Throughout the year, we edit a lot of stuff out of each episode to make it as good as it can be. But some of those bits are still pretty good – they just have to go for time, or flow, or tone. As a special gift from the Hogfather for all of you nice supporters, here are some of our favourite bits that we didn’t use from 2019. Happy Hogswatch!
We didn’t have time to answer any listener questions this time around, but if you have a question or other suggestion for a future Ook Club, please let us know! Email us at chat@pratchatpodcast.com, or ask in the #ook-club channel on our Discord server (available to those supporting us for $5 a month or more).
Ow Notes
- The first excerpt is from Episode 15, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and We Feel Nice and Accurate)“, discussing Good Omens with Amy Gray and Dr Jennifer Beckett.
- The second excerpt is from episode 16, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Vorbis“, discussing Small Gods with Dr Avril Hannah-Jones.
- You can listen to Avril on the Splendid Chaps podcast in the episode “Seven/Religion (part two)“, and on Doctor Who and the Episodes of Death, also for episode 7: “Christmas Cracker“, in which Avril defends the honour of the much-maligned Christmas special episode, “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe”. (Avril, we’re sorry to have broken your “I only appear in seventh episodes” streak.)
- The third clip is not from the afore-mentioned episode 16, as Ben says, but rather from episode 17, “Midsummer (Elf) Murders“, discussing Lords and Ladies with Nadia Bailey.
- Excerpt number four is from episode 19, “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got Rocks In“, discussing Soul Music with Fury.
- We have tried to find the cartoon Liz references about the girl with magic things in her hair and so far have come up blank. Listeners, please help!
- We mention the cartoon series Adventures of the Gummi Bears (Disney, 1985 – and yes, it’s based on the confectionary), Roger Ramjet (Pantomime Pictures, 1965), Popeye the Sailor (King Features Syndicate, 1960) and Bananaman (101 Productions, 1983, starring the voices of The Goodies), which will be familiar to many international listeners.
- We also mention the long-running and beloved Australian children’s program Mr Squiggle and Friends (ABC, 1959), about a man from the Moon who visits in his rocket to turn children’s scribbles into delightful drawings with his pencil-nose and the help of a cantankerous Blackboard and a variety of human assistants. It was at one point the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, and still possibly holds the record for the longest continually-running sci-fi show.
- The by now infamous Lift Off (ABC, 1992) including segments about the Baksaks – children’s backpacks who come to life through very clever puppeteering – and EC, the living doll with very…minimalist features. Liz first publicly wrote of her horror of EC in an article she wrote for the student magazine On Dit in 2010. (Lift Off comes up again in episode 26.)
- The final two clips are from episode 26, “The Long Dark Mr Teatime of the Soul“, discussing Hogfather with Michael Williams.
- You can watch and/or listen to Michael’s interview with Sir Terry on the Wheeler Centre web site. It’s from April 2011, in the lead up to the release of Snuff.
- Ben actually sings “Cup of Tea” to the tune of “Let It Be”, which is a lot easier than trying to sing it to “Hey Jude”. (Sometimes he also edits things out to remove mistakes which might cause a flurry of emails…) It’s a joyous thing to do when your kettle has boiled, please do try it.
- The song Ben uses for his classroom song is 1967 hit “Up, Up and Away” by The 5th Dimension; it reached number one in the US and Australia, though a cover by the Johnny Mann Singers was more successful in the UK. (We’re pretty sure you’ll know “Allen Town” by Billy Joel.)
- 2019 was, in fact, the Year of the Incontrovertible Skunk – as Ben should have known, since he wrote this post about it for this very web site! (In his defence the L-Space Wiki, our usual go-to for such things, stopped at 2018; Ben has updated it to make this info easier for future nerds to find.)
- There have been no shortage of attempts to “scientifically” explain the seasons of vastly varying length experienced by the world of Game of Thrones (or A Song of Ice and Fire for the purists). This io9 article lists five prominent ones, so it’s a good place to start.
Podcast (ookclub): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:36 — 15.8MB)
Subscribe: RSS