s and, across its 45 episodes, introduced a whole range of detectives to the viewing audience, many of which were neither SHERLOCK HOLMES nor MAIGRET, despite the programmes often being introduced on screen by RUPERT DAVIES himself.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

MICHAEL HERBERT talks about DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 12th 2025.This week we welcome back MICHAEL HERBERT whose popular recent biography of the television writer MALCOLM HULKE “THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM” has been released into the world for about six months now, but it is still available via Lulu Books.MICHAEL hasn't lost interest in the life and work of MALCOLM HULKE yet, however, and earlier in the year he suggested that we might talk specifically about one of his DOCTOR WHO stories for today's episode, in a conversation which we recorded on the 22nd of JULY 2025. So, over the course of the next hour, we will mostly be talking about a seven-part story from the very first colour series which had the title DOCTOR WHO AND THE SILURIANS and which was first broadcast in 1970, and starred JON PERTWEE, CAROLINE JOHN, and NICHOLAS COURTNEY.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

NICK GOODMAN revisits the television year of 1975.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on October 5th 2025.This week we're welcoming a new voice to VISION ON SOUND, NICK GOODMAN, and he's here to talk about the television of 1975, and the effect it had on making him the archive television fan he is today.So I hope you enjoy what you hear as we end up chatting about THE GOODIES, THE CHANGES, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, DOCTOR WHO, SPACE: 1999, although, let's be honest, I DIDN'T KNOW YOU CARED…PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER shares some of his eclectic viewing.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 28th 2025.Such is the wibbly-wobbly nature of how I put the schedule for VISION ON SOUND together that this week's show features a conversation I had with STEVE HATCHER way back in July after he'd not been on the show for a while, in which we discussed his then recent viewing choices.Obviously since then there has been our appearance at WHOOVERVILLE 16 which went out a couple of weeks back, so you will have heard him more recently, even if, when we recorded it, you hadn't.Or something like that anyway.Anyway, all will either become clear, or perhaps it will hardly matter at all, as we have a TV viewing related chat that covers a wide range of TV series including FAMILIES LIKE OURS, BOB SERVANT, THE DETECTIVES, PATIENCE, THE GOLD ROBBERS, VILLAINS and THE PROFESSIONALS…PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

MICHAEL SEELY talks to me about CALLAN.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 21st 2025.This week's show features the return to VISION ON SOUND of one of our guests MICHAEL SEELY, the prolific archive TV author, researcher, and publisher of several books which forensically explore topics as diverse as THE NIGHTMARE MAN, DOOMWATCH, and the almost totally forgotten R3, through his SATURDAY MORNING PRESS imprint.MICHAEL got in touch with me because, earlier in the summer I'd been giving the TV series CALLAN a long-overdue re-watch, because it felt as if it had been far too long since I'd seen any of the surviving episodes from the black and white series which began on ABC television in 1967 after a successful pilot as part of the ARMCHAIR THEATRE strand, and was popular enough to be picked up by THAMES TELEVISION and continue into the colour era, eventually having four series of containing 44 episodes of which 34 survive.It was also remade as a feature film in 1974, and was resurrected for a one-off television play in the early 1980s.CALLAN is one of those somewhat legendary series from the 1960s and 1970s which gets talked about a lot – often in hushed, awe-filled whispers – in archive television circles, so I make no apologies for returning to the subject today.I'd been extolling its virtues online and claiming it as a classy example of how writing, direction, and performance can build suspense and tension in a multi-camera studio situation, push the boundaries, and create something terrific, occasionally shocking, and utterly intense within those limitations.MICHAEL popped up to remind me how brilliant EDWARD WOODWARD's intensity was, and how it sells the whole thing and, after an exchange of messages, we both agreed that his return to the show was long overdue, and the following conversation, recorded on JUNE the 18th 2025, is the result, and I do hope that you enjoy it.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

VISION ON SOUND at WHOOVERVILLE 16.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 14th 2025.This year, for the fourth consecutive year, VISION ON SOUND was invited to once again take part in the annual event organised by the DERBYSHIRE WHOOVERS known as WHOOVERVILLE.This year was the sixteenth WHOOVERVILLE, or WHOOVERVILLE 16 as it was known on the day, and it took place on AUGUST THE 30th 2025 at THE QUAD creative centre in the very heart of the city of Derby.I'd been invited along by two of the main organisers for the event, STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON who are both old friends of VISION ON SOUND and have racked up several appearances on the show between them, and I'm always terribly grateful to both of them for their continuing support and enthusiasm for this show.STEVE managed to persuade the lovely M.C. PAUL GRIGGS to join us on the stage to chat about old TV for half an hour or so, and there was a promise of the sound engineering legend that is BRIAN HODGSON joining us later on in the session.I'm presenting the interviews featuring in this edition of the show unedited and as raw as on the day we recorded them, and so we find me in the middle of setting up some recording equipment as we attempt to get STEVE HATCHER, PAUL GRIGGS and myself on stage to try and have a natter that at least partly involves a few thoughts about the archive TV that all of us here at VISION ON SOUND know and love.Later we are indeed briefly joined by the legendary BRIAN HODGSON, and the show finishes with a catch up I had with STEVE a couple of days after the event.