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The latest from the world of He! He! He!
NEWS ARCHIVE 2001
06 November 2001 - The Master Tin is out now, comprising two of the most dull Pertwee six-parters, "Colony In Space" and "The Time Monster". Get it for Christmas and you'll sleep right through 'til New Year.
Also out (and highly recommended this time) is the new book 'Doctor Who - On Location' by Richard Bignell. A superb, comprehensive guide to the locations where Doctor Who was filmed, this is a must if you have an interest in the subject.
21 October 2001 - A lot has happened since our last update.....
The latest Doctor Who DVD, 'Vengeance On Varos' is out now. The usual extras, including outtakes, extended scenes and an audio commentry from fat Baker, Nicola Bryant and the highly amusing Nabil Shaban.
If you want to invest in some decent Doctor Who, 'The Dalek Master Plan'
CD set is out on 22 October. Every inch a classic, this is one not
to be missed!
The League Of Gentlemen series 2 DVD is also out now. It manages to
surpass the first series disc, with a great bundle of extras that will keep
you amused for hours. "HELLO DAVE!!"
Tom Baker is back on our screens in the new series of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). I'm sure he's getting even more barking mad! A book about the series, 'Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) - The Files', is available and will make a decent stocking-filler this Xmas.
Speaking of new books, a couple have recently been released which are worth checking-out if you're a fan of classic British comedy. 'Porridge - The Inside Story' and 'Rising Damp - A Celebration' are both by Richard Webber and although not quite anoraky enough for my taste, a brimming with info about these two classic series. Worth a look.
I hear that George Harrison has recorded a track for Jools Holland's new album, which is due out in November - wonders will never cease!
And that's yer lot!
07 September 2001 - In our last survey, we asked what you thought JNT had ruined most during his stint as Doctor Who producer in the 1980's. The most 'popular' choice was The Master with 19% of the vote and I can't argue with that. A brand new survey is now up and running (see above.)
01 September 2001 - Another great George Harrison picture on our Beatles page!
New to video this month is the Doctor Who yarn "Four To Doomsday", featuring Peter Davison floundering around in space and messing about with a cricket ball. It's all dull nonsense and you don't need to buy it - trust me.
28 August 2001 - Thanks to regular visitors Andrew and Ben of Glasgow for the following report and photo from this weekend's Memorabilia Fair:
"I have to report that Mr Baker looked extremely well and was very friendly despite my inept attempts to converse with him. Comically red of face and huge of teeth, he signed a bit of crap that I bought & consented to have a photo taken. (See above....I had to ask a random passing anorak to take it.) Tom asked Ben what story was represented on said bit of crap & Ben answered 'Fang Rock' correctly. Good job it wasn't Egg People.
A bit later, we were having a chuckle at a 60s Dalek playsuit when we became aware of a boy of about 13 next to us lecturing his younger brother with savage earnestness about how many of these suits were made, how Hartnell's granddaughter had one, the history of the bloody factory, etc etc. He was quite normal and trendy-looking, but had the scariest, fanatical look in his eyes outside of Nazi Germany. Ben's jaw-dropping reaction to this fact-spouting mini-Davros was a classic.
After Tom we separated and wandered round for about 1½ hours but all I got was a few DWMs I'd missed. I saw a bloke selling The Dalek Invasion of Earth vids - for £55, and passed by quickly. Oh, and f*ck there's a bloody mountain of Star Wars shite about....
Ben was more adventurous: chatted to some woman out of Crossroads, got a signed photo of one Suzanna Leigh (60s actress I had never heard of) and best of all, Caroline Munro stood on his foot with her spike heel - probably the ultimate wish-fulfilment for some chaps a few years back. I missed all of this, but he assured me that Caroline was mahogany-coloured and still possessed of a chestal area the size of Ben Nevis. She claimed that she had come over from New York especially to be in Glasgow!"
Nice one guys - thanks very much!
05 August 2001 - It's August already, I don't know where the Summer has gone. Out on DVD this month is the Doctor Who TV Movie starring Paul McGann. (Aug 13th). A week later the concluding installments of Buffy Series 5 and Angel Series 2 are released on video - yipee!
I have recently been re-visiting the delights of The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin, all three series of which are currently available on VHS. A comic masterpiece, particularly Leonard Rossiter's central performance - highly recommended. I didn't get where I am today without recognising a great comedy series when I see one. It's super.
Another recommendation is the recent DVD release of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, the 1925 silent edition, that is. Beautifully restored, this is an absolutely cracking movie, which I guarantee will impress you.
