The ever active Big Finish Twitter account is always asking its followers which TV shows they would like to see the company bring to audio next. Each time they do, it sets me off thinking of the most inappropriate properties to get that treatment.
I did a few covers last year and posted them... but since then, I did three more.
You'll never get these made by Big Finish...
Ever...
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People forget how huge the soaps were back in the 60s and 70s. You couldn't look anywhere without seeing adverts for Corrie ice lollies and Crossroads sweet cigarettes. Kids couldn't get enough of the escapades of their favourite characters like Elsie Tanner and Amy Turtle.
Manufacturers couldn't keep up with the demand for the official ATV Crossroads motel playset so Susan Stranks off of Magpie showed everyone how to make their own from old egg shells and potato peelings.
It was fab. You had to be there.
Here's some evidence that I haven't just knocked up over the weekend.
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It started out as a little running gag on my Gerry Anderson TVTimes covers (see previous post). Noele Gordon (from TV's Crossroads) revealing her favourite biscuit to readers of the popular ITV listings magazine in a series of articles that on closer inspection seems to have run for nearly thirty years.
Despite the odd nice comment about the artistic merit of the covers, folk seemed to be more interested in the late soap queen's biscuit preference.
So, by popular request here it is... together with a selection of other noted celebrities from the late 60s/ early 70s.
(Oh and Colonel White DOES NOT look like Mike Pence!)
Click on the images to make them larger... and legible!
Yes. I've done Columbo in Space before. An off-the-wall piece with pics depicting the rarely seen crossover episode that the shabby but brilliant detective had with Space 1999 based on a Japanese graphic novel thing I couldn't translate.
But.
The recent space rocket publicity launch by Elon Musk (I'm sure that's a 70s eau de toilette brand) made me return to the subject in an effort to get a handful of titters.
Money for old rope... or something more sinister? You decide.
402nd post and I'm still stuck on viewmaster reels.
This is the last lot you'll be pleased to know as I'm finally bored with them now. You can probably tell as the humour is starting to look a little desperate now.
I've also attempted to recreate the sixties packaging as opposed to the rather basic 80s style.
Here's two more pages of Crossroads Battles in Kings Oak trading cards. (Click on them for larger repros)
No more.
For now.
The previous batch are here.
I've been sorting through my portfolio pages over the past few days. There's quite a few unfinished pieces still lying around. This was one of them. I've finished it now. I had to do something as I was minding the flat whilst the builders were refitting my kitchen. They've finished that now. We're all finished. (Except for some of the grouting round the back of the fridge.)
The Crossroads Battles in Kings Oak trading cards is (obviously) based on the Doctor Who Battles in Time trading cards that were all over the place ten or so years ago. To be honest, some of these are so obscure, I'm sure I'm the only person who finds the idea of a Crossroads trading card game amusing and tempting...
(I don't usually upload hi-res versions of my work - but these have detail in them that's hard to read otherwise. You'll have to click on them to read them fully.)
The Plaid Stallions blog recently posted an image of a rather odd Japanese tie-in book.
It seemed - as none of their writers spoke Japanese - to be a single publication featuring original fiction based on both Columbo and Space: 1999. You can read the article about it together with some clearer pics of it by clicking here.
It should be pointed out that there isn't any discernible crossover of the two universes but it didn't stop me imagining one...
(Apologies for the picture of Olive from On The Buses in a filthy bikini. It's merely provided for historical context.)
Remember Fotonovels? Back in the late seventies, before the advent of domestic video tape recording, they were a popular way of reliving your favourite movie or TV show - especially if the latter was Star Trek.
A company called Mandala Productions produced the majority of these little paperback visual treasures. The books used what we today would call 'screencaps' and comic-strip style speech bubbles to tell their tales as dynamic colourful photo stories.
Twelve episodes of the original Star Trek were given this treatment as well as the first two motion pictures - though the Wrath of Khan one was a very disappointing black and white version.
Sadly they were short-lived; no doubt replaced by then fledgling video tape market in the early eighties. They were also dominated by US material and the chances of any British TV show - let alone Doctor Who - getting the 'Fotonovel' treatment were minuscule to say the least.
Until now...
Oh and this one was probably highly unlikely as well...
I bought my first packet of Crossroads Battles in King Oak cards yesterday. Five to a pack with a selection of rare, medium rare, super rare, ultra rare and non-existent ones thrown into the mix.
It looks fun - though without any instructions, it's hard to see it lasting beyond the end of the week.
It seems that the Sapphire and Steel ice lolly was quite popular. Not surprising given the weather!
Here's another one I posted on Twitter.
The Nolly Lolly is now available in all good London eating establishments.
Buy it where you see this sign...
Nolly Flakes - Rose & Lemon Flavour
It seems the contents of this late 60s breakfast cereal were imported from Turkey. No one at the UK manufacturer's office was able to speak or read the Turkish labels on the base product before it was repackaged with Noele Gordon's face on it.
It was only when a Turkish speaking sales rep from another company spotted one of the labels that they discovered that they were actually selling cheap pot pourri.
At least consumers breath smelt nice at the start of the day...
There was a skip of stuff at the bottom of the street where I live. I had a rummage through it as any good citizen would and what did I find...? A selection of old single records no less. So I scraped the now rancid baked bean juice from them and took them home.
There were fourteen of them in all - mostly original sixties releases. In amongst them was a pleasant surprise!
An original Century 21 mini-album!
Sadly, it was not that 'Doctor Who' Dalek one with the odd narration on it. It was one of the very rare 'Crossroads' ones that I'd only heard talk of in very exclusive and hushed conversations at comic marts.
If I recall correctly, Century 21 tried their hand at releasing non-Gerry Anderson material back in the mid-sixties and they dipped their toes into new markets with a handful based on the ATV soap opera.
Needless to say, it didn't really catch on. I mean, who wanted to pay and listen to a show in sound only when they can watch it four nights a week for free on the telly.
I put the record on and found it to be crap. They used a dreadful 'space-age' version of the 'Crossroads' theme performed on a theremin and the narration by 'Sandy' was inaudible - either due to poor mixing or the actor's adenoids.
Pretty shit day really...
More "rare" Century 21 Mini-albums here.
Sorting through my old copies of the Radio Times and TVTimes yesterday, I came across this...
Back in the early eighties, ITC had a habit of joining episodes of its successful TV shows together and marketing them as movies to TV stations too stingy to fork out for the full series.
Titles like 'Journey Through the Black Sun', 'The Incredible Voyage of Stingray' and 'The Amazing Adventures of Joe 90' soon found their way onto the fledgling VHS rental market via the label 'Precision Home Video'.
I still have a copy of 'London Conspiracy' - two episodes of 'The Persuaders!' shamelessly bolted together and displaying a complete disregard for the title by not having any scenes set in the British capital! Uniquely, these tapes came in robust music-cassette style plastic boxes and like their audio counterparts, easily broke and became very scuffed and filthy looking as the years went on.
ITC attempted to create a movie from its popular soap opera 'Crossroads'. A selection of episodes chronicling the fire at the motel that resulted in the sad departure of Noele Gordon were edited together into an hour and half mini-epic. Additional scenes set at an inquiry into the fire at the Birmingham coroner's office were filmed with actors Geoffrey Keen, Shane Rimmer and Nina Baden-Semper were added to cover the joins and an additional scene which changed the storyline was filmed with Jane Rossington weeping at the graveside of her dead mum. (The latter had originally been passed off as a hoax by the press!) There we also some extra effects scenes spliced in from 'The Medusa Touch'. It was a bit of a mess really and very few broadcasters took up the option on it.
I hear that it was broadcast once in Singapore.
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| Click for larger |
Manufacturers couldn't keep up with the demand for the official ATV Crossroads motel playset so Susan Stranks off of Magpie showed everyone how to make their own from old egg shells and potato peelings. 
Despite the odd nice comment about the artistic merit of the covers, folk seemed to be more interested in the late soap queen's biscuit preference. 
But.
402nd post and I'm still stuck on viewmaster reels. 
Here's two more pages of Crossroads Battles in Kings Oak trading cards. (Click on them for larger repros)
The Crossroads Battles in Kings Oak trading cards is (obviously) based on the Doctor Who Battles in Time trading cards that were all over the place ten or so years ago. To be honest, some of these are so obscure, I'm sure I'm the only person who finds the idea of a Crossroads trading card game amusing and tempting...
The Plaid Stallions blog recently posted an image of a rather odd Japanese tie-in book. 
It seems that the Sapphire and Steel ice lolly was quite popular. Not surprising given the weather! 