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS on THE STONE TAPE.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 7th 2025.I suppose it's something of a welcome back, of course, after the show took a few weeks off for personal reasons.Well, to be perfectly honest with you, after two hundred and fifty episodes on the bounce, I was basically knackered, and running on fumes, and decided that the world was unlikely to stop turning if I skipped a few weeks.Now I am rather sorry that we dropped off the air unannounced, which did confuse some of our loyal listeners for a while, but it was all rather unplanned, and the show had already been uploaded for transmission and such is the wibbly-wobbly way I put this show together, I didn't get the opportunity to add a tag scene with Tara to explain what was going on whilst I poured gallons of ginger pop masquerading as the expensive stuff.It also meant that I allowed an entire summer to pass without addressing that faux pas that featured in our last show about American sitcoms, with the small matter of one of them not being American at all, but a Canadian show. Some might say that I could play the “North America” card, or wait for the day when a particular Orange turnip finally gets his own way on that matter, but all I can say as an excuse is that most of our chats on VISION ON SOUND are fairly spontaneous, and until I can persuade someone to sit in on our recording sessions, poised at their laptops and ready to pounce on any slight errors we make, then they are occasionally going to slip through, even though we try our very best to at least give the vague impression that we know what we're talking aboot.Happily for me, those fabulous people at FAB RADIO were quite willing to be very forgiving, and keep the show's slot available to welcome me back when I was good and ready, and, whilst some life stuff that I'm not going to bother you with is currently still making production of the show more of a slog than it might otherwise be, we're back and ready to head into the autumn with a whole stack of as yet unheard interview recordings made before the production pause until we get into the giddy process of making a whole new batch of shows.So today we'll start off with WARREN CUMMINGS returning (yes, him again!) to talk about – in our usual roundabout sort of a way - a personal favourite of his, THE STONE TAPE, as written by NIGEL KNEALE and broadcast on Christmas Day 1972. We recorded this on the 17th of June, so it's somewhat appropriate that it found itself preserved in silicon to be released into the world a few months later, but could still come back and haunt you forever, should you wish to listen again one day.Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER presents THE SHY YETI's Top Ten USTV Sitcoms.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 20th 2025.This week our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, returns to present another of his Top Ten choices, which this time is a follow up to him recently presenting his choice of his all time favourite British Sitcoms, as this week he crosses the Atlantic to give us his personal selection of his favourite American sitcoms.As with his other choices, I think that you might be a little bit surprised by several of PAUL's selections, and, of course, the vast archive of quality options that have to be left out when you're making a list like this. I'm sure that, if I'd spoken to him on another day, perhaps they might have been completely different. Two of them, after all, even change their places during the course of this conversation.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS talks TV fashions.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 13th 2025.This week WARREN CUMMINGS is back again, and this time we decided to take a slightly irreverent look at the notion that our enjoyment of archive television might be reduced simply because of the fashions being worn or the appearance of the people that turn up in it. Does a great contemporary drama, or a classic comedy series now look just a little bit silly because the characters are wearing terrible fashions, have ridiculous haircuts, or sport quite ludicrous facial hair? And will the cutting edge series currently being made and shown look just as ridiculous in a few years time.All of this was prompted by a mention of some terrible underpants in an episode of a classic TV drama series that we mentioned in passing a few episodes ago, so we really do have to be very careful of what we are talking about and where it might take our explorations of the archives next time…PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS talks about those 1960s puppet series.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 6th 2025.This week I welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS once again, and this week he wanted to talk all about the Gerry Anderson puppet series of the 1960s, and, although his take on them might be somewhat different to the version you might normally expect when we talk about archive television, I do think we had an entertaining, if highly animated discussion, all about FOUR FEATHER FALLS, FIREBALL XL5, STINGRAY, THUNDERBIRDS and CAPTAIN SCARLET.And whilst we did also manage to take in THE ADVENTURES OF TWIZZLE and TORCHY THE BATTERY BOY in passing, we somehow managed to almost completely forget about SUPERCAR, which is the kind of thing that happens when you get carried away with the things that you are actually talking about.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

