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 Anna Cale, who’s trying to bag a local newspaper scoop on remembering Dooby Duck’s Disco Bus, Grange Hill‘s Ronnie Birtles’ shoplifting storyline, Ken Loach’s McDonald’s advert, Nelson’s Column, The Doberman Gang, fashion craze ‘hair jewels’ and Radio 1 phone-in competition 31 Days In May. Along the way we’ll be discovering what happens if Drop The Dead Donkey is rewritten by The Forces Of Darkness, recalling the great Indie Girl Maggie Moone Craze of 1999, reluctantly trying The Official Council Tarmac Bar, and revealing what punishment was really handed out to all those light-fingered Grange Hill pupils.
Download – Subscribe – More Episodes
101 – Anna Cale – Ronnie Birtles, What Were You Up To? – Looks Unfamiliar
If you enjoy Looks Unfamiliar, why not buy us a coffee here?
About Anna
Anna Cale is a writer; you can find Anna’s website here and Linktree here and follow her on Bluesky at @real-meaning.bsky.social. Anna’s Diana Dors biography The Real Diana Dors is available from Amazon here.
Buy A Book!
There’s lots more about Grange Hill and tons of other seventies and eighties drama serials that left you terrified of the idea of ‘big school’ 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 could do with a laugh after not getting through to 31 Days In May in time to win those Brother Beyond tickets, you can find the story of comedy at Radio 1 in Fun At One, available in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.
Alternately, if you’re just feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee here. Please do make sure to tell Ken Loach you were inspired to get a McCafé by his advert.
Further Listening
Anna has also appeared on Looks Unfamiliar talking about the Neighbours sticker album, Wendy Cracked A Walnut, Rogue, Sosmix, Secrets Of The Sea and the Shackleton’s High Seat Chairs advert here and Sport Billy, Silly Games by Lindy Layton, Joni Jones, The Girl In The Picture, Return To Eden, The Incredible Hulk Smash-Up Action Game, Trev & Simon’s Stupid Video and Dors’ Dozen here. You can also find Anna on The Golden Age Of Children’s TV talking about Press Gang here.
You can also find Anna on Tim’s Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast It’s Good, Except It Sucks talking about Spider-Man: Homecoming here, Captain Marvel here and The Marvels here.
Anna also appears in The Best Of Looks Unfamiliar alongside Gary Bainbridge on Googi The Liverpool Duck, Tim Worthington on Ferrero Prestige, Becky Darke on Tubby Turtle, Toby Hadoke on the BBC’s After The Bomb season, Genevieve Jenner on Boomerang and Mitch Benn on internationally famous celebrities acting in eighties pop videos, which you can find here.
Further Reading
If – for some reason – you want to know more about underachieving nineties sitcoms, you can find All The Fun Of The Flares – a look at ITV’s notorious That 70s Show remake Days Like These – here.
Looks Unfamiliar is hosted by Podnose. You can help Podnose to continue providing quality podcasts for free by donating to their GoFundMe here.
© Tim Worthington.
Please don’t copy this only with more italics and exclamation marks.
Tim Worthington 