Looks Unfamiliar: John Rain – They Probably Made Mick Fleetwood And Samantha Fox Look Like The Hitman And Her

Issue 64 of Oink! comic (July 1988) - listen to John Rain and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

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.

Joining Tim this time is John Rain, host of SMERSH Pod, who’s querying the lack of public recognition for anarchic Children’s ITV show Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It, E.T. Cola Creams, flop one-off charity event Trading Places Day, television phone vote thriller Murder In Space, BBC2 sketch show Hello Mum and Oink! comic. Along the way we’ll be finding out Jaws’ favourite corn snack flavour, enduring a sleep deprivation-derived Showaddywaddy-based hallucination, discussing how to keep Doctor Who on the air by eating crisps, and witnessing the single worst attempt at asking Catherine Tate on a date ever.

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Radio Swines, written by Charlie Brooker for Issue 64 of Oink! comic (July 1988).

Murder In Space (CTV, 1985) - listen to John Rain and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

E.T. Cola Creams - listen to John Rain and Tim Worthington talking about them in Looks Unfamiliar.

Your Mother Wouldn't Like It (Central, 1985-88) - listen to John Rain and Tim Worthington talking about them in Looks Unfamiliar.

Hello Mum (BBC2, 1987) - listen to John Rain and Tim Worthington talking about them in Looks Unfamiliar.

About John

John Rain is the host of SMERSH Pod, an irreverent look at the James Bond series, Michael Caine’s cinematic output, eighties action movies and much more besides. You can find SMERSH Pod here and follow the show on Bluesky at @smershpod.com.

Buy A Book!

There’s lots more about Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It and tons of other shows that your mother almost certainly didn’t like from Educating Marmalade to Grange Hill in The Golden Age Of Children’s TV, available in all good bookshops and from Waterstones here, Amazon here and directly from Black And White Publishing here.

If you’ve enjoyed this, 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. You’ll need one to get through the three in the morning bit of ITV Telethon, frankly.

Further Listening

John has also appeared on Tim’s Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast It’s Good, Except It Sucks talking about Doctor Strange, which you can find here. You can also find John on The Golden Age Of Children’s TV talking about Grange Hill here.

John 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, Phil Norman on The Country Life Christmas Box, Ben Baker on Looks Familiar, and Tim on The Zeitgeist Tapes talking to Emma Burnell and Steve Fielding about politics and Doctor Who, which you can find here.

Further Listening

If you’re looking for more on the strange world of ‘alternative’ cola flavouring, try Can’t Beat The Real Thing here. Don’t try any of the actual colas though.