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Joe Orton (pictured below right) was one of the brightest lights in London’s luminous theatre district during the 1960s. His first full-length play, Entertaining Mr Sloane, sold to television and the movies. The second, Loot, was voted best play of…
Over a career spanning more than five decades, beginning in the early 1970s as a staff songwriter in Nashville, John Hiatt has effortlessly moved across a spectrum of uniquely American musical styles, seamlessly blending rock, country, blues, folk, and Americana.…
Scott McCaughey and guitarist Chuck Carroll formed Young Fresh Fellows in Seattle, Washington, in 1981, with Carroll’s cousin Tad Hutchison joining on drums shortly after. Jim Sangster then joined the lineup as their bassist, allowing McCaughey to move from bass to…
Initially calling themselves The Sherbet Monsters, English band The Mighty Lemon Drops formed in Wolverhampton in 1985 and became a central fixture of the late-1980s British indie scene and the legendary C86 movement, bridging the gap between moody post-punk and bright,…
Formed in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England, in 1971 and originally called Shacklock after founder-member Alan Shacklock, the band soon rebranded as Babe Ruth after the American baseball legend, adding vocalist Janita “Jenny” Haan, who was born in Edgware, England, but raised…
The nucleus of Asleep at the Wheel was originally Ray Benson, Leroy Preston and Lucky Oceans (real name Reuben Gosfield), who moved from the US East Coast to Paw Paw, West Virginia, to play country music by artists such as…
1 9 9 2 – Current (New Zealand) 7,000+ x 30 minute episodes “You’re not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata!” Centred on the Shortland Street Hospital in the fictional Auckland suburb of Ferndale, New Zealand’s longest-running television drama and soap opera…
2 0 0 8 – 2 0 1 4 (USA) 92 x 45 minute episodes Set in the fictional small town of Charming in California’s Central Valley, this superb series centres on SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original),…
1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 7 (USA) 99 x 30 minute episodes Nobody expected Gilligan’s Island to survive its first few weeks. Not the cast. Not the network. Certainly not the critics, who thought the entire concept for the show…
2 0 0 4 (UK) 7 x 90 minute episodes This short-lived ITV drama series from Yorkshire Television explored the lives and working challenges of Blue Watch, a team of firefighters based in the heart of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. Criticised at…
1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 6 (USA) 70 x 30 minute episodes Head of the Munster household, Herman (Fred Gwynne), was seven feet tall and bore a striking resemblance to Frankenstein’s monster. His wife Lily (Yvonne DeCarlo) and…
1 9 6 5 – 1 9 7 1 (USA) 170 x 30 minute episodes “Darlink I love you, but give me Park Avenue . . . ” TV producer Paul Henning had already struck gold with his rural sitcoms The Beverly…
Paul Maurice Kelly was born on 13 January 1955 in Adelaide, Australia, the sixth of eight children. He attended Rostrevor College, where he played trumpet and studied piano, became the first XI cricket captain and played in the first XVIII…
Formed in East Kilbride, Scotland, this indie quartet originally comprised William Reid (vocals, guitar), Jim Reid (vocals, guitar), Douglas Hart (bass) and Murray Dalglish (drums). William Reid chucked in his job at a cheese-packing factory in Glasgow, and his brother…
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen grew up in an average middle-class family; his mother, Adele, was a secretary, and his father, Douglas, was a bus driver. He started playing guitar in high school and, at 14, formed his own band, The…
With a childhood spent moving from place to place, dodging his estranged father, living in his own apartment and selling drugs at the age of 15, Dave Mustaine’s formative years saw him walk through some pretty authentic valleys of trauma.…
Tim, Andy and Jon Farriss formed The Farriss Brothers with school friends Michael Hutchence, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers in Australia in 1977. A year later they renamed themselves INXS. The band moved to Perth, Western Australia to develop their…
Having dropped out of the University of Massachusetts while on a college exchange program, Frank Black (real name Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV) teamed up with guitarist Joey Santiago in 1986 and posted an advertisement to recruit a bassist for…
The made-for-television movie – which originally aired on NBC as two separate hour-long segments on successive Saturday nights (14 and 21 October 1978) – was the highly anticipated sequel to the iconic 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, finally answering the question…
This made-for-television comedy film was the second official reunion movie after the cancellation of the original 1964–1967 CBS sitcom Gilligan’s Island. First broadcast on NBC on 3 May 1979, the film picks up after the castaways are shipwrecked again on…
Originally broadcast on NBC as a two-part special in May 1981, this third and final television movie sequel to the classic 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island capitalised on the extreme popularity of the legendary American trick-basketball team, the Harlem Globetrotters. Following…
In the 1990s, Hollywood studios desperately ransacked their old TV archives for cinema remake material, with very mixed results. This is probably the most innovative of the lot, even if it doesn’t always work. For those who missed them the first…
This unprepossessing sequel to the massive John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John hit is notable for a great title song by the Four Tops (Back to School Again) and a then-little-known Michelle Pfeiffer in a clinging short skirt. Set in 1961, this is the story…
In the outstanding sixth adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series, Hogwarts is no longer a safe space as Death Eaters wreak havoc in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) enters his sixth year, suspecting that his longtime…
