Fight Time!

Here's a really interesting piece of Robot Wars ephemera to surface. On the show's reddit, someone has uploaded a filming schedule for 1 September 2001:

Truth, Lies and Videotape II

On Sunday evening, I was once again in the audience for a recording of Would I Lie to You?; having been watching the show from a cinema next door on the previous occasion, we had a priority note from SRO for future recordings. The show has moved from Pinewood to Elstree Studios this time, but I must say that once again we had nothing but a positive experience with the staff; once we'd shown our tickets and proof of negative LFTs, we were very professionally moved from the queue to a waiting room and then to the studio itself. As we were walking down a long corridor decked out with publicity pictures of Strictly, Holby, EastEnders and, er, Dimensions in Time, someone ducked out from a door at the side to ask if there was a group of three available, and my party took up this offer and ended up being escorted over to the audience seating right down by the set, the part you can actually see on TV. There is a good chance of there being a shot of the back of my head in the finished product.

I Shall Just Ask For South By South East No More

It was over four years ago now that I used the blog to ask a question that had been puzzling me for over a decade before that: Why was the television adaptation of the third Diamond Brothers novel by Anthony Horowitz so obscure that no visual record of it existed?

I'd hoped I could find some listings, maybe some continuity relating to it. I didn't know how likely it was that I'd be able to see all six episodes in their entirety, but as the saga went on and on, turning up more and more mysteries in its wake -- most notably the question of whether the series was an adaptation of the book or the book was a novelisation of the series -- I grew more and more confident that there was a copy out there I'd be able to see some day.

And then, in December 2021, Neil James got in touch to let me know that in his attic he had a VHS recording he'd made of the original (and only) CITV broadcasts from April 1991. Retrieving it, he found out we were in business -- it was in pretty good condition for an off-air recording that was approaching its 31st birthday. All he needed to do was digitise it, and I suggested Simon Drake, who had previously provided me with a digital copy of the extended VHS cut of the 1988 movie that preceded the television series, might be able to help out.

We then discovered a truly bizarre coincidence. Although he didn't know he was interested in the Diamond Brothers, Neil already knew Simon. In fact, the day before, they'd been to the cinema together... which certainly made things much simpler.

The VHS was digitised. Simon smoothed out some picture and audio glitches. Yesterday, he sent over copies of all six episodes, and at last I was able to see this TV series I'd been banging on about for so long, and I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to Neil and Simon for making that possible.

And in the process, some mysteries were solved, but a few more cropped up. I am working on a longer piece, which I plan to take the form of a comprehensive episode guide, but let's tackle some of the questions we can now answer, and the new ones that we can't just yet.