I hate daytime TV!

That is all.

Carry on Godzilla (cert X)

Everyone's heard of the US release of the original 1950s 'Godzilla' movie which featured a young Raymond Burr (mere years away from TV fame as 'Perry Mason') as a news reporter unceremoniously edited into scenes of death and destruction at the claws of the young giant radio active lizard. 

What isn't really know is the very rarely (if ever) seen UK version of the movie. Exclusive Films acquired the rights to the Toho film and decided to take a leaf out of their American counterpart's book and re-edited the movie with some British actors. Step forward Sidney James, Shirley Eaton and the diminutive Esma Cannon - all of whom would find legendary status as early stars of the 'Carry On' series. 

Val Guest took on the directing chores and spent three days filming the three actors in a selection of ruined sets at Bray Studios and one day on location in London's blitzed docklands. 

It was released very briefly in the south through a number of cinemas but ran into legal problems when the US distributors of the Raymond Burr version struck a deal with Rank to take their version. It hasn't been seen since.

Available From All Good Record Shops

There were some very odd releases from BBC Records over the years. Not content with providing licence payers with selections from their TV and radio output, the Aunty Beeb label gave us everything from collections of sound effects (Who can forget their 'Off Beat Sound Effects' LP complete with its stern verbal cues) to 'BBC Space Themes' (with a really lightweight cover of the Star Trek theme that appeared to have been performed by an orchestra bereft of bows for their violins).

A particular favourite is 'BBC Detective Themes' with one of the very few recordings of the third season 'Starsky and Hutch' theme that no one remembers. It also had the energetic Kathy Kirby belting out "Leave this man alone!" on the theme from 'Adam Adamant Lives'. At the time I bought the album, I'd never heard of the Victorian adventurer but the camp lyrics left me wanting to do anything but leave him alone.

Here's a selection of some of BBC Records & Tapes' lesser known releases. The 'Survivors' Christmas LP was hastily withdrawn after it was spotted that Lucy Fleming's name had been spelt wrong. You couldn't get the staff then either....

1984 - Read by Derek Griffiths

The Sound of Moog Synthesizer Funk

Doomwatch Sound Effects Vol. 7

A Very Survivors Christmas

Look Out For Look-in Books That Weren't Very Popular At The Time

Look-in Books Newspaper Ad from Daily Chronic (c1975)

LOOK-IN TV-TIE BOOKS

Published by Piccolo Books/TVTimes

c1974-5

Price: 25p

Look-in was sold as the "Junior TVTimes". It had everything - pop stars, comic strips, posters, footballers, Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart - everything as long as it was on ITV. No stuffy BBC rubbish here.

I particularly liked the comic strips which utilised some of the best British artists at the time including Mike Noble, Martin Asbury and John Burns. There seemed to be a policy that the comic strips were based on all of ITV's SF output no matter what the quality or longevity of it was. Whilst we had long-running strips based on 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'The Tomorrow People', there were also ones about 'The Man from Atlantis' and 'Logan's Run' (that's the TV series not the classic movie). 

Look-in also published a number of TV tie-in books usually written by the celebrity contributors to the magazine. I still have a copy of 'Is There Life In Outer Space?' by Peter Fairley (ITN's then science correspondent and star of 'Timeslip'). 

Here's a selection of some of their less well-known titles.

Great Unreleased Doctor Who Merchandise of the 20th Century - part eight

More Armada Dr. Who Novels

Published by Armada Books Ltd - c1966 - original price: 2/6d

Armada books published several TV tie-ins in the sixties - notably ones based on a number of successful Gerry Anderson shows and The Secret Service. They were often written by one John Theydon - a pseudonym for a writer whose shame prevented him from wanting to be identified with a load of kids' books. (I reckon it was Harold Pinter). 

Armada also reprinted the original first Doctor Who novel in paperback which was based on the first Dalek story and written by David Whittaker who had no such shame. 

Tempted by the success of their new venture, Armada commissioned their mysterious Mr. Theydon to adapt the two Dalek movies into novels. This he did. But being cheapskates, the publishers refused to cough up a royalty payment to Terry Nation for the use of the Daleks on the cover. Although printed, it seems that some bod got cold feet about the project and, in a fit of pique, cancelled it - leaving us only a handful of proof editions to flog on Ebay today.


(As a footnote, pissed off by their encounter with Terry Nation's agent, Armada went for the next best thing - namely the newest monster on the block - The Ice Warriors. A cover was knocked up and things were all ready to proceed when someone realised they hadn't asked Brian Hayles to write it. Such is life.)