LISA PARKER on CROWN COURTFirst broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 29th 2025.Recently, LISA PARKER, one of the regular contributors to the radio programme known as VISION ON SOUND found herself in court. This was not, however, because she had done anything wrong, but because she had been called up for jury service, and she felt compelled to do her civic duty.After this experience was over, because it had inspired her to start re-watching CROWN COURT, Granada Television's iconic afternoon drama series from the 1970s and 1980s, she contacted the show and suggested that we might want to talk about that series for a programme, and today's offering is the result of that conversation.Today, on VISION ON SOUND, she presents her evidence of the enduring greatness of those many serialised dramatisations of events in Fulchester CROWN COURT…PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI's Top Ten British Sitcoms.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 22nd 2025.This week our friend PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, returns to present another of his Top Ten choices, although this time we go into perhaps more familiar territory for Top Ten discussions with him presenting his choice of his all time favourite British Sitcoms.And whilst you might think that we're covering some entirely predictable ground with this choice of topic, I think that you might be a little bit surprised by several of PAUL's choices, and, if nothing else, they might set you thinking about what your own choices might be, and whether you want to share them with the wider VISION ON SOUND community.If you would like to appear on the show and share your own TOP TEN choices about anything Archive TV related, of course, feel free to let me know via the usual Social Media outlets, and I'll see what I can do.Meanwhile, this particular episode of the show was beset by some terrible technical problems, and I'm very grateful to PAUL that we were able to salvage as much as we could to present this show to you at all, so I can only apologise for any sound issues that there may be. I will try harder in future. PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS on television characters and likeability.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 15th 2025.Likeability is an elusive thing. I certainly have spent a lot of my life not feeling that I have any of it, but on television, the likeability, or otherwise, of the characters, the situation, or even the programme itself can have a lot of bearing upon whether a show is ultimately successful, or memorable, and the likability of the stars, or the characters they are playing, can shape or break careers in the area of comedy, drama, and light entertainment alike.Many TV personalities have benefitted from the perception of likeability that the general public has about them, and many have risen to great heights in the public consciousness, and some have fallen just as quickly if that likeability gets scratched away or is revealed to be nothing more than a light veneer.Similarly, some great and popular TV shows have become forgotten once their likeability has faded and the whims of a fickle public have moved onto other things.But what exactly is “likeability” anyway. Some dreadful people have become the Nation's Favourites, and some truly depressing television programmes have somehow seized the public's affections and become runaway hits despite looking appallingly unlikeable when they first appear.I've recently been watching a couple of seventies sitcoms that still bear the distinction of being “much loved” featuring performances by “much loved” actors playing “much loved” characters, despite those characters, with the benefit of hindsight, being some of television's most selfish and monstrous creations.To discuss this quandary, I've invited back the always likeable WARREN CUMMINGS, for what I hope is an entertaining conversation which takes this notion as our starting point, and which takes us on a journey which considers the pros and cons of such likeable characters as TOM & BARBARA GOOD, TERRY MEDFORD, DEN & ANGIE WATTS, BERT LYNCH, THE MASTER, BLAKE'S SEVEN, ALF GARNETT, and even ANGELA RIPPON.