Weekly Ending / Best of 2019

It was always my intention to start writing a blog some day. Several of the pieces I have written over the last few years have existed as ideas in my head for anything up to a decade before I finally got around to them here; it was not until I answered a question Andrew Ellard had about an adventure gamebook on Twitter that I found I needed a space to write something, and once I had the space I decided to set myself the totally arbitrary target of seeing how long I could keep it updated at least once a week for.

To my surprise, that has turned out to be very slightly more than exactly three years and (including this one) exactly 200 posts, and the magic of pre-scheduled posts has finally run out; going forward, the blog will not be updated weekly, but whenever I happen to have a new thing to talk about, or I can finally afford to shell out for the eighties obscurity I want to discuss, or when the BBC finally start answering my e-mails about releasing all two thousand hours of Robot Wars rushes.

Until then: Much thanks to, apart from Mr Ellard for providing the impetus to start the thing in the first place, John Hoare, Wesley Mead, Steve Williams, Ian Symes, Darrell Maclaine-Jones, Tim Byrne, Jonathan Green, Rebecca Fisher and everyone else who has ever left a nice comment on an article, linked to something I've written on somewhere far more widely-read, checked a specific copy of an adventure gamebook to see if it still has a mistake the earlier printings did or given me some interesting information about late changes to a TV schedule. You've all been very kind, and I doubt the blog would have kept going for so long without you. Beneath the cut, you will find a selection of my favourite pieces from the last year; hopefully, there'll be something new along soon.

The Black and White Island: The mystery of what the BBC were broadcasting on Sunday afternoons in 1959.
Asterix in Britain's Broadcasting Corporation: A connection between Goscinny and Uderzo's creation and Red Dwarf that isn't quite as fascinating as it could have been.
Broken Gamebooks #14: Tower of Destruction: An abomination of proof-reading is dissected.
Science Friction: That age-old question of whether or not science fiction adventure gamebooks were any good is put to rest once and for all.
Walton Earth?: Something inexplicable about a special feature on a DVD that went unnoticed for 15 years.
From Cabin A to Cabin Z: The intricacies of the episode ordering of a radio sitcom.
Some Hints for Don't Escape 4: Some hints for a point-and-click computer game.
A Twice-Weekly Serial Set In The Exciting World of League Football: The endlessly fascinating connection between Doctor Who and a football-based soap opera.
My Scintillating Theory on the Recording Order of the Second Series of Red Dwarf: In which it is postulated that a television programme was mostly recorded in the order it was meant to be shown.
27 on 4, Parts 1 and 2: My predictions for the terrestrial premiere of Season 27 of The Simpsons, and how true they held.
Masks of Mediocrity: Why the ending to an adventure gamebook published in 1986 is only twenty-one words long.
Homer Defiled: A highly respected television writer is accused of being wrong about his own show.

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And, since answering these questions is the quickest way of getting a new post, here are some outstanding mysteries from articles past: Do you have a recording of Robot Wars on BBC Choice from 23 November 2001? Do you have any more thoughts on my ongoing search for the Diamond Brothers TV series from 1991? Do you have a copy of the unofficial French sequel to a series of adventure gamebooks? Do you know anything about Gordon Brittas' contributions to Children in Need? Those are the ones that come to mind, but if you look back through the blog's archives I'm sure there's many more loose threads. And the answers must be out there, somewhere.