The Looks Unfamiliar Box Of Delights - Stephen O'Brien - Whether They Had A Million Pounds Or One Pound, They'd Always Give It A Go

Looks Unfamiliar is a podcast in which writer and occasional broadcaster Tim Worthington talks to a guest about some of the things that they remember that nobody else ever seems to. In this special Christmas edition, writer Stephen O'Brien joins Tim to take a trip back to 1984 for a look at how the BBC's acclaimed adaptation of The Box Of Delights was received at the time by its target audience, long before it started to become recognised as a 'Television Classic', and in many ways was just another children's programme. They'll also be following the unexpected relevance that the serial has had since then, taking in adventures in hunting down television tie-in paperbacks in somewhat less than upmarket bookshops, searching for the theme single and then the album that the theme single was extracted from, trying to impress dates with your intricate knowledge of the script, and attempting to wrestle the soundtrack from a video cassette onto an audio cassette in the days when the chances of actually owning a copy of The Box Of Delights in any form seemed as remote as Arnold Of Todi's island hideaway. They also talk about the many similar serials that the BBC broadcast in a similar timeslot including Aliens In The Family, The Moon Stallion, The Children Of Green Knowe and - uh-oh - Billy's Christmas Angels... You can find more editions of Looks Unfamiliar at http://timworthington.org/