It will soon be the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest where the nations of Europe (and Australia) will gather in Vienna to camp it up something rotten.
I am reminded of a 1960s Kellogg's cereal promotion that coincided with the re-launch of their savory breakfast cereal brand - Porky Pops. (See also here.)
One of the few - in fact, the only - successful side of the original Porky Pops launch was its distinctive Doctor Who branding. Indeed, empty boxes are still much sought after collector's items. (Collectors prefer them empty as stale Porky Pops not only contravene many international chemical weapon agreements, they also smell a bit like rank semen.)
In 1968, to coincide with that year's Eurovision Song Contest, Kellogg's chose to relaunch Porky Pops with a special offer. Collect 47 packet tops and the customer could send off for 'Patrick Troughton's Book of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest'.
This was a paperback publication with over a hundred pages of information about the popular music festival written by the famous actor Patrick Troughton - himself a longtime devotee of good music. Despite this, he produced a worthy tome that is still recognised today as the definitive work on the subject of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest.
Sadly, problems with the Porky Pops themselves meant that the product was quickly withdrawn when it was discovered that the cereal in fact contained more than the regulation vegetable substitute pork rind than was legally allowed by the British Crunchy Snack Board.
Unsold boxes ended up in China where they were used to plug gaps in The Great Wall making them it the only breakfast cereal that could be seen from space.
* Actually, it's the only part.
There's an awful lot of missing episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s.
Most fans agree that it should never have happened in the first place.
But there could have been some hope if one of the many companies producing licenced Super8 movies had stepped in and released episodes of the series on film.
If only...
Nearly there.
Here's Matt Smith's final full series of Doctor Who episodes done up as Target books.
Not long now... then I can back to something more productive like earning a crust!
The Target Books juggernaut moves on!
New stories! New Doctor! New logo! Same old 126 pages of description and dialogue...
To celebrate the dawning of a new eleventh Dr. Who, the marketing bods at Whallen have pulled out all the stops and produced an A4 glossy poster of their forthcoming titles.
It'll be in the post to all good bookshops shortly and managers can use blu tac to stick it prominently in their shop windows where the public can see for themselves the excitement ahead!
(If they don't use it, can they mail it back to them as they only have a print run of 500 and fourteen of them were a bit smudged. Thanks.)
They're still trying to peddle this stuff...
Back in the 1970s, the BBC's Question Time was one of the popular television programmes in the UK. Millions tuned in to see a studio audience grill the politicians of the day under the watchful bow tie of Robin Day. The show's popularity spawned a mini-industry of merchandise eagerly snapped up by fans. Presented here is a choice selection from the hey day of "Questiontimemania"...
A series of novelisations penned by some of the UK's top science fiction authors and based on the some of the more dramatic episodes.
Children got a chance to act out their own Question Time episodes with a 'Give-A-Show' Projector set. Very few survived.
For one of their 'Election Special' editions, the Question Time crew were joined by a photographer from the popular Viewmaster company who took dozens of 3D images of the show - including the classic moment when Ted Heath nodded off during a lengthy retort from Jeremy Thorpe. Needless to say, the Conservative Party office were not pleased with Reel 3 / Image 4.....
The official Question Time LP was a popular number two...
We got a video recorder back in 1981. My Dad was flushed and also forked out for some pre-recorded videotapes. He paid £39.99 for 'Star Trek - Shore Leave' - released on the Mountain Video label. It was amazing at the time that I was able to watch an episode of Star Trek at my leisure and not have to rely on the whims of a BBC Scheduler. The fact that the video quality and the film print of said episode were something akin to a Super8 film that had spent the past decade on the floor of a public toilet, was incidental. It was just magic!
Fast forward (do you see what I did there?) to in the mid-eighties and BBC Enterprises were also quite impressed by the new technology. They decided to release a selection of Doctor Who episodes on their new BBC Video label.
Top Doctor Who producer JNT was given the task of connecting up two VHS recorders and editing together omnibus versions of classic stories (or at least the ones that had been stored on the bottom shelf at BBC Archives to save getting the steps).
Once done, he headed off to the BBC Enterprises portakabin at Television Centre with the de-tabbed master tapes - together with a box of blank VHS's he'd got from Woolies with Gary's discount card - and after much scratching of heads, the first of the new hi-tech releases were made available to very rich fans.
It was a start anyway...
Doctor Who Slipback - Viewmaster Reels
GAF - 1986 - Price £1.99 (Woolworths exclusive)
Back when Michael Grade put 'Doctor Who' on hiatus in the mid-eighties, the production team filled in their time by making a radio special that was allegedly broadcast on BBC Radio Four UK. (Few people actually heard it due to the fact it appeared within a kids radio programme that no-one listened to.)
Having sold two successful sets of 3D reels of Doctor Who for their popular Viewmaster viewing thing, the people at GAF signed up for another set. Alas, the aforementioned 18 month hiatus set in.
Needing something for the ever approaching Christmas market, GAF sent their photographer to the next best thing... the recording of the radio show.
Pictures were taken in glorious 3D of the cast and crew at work, play and, in the case of veteran actor, Valentine Dyall, asleep in a large moth-eaten armchair.
The subsequent reels were released in time for Christmas as a Woolworths exclusive.
In 2008, Woolworths went into administration...
A lesson had been learnt!
Suggested by reader Clayton Hickman - £5 Woolworths Gift Token STAR LETTER
Doctor Who fans don't know how lucky they are. Every available story from the show's 50 year run is now available on digitally restored discs. The first DVD was released a decade and a half ago when the fledgling BBC DVD Exploitation Department tentatively dipped its toe into the already rapidly expanding hi-tech market.
As is usual with public corporations, attempts at anything commercial were mired in the lack-of-imagination of the people making the decisions.
Here - for the first time - are three cover proofs of the BBC's early attempts to market Doctor Who as an ongoing series of DVDs.
As is always the case with any evidence presented on this blog, it never happened that way at all.
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ADDENDUM: A couple of years ago, BBC Video made plans to re-launch the Doctor Who VHS range. Sadly, bosses at BBC Worldwide scuppered the idea when they suddenly realised they still had a VHS department.
Doing my back in must've done something to my brain as I've ended up carrying on into David Tennant's first series for my Target Book designs.
Nothing really to add to what I said in my previous post, other than that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible....
....in the mean time here's the testcard and some music!
You can catch up with the first series covers featuring Christopher Eccleston here.
It will soon be the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest where the nations of Europe (and Australia) will gather in Vienna to camp it up something rotten. 
