The Why Don't YouTube? Newsletter - April 15th 2023

From the house of @whydontyoutube

40 YEARS AGO

Yazoo were still officially going, in fact Nobody's Diary was about to be released, but they announced their split literally days later due to a clash of personalities so clearly Vince Clarke didn't want to go on Switch. Instead the singer still mononymously known as Alf went on with a full backing band to cover Randy Crawford's Rio de Janeiro Blue, Sam Cooke's Nothing Can Change This Love and Fontella Bass' Rescue Me.

30 YEARS AGO

Top Of The Pops go home to a real (fake) fire, and East 17 as well.

Joan Bakewell found her way over to Channel 4 to present Memento, a series of new approaches to interviews in which subjects told their life story through their favourite possessions. Yeah, does sound like a podcast concept by way of a less cultural Desert Island Discs, you're right, but no podcast would get David Attenborough as first guest.

Top Gear, shoved out to 10pm by the World Gymnastics Championships, pivots to Peugeot as Quentin Willson in full smug mode recalls the 205 and Jeremy tests the new 306 amid a wide range of filters before getting hold of a Mini Moke, all of which leaves Tiff Needell with some four wheel drives.

20 YEARS AGO

We weren't going to come back to the Treasure Hunt revival so soon, or probably at all, but that was before we discovered the second programme, which sent Suzi Perry around and above Mexico City, featured as its contestants one David Scott, a proud currency collector, and his son. And to think Tom Scott says he doesn't do television! His claimed recent excursion to visit as many places called Mansfield as possible is very on brand for him too.

As far as we know Tom has never mentioned this appearance, so we had to do the work for him. For that, for maybe the only time before it makes every person whose primary skill is the written word completely obsolete and their life absolutely pointless, we turned to ChatGPT. Between you and us, we're not sure AI is entirely au fait with the studio end of the show, nor the concept of directing the skyrunner.

Pah. He didn't even start "I'm in Mexico City".

ALSO...

1979: ah, one more while the tab’s open.

WHAT?!

Anyway. The problem, if it can be called that, with covering one set of Swap Shop Star Awards is when they all start appearing you feel obliged to link to the lot. So, in the Awards' second year there's award givers including Richard Stilgoe, Richard Baker, Manuel and prima ballerina Antoinette Sibley, controversial co-winners of one category, Christopher Timothy meeting Debbie Harry, Michael Crawford with a David Bellamy-level beard and Cheggers and Maggie duetting on a James Taylor song.

1986: Michael Parkinson did six stand-ins on Film '86, for one of which he was allocated Creepers, the butchered UK version of Dario Argento's Phenomena. It wasn't well reviewed at the time, but a spectacularly grumpy and spectacularly Northern Parky seems to think its existence and release is a personal attack on him. At least it did better than two weeks later when he straight up refused to review early Paul Verhoeven film Flesh And Blood.

1995: television producers often grouse about how hard it is to represent stand-up comedy on TV even though they regularly do it well enough, ie as little extraneous detail as possible. The Stand-Up Show lasted a good few series maybe because it was in a late night slot and as here was compered for a while by Barry Cryer, introducing Paul Tonkinson, Phill Jupitus and a rare set as herself by Caroline Hook/Aherne.

1997: "Graham Norton - not that much of a glamorous name?" Before even his Jack Docherty Show usurping stand-in he appeared on the same channel's afternoon talk-in 5's Company.

1997: The O Zone send glitter-indiepop bombs of Lauren Laverne spawning fame Kenickie, Jayne Middlemiss in tow, to one of Peter Stringfellow's clubs where he takes a worrying personal interest in them and vice versa.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

1992: a packed Wogan starts with Lenny and Griff previewing the upcoming Comic Relief special, followed by Rebecca De Mornay and Bill Gates promoting The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and Windows 3.1 respectively.

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