Phil Norman
@mrphilnorman.bsky.social
The Year of Listing Dangerously: https://historyoftv.substack.com
Impressed with Mr Burton, but a bit gutted it stopped before we got to Boom!
November 10, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Impressed with Mr Burton, but a bit gutted it stopped before we got to Boom!
Unverified Fact of the Day: Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson in All in The Family, had a special room in his house where a sound system played Gong's Flying Teapot LP on a constant loop.
November 9, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Unverified Fact of the Day: Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson in All in The Family, had a special room in his house where a sound system played Gong's Flying Teapot LP on a constant loop.
Of course the trouble with Gen Z is they all think Violinski is better than Peter and the Test Tube Babies.
November 9, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Of course the trouble with Gen Z is they all think Violinski is better than Peter and the Test Tube Babies.
Woke up with this image in my head, from David McKee's wonderful book Two-Can Toucan. So good I remembered it almost exactly after completely forgetting about it for over forty years.
November 7, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Woke up with this image in my head, from David McKee's wonderful book Two-Can Toucan. So good I remembered it almost exactly after completely forgetting about it for over forty years.
Has anyone been lucky enough to find a second-hand book with one of these plates in it?
November 6, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Has anyone been lucky enough to find a second-hand book with one of these plates in it?
Sudden, unbidden memory of a line from an ancient fly-on-the-wall documentary: "There's a pizza and whoopee event, that sounds fun." Sadly I can remember no more. Anyone?
November 6, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Sudden, unbidden memory of a line from an ancient fly-on-the-wall documentary: "There's a pizza and whoopee event, that sounds fun." Sadly I can remember no more. Anyone?
I might just leave the whole of modern popular culture to carry on without me.
November 6, 2025 at 11:50 AM
I might just leave the whole of modern popular culture to carry on without me.
Once more, the nation becomes one vast Benny Hill Show break bumper.
November 5, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Once more, the nation becomes one vast Benny Hill Show break bumper.
Would you do Dougall? TV's sexiest newsreaders, 1960.
November 4, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Would you do Dougall? TV's sexiest newsreaders, 1960.
You've got to give a little love,
Take a little love,
Be prepared to forsake a little love,
So low in price we are,
So near, so Spar.
Take a little love,
Be prepared to forsake a little love,
So low in price we are,
So near, so Spar.
November 4, 2025 at 7:05 PM
You've got to give a little love,
Take a little love,
Be prepared to forsake a little love,
So low in price we are,
So near, so Spar.
Take a little love,
Be prepared to forsake a little love,
So low in price we are,
So near, so Spar.
That girl bands documentary is great fun (apart from the bits that are horribly bleak), but we really need to call time on opening programmes with footage of interview subjects finding their marks, adjusting their seats and farting about with the clapperboard.
November 3, 2025 at 10:54 PM
That girl bands documentary is great fun (apart from the bits that are horribly bleak), but we really need to call time on opening programmes with footage of interview subjects finding their marks, adjusting their seats and farting about with the clapperboard.
Fancy Wanders - Gurney Slade co-writer Sid Green orchestrates a slight return of the original mould-breaking surreal sitcom two decades later, with Dave King and Joe "the Fresh Prince butler" Marcell, bewildering a new generation just after Play Your Cards Right.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
November 3, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Fancy Wanders - Gurney Slade co-writer Sid Green orchestrates a slight return of the original mould-breaking surreal sitcom two decades later, with Dave King and Joe "the Fresh Prince butler" Marcell, bewildering a new generation just after Play Your Cards Right.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Any TV producers keen to spearhead the new wave of ultra-cheap drama could do worse than look at afternoon Nyree Dawn Porter terminal illness saga For Maddie with Love. Not in writing terms - it's cliche central - but for its threadbare but effective visuals.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
November 2, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Any TV producers keen to spearhead the new wave of ultra-cheap drama could do worse than look at afternoon Nyree Dawn Porter terminal illness saga For Maddie with Love. Not in writing terms - it's cliche central - but for its threadbare but effective visuals.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Get It Together - a pop music showcase out of time, still hanging on in the post-punk early eighties by combining musical guests like Modern Romance and U2 with seventies Basil Brush stooge Roy North and fifties puppet owl Ollie Beak.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
November 1, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Get It Together - a pop music showcase out of time, still hanging on in the post-punk early eighties by combining musical guests like Modern Romance and U2 with seventies Basil Brush stooge Roy North and fifties puppet owl Ollie Beak.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
45 years ago this week Tom Baker was in a swamp, Nyree Dawn Porter was in a void, Dennis Potter was in Eastbourne, Brigit Forsyth was in a swimsuit adorned with saucepans, and Peter Purves was in Newcastle commentating on fireworks. All this and Ollie Beak too!
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Week 54: 1st – 7th November, 1980
“I used to like you. You always knew where I buried the tortoise.”
open.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM
45 years ago this week Tom Baker was in a swamp, Nyree Dawn Porter was in a void, Dennis Potter was in Eastbourne, Brigit Forsyth was in a swimsuit adorned with saucepans, and Peter Purves was in Newcastle commentating on fireworks. All this and Ollie Beak too!
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
The absolute filth ATV were transmitting in the name of variety back in 1969.
October 30, 2025 at 10:16 PM
The absolute filth ATV were transmitting in the name of variety back in 1969.
Separated at birth: The Wednesday Play theme tune and the chorus of Hersham Boys by Sham 69.
October 30, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Separated at birth: The Wednesday Play theme tune and the chorus of Hersham Boys by Sham 69.
Still reeling from the suggestion on University Challenge that Judi Dench played Iris in Taxi Driver.
"You never spend time with me any more, Sport. We might as well play bridge with our maiden aunts."
"You never spend time with me any more, Sport. We might as well play bridge with our maiden aunts."
October 27, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Still reeling from the suggestion on University Challenge that Judi Dench played Iris in Taxi Driver.
"You never spend time with me any more, Sport. We might as well play bridge with our maiden aunts."
"You never spend time with me any more, Sport. We might as well play bridge with our maiden aunts."
Glamour n. an attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing.
- "the glamour of Milan"
- "the glamour of Milan"
October 27, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Glamour n. an attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing.
- "the glamour of Milan"
- "the glamour of Milan"
Just about to settle down in front of Spike Lee's underrated 1990 film about a jazz trumpeter.
October 25, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Just about to settle down in front of Spike Lee's underrated 1990 film about a jazz trumpeter.
I normally roll my eyes at TV companies bigging up their awards success in press advertisements, but I'll make an exception for this.
October 22, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I normally roll my eyes at TV companies bigging up their awards success in press advertisements, but I'll make an exception for this.
Contrary to popular belief, when Boy George sang "Every day is like survival", he didn't mean they all began with the Anglia knight and were narrated by Andrew Sachs.
October 21, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Contrary to popular belief, when Boy George sang "Every day is like survival", he didn't mean they all began with the Anglia knight and were narrated by Andrew Sachs.
"They'll walk along an empty street
For fully half a minute,
Their front legs bend the wrong way round,
It's fucking creepy, innit?"
CHORUS
For fully half a minute,
Their front legs bend the wrong way round,
It's fucking creepy, innit?"
CHORUS
October 21, 2025 at 7:10 PM
"They'll walk along an empty street
For fully half a minute,
Their front legs bend the wrong way round,
It's fucking creepy, innit?"
CHORUS
For fully half a minute,
Their front legs bend the wrong way round,
It's fucking creepy, innit?"
CHORUS