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI's Top Ten TV Sidekicks!First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 8th 2025.This week's show sees another swift return for the perennial friend of VISION ON SOUND, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, and this week we decided, in the fine tradition of archive TV retrospectives throughout the decades, to have a go at letting PAUL do a TELEVISION TOP TEN.Naturally, he didn't want to do ANY OLD Top Ten. Oh no! PAUL wanted to try something a little more avant garde, a little more off the wall, and away from the mainstream, and so the Top Ten that we discuss during the next hour is all about his favourite TV sidekicks, or at least his favourites for the morning we recorded the show. And, being PAUL, whilst his list might include some very familiar and not unexpected TV pairings, and one or two might seem entirely predictable if you've been following our conversations over the years, I still hope that a few of them might surprise you – especially with regard to the dynamics of just which of them he considers the sidekick to be – and some of them might even shock you, although probably not enough to make any of you require counselling.As ever, our conversation based upon those choices goes off in some wildly unexpected directions, but I hope they give you an entertaining and perhaps even thought-provoking hour, which, if they do inspire you to think of a few of your own Top Tens, do please get in touch, especially if you feel like you might want to share them with us in a future edition of VISION ON SOUND.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS has been watching THE VIEW FROM DANIEL PIKE..First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on June 1st 2025.This week, WARREN CUMMINGS is back again and, when I finally allowed him to, he really wanted to talk about a Scottish drama from the early 1970s that he's discovered called THE VIEW FROM DANIEL PIKE and which starred RODDY McMILLAN.Naturally, that's not all we talk about, and this hour encompasses a lengthy discussion about the joys of regional drama in general, 1970s drama in particular, and, perhaps most importantly, kipper ties, drop leaf tables, and terrible underpants.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS has been rewatching THE X FILES.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 25th 2025.This week, my regular co-host on the show, WARREN CUMMINGS has started on his re-watch of the 1990s sci-fi drama phenomenon from the mind of CHRIS CARTER which was, of course, THE X FILES, a ridiculously successful show that ran for nine seasons, spawned two feature films, and has since been resurrected for mini-series several times.The show featured the weekly adventures of two FBI agents as they investigated the kinds of strange and unusual phenomena that had been deemed worthy of inclusion in the infamously secret “X” files of the FBI, and involved investigations into such fascinating areas as the paranormal, the supernatural, the unexplained (including the possibilities of visits by aliens in unidentified flying objects), and attempting to untangle – or further entangle – all manner of the conspiracy theories that persisted towards the end of the increasingly paranoid 20th century.The series made stars of its two lead actors GILLIAN ANDERSON, who played the ever-sceptical DANA SCULLY, and DAVID DUCHOVNY, who played investigator and want-to-believer-in-chief FOX MULDER.Very much in the television tradition of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER and the recent hit at that time TWIN PEAKS, and borrowing much of its imagery from popular films of the time like THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE X FILES also spawned a spin-off in the form of THE LONE GUNMEN, and in no small way led to the creation of the remarkable series MILLENNIUM, which is in itself a significant stepping stone in the history of the police procedural, and the coming of shows like CSI in the following decade.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI considers some TV remakes.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 18th 2025.This week, we're returning to a topic that we cover from time-to-time here on VISION ON SOUND, that of the television shows that were so popular, or made such an impact, that, in the absence of any better ideas, the television production companies decide to remake them in a new era, often (although not always) with a new cast, and sometimes with an almost completely different set up which means that the new version barely resembles the original other than by sharing its name.You can see why it seems like a good idea. Often the original is so fondly remembered that you've almost certainly got a built in audience before you even start, and even if a large proportion of that audience is unimpressed by your efforts, there might still be enough interest to keep you on air long enough to build your own audience who are just as loyal to your show as the old audience was to theirs.A popular recognised brand does seem to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting a show off the ground and whilst some may think that the new version might taint the original in some way, the classics still remain, and the new version can become just as fondly remembered by an entirely different section of the viewing audience.The eighties classic crime caper BERGERAC has recently made a comeback, so it only seemed right to invite one of that show's biggest fans, PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself along to share his opinion on that, as well as discussing a few of his own favourite television remakes in a far reaching conversation that brings in such delights as THE NEW AVENGERS, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and MISS MARPLE.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS gets all eclectic.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 11th 2025.This week, WARREN CUMMINGS is back for another of our eclectic little meanders around the fringes of this strange little obsession we have with the thing we call Archive TV. As ever, we start off not really knowing where our conversations are going to take us, so, whilst we begin with a few reflections on the Christmas TV viewing delight that was WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL, we deviate through such murky waters as the reimagined version of THE PRISONER from 2008, the antipodean sequel to THE ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY, and give some consideration to the whole philosophy of classic TV remakes such as VAN DER VALK and BERGERAC.As we are in a philosophical mood we also pay a brief visit to what was perhaps HILDA OGDEN's most astonishing television moment, and mull over the various dramas that investigated what happens when the investigators are investigating the very institutions that they work for in BETWEEN THE LINES and REDCAP.Not only that but, as is our wont, in this packed hour, we also give a little thought to the future of television, and mull over the influence or otherwise of the celebrity lead actor upon our lives.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

LISA PARKER with someof her recent TV viewing.This week, after far too long an absence, LISA PARKER from the ROUND THE ARCHIVES PODCAST is back and, as is often the case, we spend a very pleasant hour just chatting about what kind of archive television shows she and her partner ANDREW have been watching during the intervening months.So we talk a little bit about their recent viewing choices which include season thirteen of DOCTOR WHO (The one that includes such classics as TERROR OF THE ZYGONS and THE SEEDS OF DOOM which is yet to be released on Blu-Ray) and her recent rediscovery of the nineteen-nineties sci-fi classic BABYLON 5, and if both of those series don't convince you of our sci-fi credentials this week, we also give a nod towards PICARD, season seven in the DOCTOR WHO BLU-RAY COLLECTION, and even BLAKE's SEVEN.Although, to be fair, the bulk of our conversation is given over to an appreciation of Z-CARS (as can currently be enjoyed on TPTV) and her recent rediscovery of THE COLLECTORS, an almost forgotten one-series wonder of a drama series which was filmed in the town of POOLE where they now live, which prompts a few thoughts on the joy of seeing familiar locations in the TV series we enjoy.And if that's not enough, we also get a swift update on their epic CROSSROADS marathon viewing, and touch on one or two other series along the way.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on May 4th 2025.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER with some more "forgotten" TV sitcoms.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 27th 2025.STEVE HATCHER is back this week, and this time he's been watching a selection of the more obscure and mostly forgotten British sitcoms from the 1960s, so, over the next hour, we'll be discussing his thoughts on THE LARKINS, HUGH AND I, NEVER MIND THE QUALITY FEEL THE WIDTH, NO THAT'S ME OVER HERE, TWO IN CLOVER, and the DUSTBINMEN, as well as one or two other rarities related to those series.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON (plus guests!) on ACE OF WANDS and AN AUDIENCE WITH TAROT at DERBY QUAD.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 20th 2025.On SATURDAY the 29TH of MARCH, our friend ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON along with his colleague STEVE HARDY organised an event at THE QUAD in DERBY to celebrate all things ACE OF WANDS, the popular (but largely now lost) children's fantasy drama series created by TREVOR PRESTON which was made and broadcast by THAMES TELEVISION for three years across 46 episodes, and 14 stories from 1970 to 1972.Two of the series' stars, TAROT himself MICHAEL MACKENZIE alongside PETRA MARKHAM who played MIKKI DIAMOND in the surviving third season, were on stage to answer questions and available to pose for photographs with fans, and two complete stories - THE MEDDLERS and PEACOCK PIE - were shown on the big screen, and, by all accounts it all went down rather well and was something of a success which hopefully might lead to other similar Archive TV themed events.I was unable to attend in person, but happily our old friend STEVE HATCHER was on hand and was able and willing to grab a few quick interviews with MICHAEL, PETRA, and co-organiser STEVE HARDY which will pop up during today's show, in which I am joined by STEVE HATCHER and ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON to talk all about the enduring appeal of ACE OF WANDS, as well as their experiences of the event itself.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI and IRWIN ALLENFirst broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 13th 2025.Recently, I've been re-watching a whole load of late-era VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA episodes, as well as a smattering of examples from THE TIME TUNNEL, and this set me to thinking that I'd quite like to talk to one of my regulars about the quartet of high-concept television adventure series that were created by IRWIN ALLEN in the mid 1960s, which also included LOST IN SPACE and LAND OF THE GIANTS.Across a highly productive five years from 1964, around three hundred episodes of these shows were produced for the American networks, which, in an era of three main channels, where having just one show on the air is quite some achievement, is nothing short of impressive.Granted, the IRWIN ALLEN productions can sometimes be rightly accused of being a little bit eccentric or simplistic in their storytelling, and perhaps sometimes concentrate far more on the action and not so much on the drama, but these four shows definitely influenced a generation, both at home, and internationally, as they were sold across the world, and excited young minds wherever and whenever they were broadcast.Furthermore, such were the strong ideas at the core of these shows, that elements from all of them have often been taken and used in other series that built upon the imaginative ideas that were always at the core of IRWIN ALLEN's shows.Anyway, after our shows last year in which PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI joined me to talk about various quartets of classic USTV shows, he seemed the obvious choice to join me this week to mull over his experiences of discovering these four shows during their repeat runs in the 1980s, and I hope you enjoy the hour as much as I did.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

