Prince of Shadows

Gary Chalk collaborated with Joe Dever on the first eight titles in the Lone Wolf series, but then the partnership broke up. One of the results of this was Chalk's next project, the short-lived Prince of Shadows gamebook series, which lasted for just two titles released in 1988 and 1989, “Mean Streets” and “Creatures from the Depths”. Beyond having the same illustrator, the two books have a rather similar feel in their premise, worldbuilding and rules… in fact, you have to wonder if Dever wasn’t tempted to call his lawyer at any point. One way in which these books were very different, however, was their size and internal format. Permit me to demonstrate the former point:

So, what are they like inside? Ask that question not a moment longer, as here’s a blog post that’s going to tell you all about them.

Scenes From the Dwarf

The Penguin 60s range, as published at some point in the mid-late nineties, was a series of pocket-sized books about various subjects. The range included cookbooks, retellings of ancient myths and, in this case, a selection of Red Dwarf script extracts, billed in Grant Naylor’s introduction as “the least unmemorable scenes”, and also containing material cut from the broadcast versions. We were still a good few years away from actually getting to see the deleted scenes through the magic of DVD, so this was definitely the book's biggest attraction when first published. As part of my continuing commitment to write about things that are of interest literally to me and me alone, here is an analysis of the book’s contents.

A Table Comparing Tenures of Prime Ministers With Those of Doctor Whos

Tenure	Doctor Who	Prime Minister
November 1963 to October 1964	William Hartnell	Alec Douglas-Home
October 1964 to October 1966		Harold Wilson
October 1966 to June 1969	Patrick Troughton
January 1970 to June 1970	Jon Pertwee
June 1970 to March 1974		Edward Heath
March to June 1974		Harold Wilson
June 1974 to April 1976	Tom Baker
April 1976 to May 1979		James Callaghan
May 1979 to March 1981		Margaret Thatcher
March 1981 to March 1984	Peter Davison
March 1984 to December 1986	Colin Baker
September 1987 to November 1989	Sylvester McCoy
January 1990 to November 1990	Sylvester McCoy (series off-air, technically still incumbent)
November 1990 to April 1996		John Major
May 1996	Paul McGann
May 1996 to May 1997	Paul McGann (series off-air, technically still incumbent)
May 1997 to March 2005		Tony Blair
March to June 2005	Christopher Eccleston
June 2005 to June 2007	David Tennant
June 2007 to January 2010		Gordon Brown
January 2010 to May 2010	Matt Smith
May 2010 to December 2013		David Cameron
January 2014 to July 2016	Peter Capaldi
July 2016 to December 2017		Theresa May

Now That's What I Call One Song to the Tune of Another

Here’s one of the great baffling questions of radio comedy: Why has there never been an I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue compilation release, made up purely of the very best examples of One Song to the Tune of Another?

Just to prove such a release would work, I have come up with my own tracklist for it, consisting of my favourite examples from the show: