Looks Unfamiliar: Ben Baker – Historical Sitcom Man

Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish in Adam And Joe's Fourmative Years (Channel 4, 1997) - listen to Tim Worthington and Ben Baker 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 writer and broadcaster Ben Baker, who’s putting a big circle round the listings in TV Times so he doesn’t miss Mr T’s Christmas Dream, Kid Creole And The Coconuts musical There’s Something Wrong In Paradise, Adam Buxton’s Christian Rave documentary God In The House, Christian Metal tour movie To Hell With The Devil, Highway, The Flint Street Nativity, the 1990 Bullseye Christmas Special, Adam And Joe’s Fourmative Years and – uh oh – TFI 1998. Along the way we’ll be discussing whether Jesus could have improved This Life +10, setting the video for Michael Moore’s TV Mayhem and Paul Shane Infinity War, questioning what would happen if an edition of Bullseye simply refused to stop, and studiously avoiding going to see One Love In The Sky – A Stone Roses Musical.

There's Something Wrong In Paradise by Kid Creole And The Coconuts (Island, 1983) - listen to Ben Baker and Tim Worthington talking about it in Looks Unfamiliar.

About Ben

Ben Baker is a writer and broadcaster. You can find his website here and follow him on Twitter at @benbakerbooks. Ben Baker’s Christmas Box, Ben’s book about the festive television schedules looking at forty years of the best, worst and weirdest Christmas TV, is available from here.

Buy A Book!

You can find many more oddities from the weirder corners of the television schedules in Tim’s book Not On Your Telly, a collection of columns and features on the theme of ‘lost’ television. Not On Your Telly 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. Festive Lattes are very much accepted. Especially in a ‘Red Triangle’ mug.

Further Listening

If you’re looking for more Looks Unfamiliar with a Christmas twist, you can find Ben talking about Bernard And The Genie here and the unsurprisingly long-forgotten original version of Now – The Christmas Album here. You can also find me chatting with Ben about the Nativity module of BBC Schools show Watch here.

Ben has also made less seasonal appearances on Looks Unfamiliar talking about Chris Evans’ 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, and 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. Ben also joined me for a special edition taking a look back at the show that gave Looks Unfamiliar its name – cosy ITV daytime nostalgia show Looks Familiar – which you can find here and a chat about 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 – featuring Chris Evans (Not That One) – here.

There’s more from Looks Unfamiliar on Channel 4’s eccentric early output with Toby Hadoke on Who Dares Wins… here, Grace Dent on The Weekenders here, Mitch Benn on The Laughing Prisoner here, Joel Morris on Four-Mations here, Mark Thompson on The Giftie here, Jim Sangster on They Came From Somewhere Else here, Carrie Dunn on Women’s Football coverage here, Emma Burnell on Herman’s Head here, Garreth Hirons on The Ghosts Of Oxford Street here, Vikki Gregorich and Jeff Lewis on The Secret Cabaret here and Steve Berry on United States Of Television here. Paul Kirkley gave us another perspective on the Mr. T phenomenon with a look back at the tie-in novels based on The A-Team here.