Reviewing new and old tv, film and other stuff / Website: www.johnconnorswriter.com / Instagram: johnconnors100 / X: @JohnConnors100 /
Words: Chris Arnsby Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. Welcome to a hot summer night’s edition of Top of the Pops and of course we are in stereo on Radio 1FM. In the studio tonight we have Right Said Fred, and Sophie Lawrence, and PM Dawn, and we start off with the second highest new entry in the charts. At seventeen, Level 42, Guaranteed.” [17] LEVEL 42: GUARANTEED. Level 42 have been…
I wanted to recommend two artists whose work now features prominently in my house which I’ve recently been having redecorated room by room. One of the aspects I really wanted to freshen up were the wall hanging pictures. Previously there was an assortment of various images of different vintages whereas I wanted to have something more in line with the new furnishings. And that’s how I found two…
Words: Chris Arnsby Nicky Campbell: “Oh, very good to see you. Thanks for joining us. Listen, tonight’s show is wonderful. Rock and roll up for the greatest pop show on Earth, Top of the Pops and prepare to marvel at the line up tonight. Truly incredible. Let’s start off with three fun loving guys from Amityville. The phenomenal De La Soul.” [22] DE LA SOUL: A ROLLER SKATING JAM NAMED ‘SATURDAYS’.…
Words: Chris Arnsby 25/07/1991 Mark Goodier: “Hi. Good evening. Welcome to the UK’s number one hit music show, Top of the Pops with stereo sound on Radio 1FM. We’ve got Danni Minogue on tonight, we have Cher, we also have OMD, and we start with the brilliant Shamen. Rapping, scratchin’, and singin’ live on Move Any Mountain.” [9] THE SHAMEN: MOVE ANY MOUNTAIN. It’s all a bit flat. Stanley Appel…
Brand New Day , as the title attests is a relatively fresh start. What you need to know is neatly summed up at the time you need to know it and even though most of the main characters are not new, they feel fresh again. People are saying this is the best of the current era of Spiderman films which may be true though we should acknowledge the excellence of the previous three has created the…
You never really know what you’re going to get with a Christopher Nolan film. I remember wondering before both Dunkirk how he could find a new way to present a familiar story. With Oppenheimer I imagined it wouldn’t be very exciting yet it was even though it was mostly conversational. As for Inception and Tenet , they are strange out there movies that work even though they shouldn’t. The Odyssey…
It’s only been four years yet it seems longer since we first met Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring tentatively starting their relationship and I would imagine only those who watched the previous three seasons will check this finale. What's really changed though in that time is that it feels like the accepting atmosphere in which a series like this could thrive has been challenged. While even some of…
Words: Chris Arnsby Jakki Brambles: “Hello, good evening and welcome along to Top of the Pops on BBC1 and you can hear us in stereo on Radio 1FM. Well, it’s an all star line up on tonight’s show. We’re starting off with a lady who’s knocking ‘em dead on both sides of the Atlantic. Will you welcome, in the studio, Cathy Dennis.” [28] CATHY DENNIS: JUST ANOTHER DREAM. A very high concept start to…
This overlooked, light hearted film set in 1995 is about two closeted Irish teenagers, Eddie and Amber. Tired of the homophobic jibes they have to endure, they conjure up a plan to pretend to be a straight couple. While initially this eases the pressures on them and also means they are meeting familial expectations it leads to other more complex problems. David Freyne’s delightful film turns what…
Words: Chris Arnsby Bruno Brookes: “Good evening. Welcome to another sizzling Top of the Pops. All hot stuff on the show tonight. Later on we’ve got Bryan Adams for you. INXS, Billy Bragg, and Bros to name a few. First of all at number twenty eight is D.J.H. featuring Stefy. You need it. And you love it!” [28] D.J.H. featuring STEFY: I LIKE IT. The shape of the new-look Top of the Pops is being…
At the beginning of this third instalment of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ smart sister, Enola is late, a nod perhaps to the tardy arrival of the film. It’s more than three and a half years since the second in the series so you’d be forgiven for forgetting what happened. Luckily anything you need to know is folded into this brisk, energetic package mostly set in Malta rather than England. The…
Words: Chris Arnsby Gary Davies: “Hello. Very good evening to you. Welcome to Top of the Pops. We are in stereo on Radio 1 97 to 99 FM and we have a terrific show for you tonight. In the studio we have Cola Boy and Kim Appleby, but we start off with this week’s highest climber. It’s called Always There, Incognito and Jocelyn Brown.” [9] INCOGNITO Featuring JOCELYN BROWN: ALWAYS THERE. I’ve just…