07 July 2001 - Two new Doctor Who
releases - The amusing Baker romp "The Sun Makers" hits the shops on VHS
from 09 July. Out already is the CD of the missing Troughton 6-parter,
"The Abominable Snowmen."
Another appalling picture of George Harrison has been added to the
Beatles
Page.
24 June 2001 - Thanks to those of you who voted in our last survey. 33% of you chose Battlefield as the Doctor Who story you'd most like to see wiped (and I couldn't agree more.) A new survey is now up and running - see above.
18 June 2001 - The new Doctor Who DVD, "The Caves of Androzani" is out now. Stuffed with extras (and a fantastic story) it's an essential purchase......despite the Magma Creature.
11 June 2001 - The new Jeff Lynne, sorry, ELO album "Zoom" is out today. A bit of a plodding affair in places, but it has it's high-points and it's great to have Jeff back again, whatever name he releases his stuff under.
As if that were not enough, the new video box-sets of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 5 and Angel Season 2 are also out now!
BTW if you've bought the recently issued box-set of The Avengers on DVD and you're finding it has a few.......shall we say *quirks*, fear not. Contender are onto the problem and are going to produce corrected masters and will be exchanging faulty copies in due course.
06 June 2001 - At last - an update of our Beatles page! Now with a new theme which will run and run.....
01 June 2001 - Another flashy addition to the site - we've got our own search engine! It's at the bottom of the main page and will be invaluable in helping you find all sorts of pointless things.
31 May 2001 - Above you'll find the first in a series of pointless surveys which we'll be running in future. Your views are very important, so please vote!
26 May 2001 - Check here for some really sad pictures of Griffiths.
26 May 2001 - A new picture of our cat Baily has been added to his page!
26 May 2001 - The Avengers come to DVD (in the UK, everyone else got them ages ago) on June 4th, with the release of a two-disc set of colour Diana Rigg episodes. The extras sound pretty decent, so it should be a top package. Also out in June is the latest Doctor Who DVD, "The Caves of Androzani", which will be stuffed with extras care of the Restoration Team, so it's not to be missed.
25 May 2001 - Last week He! He! He! paid a return visit to the beautiful village of Aldbourne, the location of the Doctor Who story "The Daemons." A warm welcome is always guaranteed in this lovely village:
12 May 2001 - I can't quite believe it, but Douglas Adams is dead. The only Doctor Who script-editor to appear naked on national TV (in a professional capacity) and he's gone. What a loss.
30 April 2001 - Some new stuff added to The Avengers pages!
27 April 2001 - Thanks to Mark Follows for sending in some fab TARDIS pictures. More to come.
23 April 2001 - The next two volumes of The Avengers "Kinky Boots Collection" are available today and feature lots of lovely Honor Blackman episodes. Hmmmmmm.
20 April 2001 - Recommendation of the week - you really must check-out "The Sagas Of Noggin The Nog." I got the video of the complete series from The Dragons' Friendly Society (it's not available in the shops) and it is super stuff!!! Whether you watched it as a kid or not, I strongly advise you to take a look at this amazing programme now. A masterpiece (and the quality of the videos is superb too.)
19 April 2001 - It's looking increasingly likely that the season one episode of The Avengers, "Girl On A Trapeze" HAS been discovered!!! Hopefully we will get to see it via a video release in the not too distant future.....
Did I mention before that the BBC Doctor Who audios of "The Celestial Toymaker" and "The Moonbase" are now available? No, I don't think I did.......probably because i'm still waiting for my copies.
07 April 2001 - Got a video of Power Of The Daleks? Or a complete set of Dixon of Dock Green? Check out my video list and let's get trading!!
02 April 2001 - Squeeze main-man Glenn Tilbrook has announced 21 May as the release date for his debut solo album, "The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook." Details on pre-ordering at the Quixotic Records website.
02 April 2001 - Sadly, the Mind Of Evil thing was a hoax. Still, looking on the bright side, at least it means I won't have to watch that story again in a hurry.
30 March 2001 - And while we're on the subject of missing TV stuff.......rumour has it that the Season 1 episode of The Avengers "Girl On A Trapeze" has been unearthed in the UCLA archive. No definate confirmation yet, but let's keep our fingers crossed!
29 March 2001 - Rumour has it that a colour copy of The Mind Of Evil has turned-up in Canada. Apparantly, some guy recorded it in the late 70's/early 80's and forgot about it until he was trading some tapes recently with a Who fan. Could turn-out to be crap, but i'll keep you posted.
