Looks Unfamiliar is a podcast in which writer and occasional broadcaster Tim Worthington talks to a guest about some of the things that they remember that nobody else ever seems to. In this edition of Looks Unfamiliar, Tim is joined by Ben Baker for a look back at the show that gave Looks Unfamiliar its name – ITV’s light-hearted Denis Norden-fronted nostalgia show Looks Familiar.

Looks Familiar is itself the stuff of hazy dust-caked photo-pages-falling-out-of-library-book recollections now, but how does it stand up in a world where irony is more important than accuracy when it comes to ‘remembering’ things? Is nostalgia really not what it used to be? Join Tim and Ben as they watch a couple of editions of Looks Familiar and have a bit of a chat about the timeless comic potential of endless clips of men dressed as women falling into some water, Richard Murdoch’s cameo in The Wire and the cinematic careers of Alan Cowboy and ‘Britain’s Rin Tin Tin’ Ian The Dog. Plus – find out who we’d book for a revival of Looks Familiar!

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About Ben

Ben Baker is a quizmaster and writer. You can find his podcast ALFsplaining here.

Buy A Book!

If you enjoy Looks Unfamiliar, or even Looks Familiar, then you’ll enjoy Tim’s book Can’t Help Thinking About Me, a collection of columns and features with a personal twist. Can’t Help Thinking About Me is available in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.

Alternately, if you’re just feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee here. Although there were doubtless Mellow Birds adverts in the middle of Looks Familiar, please try not to be influenced by them.

Further Listening

You can also find Ben on Looks Unfamiliar talking about TV Mayhem, The Onion Bag, Fiendish Feet, the early internet craze for misidentifying every comedy song as ‘by’ Weird Al Yankovic, Bingo Brown, and the International Youth Service penpal scheme here, ITV’s daytime nostalgia show Looks Familiar here, Toksvig, The Whizzkid’s Guide, Mysteries Of Old Peking, Mo-Ho-Bish-O-Pi, Go (the 1999 film), and Making Your Own TV Listings Magazines here, Mr T’s Christmas Dream, There’s Something Wrong In Paradise, God In The House, To Hell With The Devil, Highway, The Flint Street Nativity, the 1990 Bullseye Christmas Special, Adam And Joe’s Fourmative Years and TFI 1998 here, The Goodies: Snow White 2, Roland’s Yuletide Binge and Grange Hill For Christmas here, the original version of Now – The Christmas Album here and Bernard And The Genie here. You can also find Ben on The Golden Age Of Children’s TV talking about Round The Bend here.

Ben has also appeared on Tim’s Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast It’s Good, Except It Sucks talking about Ant-Man here, Cloak And Dagger here, Avengers: Endgame here and I Am Groot here.

Ben also appears in The Best Of Looks Unfamiliar alongside Martin Belam on the Laurel And Hardy cartoon, Jenny Morrill on The Just Seventeen Yearbook, Jack Kibble-White on Don’t Give Up Your Day Job by Richard Digance, Tim Worthington on Secrets From The School Underground, John Rain on Hello Mum, Phil Norman on The Country Life Christmas Box and Tim on The Zeitgeist Tapes talking about politics and Doctor Who, which you can find here.

Further Reading

There were sometimes decidedly less cosy programmes lurking in the daytime television schedules and you can read about one of them in You’re Weird, Ronald here.

© Tim Worthington.
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