Looks Unfamiliar: Ben Baker – If You’re One Of Those People Who Sells Crack…

Looks Familiar (Thames, 1970-87) - listen to Ben Baker and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

In this edition of Looks Unfamiliar, Tim Worthington is joined by Ben Baker to take 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? Tim and Ben 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 website here, and 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. That said, although there were doubtless Mellow Birds adverts in the middle of Looks Unfamiliar, please try not to be influenced by them.

Further Listening

Ben has appeared 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, 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, the original version of Now – The Christmas Album here, Bernard And The Genie here, and 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 and EastEnders spinoff single Something Outa Nothing by Letitia Dean And Paul J. Medford 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 and Avengers: Endgame 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.