Words: Chris Arnsby Simon Mayo: “Hello this is Top of the Pops. Thirty minutes of songs for your folks to complain about. Question. Give me a singing superstar from Belgium. Yes, yes, yes. Singing nun. Any ideas? Plastic Bertrand. Yes. Any more? Well you can add this lot to the pile because they’re at number twenty two a spooky thing, the band are Cubic 22.” [22] CUBIC 22: NIGHT IN MOTION. Please…
Superhero films are not generally a lot of fun when there’s serious world saving to be done yet Supergirl ,while it does have some darker hues to its story, is light and breezy enough to make you smile. Unlike the most recent Superman its clear his cousin takes her responsibilities a lot less seriously even if tis is covering up for traumatic past issues. The relatively small stakes of the plot…
Words: Chris Arnsby Nicky Campbell: “Hello. Good evening. Welcome to the brilliant new look Top of the Pops. Prepare to be engulfed in a fiesta of music and colour. Lights and action. Sound and vision. What a show. Five live acts, the best music videos and what a start. Here is the r-r-r-r-Rebel MC.” [20] REBEL MC/TENOR FLY/B.LEVY: TRIBAL BASE. It seems a little over the top for Nicky Campbell to…
I suspect that if proof of aliens really was disclosed at this current febrile time the public reaction would be hysterical with calls for them to be locked up, dropped on the Moon or something similarly draconian. This is not presently a world receptive to `others` of the human variety let along extra-terrestrials. The idea of such a reveal is what drives Steven Spielberg’s latest which returns…
“Gee Whizz!” Big green men invade a small town in this classic sci fi film If the plot of Invaders from Mars seems familiar then that’s likely to be because it’s proven to be hugely influential on subsequent generations of filmmakers. The likes of Joe Dante and John Landis are fans while Martin Scorcese has named it as one of the best uses of lighting and colour in film. While it does appear to…
Words: Chris Arnsby Jakki Brambles: “Hello. Good evening. And welcome to Top of the Pops. It’s a little bit different tonight but you can still hear us in stereo on 1FM. First up, tonight’s show, we have probably the only ever artist who scored five top twenty singles off her debut album and still got dropped by her record label. You can’t keep a good woman down. Here’s Sonia.” [11] SONIA: ONLY…
Sometimes you can find yourself in one of those shops whose dimensions appear to exceed the space the building occupies. I’ve been in one or two such places and as you start to move away from the hubbub of the entrance, browsing can become a solitary occupation with no other customers around. The further you go, the stranger it can seem. It is this sensation, magnified many times, that Backrooms…
For Nicolas Cage to commit to his first television role (apart from appearances as himself or a 1981 pilot) it had to be something special and Spider- Noir definitely is. The phrase `comic book coming to life` is often bandied about but there aren’t many instances where this seems a appropriate a description as with this series. Set in the Thirties, it side steps realism taking inspiration from…
Words: Chris Arnsby Mark Goodier: “Good evening and welcome to Top of the Pops, featuring the world’s most exciting chart the BBC UK Top Forty. There’s lots of variety on the show tonight from Harry Connick Jnr. to the brilliant Northside with their brand new single. This is Take Five.” [A quick note for posterity. As I write this, Film is Fabulous have announced the recovery of two lost Beatles…
The Star Wars Universe has expanded massively yet despite the undoubted quality of the offshoots (notably the superb Andor ) they are a fairly long way from the tone of the 1977 original. Here though is a branch of the tale that indulges in exactly the same fast paced action orientated type of story that lit the fuse. The Mandalorian and Groku hardly rests, pinwheeling from one place to another…
Words: Chris Arnsby 23/05/1991 Gary Davies: “Hello. A very good evening to you and welcome to Top of the Pops. Don’t forget we’re in stereo on Radio 1FM and boy do we have a great show for you tonight. We start off with a band who’ve got a new album called The Promise which is coming out in June. They’re in the charts at number twenty with Whenever You Need Me. It’s T’Pau!” [20] T’PAU: WHENEVER…
Fifty three years ago the events depicted in Soylent Green may have seemed far fetched yet today maybe not so much. Based loosely on Harry Harrison’s novel Make Room, Make Room (though the adaptation changes some events and has a different outcome) the 1973 film depicts population and climate change having rendered life almost impossible for many. People sleep on staircases and queue for hours for…
Words: Chris Arnsby 09/05/1991 Gary Davies: “Hello. A very good evening to you and welcome to Top of the Pops. We’re in stereo on your twenty four hour radio station, Radio 1FM. We have a terrific programme for you tonight. And we start off with a band who are shortly going to release their first album. They’re performing the DNA Groove mix of Get The Message, over there. Electronic!” [8]…