ADAM HENLEY on BLAKE'S 7 series oneFirst broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 6th 2025.A couple of months ago, a new voice joined us on VISION ON SOUND in the form of ADAM HENLEY, and he introduced himself by talking about both his personal television history and a little bit about THE WEST WING.This went so well, that ADAM felt like making another appearance and, as he'd just finished watching the exciting new Blu-Ray release of the first series of BLAKE'S SEVEN, we thought we'd spend an hour having a bit of a chat about this iconic late 1970s BBC science-fiction series as it gets re-introduced to its long-standing fans and, perhaps a brand new generation eager to explore this fascinating dystopian drama.BLAKE'S SEVEN was a science-fiction series created by TERRY NATION who had been one of the early writers on DOCTOR WHO, for which he created the iconic Daleks, and he had also created the post apocalyptic drama series SURVIVORS for the BBC a few years earlier, so this exploration of a rebellion against the forces of the evil Federation was definitely just the sort of bleak vision of the future that you might expect from him.The series itself lasted for four series and fifty-two fifty minute episodes and ended on a shattering cliffhanger that definitely left its scars on a generation of television viewers just before Christmas 1981.Its first season introduced BLAKE played by GARETH THOMAS and his loyal–ish gang of rebels and freedom-fighters as played by SALLY KNYVETTE as space pilot JENNA, MICHAEL KEATING as lock-picking wizard VILA, DAVID JACKSON as the man-mountain GAN, JAN CHAPPELL as the telepathic alien CALLY, and PAUL DARROW as the enigmatic AVON who would eventually take the leading role as the series progressed. They were helped enormously by the fact that they luckily managed to acquire the super starship LIBERATOR and its wise master computer ZEN, as voiced by PETER TUDDENHAM, and this was how the original SEVEN was made up.Towards the end of the first series, and another devastating cliffhanger that helped give the show an astonishingly high profile at the time, another super computer ORAC was introduced, which changed the dynamic of the show in its second year.The forces of the Federation were mostly represented by JACQUELINE PEARCE as SERVALAN, a powerful and ruthless woman prone to wearing astonishing gowns, and STEPHEN GREIF as TRAVIS, a hate-fuelled leather-clad cyborg with an eyepatch and a gun for a hand, and they crossed swords with BLAKE and his crew on several occasions during the second half of this series.Fans of BLAKE'S SEVEN had been waiting a long time for it to get the Blu-Ray release that they felt it deserved, with many of its special effects updated from their somewhat low-budget and dated roots, and ADAM was one of the enthusiastic early adopters, and was very eager to share his enthusiasm with us today.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER on twenty years of "New Who" (part two)First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 30th 2025.Last week, as you hopefully already will know, STEVE HATCHER joined me to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the revived version of DOCTOR WHO from CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON right through to the current incumbent NCUTI GATWA, and, whilst we had a long chat about the show, we did fail to address the copious notes that STEVE had made in preparation for that show, for which he had selected his one favourite episode - or story – from each of the DOCTORS from across those twenty years.So it really only seemed fair to invite him back to discuss those stories, why he chose them, and make our little VISION ON SOUND celebration, or acknowledgement, into a two-part episode that hopefully brackets the anniversary week in a most satisfying way.Also, please try not to worry. We're not trying to make this show into yet another DOCTOR WHO themed production. There's plenty of other archive telly just waiting to be talked about. It's just that, well, the DOCTOR WHO community do have a lot to say, and sometimes that show does pass one of those significant milestones that we really can't ignore, given that its longevity does mean that its name runs through popular TV archive history like letters through a stick of rock.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

