Looks Unfamiliar: Garreth Hirons – I Don’t Want To Get All Sepia Tinted Here

The Ghosts Of Oxford Street (Channel 4/Middlemarch Films, 1991) - listen to Tim Worthington and Garreth Hirons 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 for a special festive edition is writer and musician Garreth Hirons, who’s ransacking his advent calendar for tangible recollections of Channel 4’s 1991 Christmas Day oddity The Ghosts Of Oxford Street, a musical historical documentary featuring Malcolm McLaren, Happy Mondays, The Pogues, Kirsty MacColl, Nick Cotton from EastEnders and many other equally unlikely names. There’s also room for a look at some of Channel 4’s other peculiar Christmas Day offerings over the years, as well as revealing who was Q Magazine’s House Diva Of Choice, celebrating the career of ‘DJ Ron’, defining what constitutes a ‘New Console Christmas’, and outlining why Tom Jones would not have been a good choice for a Doctor Who assistant.

If you enjoy Looks Unfamiliar, why not buy us a coffee here?

About Garreth

Garreth Hirons is a musician and co-host of Retrospecticus – The Simpsons And Modern History, Together At Last!, a podcast that looks at an episode of The Simpsons and an event from world history that happened in the week the episode first aired in America. You can find the Retrospecticus website here and Garreth’s blog Atomic Sourpuss here. You can follow Garreth on Bluesky at @invaderace2000.bsky.social.

Buy A Book!

You can find much more about early nineties indie oddities in Higher Than The Sun, the story of Screamadelica by Primal Scream, Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, Bandwagonesque by Teenage Fanclub and Foxbase Alpha by Saint Etienne – and how long before Britpop, Creation Records took on the world and almost won. Higher Than The Sun 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. If you’re heading for Oxford Street, Notes Coffee will do just fine.

Further Listening

You can also find Garreth on Looks Unfamiliar talking about The Bigger The God, Food Fighters, Saboteur, The Triangle Of Terror, Sizzlin’ Bacon Monster Munch and Fun At The Funeral Parlour here, The Yellow Album by The Simpsons, The Frankie Goes To Hollywood Computer Game, Sweet 75, Linc’s, Transformers Action Masters, The Way Of The Tiger and Quatro here, Copper Blue by Sugar, the Crusader Nuts advert, The Hobbit on the ZX Spectrum, Too Sussed? by These Animal Men, Spring 1994 EP by S*M*A*S*H and Ghoulies Horror Bar here and the Futurama Christmas Specials here and talking about Trap Door on The Golden Age Of Children’s TV here.

Garreth has also appeared on Tim’s Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast It’s Good, Except It Sucks talking about Avengers: Age Of Ultron here, Thor: Ragnarok here, The Fantastic Four: First Steps here, Spider-Man: Brand New Day here, Venom here, Venom: Let There Be Carnage here, Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends here.

Garreth also appears in The Best Of Looks Unfamilar alongside Justin Lewis on Neither Fish Nor Flesh by Terence Trent D’Arby, Mark Thompson on Libby’s Moonshine, Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence on The Lone Ranger by Quantum Jump, Stephen O’Brien on Old Fashioned Christmas by Anne Charleston and Ian Smith, Vikki Gregorich and Jeff Lewis on The Secret Cabaret, Emma Burnell on Melody Radio, Paul Cornell on Terry Wogan’s insistence on playing records that resolutely refused to become hits and Tim on Perfect Night In talking about the BBC edits of The Monkees, which you can find here.