Looks Unfamiliar: Paul Cornell – You Don’t Want A Less Powerful Mantra For Frippery Astral Travel

Terry Wogan's 'unique' playlist choices certainly marked him out on BBC Radio 2, as you can hear Paul Cornell and Tim Worthington discussing 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 writer Paul Cornell, who’s wondering if anyone else remembers Australian sci-fi series Phoenix Five, canonically-dubious Middle Earth-‘inspired’ novel Fear In Firland. the Danny Dunn book series, BBC Saturday Morning show Outa-Space!, an instructional manual for astral projection, and Terry Wogan’s insistence on playing records that resolutely refused to become hits. Along the way we’ll be pitching story ideas for The Magic Alex New Adventures, reciting the lyrics to Blondie’s ode to Gordon Murray, revealing which popular song has less than one note in it, and trying not to think about what ‘Dog Of Finland’ might entail.

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

Phoenix Five (ABC, 1970) - listen to Paul Cornell and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

Danny Dunn And The Voice From Space by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin (McGraw-Hill, 1967) - listen to Paul Cornell and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

Outa-Space! (BBC1, 1973) - listen to Paul Cornell and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

About Paul

Paul Cornell is a novelist, screenwriter and comics writer who has worked extensively on Doctor Who and for Marvel Comics. You can find Paul’s website here and follow him on Twitter at @Paul_Cornell. Hammer House Of Podcast, a podcast looking at each Hammer Films movie in turn presented by Paul with Lizbeth Myles, can be found here.

Buy A Book!

There’s lots more about Outa-Space! and tons of other similarly bizarre and long-forgotten Saturday Morning shows in The Golden Age Of Children’s TV, available in all good bookshops and from Amazon here, Waterstones here and directly from Black And White Publishing here.

There’s a huge feature on Outa-Space!, Zokko!, Whoosh! and Ed And Zed! in Tim’s collection Well At Least It’s Free, a collection of columns and features. Well At Least It’s Free 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. Just not in some sort of puzzle thing you have to twist into the shape of a mug first please. You can astrally project it if it’ll get here quicker.

Further Listening

Longtime Terry Wogan favourite S-S-S-Single Bed by Fox got another spin in Looks Unfamiliar with Phil Norman, which you can find here.

Paul also appears in The Best Of Looks Unfamiliar alongside Justin Lewis on Neither Fish Nor Flesh by Terence Trent D’Arby, Emma Burnell on Melody Radio, Mark Thompson on Libby’s Moonshine, Vikki Gregorich And Jeff Lewis on The Secret Cabaret, Stephen O’Brien on Old-Fashioned Christmas by Anne Charleston And Ian Smith, Stephen Brotherstone And Dave Lawrence on The Lone Ranger by Quantum Jump, Garreth F. Hirons on The Ghosts Of Oxford Street and Tim on Perfect Night In talking about the BBC edits of The Monkees, which you can find here.