STEVE HATCHER on twenty years of "New Who"First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 23rd 2025.This week, perhaps rather astonishingly, March the 26th will bring with it the twentieth anniversary of DOCTOR WHO returning to our television screens in its shiny new incarnation after a rather lengthy break which found it pretty much adrift in the time continuum for over a decade and a half, despite the odd big night in to entertain us with.During those “wilderness years” there had been several glimpses of the old Time Lord who simply refused to fade away, and the show had been managing to flourish in other formats, but it was only when RUSSELL T DAVIES presented his own uniquely updated take on the show, now featuring CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON in the lead role alongside BILLIE PIPER as ROSE TYLER, that the true potential of this once hugely neglected science fiction masterpiece was rediscovered, and became something of an unexpected television smash hit in the year 2005.Since then the show has become something of a cornerstone of the television schedules, not least around Christmastime and continues to go in and out of fashion and divide its fans and enemies almost in equal measure, with several fine actors DAVID TENNANT, MATT SMITH, PETER CAPALDI, JODIE WHITTAKER, and NCUTI GATWA taking on the role across the last two decades.This week we welcome back our old friend STEVE HATCHER who specifically asked if he could come back to talk about DOCTOR WHO for this anniversary, which prompted what I hope you will find an enjoyable meander around the many lives of the Time Lord and their fans.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON on the voices behind the puppets.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 16th 2025.This week we welcome back our old friend ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON who's making a much-postponed return to VISION ON SOUND. ANDY is the one of our regular contributors to the show who I feel is our expert on all things to do with the GERRY ANDERSON productions of which he is an enormous fan, so, when DAVID GRAHAM, the much loved actor responsible for giving us the voices of PARKER and BRAINS in THUNDERBIRDS - as well as a whole host of other brilliant performances - died in September last year at the grand old age of ninety-nine, we had planned to get together and record a show in his honour, but various gremlins got into the works, so it never happened.Instead we attempted to regroup in January and broaden our scope into a discussion about the many actors who performed in series such as FOUR FEATHER FALLS, FIREBALL XL5, THUNDERBIRDS, CAPTAIN SCARLET and, most particularly STINGRAY, so that's what we attempted to do during the next hour, as we discuss, amongst others, the work of names such as RAY BARRETT, SHANE RIMMER, LOIS MAXWELL, and, of course the wonderful DAVID GRAHAM. You may not have known some of their faces, but their voices shaped a generation.Now, obviously, those gremlins really don't appreciate a tryer, and, despite our persistence, there were still some sound issues during this recording, for which I can only apologise, and which all seems somewhat ironic, given that we were simply trying to talk about voice performers, and the great joy they brought to people over the years.Anyway, because we had such an enjoyable hour, I've done my best to salvage what I could, and I hope that you'll find this fun conversation worth sticking with despite any of the slight sound issues that there may still be.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI returns to give me a little bit of encouragement.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 9th 2025.At the start of this year I will admit to feeling very fed up, and I spent a lot of time wondering about the future of VISION ON SOUND, and about whether it even had a future, to be honest, or whether the time had come to jack all of this nonsense in. I know that a lot of people get the January Blues and, this year, I was very much one of those people.Happily, because a lot of the reason we turn up on the air each week is because very kind people offer to talk to me about television, and a lot of them had given me their time in December, most of the shows that you've been hearing so far this year were taken from that stockpile of interviews, opinions and conversations, that somehow kept us staggering on through those bleak, cold Sunday evenings at the darkest time of the year.I only recorded one show in January and it was this week's edition, in which I used PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself, as a sounding board, and therapist, to discuss some of the issues that I'd been having, and somehow, over the course of this hour, he managed to cheer me up and persuade me that talking about archive television really isn't the terrible waste of time that I'd been beginning to suspect that it was.I hope you enjoy the next hour, as I think it gave me just a little bit of hope that the things that I continue to persist in doing aren't quite as useless as I sometimes think they are when the midwinter blues have me firmly in their grip.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

THE WAR GAMES in BLACK AND WHITEFirst broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 2nd 2025.Shortly before Christmas, prior to it being shown in a very different version, Michael Herbert roped in his pal BRENDAN NOBLE from THE SENSE SPHERE PODCAST to talk all about the epic ten-part 1969 DOCTOR WHO story THE WAR GAMES which was written by TERRANCE DICKS and the subject of the biography he's written, MALCOLM HULKE.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

