Yesterday’s Word Count = 505
Barely scrapped over the Greene threshold but still...a quota is a quota :)
RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED) (1969)
Oh listen to that classic Ted Astley title music – up there with the persuaders and Joe90.
youtu.be/rDyPTSdMmdY?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 863
1990 (1977)
A dystopian look at the future of Britain that managed to miss every single political development of the 1980s.
youtu.be/y-7z6QF4Mi4?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 637
LOVEJOY (1986)
What Ian MacShane was doing before he started swearing all the time.
youtu.be/W14NO9uCaP0?...
Definitely
24.02.2026 11:41 — 👍 58 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
Yesterday’s Word Count = 672
THE FALL GUY (1982)
When me and the Evil Monster Boy went to see the recent film version he refused to believe this was a TV series until they played the theme song at the end.
youtu.be/dj9ev40C30M?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 874
BERGERAC (1981)
Also from the fecund mind of Robert “sorry was that your Krynoid” Banks Stewart.
youtu.be/tpC4Vijy-uw?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 562
SHOESTRING (1979)
Going west now with Trevor Eve. Bristol is a woefully underused location although Casualty was filmed there when I wrote for it.
youtu.be/H-I1QqM29pg?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 527
HAZELL (1978)
My favourite episode was HAZELL AND THE DEPTFORD VIRGIN which was basically THE MALTESE FALCON in SAAAARF LONDON.
youtu.be/yk3tbUIoG_Q?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 1,059
Z-CARS (1963)
Let’s hear it for series creator Troy Kennedy Martin who also wrote The Italian Job, Kelly’s Heroes, Red Heat and Edge of Darkness.
youtu.be/wL1HnDGTAK8?...
When you watch a series like this you can totally the seams between the SF literate writers and the executives who think an idea is cool.
14.02.2026 16:41 — 👍 27 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Yesterday’s Word Count = 1,057
ALIEN NATION (the TV series) (1989)
Before Farscape there was this theme song…
youtu.be/sxbtRx1mMWM?...
And as an additional bonus the Morecombe and Wise parody…
youtu.be/yIhsQLddllc?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 611
STARSKY & HUTCH (1975)
This and the Streets of San Fransisco.
youtu.be/gsJ4pALlbEM?...
Yesterday’s Word Count = 602
THE ROCKFORD FILES (1974)
I’d never heard of an answer phone before this.
youtu.be/W1zYNrsx9Pw?...
Yesterday's Word Count = 663
HAWAII FIVE OH (1968)
OK Let’s talk about the Americans…
Starting with this…after me…Dum de dum dum DUM DUM…
youtu.be/AepyGm9Me6w?...
Yesterday's Word Count = 984
Oh bugger I've run out of nostalgia - hmnnn. I must delve deeper and more greedily....
Yesterday's Word Count = 1.077
THE OWL SERVICE (1969)
Buy a cottage in Wales and come home to an involuntary role in a retelling of the Mabinogion.
youtu.be/bIUtvIfe6L8?...
Come to think of it I wonder why nobody did an adaptation of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and the Moon of Gomrath.
Yesterday's Word Count = 1,049
EDGE OF DARKNESS (1985)
"That's the problem with plutonium, Craven; it's limited in its application. It's not user-friendly. But as a vehicle for regaining one's self-respect, oh, it's got a lot going for it!"
youtu.be/CtfP0KjW8S0?...
Yes I know this is a repeat but it's that time of the year.
05.02.2026 05:28 — 👍 27 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Yesterday's Word Count = 798
Finnemore & Pearse
Oh nobody is merry
On the fifth of February
With Christmas Gone
And Summer still as distant as can be.
It is quite close to Valentines
But we all know for ninety nine
Percent of us that’s lonely, stressful
Boring or all three.
youtu.be/WJBrAIVrK-4?...
Yes. And I'm not buying any more RPGs no no no... maybe.
04.02.2026 19:43 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0I don't know....
04.02.2026 19:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0As part of my new things to procrastinate with campaign I have decided to compile my own newspeak vocabulary -- eg: yay and unyay, wicked and unwicked.
04.02.2026 09:39 — 👍 64 🔁 0 💬 12 📌 0
Yesterday's Word Count = 655
"It will take months to get my inner world peopled, and the people moving."
Sylvia Plath, from her diary entry 4th of January 1958
Yesterday's Word Count = 659
MAID MARIAN AND HER MERRY MEN (1989)
Baldrick AND the Cat – oh my.
youtu.be/2sWmyblWqTg?...
Penguin cover of COP HATER by Ed McBain - the first 87th Precinct novel. Price 2/6
Yesterday's Word Count = 791
The 87th Precinct novels were a major influence - not least because of the detailed world building that went into the imaginary city where the precinct is located.
Yesterday's Word Count = 872
ROBERT’S ROBOTS (1973)
You wanna get obscure! Come on! Let’s get OBSCURE!
youtu.be/OSAI7IUuaGg?...
Upcoming event alert, me, Mark Stay, the British Library - 30th of March!
events.bl.uk/events/ben-a...
Cover of EDGE OF DARKNESS by VASEEM KHAN
Yesterday's Word Count = 932
Today’s brain recovery read (recovery from my writing that is) is EDGE OF DARKNESS by VASEEM KHAN – this is book six of the series and I have been waiting impatiently for this one to come out.
Never Eat Cake Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young
27.01.2026 08:16 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0