South African-born William (“Billy”) Butlin spotted two things in the 1930s: First, British holidaymakers were routinely turfed out of their boarding houses and not allowed back in until teatime – whatever the weather – so they had to entertain themselves all…
Skegness on the Lincolnshire Coast is where the Butlin’s story began. Founded in 1936 by Billy Butlin, it was the UK’s first-ever holiday camp. Construction of the camp began in 1935, and when it was opened on 11 April 1936…
Although synonymous with all those 1980s cliches of power-dressing, double-breasted suits and big hair, the Filofax has actually been around since 1921, and its template can be traced back a decade further. In Philadelphia, a company called Lefax had been…
The exact beginnings of the Harlem Globetrotters are uncertain, though the team considers its first-ever road game took place on 7 January 1927 in Hinckley, Illinois. Despite the team’s name, the squad was born 800 miles west of Harlem, on…
Born Josephine Edwina Jaques in Kent on 7 February 1922, prolific comedy actress Hattie Jaques was a deeply beloved icon of British post-war entertainment. Best known for her unforgettable roles in the Carry On film franchise and her long-running television…
Ampex began manufacturing videotape recorders in the 1950s which used 2″ (5.1 cm) wide tape. The prohibitive price of the units meant only television networks and the largest individual stations could afford them. Sony released the world’s first commercial videocassette…
January 02 – Ideological purity reaches the superficially cosy world of the nursery. In an attempt to excise any taint of racism, all new editions of Enid Blyton’s Noddy books will be shorn of the traditional black golliwogs, who will…
January 01 – Greece officially adopts the Euro currency, becoming the 12th member of the Eurozone economic framework. 08 – The British High Court awards anonymity for life for the two boys who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993. Their identities…
January 02 – US peacekeepers pour into Bosnia to keep the peace between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims, following the signing of the Dayton peace plan last month. 03 – The first flip mobile phone goes on sale. The Motorola StarTAC goes…
January 09 – Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh. 09 – The Second Sudanese Civil War ends. 10 – A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, California, killing 10…
A series of benefit concerts dubbed ‘Live 8’ took place in the G8 states and South Africa on 2 July 2005, organised by Bob Geldof to raise awareness of poverty and coincide with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid in 1985.…
January 01 – In Britain, Alf Ramsey is knighted and Bobby Moore gets an OBE in the New Years Honours. 01 – 48-hour ceasefire ends in Vietnam with B-52s attacking the DMZ. 01 – All Night Rave at The Roundhouse…
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Enjoy your trip in the time machine!
Anyhow* have a Winfield (with Hoges) Big Rooster Bullens Animal World and the African Lion Safari Chiko Rolls “C’mon Aussie C’mon” El Caballo Blanco No Knickers (Holeproof) Football, meat pies, kangaroos…
In February 1957, rock’n’roll thundered onto British television screens when the BBC introduced a new programme for teenagers titled Six-Five Special. As the 70th anniversary of that influential programme approaches,…
June 1968. Seven new US Army officers — six Afro-Americans, one Caucasian, all honorary lieutenant colonels — are collected from Tan Son Nhut, Saigon’s main airport, and rushed through the…
1964 was shaping up to be an extremely busy year for The Beatles. After touring the United States and Canada, sparking Beatlemania and performing their first live US television set…
Dr Douglas Ross Cook County General Hospital Doug Ross (George Clooney) from E.R. is the paediatrician who looks like he just popped out for a quick coffee and accidentally became…
The club scene in the “Swinging London” of the 1960s revolved around the area known as Soho – contained in just one square mile, bordered by Shaftesbury Avenue to the…
Band of Light was a blues-based group formed in October 1972 in Sydney (Australia) by Phil Key, with bassist Peter Roberts – both of whom had just left The La…
Hunters and Collectors formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981, fronted by singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour and taking their name from a song by the German group Can. Originally, Hunters…
The Celibate Rifles, perhaps more than any other Australian band, took Radio Birdman’s hammered chords and The Saints’ blurred-riff overdrive at face value, creating a faster/louder sound tailored to their own needs.…
From the release of their single She Never Said in November 1980, this unique Canberra-born, Sydney-based band produced a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic blend of music that alternately found favour and disfavour in…
1 9 8 7 – 2 0 1 1 (Australia) 180 minute/240 minute episodes This music video show from Channel 10 (Australia) aired on Saturday and Sunday mornings. First screened in February…
Bob Clark’s imaginatively nasty low-budget Canadian slasher traps a group of college students in the snow-dusted sorority house of Sigma Lamba Chi, where they are terrorised by an obscene phone…
1 9 7 6 – 1 9 8 4 (Canada) 72 x 30 minute episodes 42 x 90 minute episodes 18 x 45 minute episodes Second City Television (SCTV) was a popular…
Investigative television journalist Deborah Balin (Lee Grant) falls foul of a mentally deranged viewer and is brutally attacked in her home. Her friendly news show producer, Gary Baylor (William Shatner),…
The huge success of Canadian comedy Porky’s (1981) – it grossed over $110 million – convinced the main creative talents that a sequel would be a good idea, so a…
In Florida in the late 1950s, a gang of fun-loving, horny teenage boys from Angel Beach High seeks revenge against the redneck proprietor of Porky’s (a local honky-tonk strip joint…
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Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 2009 and is presented as a historical artefact. Some words and references which reflect the prevailing attitudes of those times may be considered culturally insensitive, discriminatory, offensive or inappropriate today..