DR TOM MAY on PLAY FOR TODAYFirst broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 23rd 2025.This week I'm joined by another new voice for the show, DOCTOR TOM MAY from NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY who I was put in touch with because he's written his PhD thesis all about the BBC's long running drama series PLAY FOR TODAY which ran throughout the 1970s and well into the early eighties and presented an eclectic mix of so many iconic dramas many of which are still talked about in hushed and awed tones even today.I was very kindly allowed access to read his thesis, and it really is a fascinating and highly detailed piece of work. DOCTOR TOM MAY has done the kind of astonishingly thorough in-depth research that TV archivists adore, and, luckily for us, he is planning on publishing a book based upon this fascinating topic, which should already have you eagerly anticipating being able to get hold of a copy.PLAY FOR TODAY was such an iconic and eclectic series, written by perhaps the most well-known writers of that generation, directed by some of the giants of the art, and starring many of the most iconic actors of its time, that we can probably only touch upon it in the most general terms today, but I hope you'll enjoy our efforts if you stick around for the next hour.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI on the part location plays in his TV enjoyment.First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 16th 2025.This week PAUL CHANDLER, THE SHY YETI himself returns to talk about a subject that he himself suggested, which is all about the locations used on television series, and how much of an effect filming in real places has upon his own enjoyment of a programme.So, whilst inevitably we touch upon several of his favourites such as DOCTOR WHO, BERGERAC, TREASURE HUNT, NEIGHBOURS and DARK SHADOWS, we also manage to venture into the more philosophical territory of the sense of reality, the proliferation of green screen technology, and the sheer delight of being able to say “been there!” when somewhere you've visited pops up on your TV screen, or the leaps of imagination that occur when a potted palm plant on a balcony comes to represent the entire exotic possibilities of venturing to foreign parts.We also give some consideration to filming locations both artificially constructed, or completely genuine and wonder about the value they might add to the series we are watching, or the support they give to the performances of the actors, and, as ever, I'm very grateful to PAUL for taking ourtopic du jour and taking it off in some quite unexpected directions, which is, I suppose, what I hope we try to do in some of the better conversations we have here on VISION ON SOUND.PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

WARREN CUMMINGS on our shared cultural TV heritage. First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 9th 2025. This week we welcome back WARREN CUMMINGS for another of those television themed conversations that we like to have that can take us practically anywhere from the prompt I set us up with. This week I'd been fretting somewhat about my cultural life in terms of what people laughingly call Britishness, and often try to test people on. Does the fact that I pay little attention to many of the shows that many other people enjoy and share their experiences of matter very much in the great scheme of things. Does my ignorance of all things STRICTLY, or ROYAL, or SOAP OPERA-Y, or TRAITORS, or OLYMPICCY, or FOOTBALLY mean that I might not pass the tests when the thought police come crashing through my door and demand that I prove my knowledge of our alleged shared cultural heritage? Such things, perhaps unnecessarily, tend to bother me during the wee small hours, although thankfully I have come to realise that other shared phrases and responses “'AVE A BANANA!” tend to bind us together more than we think, and the advertising jingles of our youth might prove more uniting than we might often be aware of. Listener beware – this edition of VISION ON SOUND might include something not entirely unlike singing. You have been warned! PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

ADAM HENLEY talks about his TV history and THE WEST WING First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on February 2nd 2025. This week we welcome a new voice to VISION ON SOUND, that of ADAM HENLEY, an archive television fan who I first met when he offered to help out with some of my technical support when I was recording our live show on stage at WHOOVERVILLE in Derby last September. He expressed an interest in taking part, and suggested we might talk about THE WEST WING for the show. However, because he hadn't been on the show before, I also wanted to talk a little bit about his own life as a fan of television, so, whilst we do get to THE WEST WING in the end, it's on a journey that takes via LOGOPOLIS, the PYE TUBE CUBE. THE YOUNG ONES, EASTENDERS, BLACKADDER GOES FORTH, THE TIME MACHINE, and the films of POWELL AND PRESSBURGER to finally reach the Oval Office, which is certainly a very different route to the one taken by the current incumbent, and I hope that you'll stick with us for the full term of this edition of the show, which is, luckily enough, only going to take up an hour of your time. PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

BEN BAKER urges everyone to "KISS YOUR TELEVISION" First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 26th 2025. This week we welcome back BEN BAKER to VISION ON SOUND and not just, he assures me, because he's got a new book out. He has got a new book out, of course, but that's not the only thing we talk about, although, given that it's all about precisely the sort of archive TV we like to feature on this show, and that it has the rather intriguing title of KISS YOUR TELEVISION, it most definitely was a very good place for us to start, and I do hope that you'll stick around for the next hour as, well, yes, we do mention his new book, but we also talk about a whole lot of matters arising from the topics that he's chosen to talk about in his new book. I did mention that he's got a new book out, didn't I? PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.