11 March 2001 - Last night I went to see The League of Gentlemen's "Local Show For Local People" and bloody stunning it was too! All their most popular characters are included and there's a handful of new sketches too. The cave guide got a cheer when he mentioned Dr Who and the audience reacted with similar enthusiasm in all sorts of other unexpected moments (the 'Go Johnny go go go go' sketch was very well received!) Best sequence in my opinion was Steve's brilliant Herr Lipp, who had the audience (well one of them) in the palm of his hand! If you get the chance to see them, I highly recommend you catch this show.
A strange coincidence......during the Dr Chinnery sketch, there is a scene with a rabbit's head being pulled off. When I got back from the show last night, I found that our cat had brought home a rabbit, minus it's head. Weird eh?
28 February 2001 - Released this week.......Hartnell classic "The Daleks" remastered on VHS and McCoy turd "Remembrance of the Daleks" on DVD. The latter is packed with extras, but you can toss a bit of salad into a bucket of shit and it doesn't stop it being a bucket of shit.
In between trawling through the latest videos of Buffy and Angel, i've been checking-out some old episodes of the classic BBC comedy "The Goodies." Excellent stuff.......but my stock is low, so if anyone out there has a collection that they are willing to share, drop me a line.
19 February 2001 - Just a reminder that some more Avengers goodies are out today - 2 videos, comprising volumes 1&2 of the Kinky Boots Collection, stuffed with Honor Blackman classics.
16th February 2001 - There can be fewer more tragic sights than that which greeted viewers of the cable shopping channel, QVC last night. A fat, old Tom Baker slumped in a chair trying to get people to buy various items of Doctor Who tat. Why Tom? Actually..........it was quite funny really.
4th February 2001 - He! He! He! main-man Griffiths has been busy lately, working as a reviewer for The Guardian (that's the UK newspaper, famous fur it's typos.) Check-out some of his serious reviews here (including one which wasn't published!)
4th February 2001 - The He! He! He! reviews of the McCoy era have generated a lot of comment on the Doctor Who Newsgroup (RADW) over the last couple of weeks. It seems the McCoy haters are using them as ammunition to wind-up those who like their Doctors smelling of shit. Let them get on with it, that's what I say. Anyway, i've been adding bits and pieces to some of the other Doctor Who reviews lately and will continue to expand them over the next few weeks.
3rd February 2001 - George Harrison has recently re-issued his classic album "All Things Must Pass" and actually has a website (steady on George) to promote it.
31st January 2001 - To DVD or not to DVD.....that has been the question on my mind these past few weeks. With more and more goodies now appearing on shiny disc, many including tempting extras, it was only a matter of time before I took the plunge. I'd already purchased the Five Doctors disc (purely for collection purposes, you understand) and was aware that it offered little of excitement, which is a shame as there is probably enough in the way of out-takes and the like for this story to stuff a box-set full of discs. Anyway, I decided to pick-up the other two Doctor Who DVD's in order to further my researches....
The Robots Of Death disc offers much more in the way of extras, a photo gallery (nice, but not likely to hold your attention for long), some out-takes (an undubbed scene and some b/w model shots), BBC caption cards and continuity announcements and best of all, a running commentary from Philip Hinchcliffe and Chris Boucher. The latter is exactly the sort of optional extra that VHS cannot provide and although you're not likely to want to experience the story in this format that often, it's a novel and surprisingly diverting way of offering new insights into familiar stories (and let's be honest, they don't come much more familiar than Robots Of Death.)
The Spearhead From Space disc offers a similar commentary from Nicholas Courtney & Caroline John which is much more anecdotal and luvvie, but still surprisingly entertaining given how familiar these two are from the convention circuit. The disc also contains trailers, a photo gallery and the UNIT recruiting film from 1993. There is also a hidden extra (known as an 'Easter Egg' I understand) of the Pertwee title sequence test footage.
Needless to say, the picture quality on both discs is top-notch (the latter has received even more work from The Restoration Team since it's 1999 repeat) and I must admit that despite my initial scepticism, I am rapidly being won-over by what DVD has to offer. The Caves Of Androzani release later this year is already sounding very interesting.
Now for The League Of Gentlemen DVD.........
7th January 2001 - Happy New Year everybody!
On a recent visit to London, I called-in at the Sherlock Holmes Memorabilia Company in Baker Street (where else?) Holmes fans are recommended to pay them a visit, as apart from a great range of Sherlockian goodies, they also have a fine display of props and other items relating to the Granada TV series. You can find out more at their website.
I also popped along to the Tate Modern, which is well worth a look as a) it's free and b) it's interesting to see what some people can get away with in the name of art!
Just a reminder that the Doctor Who CD of "The Myth Makers" is due out this month.
And not forgetting......The Avengers celebrates it's 40th birthday today!